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CATHOLIC STUDENT CENTER

DEADLIEST MASS SHOOTING In the IN MODERN U.S. HISTORY brothers’ hands Fate of $4 million still in the air By Judith Rayo LAREDO MORNING TIME S

Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP/Getty Images

A woman holds a candle in front of a rainbow flag during a rally on June 14 in Athens to pay tribute for the victims of the Orlando shooting in Florida. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 others wounded.

Weslaco man was among 49 victims By Jason Dearen and Terrance Harris A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

ORLANDO, Fla. — The FBI is investigating reports that Orlando gunman Omar Mateen had been a regular at the gay nightclub he attacked and had used gay dating apps, a U.S. official briefed on

the case said Tuesday. A number of possible explanations Hernandez and motives for the bloodbath that left 49 victims dead have emerged, with Mateen

professing allegiance to the Islamic State group, his ex-wife saying he was mentally ill, and his father suggesting he was driven by hatred of gays. The picture grew more complex as patrons of the Pulse came forward to say that they had seen the 29-year-old Americanborn Muslim there a

number of times or that he had been using gay dating apps. Mateen had a wife and 3-year-old son. Jim Van Horn, 71, said Mateen was a regular at the club. “He was trying to pick up people. Men,” Van Horn told The Associated Press. While acknowledging he didn’t Shooting continues on A11

The $4 million set aside for the construction of the stalled Catholic Student Center project adjacent to TAMIU still remains in the hands of the Brothers of St. John. The money was set to be held in a quasi-endowment. Ray Keck, then-president of Texas A&M International University, said in May the endowment has not been created, but the Brothers of St. John, which leads the diocese’s Catholic Campus Ministry, is welcome to establish one at the university. A proposal has been drafted to establish the endowment. Keck said he expected a response from the Brothers of St. John on the proposal soon. It’s unclear what, if any, response TAMIU has received. “This is a means to invest the money safely until such time in the future when they are allowed to build the center,” Keck said in a statement to Laredo Morning Times.

Diocese of Laredo Bishop James A. Tamayo halted the fully fundKeck ed project on the eve of construction, saying he was under duress when he signed an Tamayo agreement with the Brothers of St. John to allow for the Catholic Student Center’s formation, Blair according to project donors and community leaders. One benefit to holding the money in a quasiendowment is the money may be dissolved at any time, Keck said. The endowment can only be created by the Brothers of St. John as they were the ones responsible for raising over $4 million to build the Catholic continues on A11

ZAPATA, WEBB, JIM HOGG, STARR COUNTIES

TEXAS EDUCATION

Border Region director resigns

STAAR results won’t count against 5th- and 8th-graders

By Philip Balli TH E ZAPATA T IME S

Daniel Castillon has resigned as executive director of the Border Region Behavioral Health Center. Castillon's resignation was effective Friday. He resigned to pursue other interests, according to a joint statement released by the center and Castillon. Castillon was employed with the center for 26 years. He served in the capacity of executive director for the past 10 years. "On behalf of border region, the board of trust-

ees expresses its appreciation to Mr. Castillon for his efforts while serving as executive director in overseeing border region and the mental health and intellectual development disabilities services it provides to the citizens of Webb, Zapata, Jim Hogg and Starr counties," the statement says. It adds: "Mr. Castillon thanks the present and past board of trustees for providing him with the opportunity to serve border region. Mr. Castillon would like to express his heartfelt appreciation to the staff of border region and the communities served by border region

for their supports of (the center's) program and services during his term as executive director." The center's board of trustees will soon begin a search for a new executive director. The center employs 270 people to serve nearly 3,600 clients with a budget of $13.9 million. Castillon said he will miss the employees and the individuals the center serves. “The employees always gave so much of their dedication,” he said. Philip Balli may be reached at 728-2528 or pballi@lmtonline.com

By Will Axford and Mike Glenn HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Texas students in grades five and eight will not be forced to pass standardized reading and math assessments for the 2015-16 school year in order to be promoted, the Texas Education Agency announced Friday. Educational Commissioner Mike Morath said reporting issues from the state’s testing vendor, Educational Testing Services, were at the heart of the waiver of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) testing for the students. Morath also canceled

the June 21-22 retest program for fifth- and eighth-grade students. “I apologize for the continuing problems our students and staff are being forced to deal with because of ongoing reporting issues with our testing vendor. Kids in the classroom should never suffer from mistakes made by adults. We intend to hold the vendor, Educational Testing Service, accountable,” Morath said in a statement. A message for comment left with the New Jersey-based testing company late Friday was not returned. In Texas and elsewhere, attempts to in-

crease accountability in public schools are meeting resistance from parents pushing back against standardized testing. The Texas Education Agency and the STAAR tests came under fire last month from a group of parents suing the department for allegedly ignoring state law in administering this year’s end-of-year exams In most cases, fifthand eighth-graders must pass the reading and math assessment tests in order to be advanced. If that doesn’t happen after three tries, a committee made up of a principal, teacher and parents of the student must agree to STAAR continues on A11

Zin brief A2 | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

THURSDAY, JUNE 16

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

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 3263663. 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.

Today is Wednesday, June 15, the 167th day of 2016. There are 199 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On June 15, 1836, Arkansas became the 25th state.

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

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.

TUESDAY, JUNE 28 1

THURSDAY, JUNE 30 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 3263663. 1 Spanish Book Club. 6–8 p.m. Laredo Public Library – Calton. For more information, contact Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.

SATURDAY, JULY 2 1

Book sale. 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. No admission charge. Everyone is invited.

MONDAY, JULY 4

Michael Schumacher/The Amarillo Globe News / AP

Heavily armed Amarillo police and Randall County sheriff's deputies close a perimeter around the scene as SWAT teams and negotiations continued inside a Wal-Mart store on Tuesday.

ARMED WORKER TOOK HOSTAGES ASSOCIATED PRE SS

AMARILLO — Officers fatally shot an armed man inside a Wal-Mart store in Amarillo, Texas, on Tuesday after he took two people hostage, including a manager with whom he had a work-related dispute, according to police. Amarillo police identified the suspect as 54-year-old store employee Mohammad Moghaddam and said neither hostage was injured. Police said the incident began over a dispute related to a promotion and called the incident a “workplace violence event.”

Work continues for $1M reef off Texas PORT O’CONNOR — A 381-acre artificial reef planned for the Gulf of Mexico off Texas will include pyramid-style concrete structures friendly to fish. The Victoria Advocate reported Tuesday that the site 6 miles from the Port O’Connor jetties will be home to the largest artificial reef ever placed in Texas waters. The “Keeping It Wild Reef” is a $1 million project of the

TUESDAY, JULY 5 1

Alzheimer’s Disease Support Group. 7 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, 1st Floor, Tower B in the Community Center. Meetings are open to individuals who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as family, friends and caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, an affiliated foundation and Coastal Conservation Association Texas. It’s expected to be in place in 2017. Chris Ledford, who’s an artificial reef program specialist with the department, says the concrete pyramids will be 10 feet wide on each side and 8 feet high. About 500 pyramids will be included in the reef. Round holes on the sides will make the interiors accessible to small fish and a large triangle opening will allow turtles to escape the structures. The

artificial reef will also provide hard surfaces for barnacles and clams to latch onto and grow. The reef will be the largest ever placed in Texas waters because decks from two derelict petroleum platforms in the area will be removed, leaving the bare metal legs of the structure. The platforms will be placed on their sides or their top parts will be cut off. If the top parts of the structure are cut off, they can be placed in the water to create more reef material. — Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE WORLD Ex-official arrested over cash bags at monastery BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An official in the former government of President Cristina Fernandez was arrested on Tuesday as he allegedly tried to hide millions in dollars and other currencies at an Argentine monastery. A neighbor of the monastery called authorities after seeing a man throwing bags onto the property near Buenos Aires early Tuesday. Officers arrived and arrested a man who turned out to be former Public Works Secretary Jose Lopez. Police initially detained him for possession of a .22 caliber rifle. They then discovered wads of cash as well as the watches in more than 160 packages inside the bags. Other money had been taken to the monastery kitchen and some was found in the trunk of a car. Security Minister Cristian

Cancer Friends Meet. 6 p.m. Every first Monday of the month. Doctors Hospital at the Community Center. 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.

“This individual had an ongoing difference, dispute or feud with a manager at Walmart,” said Amarillo Police Sgt. Brent Barbee. “There is absolutely no information or reason to believe that this is a terrorist event.” Officers responded to an active shooter call at the store around 11 a.m., amid reports that an armed person was inside and may have had hostages. According to investigators, Moghaddam entered the store and fired at least one shot toward the ceiling. Police don’t believe the suspect fired any other shots.

Natacha Pisarenko / AP

Former Public Works Secretary Jose Lopez, center, is escorted by police outside in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Ritondo told a news conference that Lopez was “in a state of shock” when he was arrested and alleged that he tried to bribe police. “He later told the nuns that police had tried to steal the money that he was trying to donate,” Ritondo said. “There are dollars, yen, euros and a currency from Qatar ... It’s a lot

of money.” He did not give an exact amount because the money was still being counted. Dario Kubar, the area’s mayor, told reporters earlier Tuesday that authorities had found more than $7 million at the monastery that is home to nuns devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima. — Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Tour bus overturns near Mount Vernon estate; 1 killed MOUNT VERNON, Va. — A tour bus overturned near George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate after colliding with a passenger car Tuesday afternoon, leaving one person dead and 15 injured, authorities said. U.S. Park Police spokeswoman Sgt. Anna Rose said that 15 people were taken to hospitals

following the crash Tuesday afternoon; three of those suffered critical injuries. The person who died was a bus passenger, she said. In an email, Rose said the mid-sized shuttle bus was carrying 18 foreign tourists and the driver, who was not injured. The car had two occupants. At a news conference, Rose said the collision occurred shortly before 5 p.m. The shuttle bus was traveling northbound on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and the

On this date: In 1215, England’s King John put his seal to Magna Carta (”the Great Charter”) at Runnymede. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington head of the Continental Army. In 1849, James Polk, the 11th president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1864, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed an order establishing a military burial ground which became Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. In 1904, more than 1,000 people died when fire erupted aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York’s East River. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act making the National Guard part of the U.S. Army in the event of war or national emergency. In 1944, American forces began their successful invasion of Saipan during World War II. B-29 Superfortresses carried out their first raids on Japan. In 1955, the United States and Britain signed a cooperation agreement concerning atomic information for “mutual defence purposes.” In 1966, the surfing documentary “The Endless Summer” opened in wide release. In 1978, King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor. In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the northern Philippines exploded in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing about 800 people. In 1996, Ella Fitzgerald, the “first lady of song,” died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 79. Ten years ago: The death toll of U.S. servicemen and women in the Iraq war reached 2,500. A divided Supreme Court made it easier for police to barge into homes and seize evidence without knocking or waiting. Five years ago: Pushing back against congressional criticism, the White House said that President Barack Obama had the authority to continue U.S. military action in Libya even without authorization from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was released from a Houston hospital, five months after being shot in the head during a Tucson political event. One year ago: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush entered the 2016 presidential campaign with a rally and speech at Miami Dade College, joining 10 other Republicans already in the race for the party’s nomination. Rachel Dolezal resigned as president of the NAACP’s Spokane chapter just days after her parents said she was a white woman posing as black woman — a dizzyingly swift fall for an activist credited with injecting remarkable new energy into the civil rights organization. Burlesque icon Blaze Starr, 83, died in in Wilsondale, West Virginia. Today’s Birthdays: Rhythm-andblues singer Ruby Nash Garnett (Ruby and the Romantics) is 82. Rock singer-actor Johnny Hallyday is 73. Funk musician Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) is 70. Actor Simon Callow is 67. Singer Russell Hitchcock (Air Supply) is 67. Rock singer Steve Walsh is 65. Comedian-actor Jim Belushi is 62. Country singer Terri Gibbs is 62. Actress Julie Hagerty is 61. Actress Polly Draper is 61. Rock musician Brad Gillis (Night Ranger) is 59. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Wade Boggs is 58. Actress Eileen Davidson is 57. Bluegrass musician Terry Smith is 56. Actress Helen Hunt is 53. Rock musician Scott Rockenfield (Queensryche) is 53. Actress Courteney Cox is 52. Country musician Tony Ardoin is 52. Country musician Michael Britt (Lonestar) is 50. Contemporary Christian musician Rob Mitchell is 50. Rock musician Jimmy McD is 48. Actor-rapper Ice Cube is 47. Actress Leah Remini is 46. Actor Jake Busey is 45. Bluegrass singer-musician Jamie Johnson is 44. Rock musician T-Bone Willy (Save Ferris) is 44. Actor Neil Patrick Harris is 43. Actor Greg Vaughan is 43. Actress Elizabeth Reaser is 41. Rock singer Dryden Mitchell (Alien Ant Farm) is 40. Rock musician Billy Martin (Good Charlotte) is 35. Rock musician Wayne Sermon (Imagine Dragons) is 32. Actor Denzel Whitaker is 26. Thought for Today: “Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.” — Lillian Smith, American author (1897-1966).

CONTACT US car was traveling south, Rose said. When the two vehicles collided, the bus fell onto the driver’s side and skidded, Rose said, adding that passers-by helped right the bus so passengers could escape. Police closed sections of the parkway, which runs along the Potomac River between the nation’s capital and Mount Vernon. Fairfax County Police said they were assisting Park Police. — Compiled from AP reports

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 |

STATE Jim Wells detention center halted

Heavy rains help flow to Blue Hole, South Texas springs By Brendan Gibbons SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS

A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

ALICE, Texas — The plug has been pulled on a proposal to turn a former South Texas nursing home into a family detention center for people entering the U.S. illegally. Jim Wells County commissioners have voted to halt further negotiations with federal authorities and proposed operator Serco Inc. County Judge Pedro “Pete” Trevino Jr. said the 3-0 vote came because county officials were uncertain about being able to afford its share of the cost because of a slump in the county’s oil-based tax base. The project was expected to provide about 200 jobs at the proposed site astride the Jim Wells-Duval county line in San Diego, 125 miles south of San Antonio. The proposal drew opposition from critics of the two privately operated South Texas family detention centers opened in 2014.

SAN ANTONIO — Eddie Gutierrez knew about the Blue Hole growing up and heard it referenced in classes at the University of the Incarnate Word. The San Antonio ExpressNews reports it was only while visiting the spring on the campus Monday that he saw firsthand how the clear, cold water rises from the depths of the Earth and pours itself across a once-dry streambed. The Blue Hole “was just some San Antonio lore that you’d hear,” he said. “You don’t understand the story of what it was.” Since it began flowing again this spring, the Blue Hole has drawn a small but steady stream of visitors. From a parking lot, they cross a bridge over the San Antonio River and follow the path that runs between a gazebo and a sand volleyball pit. They stand around a circular rock wall, roughly 8 feet across, and peer into the depths. Minnows dart in the upper reaches, but the deeper levels fade into dark-

Courtesy photo / Blue Hole Regional Park

The Blue Hole in Wimberly is a popular Texas swimming spot.

ness. Once known as part of the San Antonio Springs, the main spring and its confluence with Olmos Creek are considered the headwaters of the San Antonio River, called Yanaguana by the Native Americans present at the time of the Spanish conquest. The Spanish christened the river “San Antonio” 325 years ago Monday. The springs are flowing again thanks to the heavy rains that recharged the Edwards Aquifer over April and May. The level of the aquifer in the San Antonio Pool reached 686 feet above mean sea level June

6, the highest since 2007. As of Monday, it had dropped 2 feet. These measurements come from another gateway to the underground water world a little more than 2 miles from the Blue Hole: the J-17 well, which the Edwards Aquifer Authority uses to monitor the pool below San Antonio. On Monday, EAA hydrogeologist Rob Esquilin opened the metal doors on a small cinder-block shed near Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. Inside was a table, a set of instruments and a metal pipe sticking out of the floor. The instruments measure

the aquifer’s level every 15 minutes, he explained, though the EAA backs this up with manual readings during dry times when pumping by most users has to be restricted. The federal government once managed the J-17 well, whose records go back to the 1930s, he said. This week marks the anniversary of the highest 10-day average level ever recorded: 703 feet in 1992. Thanks to human development and pumping of the aquifer, much of what the Blue Hole used to be has been lost. Early visitors often remarked on its clear water bursting forth from the earth like a fountain and the surrounding tapestry of plant and animal life. When landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted visited the spring in 1857, he called it the “first water among the gems of the natural world.” “The whole river gushes up in one sparkling burst from the earth,” Olmsted wrote. “It has all the beautiful accompaniments of a smaller spring, moss, pebbles, seclusion, sparkling sunbeams, and dense overhanging luxuriant foliage.

Anti-abortion activist’s human organ purchase charge dropped By Juan A. Lozano A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

HOUSTON — A misdemeanor charge accusing an anti-abortion activist of trying to buy human organs while making an undercover video looking into Planned Parenthood practices has been dismissed, and his attorneys said Tuesday they are working to have a felony count the activist faces thrown out as well. David Daleiden, 27, and fellow activist Sandra Merritt, 63, were each indicted in January on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record for allegedly using fake driver’s licenses to conceal their identities while dealing with Planned Parenthood at a Houston clinic. Daleiden was also indicted on the misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. Video footage from the two activists showed them posing as representatives of a company called BioMax, which purportedly procured fetal tissue for research. Planned Parenthood has said the fake company offered to pay the “astronomical amount” of $1,600 for organs from a fetus. The clinic said it never agreed to the offer. But Harris County Criminal Court at Law Judge Diane Bull on Monday dismissed the misdemeanor count Daleiden faced, ruling the indictment was flawed because prosecutors had failed to make reference within the indictment to any exceptions to the law prohibiting the purchase or sale of human organs. Under the law, there are several

exceptions including if fees were being paid to a doctor or hospital for their services. Daleiden’s attorneys called the dismissal a victory for the anti-abortion movement. “This is one of two (charges). One down, one to go. Both of these cases are flawed. They’ve got more holes than two pieces of Swiss cheese,” Terry Yates, one of Daleiden’s attorneys, said at a news conference. Daleiden, who is the founder of a group called the Center for Medical Progress, was not at

Tuesday’s news conference. But in a statement, the center said the dismissal “is the latest confirmation that the indictments from a runaway grand jury in Houston were a politically motivated sham all along.” A court hearing on a motion by Daleiden’s attorneys to dismiss the felony count against him is set for July 26. The tampering with a governmental record charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. In a statement, Harris County District Attorney

Devon Anderson said her office will not appeal the judge’s decision. “Our office remains focused on the felony charge pending” before a different judge, she said. Jeff McShan, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, added that prosecutors won’t refile the misdemeanor count. A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood did not immediately return a phone call or email seeking comment. Grant Scheiner, a Houston criminal defense attorney not connected to

the case, said the misdemeanor count was dismissed on a technicality and prosecutors could easily refile the charge under a different cause number. He called the decision to not refile the charge “very odd.” “Unless the prosecutor felt there was something wrong with the case, for example if one of the statutory exceptions did apply, then it would be very peculiar for the prosecutor not to refile,” Scheiner said. Daleiden and Merritt, who are both from Cali-

fornia, have previously rejected plea deals offering them probation. Both remain free on bond. Texas authorities initially began a grand jury investigation of Planned Parenthood after the undercover videos were released in August. Daleiden has said he was working undercover as a journalist to expose illegalities related to the handling of fetal tissue But the grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of misusing fetal tissue and instead indicted Daleiden and Merritt.

Zopinion

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A4 | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Some lessons in high school were just too difficult By Willis Webb S P ECIAL THE THE TI ME S

Sometimes it seems that we are, to use a good Texas term, “snakebitten.” Perhaps the handful remaining of my high school graduating class feels the same way. Tragedy enveloped us and put us to some severe tests early in life. Dealing with death of someone close to you — a relative or good friend — is hard enough when it occurs at an age when maturity has come with lots of years of living. To have it happen in your teen years is extremely difficult. Decades ago when I had to deal with this, neither I nor any of my classmates knew how nor were we prepared to face losing a classmate or relative, much less several in a short period of time. Not that it is any easier when you’re older, but maturity and the witnessing of the effects of death on people in small towns has given you a bit more preparation and insight to such a shocking event. During my senior year, and in a few short weeks immediately following, we had losses that shook our young bones through and through. Less than three months before graduation, the boy class favorite and one of the most personable people you’d ever expect to meet, had his life end due to a freakish house fire. His parents worked and he came home after school to a house that had been closed up all day. Undetected by him, a natural gas leak filled the house. When he flipped the light switch, a spark ignited the gas and he was burned badly. He lived for almost a week but with every inch of skin burned from his body, he succumbed. For most of our class of 39, it was our first exposure to the death of a friend. The lingering death made it doubly tough to take. There came the occasion then to do what friends and family do with the loss of a loved one — some sit in the funeral home in shifts with the body.

Let me tell you, 17- and 18-year-old boys don’t know how to respond. Most attempted to behave in a manner they deemed appropriate, but sitting with a casket containing a friend for hours presents most youngsters with a first-time experience that is scary, sad and sobering. To “cover up,” some of the boys on the “night shifts” took to first exploring the funeral home. It was a first-time experience for just about every one of us. Some roamed around. Others crawled in empty caskets to show they weren’t afraid. Frankly, I’m sure that of the few of us left in this world 60 years later, are still a bit embarrassed by the shenanigans that occurred that night. Within a few weeks of that sad loss, our class was dealt yet another tough blow — one classmate’s father, a man said to be given to heavy drinking and who some said had been “sick” a long time, took a hammer and as his wife slept, hammered her forehead repeatedly, killing her. Shortly after graduation, two young men from that year’s junior class were killed in a car wreck on the infamous S curve on Old U.S. Highway 75 between Buffalo and Centerville. For a small high school, with about 210 students in the four grades, this was a devastating loss and rattled most of us to the tips of our toes. Five years later, one of our top students from our class, had passed through a college Air Force military program, gone to flight school and got his wings. He was flying a bomber in Arkansas and the plane never gained enough altitude. With engines failing, the plane crashed through the roof of a barn, killing the crew as well as some children in the structure. It took a great many years for some of us to get past the feeling of being jinxed and doomed. Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher of more than 50 years experience. He can be reached by email at wwebb1937@att.net.

COLUMN

The building blocks of learning By David Brooks N EW YORK T I ME S

The ancient Greeks had different words for different kinds of love — like Ludus (playful love), Pragma (long-standing love) and Agape (universal love). Sixteen hundred years ago, Augustine argued that the essence of a good life is choosing the right things to love and loving them well. But over the past several centuries our models of human behavior have amputated love. Hobbes and other philosophers argued that society is a machine driven by selfishness. Enlightenment philosophers emphasized reason over emotion. Contemporary social science was built on the idea that we’re self-in-

terested, calculating creatures. This philosophical shift has caused unimaginable harm, especially in the sphere of education. Education is one of those spheres where the heart is inseparable from the head. If students are going to succeed, they probably need to come from a home where they feel safe and secure, so they aren’t paralyzed by anxiety and fear. They probably need to have experienced strong attachments so they know how to bond with teachers and parents. They probably need to have been bathed in love so they have some sense of identity, some confidence about their own worth and some sense of agency about their own future.

COLUMN

The scope of the Orlando carnage By Frank Bruni NEW YORK TIME S

These locations are never random. These targets aren’t accidental. They’re the very vocabulary in which assailants like the Orlando gunman speak, and he chose a place where there’s drinking. And dancing. And where LGBT people congregate, feeling a sense of welcome, of belonging. That last detail is in the foreground of the deadliest mass shooting in American history — and rightly so. But let’s be clear: This was no more an attack just on LGBT people than the bloodshed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris was an attack solely on satirists. Both were attacks on freedom itself. Both took aim at societies that, at their best, integrate and celebrate diverse points of view, diverse systems of belief, diverse ways to love. And to speak of either massacre more narrowly than that is to miss the greater message, the more pervasive danger and the truest stakes. We don’t yet know all that much about Omar Mateen, who pulled the trigger, again and again, in a nightclub whose name connotes life, not death: Pulse. We’ll be learning more in the hours and days to come,

including just how potently homophobia in particular factored into his actions, how much ideological influence the Islamic State or other extremists had, how extensive his planning was, how far back he began plotting this, and how much he knew about Pulse itself and the specific composition of its crowd on different nights of the week. But we can assume — no, we can be sure — that he was lashing out at an America at odds with his darker, smaller, more oppressive mindset. The people inside Pulse were citizens of it. More to the point, they were emblems of it. In Pulse they found a refuge. In Pulse they found joy. To him they deserved neither. And he communicated that with an assault rifle and bullets. The Islamic State and its ilk are brutal to gay people, whom they treat in unthinkable ways. They throw gay people from rooftops. The footage is posted online. It’s bloodcurdling, but it’s not unique. In countries throughout the world, to be gay is to be in mortal danger. To embrace love is to court death. That’s crucial context for what happened in Orlando, and Orlando is an understandable prompt for questions about our own degrees of

inclusion and fairness and whether we do all that we should to keep LGBT people safe. We don’t. As Florida Gov. Rick Scott spoke publicly of his heartache Sunday, I saw complaints on social media about his own lack of support for issues important to LGBT people. Those complaints have merit. But this isn’t a moment for identity politics, which could muddle the significance of the carnage.Yes, that carnage exposed the special vulnerability of LGBT Americans to violent extremists, recommending special levels of security. And there was a frightening coda to it on the opposite coast, in the Los Angeles area, where a man with an arsenal of weapons was arrested en route to gay pride festivities. But the threat isn’t only to LGBT Americans, as past acts of terror have shown and as everyone today must recognize. All Americans are under attack, and not exclusively because of whom we drink, dance or sleep with, but because of our bedrock belief that we should not be subservient to any one ideology or any one religion. That offends and inflames the zealots of the world. Often our politicians

can’t find their voices. Sometimes their words are poignantly right. President Barack Obama, speaking about the victims Sunday afternoon, said: “The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub. It is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights. So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country.” And this was Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles mayor, at a news conference: “Today we know that we are targeted as Americans, because this is a society where we love broadly and openly, because we have Jews and Christians and Muslims and atheists and Buddhists marching together, because we are white, black, brown, Asian, Native American. The whole spectrum and every hue and every culture is here.” It was a perfect description of the country I love. And it was an equally perfect description of what the Orlando gunman couldn’t bear.

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THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 |

ENTERTAINMENT

Gunman’s face, name become journalism challenge By Lynn Elber ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Tom Gralish / AP

A photo of Christina Grimmie, 22, is displayed as participants hold a vigil to honor the singer killed Friday night in Orlando, Fla., on Monday, June 13, 2016, in Evesham Township, N.J.

Slain ‘Voice’ singer’s funeral to be held in New Jersey A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

MEDFORD, N.J. — Funeral services for “The Voice” star Christina Grimmie will be held later this week near her New Jersey hometown. The 22-year-old singer was shot to death last week as she signed autographs after a show in Orlando. Authorities say she apparently had no personal connection to the man who shot her and then fatally shot himself after being tack-

led by her brother. A viewing will be held Friday at Fellowship Alliance Chapel in Medford. A memorial service will be held there Friday night. Grimmie was a YouTube star who was widely known from her appearances on NBC’s “The Voice” two years ago. She lived in Evesham Township, a small community about 20 miles from Philadelphia, before moving to Los Angeles in 2012.

LOS ANGELES — Anderson Cooper faced the camera, his voice freighted with emotion, and took a stand on covering the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. “We will not say the gunman’s name or show his photograph,” Cooper told CNN viewers on a telecast Monday. “It’s been shown far too much already.” The withholding of such information is an unusual but not unprecedented move by a reporter or news organization, one that some media experts say can be justified. Cooper said on-air that his intention was to keep the focus where it belonged, on the 49 people who died in last weekend’s nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and not on the killer. He went on to identify and describe each of the known victims. That approach is both journalistically sound and potentially valuable, given findings that people who commit such high-profile crimes have a “sick desire to become famous and known for what they did,” said Paul Levinson, professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University. Reporting an attacker’s name could encourage other people who might seek to gain their own violent measure of dark fame, Levinson said. “The purpose of journalism is to keep the public informed but not when that could entail a loss of life,” he said. With any high-profile

Nicholas Hunt / Getty

Anderson Cooper appears on stage during Turner Upfront 2016 show at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on May 18, 2016 in New York City.

gunman’s identity and photo widely available through multiple news and social media outlets, is there value in one reporter’s black-out? Yes, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Given the U.S. rate of mass shootings, a reporter who disrupts the standard narrative by keeping a killer in the shadows “is inviting us to step back and experience this as not just one more (attack) but in its own right,” Jamieson said. Through a CNN spokesman, Cooper declined comment Tuesday on his decision regarding Omar Mateen, who was shot to death after killing and injuring some 100 people in the Pulse

nightclub in Orlando. While Cooper’s approach to the Florida gunman appears to be unique among major TV network and cable reporters and their outlets, it’s a path taken by others in reporting on previous mass killings. After an Oregon community college was attacked last fall, Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly didn’t refer to the gunman by name. But she did identify Mateen, a decision explained by Tom Lowell, Kelly’s executive producer. “When we encounter an event where it becomes apparent that the shooter was driven by the desire for infamy, we decline to help,” Lowell said in a statement. But when it’s clear there is some other pri-

mary motive such as terrorism or ideology, then the killer typically will be identified, Lowell said. He cited as examples Orlando and a 2015 attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado. During his prolonged assault on the gay nightclub, Mateen made a 911 call in which he professed allegiance to the Islamic State group. In this visual age, a photo carries as much if not more weight than words, and Cooper’s refusal to air the many selfie images available of Mateen is a tacit acknowledgement of that. On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday, host Joe Scarborough brought up the photos in questioning the media’s attention to such killers, among them the Boston marathon bomber, who Scarborough said was “glorified” with a Rolling Stone cover image. “At what point do we stop putting their pictures up? At what point do we stop putting their names?” he said. That is unlikely to happen, according to one expert, and for good reason. “What Cooper is doing is basically feel-good for him, and that’s fine. If somehow all journalists and websites and law enforcement all conspired to keep a name secret, which is impossible, then I would object to that,” said David Rubin, professor and retired dean of Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. “It is the job of the media to report information and not withhold information,” he said.

Zfrontera A6 | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE Pruebas para ZHS Color Guard 1 Estudiantes del grado 7 al 12 están invitados a las prácticas para pertenecer al ZHS Color Guard. Última práctica es hoy 15 de junio de 1 p.m. a 4 p.m. en Zapata High School. La prueba será el jueves 16 de junio a las 4:30 p.m. Habrá una reunión obligatoria para padres/tutores el miércoles después de la práctica, donde se entregarán las formas de registro y manual de la banda, la cual deberá estar firmada por padres y participantes. Informes con Cindy Martinez y/o Dalia García en ZHS.

Becas API 1 Estudiantes Seniors interesados en la beca del Laredo Border Chapter API pueden entregar sus solicitudes a los Consejeros del Zapata High School a más tardar el jueves 16 de junio. Igualmente la forma se puede entregar en la oficina del Blue Stone Natural Resources en 1010 Hwy 83, con Christine P. Martínez en el 918-392-9237. La solicitud de beca puede ser encontrada en el sitio de Internet de la preparatoria Zapata High School bajo la pestaña ‘student’ (estudiante). El plazo para la entrega de solicitudes a la oficina del Blue Stone es el viernes 17 de junio. Los consejeros no laborararán el viernes.

SALUD

EDUCACIÓN

Otorgan donativo a clínica Gateway

Anuncian programa alimenticio para verano TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Beneficiará diagnóstico cardíaco Por Philip Balli TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

El Centro de Salud Comunitario Gateway recibió el viernes un cheque por 8.400 dólares del Club de Mujeres de Laredo como reembolso por la compra de tres máquinas ECG/EKG. Las máquinas han sido colocadas en ubicaciones diferentes, la clínica del Sur de Texas, la Clínica de Zapata y la Clínica de Hebbronville, de acuerdo a Elmo López Jr., oficial en jefe ejecutivo. “Estamos complacidos con el donativo del Club de Mujeres de Laredo. Trabajamos de la mano con ellas y fueron los suficientemente generosas para darnos el dinero necesario para comprar estas tres máquinas”, dijo López. Las máquinas ECG/

EKG diagnostican condiciones del corazón y detectan ritmos cardiacos anormales. López estima que las máquinas son utilizadas hasta 10 veces al día con pacientes de las clínicas. “Esto es una indicación de la importancia de estas máquinas. Hay una gran necesidad de este tipo de diagnósticos”, agregó López. “Estas máquinas son invaluables para nosotros”. Gateway ordenó la compra de las máquinas EKG el 1 de enero y las recibió el 5 de febrero. Nancy De Anda del Club de Mujeres de Laredo dijo que el cub se asoció con la fundación Fernando A. Salinas Charitable Trust para el reembolso a Gateway de las máquinas. En el 2015, el club recaudó más de 200.000

dólares. Diversas organizaciones locales son seleccionadas cada año por el club para recibir un donativo. En lugar de simplemente dar el dinero a las organizaciones, el club prefiere pagar facturas por productos o servicios que las agencias adquieren. “De esta manera sabemos exactamente a dónde se va el dinero”, dijo De Anda. Gateway fue una de las 50 agencias que el club seleccionó para dar su apoyo este año, de acuerdo a De Anda. De Anda dijo que está orgullosa que el Club de Mujeres de Laredo pudo apoyar a Gateway en la compra de las máquinas EKG. (Localice a Philip Balli en el 728-2528 o en pballi@lmtonline.com)

El distrito escolar Zapata County Independent School District puso en marcha el programa de servicios alimenticios de verano para niños de la comunidad. El programa, abierto a niños de 1 a 18 años de edad, provee desayuno y/o comida, de forma gratuita, en varias ubicaciones. El servicio se proporcionará de lunes a viernes, en todos los lugares, pero los horarios variarán. Desyaunos de 7:30 a.m. a 8:30 a.m. y, comida, de 11:30 a.m. a 12:30 p.m. en: 1 Zapata High School, 2009 State Hwy 16 1 Zapata Middle School 17th & Carla Street 1 Fidel & Andrea Villarreal Elementary, 805 Mira Flores Avenue 1 Zapata North Elementary,17th & Carla Street 1 Zapata South Elementary, 500 Delmar Otros puntos en Zapata que ofrecerán la comida de 11:30 a.m. a 12:30 p.m.: 1 Boys and Girls Club of Zapata, 302 W 6th Avenue 1 Siesta Shores Park Monterrey Lane En San Ygnacio será en: 1 A.L. Benavides Elementary, 307 Lincoln Avenue, 7:30 a.m. a 8:30 a.m. y de 11:30 a.m. a 12:00 p.m. 1 Boys and Girls Club of San Ignacio, Washington Ave. Comida de 12:20 p.m. a12:45 p.m. Otras áreas aledañas: 1 Lopeño Learning Center, 105 4th Street, en Lopeño. Comida 11:30 a.m. a 12:10 p.m. 1 Falcon Nutrition Center, 3 rd & Ramireño Street, en Falcon. Comida 12:20 p.m. a 12:40 p.m. 1 Zapata Community Center , 605 N. US Hwy 83, Zapata. Desayuno y comida 8:00 a 8:30 a.m. y 12:50 a 1:20p.m.

CULTURA

PREPARAN FESTIVAL

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

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 956-251-9986 o escribiendo a chris_davila_2014@yahoo.com Fotos por Pablo Casacuevas | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

Academia Roma FC Soccer 1 Se invita a participar en la escuela infantil Academia Roma FC Soccer para niños de 3 años a 10 años de edad. Cuota de 40 dólares que incluye uniforme. Registro es martes y jueves de 6 p.m. a 8 p.m. en el Roma Park Soccer Field. Participan en juegos de fin de semana y torneos. Informes en el 956-4372700 o 956-437-9112.

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.

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 los escritores Jorge Santa Anna y Juan Miguel Pérez.

Se encuentra abierta la convocatoria para participar en el Festival Arriba Tamaulipas por parte del Gobierno del Estado, a través del Instituto Tamaulipeco para la Cultura y las Artes. El objetivo es “difundir, impulsar e incrementar la participa-

ción de artistas tamaulipecos”. El evento se llevará a cabo en agosto. Las propuestas que se esperan son en todas las áreas, géneros y disciplinas artísticas. Vea itca.gob.mx/ convocatorias para más información.

TAMAULIPAS

Recibe constancia de mayoría TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

El fin de semana, Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, recibió la constancia de mayoría para el cargo de Gobernador de Tamaulipas para el periodo 2016-2022, de acuerdo con el resultado de la elección celebrada el domingo 5 de junio. García Cabeza de Vaca fue el candidato del Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) y recibió un total de 721.049 votos. Datos oficiales marcan que hubo una participación de mas del 56 por ciento de los electores. El Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) había gobernado la entidad por casi nueve

décadas. “Agradezco al Instituto la conducción de la elección, que sin temor a equivocarme quedará plasmada en la historia de la entidad”, expresó Cabeza de Vaca. “Mi reconocimiento al trabajo realizado, sobre todo por la conducción del día de la elección”. La votación final dada a conocer por el IETAM es: 1 Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) 721.049 votos 1 Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) 486.124 votos 1 Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) 17.324 1 Partido Verde Ecologista (PVEM) 8.859 1 Partido del Trabajo (PT) 8.281 1 Partido Movimiento

Ciudadano (PMC) 84.736 1 Partido Nueva Alianza 11.567 1 Partido MORENA 32.183 1 Partido Encuentro Social (PES) 19.458. 1 Coalicion PRI-VerdeNueva Alianza, 4.068 votos 1 Coalición PRI-Verde, 4.908 1 Coalición PRI-Nueva Alianza 1.698 votos 1 Coalición Verde-Nueva Alianza, 395 1 Candidato Independiente, 9.151 votos. Además, fueron 1.134 sufragios para candidatos no registrados y 27.079 votos nulos. García Cabeza de Vaca sustituirá en el puesto al actual Gobernador, Egidio Torre Cantú, a partir del 1 de octubre del 2016.

Foto de cortesía | IETAM

Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca recibió la constancia de mayoría que lo convierte en candidato electo a Gobernador de Tamaulipas para el periodo 2016-2022, en Ciudad Victoria, México, el fin de semana. Junto a él su esposa, Mariana Gómez de García Cabeza de Vaca.

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 |

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

McFadden breaks elbow, out 2 months Dallas RB injured trying to save phone By Schuyler Dixon A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

IRVING — Darren McFadden fractured his right elbow trying to keep his new iPhone from hitting the ground and cracking. The Dallas running back is likely to miss the start of training camp as a result, and fourth overall pick Ezekiel Elliott is that much closer to starting. McFadden’s injury happened at home over Memorial Day weekend, and he missed the next voluntary practice that was open to reporters. But he returned to workouts last week, eventually telling trainers that the elbow was still bothering him. The fracture showed up on X-rays as part of the physical before mandatory minicamp that started Tuesday, the same day of surgery for the Cowboys’ leading rusher in 2015. Coach Jason Garrett said McFadden would miss “at least a couple of months,” and training camp in California starts in late July. The Cowboys hope to have him ready for the season opener. “He’s real tough,” said run-

ning backs coach Gary Brown, who said McFadden fell and saved his phone while breaking his elbow. “He didn’t want to miss any time. He understands what’s going on and how this business works and you really got to appreciate that about him because I know I do.” McFadden finished fourth in the NFL last season with 1,089 yards rushing despite not taking over as the lead back until the seventh game during a 4-12 season. But the Cowboys still decided to take Elliott, the former Ohio State star, with their highest draft pick in 25 years. “It just means more reps with the first team, but you hate seeing one of your guys go down,” said Elliott, who had been splitting time on the first team with McFadden. “You hate to see one of your warriors wounded. But he’s going to be around a lot.” Dallas also signed free agent Alfred Morris, who went to the Pro Bowl twice in Washington. And versatile back Lance Dunbar is expected to be fully recovered from last year’s major knee injury at some point in 2016.

“You want to be deep at all positions,” Garrett said. “It’s hard to do that in the NFL in this day and age with the salary caps and the like, but it’s good to have quality football players at that spot with this injury.” McFadden gave the running game stability last season after the Cowboys let 2014 NFL rushing champion DeMarco Murray get away in free agency while also thinking backup Joseph Randle could take over as the starter. Coming off seven mostly disappointing and injury-filled seasons in Oakland after the Raiders drafted him fourth overall in 2008, McFadden rushed for 152 yards after Randle got hurt early in a game at the New York Giants. Randle was waived two weeks later. The ninth-year player is also seen as a mentor for Elliott, in part because he faced the same expectations as a high pick in Oakland. “It’s our leader in the room,” Brown said. “It’s going to be hard for these young guys. We’ve got to figure out what we need to get done because that’s the way he’d want us to do. We can’t wallow in it.”

Tony Gutierrez / AP

Dallas running back Darren McFadden will miss the next two months with a broken elbow.

NOTES: LB Rolando McClain and G Ron Leary reported for the first mandatory practice of the offseason after skipping all the voluntary workouts. Owner Jerry Jones has said McClain was spending time with his two young sons in Alabama, and Leary

wants a trade after losing his starting job to second-year player La’el Collins. ... DE Benson Mayowa was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Tuesday. Garrett said he should be ready by “close to the start of training camp.”

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

NHL SETTLES ON LAS VEGAS FOR EXPANSION By Greg Beacham A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

The NHL is ready to roll the dice on Las Vegas. A person with direct knowledge of the NHL’s decision says the league has settled on Las Vegas as the home for its next expansion franchise, provided organizers can come up with a $500 million fee. The person spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because details of the plans have not been released by the league ahead of its Board of Governors meeting on June 22 in Las Vegas. Quebec City was also strongly considered for expansion. A second person who had been briefed on the decision said Las Vegas was a “done deal” following the recommendation of the NHL’s executive committee. The Vegas franchise is expected to begin play in the 2017-18 season, which is the earliest the league could expand, according to a third person who has been briefed on the decision. The franchise would be the NHL’s 31st team and the first major professional sports franchise in Las Vegas, the rapidly growing gambling center of the American West. The NHL hasn’t expanded since 2000, when Minnesota and Columbus paid $80 million each to join the league. Prospective Vegas owner Bill Foley is a wealthy businessman who isn’t likely to blink at the elevated price tag previously proposed by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman as an expansion fee. The Las Vegas bid says it has secured more than 14,000 season-ticket deposits for the new team, which will play in T-Mo-

L.E. Baskow / AP file

An AP source says commissioner Gary Bettman, left, and the NHL have settled on Las Vegas as their choice for expansion.

bile Arena, the sparkling new multipurpose building on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. The arena, which seats 17,500 for hockey, was built entirely with private money by MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group, the owners of the Los Angeles Kings. The Las Vegas area had nearly 2.2 million people in the 2010 census, making it the largest population center in the U.S. without a major pro sports franchise. Public support for Foley’s bid has been robust, and the NHL has noticed the appeal of being the only major sports show in a town that loves a big event. “This could be a watershed moment for our community and sports in Southern Nevada,” said

Jonas Peterson, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance. “Having a professional hockey team will not only boost our economy, but also our sense of community pride.” Mayor Carolyn Goodman said she couldn’t confirm the expansion, but said she senses a “great probability” for the decision because of a shift in the conversation in the last two weeks. “H-E double-hockeysticks yes!” said Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, the first person to make a deposit on season tickets. “I’m excited, but I’m waiting for the official announcement from the NHL. Las Vegas has been waiting for this for decades. We’re a major league city. We deserve

major league sports. I can’t wait to see that first championship parade down the Las Vegas Strip!” The days when sports leagues were wary of the potential corruption in Vegas’ massive sports betting scene are apparently finished, making the growing, multicultural city an attractive candidate for sports looking to get in on the market. The Oakland Raiders have held serious discussions with Vegas leaders in recent months about a move to Nevada, with owner Mark Davis suggesting that he and his partners, including casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, could build a $1.4 billion domed stadium near the Strip with substantial public money. David Beckham met with

the group in April, and the English soccer superstar suggested Vegas would be a candidate for an MLS team with that new field. But Foley and the NHL have been working much longer to bring hockey to the city — with the enormous advantage of an NHL-ready building freshly opened in town. T-Mobile Arena had its grand opening April 6 with a concert featuring Wayne Newton and the Killers, and Canelo Alvarez knocked out Amir Khan in a middleweight title bout on May 7 in its first competitive sporting event. The NHL has debated expansion for a few years, with Seattle and the Toronto suburbs also generating interest for another team. Foley has always

been the leader, with the league accepting a $2 million deposit and thoroughly vetting his financial plans last year. Quebec City still has a strong bid for expansion, but owners have expressed concerns about the strength of the Canadian dollar and a geographical imbalance if they add another team to the Eastern Conference, which currently has 16 teams to the West’s 14. Bettman has said he doesn’t worry about the league’s product suffering from dilution. Even with the serious financial woes of the Arizona Coyotes, who were owned by the league for four years while losing money and struggling to find permanent ownership, the NHL remains opposed to relocation of any franchise, and confident in its belief that hockey can thrive in a nontraditional Southwest market. Vegas is in the middle of the Mojave Desert, but it has grown as a hockey town over the past 20 years since local youngsters like Jason Zucker, now with the Minnesota Wild, had to practice on one of the three rinks in town. The IHL’s Las Vegas Thunder attracted large crowds in the 1990s when they played at the Thomas and Mack Center, and the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers took the Thunder’s place until 2014 while playing at the Orleans Arena. Foley hasn’t said what he will call his new team, but the bid is run by a company named Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, the same name as his financial services company. Foley graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

A8 | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL

Feds announce $82 million for nuclear energy research By Keith Ridler ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Richard Vogel / AP

Firefighters guide a body being lifted by a ladder truck, one of four additional bodies found in the burned-out ruins of an abandoned office building in the Westlake district just west of downtown Los Angeles, Tuesday.

5 dead in fire in abandoned building in Los Angeles By Robert Jablon A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

LOS ANGELES — Firefighters on Tuesday found four more bodies as they searched an abandoned office building the day after it was damaged by a major fire near downtown Los Angeles, authorities said. The discoveries raised the death toll to five people. One man had already been declared dead at the scene while the blaze was burning Monday night. Two men and two women were found Tuesday afternoon as authorities searched the second floor of the burned-out building with a team of dogs. All five victims appeared to be homeless, the Fire Department said. The bodies were being removed from the upper floor with a fire ladder truck. Police arrested a suspected arsonist who had been in the building when the fire broke out, authorities said. That man and one other person were taken to hospitals with injuries not considered serious. It took nearly 150 firefighters more than two hours to extinguish the fire in the green, two-story building that

once was home to an acupuncture clinic, It is surrounded by strip malls and an apartment building in the Westlake District of Los Angeles. The area is on the edge of Koreatown, and the signs on the building and many surrounding businesses are in Korean. The building was officially vacant, but neighbors say they saw homeless people coming and going from it frequently, especially at night. The structure appeared to be singed and some of its windows were blown out. It did not appear seriously damaged from the outside, but it looked like the inside had been badly burned. During the blaze, firefighters had to take a defensive stance and fight the fire from a distance because it was too dangerous to get close to the abandoned building with a fire burning so strongly. “People do tend to live in them, and they tear them up,” fire Capt. Daniel Curry said. “Floors are no longer intact, walls are no longer there.” The fire chief was set to talk about the deaths at a news conference later Tuesday.

BOISE, Idaho — U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has announced $82 million for nuclear energy projects in 28 states as part of the government’s plan to reduce carbon emissions. Moniz said Tuesday that the 93 research projects will help scientists innovate with nuclear technologies that can eventually enter the commercial market. He made the announcement while visiting the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho. “Nuclear energy remains very important,” he said. “It remains by far the biggest source of carbon-free electricity.” Moniz’s announcement fits in with President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce emissions by generating carbon-free electricity. Nuclear energy currently produces about 19 percent of the nation’s energy, and officials say that represents about 60 percent of the nation’s carbon-free energy. Much of the money announced Tuesday is heading for universities, about $36 million for 49 university-led projects. Fifteen universities also will receive nearly $6 million for research reactor and infrastructure improvements. “Frankly, there’s been probably not enough of that in recent years,” Moniz said. “These are very important teaching tools.” Two innovations Moniz cited specifically he’d like to see are advances in small modular reactors and work on what he called advanced fuels, including what he called accident-tolerant fuels. Such fuels, he said, could lead to reactors that are “fundamentally different in their designs.” He said small modular reactors are cheaper to build and, being modular, can be added to as power demands in a region grow. That could be attractive to

Pat Sutphin/Idaho Falls Post-Register / AP

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz addresses members of his Secretary of Energy Advisory Board at the Energy Innovations Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Tuesday.

utilities, he noted, that wouldn’t initially have to come up with billions of dollars to build a conventional nuclear power plant. The first small modular reactor could be built in Idaho as a Utah energy cooperative is narrowing down its selections for a site at the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory. Moniz said that decision could be made in about a month. “We are very much hoping Idaho is going to be the place where this happens, presumably first,” Moniz said. He said the ability of such reactors to provide competitively priced energy to the market will be a critical component, but it likely won’t be until the middle of the next decade until that aspect and others about the small reactors are well understood. Moniz also said Tuesday that the Energy Department has to “make progress in terms of managing spent fuel.” The funding includes $21 million for joint projects involving the Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of Environmental Management for nuclear waste immobilization. Collaboration between those two entities is part of Moniz’s plan to combine the Energy

Department’s advanced nuclear research and remediation efforts. Some environmental groups oppose nuclear energy, but others say it can reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The Idaho-based Snake River Alliance describes itself as Idaho’s nuclear watchdog and clean energy advocate. “Nuclear waste is certainly a place where we want as much research as possible,” said Wendy Wilson, the group’s interim executive director, about Tuesday’s announcement. “If they put that much money into renewables that are here today, we could have really safe and clean energy.” In Idaho, nuclear waste is a touchy subject involving federal court battles between the state and federal government over concerns the state was becoming a nuclear waste repository. Currently, research on spent nuclear fuel the Energy Department wants to do at the Idaho National Laboratory is being prevented by a 1995 agreement prohibiting such shipments into Idaho until 900,000 gallons of high-level liquid radioactive waste stored at the site is converted to a solid form and shipped out of the state.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 |

BUSINESS

Stocks fall again as Fed decision looms By Ken Sweet A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — Stocks in the U.S. and other global markets fell for a fourth day Tuesday as jittery investors await for the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates and worried about Britain’s expected close vote on whether to leave the European Union. Credit card company stocks fell sharply after Synchrony Financial, the country’s leading issuer of store brand credit cards, warned that more of its customers were falling behind on payments. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 57.66 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,674.82. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 3.74 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,075.32 and the Nasdaq composite fell 4.89 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,843.55. As stocks declined, U.S.

government bond yields remained at their lowest levels since 2012 as investors sought safety ahead of the Fed meeting and the vote in Britain. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 1.62 percent, up slightly from a day earlier. In Europe, benchmark German government bond yields fell below zero percent for the first time, a signal that skittish investors are willing to pay to park their money in investments they consider super-safe. The Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting started Tuesday, with a decision on interest rates to be announced Wednesday. The Fed had been expected to raise interest rates, but following some weak economic data, including the most recent monthly jobs report, it now appears likely to wait. Most investors are

Mark Lennihan / AP file

This July 15, 2013 photo, shows the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks opening mixed on Wall Street, early Tuesday.

focused overseas right now. There is grave uncertainty about whether British voters will choose to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum. Polls show the vote could go either way and investors are starting to worry about the consequences. A British exit from the

EU, known informally as Brexit, would likely hurt the British economy most and destabilize the rest of Europe. The repercussions, however, are not clear and investors are reacting to the general uncertainty over the situation. “Investors are ‘Brexit’ proofing their portfolios

right now,” said Anastasia Amoroso, a global markets strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. Amoroso said that if the U.K. were to leave the EU, both the British and European Central Banks would likely lower interest rates to stabilize the continent’s economy, which would put pressure on bonds. “Expect drastic volatility around this vote, and if it does in fact happen look for more countries to leave the EU as well,” said Tom di Galoma, a bond trader and managing director at Seaport Global, in an email. In individual companies, Synchrony Financial plunged $3.99, or 13 percent, to $26.45 after the company disclosed that more of its customers were falling behind on payments. The company is also taking losses on more accounts than anticipated.

The news hit other credit card companies hard. American Express fell $2.60, or 4 percent, to $61.07 and Capital One Financial fell $4.57, or 6.6 percent, to $64.43. In commodities, benchmark U.S. crude dropped 39 cents to $48.49 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 52 cents to $49.83 per barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline futures fell 1 cent to $1.52 a gallon, heating old fell 1 cent to $1.50 a gallon and natural gas rose 2 cents to $2.604 per thousand cubic feet. Gold rose $1.20 to $1,288.10 an ounce, silver fell 2 cents to $17.42 an ounce and copper fell 1 cent to $2.04 a pound The dollar fell to 105.97 yen from 106.21 yen. The euro edged down to $1.1205 from $1.1293.

Microsoft to buy LinkedIn for $26.2B FDA approves stomach-draining obesity treatment By Barbara Ortutay A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — In a surprise move, Microsoft said Monday that it is buying LinkedIn for about $26.2 billion, a deal that could bring subtle but significant changes for the professional network’s more than 430 million members. LinkedIn will remain an independent unit of Microsoft. It will keep its name, and current CEO Jeff Weiner will stay on and report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. LinkedIn lets members network with other professionals, upload their resumes, catch up on career advice and search for jobs. For Microsoft, the deal presents an opportunity to cement itself as the tech company for the world’s professionals, helping them find jobs, learn new skills and do their work. Microsoft will also look for ways to combine Microsoft’s software for workers with the information stored in LinkedIn’s online professional network. For instance, Nadella told The Associated Press that Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana could mine LinkedIn for helpful data. “Cortana can wake up before you go into a meeting and inform you about all the people you are meeting for the first time and the connections you have with them,” he said. Similarly, he said, LinkedIn’s “news feed” — which provides articles and updates from your contacts on the network — could highlight information that’s relevant to a project you might be working on using Microsoft’s Office 365 software. LinkedIn users might see changes in the first year after the deal is closed, Nadella said.

By Matthew Perrone ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Microsoft / New York Times

In an undated handout photo, from left, Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn; Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft; and Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn.

Microsoft may also integrate its business software with LinkedIn’s growing business of providing sales professionals with contacts and information to help make sales to large companies. LinkedIn, based in Mountain View, California, is by far Microsoft’s largest acquisition — much larger than Skype, which the company bought for $8.5 billion in 2011. Microsoft Corp., which is in Redmond, Washington, is paying $196 for each share of LinkedIn Corp., a 50 percent premium over the stock’s closing price of $131.08 on Friday. The deal is expected to close this year. LinkedIn’s business and share price have been rocky recently. In February, it gave a surprise forecast for slower growth that led to a big sell-off, wiping out nearly $11 billion in market value. The company said at the time that its adjusted earnings would be 55 cents a share on revenue of roughly $820 million. Its stock climbed higher after it reported better

than expected results for the first quarter, though not enough to recover from the earlier plunge. In an email to LinkedIn employees posted online , Weiner asked them to give themselves “some time to process the news.” “You might feel a sense of excitement, fear, sadness, or some combination of all of those emotions. Every member of the exec team has experienced the same, but we’ve had months to process,” he wrote. “Regardless of the ups and downs, we’ve come out the other side knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is the best thing for our company.” Microsoft has a mixed track record with acquisitions, having written off more than $10 billion it poured into companies such as cellphone maker Nokia and an online ad firm called aQuantive. Nadella expressed confidence that this one will succeed, citing the company’s more successful takeovers of Skype and Minecraft.

WASHINGTON — A new weight loss device offers a novel approach to cutting calories: draining them from the stomach before they are fully digested. The AspireAssist system consists of a thin tube implanted in the stomach, connecting to an outside port on the skin of the belly. About 20 minutes after finishing a meal, users connect the port to an external device, which drains some of the recently-consumed food into the toilet. The manufacturer — Aspire Bariatrics based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania — says its system removes about 30 percent of food stored in the stomach before it begins causing weight gain. The Food and Drug Administration approved the device on Tuesday for adults who are obese, with a body mass index of 35 to 55, and have not been able to lose weight with other methods. It’s the latest option for millions of obese Americans who have been unable to lose weight via more traditional methods. Obesity is considered one of the nation’s leading public health problems because it can trigger diabetes and lead to heart disease and other serious health problems. About 38 percent of all U.S. adults are obese. A 5-foot-9 person would be obese at 203 pounds. Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that rates of obesity

among women had reached 40 percent for the first time. That compares to a 35 percent obesity rate for men. The FDA said it approved the new device based on studies showing patients lost an average of 12 percent of their total body weight one year after the procedure. That compared to 3.6 percent weight loss for patients who didn’t receive the device. Side effects seen with AspireAssist included nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea. “Patients need to be regularly monitored by their health care provider and should follow a lifestyle program to help them develop healthier eating habits and reduce their calorie intake,” said FDA deputy director Dr. William Maisel, in a statement. Weight loss surgery is recommended for those with a BMI of 40 or those with a BMI of 35 who have other risk factors like diabetes or high blood pressure. Patients undergoing permanent weight loss surgery, such as gastric bypass surgery, generally lose about 34 percent of their total weight after one year. The 50-year-old procedure involves stapling a small pouch off from the rest of the stomach and connecting it to the small intestine Weight loss is significantly lower with reversible banding procedures, in which a small saline-filled band is wrapped around the stomach to reduce its size. Those patients generally see weight loss of 14 percent after one year. Potential side effects include esophagus irritation, infection and vomiting, in some cases.

A10 | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

POLITICS ‘Not the America we Clinton and Sanders to meet want’: Obama blasts as DC marks the final primary Trump’s Muslim plans By Ken Thomas ASSOCIATED PRE SS

By Kathleen Hennessey A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama angrily denounced Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric on Tuesday, blasting the views of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as a threat to American security and a menacing echo of some of the most shameful moments in U.S. history. Obama’s rebuke was his most searing yet of the man seeking to take his seat in the Oval Office. While the president has frequently dismissed Trump as a buffoon or a huckster, this time he challenged the former reality television star as a “dangerous” threat to the nation’s safety, religious freedom and diversity. “That’s not the America we want. It does not reflect our democratic ideals,” Obama declared in remarks that had been scheduled as simply updating the public on the counter-Islamic State campaign. Obama walked listeners through a familiar litany of battlefield successes, but then came another message. Growing more animated as he spoke, Obama said Trump’s “loose talk and sloppiness” could lead to discrimination and targeting of ethnic and religious minorities. “We’ve gone through moments in our history before when we acted out of fear and we came to regret it,” Obama said. “We’ve seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens and it has been a shameful part of our history.” Trump responded by suggesting that Obama is too solicitous of enemies. “President Obama claims to know our enemy, and yet he continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people,” the candidate said in a statement. “When I am president, it will always be America first.” Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, has set off a new round of debate over counterterrorism, gun control and immigration — one that has exposed the political parties’ starkly different approaches to national security. The presumed gunman was an Americanborn citizen whose parents came to the U.S. from Afghanistan more than 30 years ago. Trump has used the carnage to renew his call to temporarily ban foreign Muslim from entering the country, and added a new element: a suspension of immigration from areas of

the world with a proven history of terrorism against the U.S. and its allies. The Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, also let out a full-throated response that Trump’s speech should disqualify him. “We don’t need conspiracy theories and pathological self-congratulations,” Clinton said Tuesday, in a speech that closely tracked Obama’s. “We need leadership and concrete plans because we are facing a brutal enemy.” Both Clinton and Obama turned up the heat on Republicans, some of whom have squirmed with discomfort this week at the first glimpses of how their new leader handles national crises. As Obama argued that Trump’s ban on immigration would lead MuslimAmericans to believe their government had betrayed them, he urged Republicans to denounce the policy. “Where does this stop?” Obama said. “Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith? ... Do Republican officials actually agree with this?” For some, the answer was plainly no. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the highestranking elected GOP official, emphasized his opposition, saying he did not think such a ban was “in our country’s interest” or “reflective of our principles not just as a party, but as a country.”

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are ending the primary calendar with a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday that could set the tone for Democratic unity and next month’s party convention in Philadelphia. Clinton and Sanders plan to meet on the night of the final presidential primary in the District of Columbia, a contest that will have no bearing on Clinton’s role as the presumptive nominee but marks a transition in the lengthy primary fight between the two rivals. “We’re going to have a wide-ranging conversation, because we share a lot of the same goals,” Clinton said Tuesday night in an interview with Telemundo. “We both want to raise the minimum wage, we want to fight inequality of income, we want to make college affordable and we certainly want everybody to get health care.” She added, “I very much am looking forward to having his support in this campaign, because Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our nation.” Sanders vowed again Tuesday to do all he can to prevent the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from reaching the White House, but declined to endorse Clinton. The Vermont senator has said the private meeting will help him determine how committed Clinton will be to the policy issues he has staked out during his 13-month campaign. “Our goal must not be to allow politicians, Donald Trump or anyone else, to divide us,” Sanders said

Mark Wilson / Getty

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to the media outside of his campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C.

outside his Washington headquarters, telling reporters he will continue to “fight as hard as we can” to transform the Democratic Party. Sanders said he would push for new leadership in the Democratic National Committee — his campaign has sparred with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the party’s chair — a progressive platform in the summer convention and electoral changes such as primaries that allow independents to participate and the elimination of superdelegates. “We need major, major changes in the Democratic Party,” he said. Earlier Tuesday, Sanders was warmly received by Senate Democrats at their weekly luncheon, where he offered an update about his campaign and some of the lessons he had learned during the past year. Lawmakers in attendance said Sanders did not indicate his future plans. “He had an opportunity to talk to us about his campaign and how it has changed him and what he has learned,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. “I think we all listened intently because we are anxious to always do

better and grow as a party and be more inclusive.” Sen. Jon Tester, DMont., who leads the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, said Sanders “absolutely will” support fellow Senate Democrats in the fall elections. “It was productive, it was good, it was vintage Bernie,” Tester said. Sanders met last week with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who both later endorsed Clinton, and signaled to Democrats that he hopes to play a constructive role in helping the party regain control of the Senate in the 2016 elections. The self-described democratic socialist says he will take his campaign to the convention in July and advocate for his policy issues in the platform while urging Democrats to be more inclusive of independents, young people and working-class voters, all of whom were pivotal in his victories in 22 states. But what that will look like still remains unclear and Sanders has been soliciting advice from supporters on how he should take his campaign forward. Clinton held a rally in Pittsburgh and was at-

tending a private Washington fundraiser before her meeting with Sanders. The mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, has commanded the attention of both campaigns and prompted Democrats to point to Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., an issue they view as a key contrast in the general election. Without mentioning Trump by name, Clinton warned during a speech in Cleveland on Monday that demonizing Muslims would only empower extremist groups. “We should be intensifying contacts in those communities, not scapegoating or isolating them,” she said. Sanders attended a vigil in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont, on Monday night to show solidarity with the victims. Pointing to Trump’s comments about Muslims, Sanders said the shooting was conducted by “one hateful person” and not committed by the Muslim people. Looking forward, Sanders has begun helping Democrats preparing for congressional races and the battle to regain control of the Senate. An early test of his clout will come Tuesday in Nevada, where a Sanders-backed congressional candidate, Lucy Flores, competes in a three-way primary. Sanders has opened up his campaign’s massive email donor list to several Democratic candidates, hauling in more than $2.4 million for his allies. Flores has been the top recipient of those appeals, collecting about $390,000 from an email Sanders sent in April on behalf of her and two other candidates.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 |

A11

FROM THE COVER SHOOTING From page A1

CATHOLIC From page A1

know Mateen well, Van Horn said: “I think it’s possible that he was trying to deal with his inner demons, of trying to get rid of his anger of homosexuality.” The official who said the FBI is looking into those reports was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Wielding an AR-15style semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, Mateen opened fire at the club early Sunday in a threehour shooting rampage and hostage siege that ended with a SWAT team killing him. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. During the attack, he called 911 to profess allegiance to the Islamic State group. Six of the more than 50 wounded were listed in critical condition Tuesday and five others were in guarded condition, Dr. Michael Cheatham of Orlando Regional Medical Center said at a hospital news conference in which doctors recalled victims arriving in “truckloads” and “ambulance-loads” the night of the rampage. A choked-up Dr. Chadwick Smith described calling in additional staff members and telling them, “This is not a drill, this is not a joke.” He said everyone answered: “I’ll be right there.” President Barack Obama will visit Orlando on Thursday to pay his respects to the victims and stand in solidarity with the community, the White House said. On Tuesday, Obama said investigators still have no information to suggest a foreign terrorist group directed the attack. He said it is increasingly clear that the killer “took in extremist information and propaganda over the internet. He appears to have been an angry, disturbed, unstable young man who became radicalized.” The president also blasted Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric as dangerous and contrary to American values, challenged Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban, and lashed out at his Republican foes who have criticized him for not using the term “radical Islam.” “If someone seriously thinks we don’t know who we’re fighting, if there’s anyone out there who thinks we’re confused about who our enemies are,” Obama said, “that would come as a surprise to the thousands of terrorists we’ve taken off the battlefield.” The Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations quoted other regulars from Pulse as saying they, too, had seen Mateen at the club repeatedly. “Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud

center. According to project supporter Randy Blair, the halt of the campus ministry may lead to a series of unfortunate events, such as the youth losing their faith and the end of the church. Blair was among the handful of Laredo residents who recently wrote a letter to the Vatican about the situation. Father Robert Kincl, a priest in Hutto, Texas, delivered the approximately 30 letters to the Vatican post office on April 15. Within the letters’ contents included pleas for assistance to help move the Catholic Student Center project forward, commendations toward the Brothers of St. John for the work it has done within the campus ministry and disappointment concerning Tamayo’s recent and past behavior and decisions. As Blair expressed his sadness on the delay of the ministry, he said it was vital to encourage the

STAAR From page A1 promote the child. State law gives the commissioner the ability to waive the law when needed. Zeph Capo, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, was glad the TEA commissioner opted to waive the retesting and retention requirements. “It’s the very least he could do,” Capo said. An outspoken opponent of such testing, Capo called the entire system, “completely off the rails.” “It’s time to rethink the obsession with the high stakes testing,” Capo said. He said they have been

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

People visit the makeshift memorial for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, Tuesday in Orlando.

flowers, candles and notes for the victims. Many said they felt compelled to attend because of the role Pulse played in their lives. “It was a place that a young 20-year-old who wasn’t openly gay felt safe for the first time,” said Cathleen Daus, now 36, who worked at Pulse in her 20s. “Pulse gave me confidence, made me realize I was normal and so much like everyone else.” On Monday, FBI Director James Comey said the FBI also was trying to determine whether Mateen had recently scouted Disney World as a potential target, as reported by People.com, which cited an unidentified federal law enforcement source.

and belligerent,” Ty Smith told the Sentinel. He said he saw Mateen inside at least a dozen times. Gay dating app Jack’d said it has been unable to confirm so far that Mateen had a profile on the site. Grindr officials said they “will continue to cooperate with the authorities and do not comment on ongoing investigations.” And Adam4Adam said the company is looking at conversations and profiles in the Orlando area for any activity by Mateen but hasn’t found anything yet. Mateen’s ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, said earlier in the week that he was mentally ill, controlling and abusive. Amid the latest reports about his clubgoing, she told CNN: “Well, when we had gotten married, he confessed to me about his past that was recent at that time and that he very much enjoyed going to clubs and the nightlife and there was a lot of pictures of him.” “I feel like it’s a side of him or a part of him that he lived but probably didn’t want everybody to know about,” she said. Asked about reports that Mateen may have been in the club before, his father, Seddique Mateen, said from his home in Port St. Lucie, Florida, that his son may have been “scouting the place.” Asked if his son was gay, the Afghan immigrant replied: “No. No.” He said that he was not aware of his son having any mental health problems and that he never saw any signs he had become radicalized. If he had seen anything differently, he said, “I would have called law enforcement immediately.” The elder Mateen said that apart from the time his son got angry a few months ago over seeing two men kissing, he never saw any anti-gay behavior from him. Over the past two years, the Islamic State has targeted gay men for death in keeping with its radical interpretation of Islam, throwing dozens of them from tall buildings in Iraq and Syria. On Monday night, about a mile from Pulse in downtown Orlando, thousands gathered for a vigil to support the victims and survivors. The names of the dead were read aloud. It was held on the lawn of Orlando’s main performing arts venue, where mourners created a memorial of

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington; Allen Breed, Mike Schneider and Tamara Lush in Orlando; and photographers Chris O’Meara in Orlando and Alan Diaz in Fort Pierce contributed to this report.

working with state officials to develop an academic accountability system that places the students and teachers at the center. “Under the current system, the teachers are the last people to actually get the results,” Capo said. In March, Texas public school students who took mandatory, computerbased tests faced problems saving their answers, adding a level of stress and confusion to the first day of the highstakes testing season. The computer glitches affected students in some of the largest school districts in the area, including Houston and Cypress-Fairbanks along with districts in the San

Antonio and Austin area. The next month, officials with several school districts in the region sent a letter to Morath complaining of problems with the STAAR test, including confusion because of questions that did not have a correct answer. “Testing irregularities and mistakes created by ETS and the agency will have a negative effect on individual students and on campus and district ratings,” the educators said in the letter. Capo said the profit margin should be removed from the educational system. “The assessment should take place in the classroom where it belongs,” Capo said.

Frank Hernandez Frank Hernandez, 27, loved fashion and lived to purchase the finest pieces of clothing at Calvin Klein or Armani. “He had the best of everything, the most expensive,” said Jessica Leal, 19, one of his five siblings. “He liked the good stuff. And he worked hard for it.” A manager at a Calvin Klein store in Orlando, Hernandez grew up in Weslaco, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, and had lived in Central Florida for three years. Hernandez also loved Beyonce and going out to dance, and he frequented Pulse, Leal said. According to media reports, Hernandez’s boyfriend was able to escape, but lost track of Hernandez in the chaos. His sister has planned a fitting tribute: She’ll wear Calvin Klein at his funeral. “I’m pretty sure he’d love it if he saw it,” she said. TAMIU vigil Texas A&M International University will host a candlelight vigil to honor and remember the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting. The observance is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Student Center plaza facing the university’s Lamar Bruni Vergara Memorial Garden.

faith among the youth. “If you don’t regenerate your population through younger people, then your organization will eventually die,” Blair said. “So if you don’t spread the faith and the strength of the youth, our church will be gone.” Rumors have circulated throughout the community that the Brothers of St. John may leave Laredo. If it were to be true, Blair said their lack of presence would leave a void in the community. “They have done more in keeping our faith and keeping it with the youth of Laredo that no other group can come close to accomplishing,” he said. He said TAMIU students have grown to love the brothers and the presence of Father Michael Therese Scheerger. “As soon as he walks on campus, he is an immediate magnet,” Blair said. “It’s just incredible to see how much he is admired.” He added no other group will ever come close to accomplishing what the brothers have. “The kids challenge the brothers and the brothers

challenge the kids,” he said. In order to move the ministry forward, Blair said two things must occur: a change of heart or a change of bishop. “That is just process of elimination,” he said. Project supporters and donors sent a letter to Tamayo in December alluding to a lawsuit being pursued for breaching the original contract on agreeing to build the center. However, Keck said the donors have since changed their minds and would not be pursuing one. “A lawsuit. You do that last. You do that as a last resort. People often say they will do that and decide not to after all,” Keck said. LMT has attempted to solicit a comment from Tamayo for nearly two months. Numerous phone calls requesting comments have not been returned. The Brothers of St. John has said it plans on releasing a statement about the issue. LMT has not received the statement.

France stabbing suspect: ‘I just killed a police officer’ By Elaine Ganley and Angela Charlton ASSOCIATED PRE SS

PARIS — In a video released by the Islamic State group and recorded in the suburban Paris home of his victims, a former jihadi recruiter confessed to killing a police officer and his female companion and listed other prominent people he planned to target. The attack late Monday touched already raw nerves. It recalled elements of the Orlando, Florida, killings at a gay nightclub days earlier, and revived French concerns about the IS threat after the group targeted Paris in November, killing 130 people. A state of emergency is still in place, and 90,000 security forces are now deployed to protect the European Championship soccer tournament taking place across France. On Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande urged heightened vigilance after what he said was “incontestably a terrorist act.” The video reflects a pattern within IS of individuals pledging allegiance and then staging attacks that the extremist group calls its own — and the violence shows the group’s continued ability to attract followers despite being under attack in Syria, Iraq and Libya. It was as surprising as it was bloody. The suspect, Larossi Abballa, a 25-year-old Frenchman once convicted of jihadi recruitment for Pakistan, staked out off-duty police commander Jean-Baptiste Savaing and stabbed him in front of his house in the suburb of Magnanville, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) west of Paris, according to police. Abballa then entered Savaing’s house and stabbed his female companion, a 36-year-old police administrator in the attacker’s hometown, then took their 3-year-old son hostage, Prosecutor Francois Molins said. For about three hours, police surrounded the building as Abballa first made demands — and then apparently made the video. About an hour after the video was posted on Facebook, police stormed the house, killing Abballa and rescuing the child, Molins told reporters. Abballa’s Facebook page was taken down, but the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency later

Thibault Camus / AP

French police officers block the road leading to a crime scene the day after a knife-wielding attacker stabbed to death a senior police officer and his female companion Monday evening in Magnanville, west of Paris, France.

released the video, which appears to have been filmed inside the couple’s home. “I just killed a police officer and his wife,” he says, adding: “The police are currently surrounding me.” He then listed other planned targets, including rappers, journalists, police officers and police officials. Unusually, the video was edited. The victims do not appear. The timing may not have been coincidental: The killings came after IS urged supporters to carry out attacks in Europe or America during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is currently under way. Abballa made the declaration of allegiance to the Islamic State in response to IS calls to “kill nonbelievers where they live,” and with their families, Molins said. Salvaing, 42, was a police commander in the Paris suburb of Les Mureaux; his companion has not been identified. Authorities have not said whether there was any link between Abballa and the victims. The main question for anti-terrorism investigators now is whether Abballa had accomplices or was part of a larger network. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said late Tuesday on France 2 TV that it appeared at this early stage “most probable” that Abballa acted alone, though that must be confirmed by the investigation. Earlier in the day, three people —ages 27, 29 and 44 — were detained in the investigation, Molins said. Two had been convicted with Abballa in 2013 for involvement in a network recruiting for jihad in Pakistan, a French official said. Hollande said after an emergency security meeting Tuesday that France faces a threat “of a very

large scale,” then added: “France is not the only country concerned (by the terrorist threat), as we have seen, again, in the United States, in Orlando.” Hollande also spoke Tuesday night with President Barack Obama. The two leaders decided to increase security cooperation after the latest attacks. Hollande’s office said in a statement that the two leaders talked about “the constantly evolving threat” and said France and its allies “will continue to confront barbarity with the forces of democracy.” Abballa was from the western Paris suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie, and lived in a well-kept, working class neighborhood where shaken residents described puzzlement at the attack. Police raided the apartment building where he lived with his parents and a sister, according to a young resident who did not want to be identified. Later police raided another building in a nearby housing project, surrounding it and searching for several hours. Another neighbor, Henriette Yenge, said she would say hello to Abballa when he went to the mosque around the corner. “He was a neighborhood kid,” she told The Associated Press. “I was surprised it was him. It’s sad to see things like that.” Hours before the killing, Abballa went to his neighborhood mosque and prayed so long that mosque employees had to make him leave. Rector Mohamed Droussi said Abballa was reading the Quran for hours and was the last to leave. “I took the key and I said, ‘we are closing,”’ Droussi said. Droussi said he is concerned about radicalization, and the mosque often addresses the issue, to urge “the youth to stay on the right path.”

A12 | Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES