The Zapata Times 6/28/2017

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DOMESTIC DISPUTE

ROBBERY

Wanted Son of former sheriff suspect arrested, weapons seized arrested He allegedly hurt his girlfriend in Zapata home

By César G. Rodriguez TH E ZAPATA T IME S

The son of a former Zapata County sheriff was recently arrested following a domestic altercation, authorities said Tuesday.

Sigifredo Gonzalez III, 29, was charged with assault and assault of family, household member by impeding breath circulation. He is the son of for-

Gonzalez III

By César G. Rodriguez THE ZAPATA TIME S

A man wanted for robbing a local corner store was arrested Tuesday, according to the Zapata County Sheriff’s Office.

Rolando Gonzalez Jr., 36, was charged

mer Sheriff Sigifredo “Sigi” Gonzalez Jr. The defendant is out on bond.

Authorities said they also seized seven

firearms.

Gonzalez said the case is full of discrepancies. He

This photo shows the weapons that were seized after a domestic dispute was reported June 22.

Son continues on A11

NO IMMEDIATE RULING ON FATE OF SB4

Eric Gay / AP

Lydia Balderas, left, and Merced Leyua, right, join others as they protest outside the Federal Courthouse to oppose a new Texas "sanctuary cities" bill that aligns with the president's tougher stance on illegal immigration on Monday in San Antonio.

Hundreds of protesters gathered to rally in San Antonio A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

SAN ANTONIO — A federal judge Monday questioned the reach of a new Texas “sanctuary cities” law supported by the Trump administration but that four of the nation’s largest cities, some police chiefs and immigrantrights groups are trying to stop taking effect in September.

Hundreds of protesters, waving flags and carrying signs that read “Stop Separation of Families,” packed the plaza outside a San Antonio courthouse where U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia will decide whether Texas can carry out the law that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department says is in-line

with its crackdown on immigration.

A daylong court hearing about the constitutionality of the law — the first hearing since Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill known as SB4 in May — ended without Garcia ruling whether he will let Texas enforce the law. He did not set a timetable for a decision.

The law allows police officers to question people about their immigration status during routine stops and threatens police chiefs and elected officials with jail time and removal from office if they don’t comply with federal immigration requests to detain immigrants in the country illegally.

The four largest cities in Ruling continues on A11

Robbery continues on A11

Courtesy

‘SANCTUARY CITIES’ LAW

By Paul J. Weber

Gonzalez

aggravated robbery.

Custody records show he was behind bars at

ZAPATA COUNTY

Local dispatchers wanted

By César G. Rodriguez 1 Answer emergency THE ZAPATA TIME S telephone calls requesting police, fire, or The Zapata County EMS services; enter Sheriff's Office is look- information into the ing for men or women computer aided disinterested in becoming patch (CAD) system a dispatcher. and dispatch assisDispatchers or 911 tance if appropriate. telecommunicators are 1 Make independent considered the lifeline determination of apof the officers out on propriate actions to be the field, according to taken concerning inauthorities. coming calls and direct People interested in the appropriate rethe position are asked sponding units to to apply in person at insure efficient and the Sheriff’s Office. timely responses.

For more informa1 Monitor multiple tion, call the Sheriff’s radio, audio, visual, Office at 765-9960.

9-1-1, information manThe duties of the agement computer telecommunications system, and other operator shall include, equipment. but are not limited to, 1 Log radio transthe following: actions into CAD to 1 Answer non-emeridentify current status gency telephone calls and location of personfor assistance and nel and equipment. refer callers to the 1 Make the necessary appropriate departtelephone contacts, ment or dispatch assis- wrecker notifications, tance if appropriate; warrant confirmations enter information into Dispatchers continues on A11 the computer aided dispatch system.

IMMIGRATION RIGHTS

Mexico expresses concern over ‘sanctuary cities’ law ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Eric Gay / AP

Katy Bravenec, left, argues with a man at a rally oppose a new Texas "sanctuary cities" bill that aligns with the president's tougher stance on illegal immigration outside the Federal Courthouse on Monday in San Antonio.

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government said Monday it has filed a form of affidavit expressing its concern over Texas’ “sanctuary cities” law, which is supported by the Trump administration.

Mexico’s affidavit is meant to help legal efforts by some police chiefs and immigrantrights groups in Texas to stop the law from taking effect in September.

A federal judge in San Antonio is reviewing the constitutionality of the law, which allows police officers

to question people about their immigration status during routine stops.

It also threatens police chiefs and elected officials with jail time and removal from office if they don’t comply with federal immigration requests to detain immigrants in the country illegally.

Carlos Sada Solana, Mexico’s assistant secretary of foreign relations, said Monday the affidavit will express Mexico’s concerns that the law “further criminalizes the phenomenon of migration.”

The affidavit inMexico continues on A11

Zin brief A2 | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE NATION

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, JULY 1

A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S

Inaugural Independence Day Bash.

Today is Wednesday, June 28, the 179th day of 2017. There are 186 days left in the year.

8:30 a.m.-11 p.m. (approximately).

Max A. Mandel Municipal Golf Course. Event will include activities, such as, a three-person scramble, wedding/expo, 5K run/walk, battle of the bands, firework display and much more.

Today's Highlights in History: On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip — an act which sparked World War I.

Paws for Independence Pet Adoption Event. Noon-3 p.m. PETCO

North, 2450 Monarch Dr. Event is held coordination with Laredo Animal Care Services.

SUNDAY, JULY 2 Paws for Independence Pet Adoption Event. 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. PETCO,

5410 San Bernardo Ave. Event is held in coordination with Laredo Animal Care Services

MONDAY, JULY 3 Ray of Light anxiety and depression support group meeting.

6:30—7:30 p.m. Area Health Education Center, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430. Every first Monday of the month. People suffering from anxiety and depression are invited to attend this free, confidential and anonymous support group meeting.

While a support group does not replace an individual’s medical care, it can be a valuable resource to gain insight, strength and hope.

TUESDAY, JULY 4 4th of July Event - Picnic at the Park. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. Los Tres Lare-

dos Park. Event will include most patriotic pet and most patriotic child contests, a variety of water activities, entertainment, food, music, train rides, prizes, firework display and much more.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 5 The Alzheimer's support group meeting. 7 p.m. Meeting room 2,

building B of the Laredo Medical Center. The support group is for family members and caregivers taking care of someone who has Alzheimer's. For information, call 956-693-9991.

FRIDAY, JULY 7 Sister Cities Festival opening ceremony and ribbon cutting. 10

a.m. - 11 a.m. Laredo Energy Arena.

Transport Workers Union / AP

In this photo, workers from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority respond to the scene of a subway derailment Tuesday in New York.

SUBWAY TRAIN DERAILS, INJURING DOZENS NEW YORK — A subway train derailed Tuesday as it entered a station, tossing people to the floor, forcing hundreds of shaken-up passengers to evacuate through darkened tunnels and delivering another jolt to a transit system plagued by aging equipment and reliability problems.

Nearly three dozen people suffered minor injuries in the derailment, which happened in Harlem. Photos of the train posted on social media showed its metal side deeply scraped and dented from being dragged along the wall of the subway tunnel. Debris, including broken signaling

equipment and chunks of concrete, were left in the train’s wake. Passengers on the A train said it suddenly jerked and began shaking violently as it approached the station at 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. “We started seeing sparks through the windows. People were falling,” said passenger Susan Pak, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Sparks from the skidding train briefly ignited garbage on the track, but there was no serious fire and the train stayed upright, said Joe Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Sister Cities Festival. 11 a.m. - 8

p.m. LEA.

SATURDAY, JULY 8 No Mud No Glory Mud Run 5. 7:30

a.m. North Central Park, 10202 International Boulevard. Register by July 7 at https://nomudnoglory4.itsyourrace.com/register/ Sister Cities Festival. 10 a.m. - 7

p.m. LEA.

SUNDAY, JULY 9 Sister Cities Festival. 10 a.m. - 5

p.m. LEA.

SATURDAY, JULY 22 Laredo and South Texas Weather. 2

p.m. TAMIU Student Center, Room 236. Presented by Richard ‘Heatwave” Berler, Chief Meteorologist, KGNS-TV. Free and open to the public. For more information, email: brushcountrychapter@gmail.com

FRIDAY, AUG. 18 South Texas Food Bank Empty Bowls XI. Laredo Energy Arena.

Tex-Mex power rock trio Los Lonely Boys will perform. The event includes a dinner, a benefit concert and a silent auction featuring artworks from local and regional artists. Sponsorship tables of 10 that include dinner and access to silent auction items are available.

There are different levels of sponsorship available: Diamond $20,000, Platinum $10,000, Gold $5,000, Silver $2,500 and Bronze $1,500. Individual table tickets are $150. Table tickets are available at the food bank, 1907 Freight at Riverside. Concert only tickets are $10, $15 and $25. Tickets are available at the LEA box office, Ticketmaster.com, select Ticketmaster outlets or charge by phone at 1800-745-3000.

Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location, purpose and contact information for a representative.

Items will run as space is available.

Detroit judge halts over 1,400 deportations A federal judge has temporarily halted the deportations of more than 1,400 Iraqi nationals who advocates say could face death, persecution and torture upon returning to their native country.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith issued a stay of removal Monday night for about 1,444 Iraqi nationals who immigration authorities have

said are at immediate risk of deportation.

The mass deportation effort comes on the heels of a deal earlier this year between the Trump administration and the Iraqi government. Iraq agreed to start accepting deportees without travel documents.

Acting on that arrangement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month arrested scores of Iraqis across the country, setting off protests in Iraqi immigrant communities, particularly among Detroit’s large Chaldean

Christian population.

Goldsmith, a federal judge in Detroit, moved last week to grant a request by the American Civil Liberties Union to halt the deportation of 114 Iraqis swept up in the Detroit metropolitan area. His decision Monday expands the stay to include all Iraqis with final orders of removal nationwide, allowing individuals an additional two weeks to file requests to reopen their cases in immigration court.

— Compiled from the Washington Post

AROUND TEXAS Grease fire blamed for blaze along San Antonio River Walk SAN ANTONIO — Authorities say hundreds of shoppers and hotel guests were safely evacuated after a grease fire at a mall along the San Antonio River Walk poured thick smoke into the tourist area.

San Antonio Fire Department officials say nobody was hurt in the midday blaze Tuesday that was contained after several hours.

Officials say people at the Shops at Rivercenter and at the 38-story Marriott Riverwalk Hotel were evacuated, as a precaution, to the nearby Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

Authorities say the fire happened at a restaurant area of the multi-level upscale mall

Eric Gay / AP

Firefighters respond to a fire at the Shops at Rivercenter mall Tuesday in San Antonio. San Antonio Fire Department officials believe the blaze started as a grease fire at a restaurant and later spread to the duct works. The mall and about 500 hotel guests at the Marriott Rivercenter were evacuated.

along the San Antonio River.

Fire department spokesman Joe Arrington says it appears a grease fire got into some duct work in the restaurants area.

Firefighters remained at the scene Tuesday monitoring the area.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE WORLD Brazil’s president says corruption charge is ‘soap opera’ SAO PAULO — Brazil’s president dismissed corruption allegations against him as a “soap opera plot” Tuesday and sought to cast doubt on the motivations of the country’s top prosecutor a day after a scathing indictment was issued against the leader.

President Michel Temer is fighting to hold onto his job after Attorney General Rodrigo Janot filed an indictment with the Supreme Federal Tribunal on Monday. The charge sheet accuses Temer of corruption for allegedly accepting bribes from an executive at a major meatpacker in exchange for help influencing the decisions of state bodies.

The prosecutors “created a soap opera plot,” Temer said in a brief statement to reporters and allies, his first com-

On this date: In 1778, the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth took place in New Jersey; from this battle arose the legend of "Molly Pitcher," a woman who was said to have carried water to colonial soldiers, then taken over firing her husband's cannon after he became disabled.

In 1836, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier, Virginia.

In 1838, Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1867, Italian author and playwright Luigi Pirandello was born in Agrigento, Sicily.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending the First World War. In Independence, Missouri, future president Harry S. Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace.

In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles, France.

In 1944, the Republican national convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president.

In 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

In 1964, civil rights activist Malcolm X declared, "We want equality by any means necessary" during the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York.

In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he'd been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.

In 1989, about 1 million Serbs gathered to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.

In 1997, in a wild rematch, Evander Holyfield retained the WBA heavyweight boxing championship after his opponent, Mike Tyson, was disqualified for biting Holyfield's ear during the third round of their fight in Las Vegas.

Ten years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to strike down school integration plans in Louisville, Kentucky, and Seattle, a decision that was denounced hours later by Democratic presidential candidates in their third primary debate. President George W. Bush's immigration plan to legalize as many as 12 million immigrants while fortifying the border collapsed in the Senate. The American bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list.

Five years ago: The Affordable Care Act narrowly survived, 5-4, an election-year battle at the U.S. Supreme Court with the improbable help of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.

One year ago: Three suicide bombers armed with assault rifles stormed Istanbul's Ataturk airport, killing 44 victims and wounding nearly 150; no one claimed responsibility, but Turkish official said they suspected the Islamic State group.

Today's Birthdays: Comedianmovie director Mel Brooks is 91.

Former Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is 83.

Comedian-impressionist John Byner is 80. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is 79. Rock musician Dave Knights (Procul Harum) is 72. Actor Bruce Davison is 71. Actress Kathy Bates is 69. Actress Alice Krige is 63.

College and Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway is 57. Record company chief executive Tony Mercedes is 55. Jazz singer Tierney Sutton is 54.

Actress Jessica Hecht is 52. Rock musician Saul Davies (James) is 52.

Actress Mary Stuart Masterson is 51.

Actor John Cusack is 51. Actor Gil Bellows is 50. Actress-singer Danielle Brisebois is 48. Jazz musician Jimmy Sommers is 48. Actress Tichina Arnold is 48. Actor Steve Burton is 47.

Actor Alessandro Nivola is 45. Actress Camille Guaty is 41. Rock musician Tim Nordwind (OK Go) is 41. Rock musician Mark Stoermer (The Killers) is 40. Country singer Big Vinny Hickerson (Trailer Choir) is 34. Country singer Kellie Pickler is 31.

Thought for Today: "Logic is one thing, the human animal another. You can quite easily propose a logical solution to something and at the same time hope in your heart of hearts it won't work out." — Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936).

CONTACT US ments since the indictment was presented. “I say without fear of being wrong that the accusation is fiction.”

Relying on innuendo, Temer also implied that Janot himself might be involved in a kickback scheme. The president noted that a former aide to the prosecutor is making “millions” working with the law firm representing the company at the center of the accusations against Temer.

“Maybe the millions in fees

received weren’t only for the trusted aide, but ... I will not conjecture,” Temer said.

Janot’s office said in a statement that the former aide mentioned by Temer did not take part in the JBS plea bargain negotiations. It reaffirmed the top prosecutor’s “probity, transparency and responsibility in his dealings in the public sphere.”

The president’s office did not respond to a request to elaborate.

— Compiled from AP reports

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 |

A3

STATE

Crews unearth fountain from Arkansas ruling long-gone Waco neighborhood could affect Texas gay marriage benefits case

By J.B. Smith WACO T RI BUNE -HE RALD

WACO, Texas — An archaeological firm has started unearthing one of the last remnants of the long-gone downtown Hispanic neighborhood known as Calle Dos. The Waco TribuneHerald reports crews were chipping away and sifting 2 feet of fill dirt that for half a century has covered a neighborhood fountain at Jefferson Avenue and University Parks Drive, known as La Pila.

The partial unearthing shows that the concrete structure near Indian Spring Middle School is still largely intact, buoying the hopes of officials with the Waco Hispanic Museum for restoring it.

“I would like to see benches around the outside, some historical markers, maybe some art or something on top,” said Louis Garcia, an official with the nonprofit museum group.

The museum secured a $2,500 grant this spring from the Baylor Philanthropy and Public Service program to start the archaeological work. That money already has been exhausted, and Garcia’s group will be seeking more funds to finish.

Waco archaeologist Katherine Turner-Pearson, who is donating her time to the project, said she expects to analyze the debris collected from the dig and prepare an official report and a more general-interest history of the fountain and the neighborhood.

“Now I’m getting to where I can see things and how it’s constructed, but the bad news is we’re out of funds,” said Turner-Pearson, owner of Central Texas Archaeological Resources.

Turner-Pearson said

By Chuck Lindell COX NEWSPAPERS

Rod Aydelotte / AP

In this June, 20photo, Louis Garcia, chairman of the Waco Hispanic Museum Museum, describes the unearthing of a fountain that once served the Calle Dos neighborhood near downtown Waco along the Brazos river, in Waco, Texas.

she is studying how the structure drained and hopes to figure out its source, which apparently was a nearby artesian well.

“La Pila,” which means “the basin,” was the centerpiece of social life in the neighborhood along Second Street from the 1920s through the 1960s, when the neighborhood was leveled by federal urban renewal slum clearance measures.

Many residents in the neighborhood lacked indoor plumbing and depended on the fountain for bathing and domestic water.

“We used to come and take a bath here,” said Jake Moran, 85, who grew up in the Calle Dos neighborhood and moved away from Waco in 1950. “We were the cleanest kids in town.”

La Pila also served as a social gathering place and a point where day workers would wait to be picked up for picking cotton or other labor. The fountain served the neighborhood until about 1950, when it dried up,

former residents recall.

“It was still here, but it stopped flowing,” said Joe Ortega, 88, who recently visited the site with Felipe Herrera, 89.

Garcia, with the museum, said the fountain later became unsightly and apparently was capped and buried around the time of federal urban renewal in the mid-1960s.

No one involved with the project has determined the origin of the fountain or why it would have been built in a neighborhood of shotgun houses and unpaved streets that was otherwise ignored by city officials.

But old newspapers provide some clues. The Waco Morning News reported on Jan. 10, 1915, that the city water board had authorized the construction of a deep artesian well at Jefferson Street and Riverside Drive, which is near modern-day University Parks Drive.

The water was to be piped to the new Riverside Treatment Plant,

which is still operating today. The well was to be dug into the Trinity aquifer, which would see marked declines throughout the 20th century.

A 1933 Tribune-Herald story refers to a fountain at that location fed by warm water from an adjacent well. The article refers to another well and fountain near Riverside Treatment Plant at Shakespeare Park.

Herrera and Ortega remember that Calle Dos was a tightknit neighborhood, as primitive as conditions were.

“There were no toys,” Ortega said. “You had to make your own. The city dump is where the police building is now, and you could find a lot of toys out there. Some were still in pretty good shape.”

He remembers how the Brazos River would periodically flood the neighborhood, including an epic flood in 1936 that brought water to the doorstep of St. Francis Catholic Church.

“You got used to it,” Ortega said. “It would happen about every year.”

AUSTIN, Texas — Arkansas cannot exclude the names of same-sex spouses from their children’s birth certificates, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that gay marriage advocates said should be a wake-up call for the Texas Supreme Court.

Texas’ highest civil court is preparing to rule on a challenge by opponents of gay marriage who want to stop government-paid benefits to same-sex spouses, arguing that the right to marriage does not confer a right to insurance coverage.

But as the U.S. Supreme Court reinforced in the Arkansas case Monday, marriage rights extend well beyond the ability to say, “I do.” If the all-Republican Texas court fails to take heed, any decision allowing same-sex marriages to be treated less than equally would be swiftly and successfully challenged, lawyers who support gay marriage predicted.

“This case reaffirms that there is not just a right to marry, there is also a right to be treated the same as other married couples,” Dallas lawyer Jason Steed said.

“If (Texas) goes the other way after this decision today, it will be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it will get slapped down pretty quick.”

One of the lawyers challenging benefits for same-sex spouses, Jared Woodfill of Houston, disagreed, arguing that while the U.S. Supreme

Court’s landmark 2015 decision recognized that same-sex couples have a right to wed, the ruling did not create a fundamental right to insurance coverage and did not require lower courts to acknowledge a right to benefits.

“I believe today’s ruling has no impact on our case,” Woodfill said.

In Monday’s unsigned 6-3 opinion in Pavan v.

Smith, issued without hearing oral arguments, the high court reversed an Arkansas Supreme Court decision upholding a state law that generally requires the name of a mother’s husband to appear on a child’s birth certificate.

The Arkansas court had determined that because birth certificates were not a marriagerelated benefit, the documents are not required to include the names of female spouses of women who give birth in the state.

The high court’s majority disagreed, stating that under its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which struck down gay marriage bans in Texas and other states, “the Constitution entitles same-sex couples to civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.”

“Same-sex parents in Arkansas lack the same right as opposite-sex parents to be listed on a child’s birth certificate,” the U.S. Supreme Court concluded.

The same legal logic applies in Texas, said Neel Lane, a San Antonio lawyer who challenged Texas’ ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional.

Zopinion

Letters to the editor Send your signed letter to editorial@lmtonline.com

A4 | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Obama choked on Russia long before the 2016 election

By Eli Lake B L OOM BE RG

“I feel like we sort of choked.” That is the killer quote in an extraordinary Washington Post investigation into how Barack Obama responded to intelligence last year that Russia was running a sophisticated influence operation against the 2016 elections.

It’s attributed to a former senior Obama administration official, but it captures the view of many Democrats and now many opportunistic Republicans. But this isn’t entirely fair. To start, by the time the CIA had gathered the intelligence in August about how President Vladimir Putin himself was trying to elect Trump over Hillary Clinton, the servers of the Democratic National Committee and other leading Democrats were already breached. Obama’s government did inform state election officials about the prospect of hacking of voter rolls and helped make them more resilient. In the end, the Russians spread fake news and distributed the messages they hacked.

What’s more, Trump himself had in the final weeks of the election suggested the vote itself would be rigged. Had Obama been more public in warning about the Russian influence operation, he would risk undermining the legitimacy of the election in the eyes of Trump’s supporters.

Rather than asking why Obama didn’t do more to stop Russian meddling, the better question is why President Vladimir Putin thought he could get away with this interference in the first place.

The answer is that Obama spent the first six years of his presidency turning a blind eye to Russian aggression.

In the shadows, Russian spies targeted Americans abroad. In one case, an official with the National Democratic Institute was framed in the Russian press on false rape charges. In 2013, when the Obama administration appointed Michael McFaul to be his ambassador in Moscow, the harassment got worse.

McFaul complained he was tailed by cameramen from the state-owned media every time he left the Embassy for an appointment. He asked on Twitter how the network seemed to always know his private schedule.

The Washington Post reported that these incidents continued throughout the Obama

administration. This lax approach to Russia was captured in the memoir of Obama’s former defense secretary, Robert Gates.

He wrote that Obama at first was angry at his FBI director, Robert Mueller, and his CIA director, Leon Panetta, for recommending the arrest in 2010 of a network of illegal Russian sleeper agents the FBI had been tracking for years.

“The president seemed as angry at Mueller for wanting to arrest the illegals and at Panetta for wanting to exfiltrate the source from Moscow as he was at the Russians,” Gates wrote. He quoted Obama as saying: “Just as we’re getting on track with the Russians, this?

This is a throwback to the Cold War. This is right out of John le Carré. We put START, Iran, the whole relationship with Russia at risk for this kind of thing?” Gates recounts that the vice president wanted to ignore the entire issue because it threatened to disrupt an upcoming visit from Russia’s president at the time, Dmitry Medvedev.

After some more convincing, Obama went along with a plan to kick the illegal spies out of the country in exchange for some Americans. But the insight into the thinking inside his Oval Office is telling.

Eventually, Obama responded to Russian aggression after its stealth invasion of Ukraine in 2014. He worked closely with European allies to impose sanctions on Russia for their violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. But he never agreed to sell the Ukrainians defensive weapons. In the final years of his presidency, as Wired magazine has recently reported, the Russians engaged in bold cyberattacks against Ukraine’s electric grid. So far, the U.S. has not responded openly to that either.

All of this is the context of Putin’s decision to boldly interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections. Perhaps Putin would have authorized the operation even if Obama had responded more robustly to Russia’s earlier dirty tricks and foreign adventures. But it’s easy to understand why Putin would believe he had a free shot. Russia probed American resolve for years. When Obama finally did respond, it was too late to save Ukraine and too late to protect our election.

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist.

COMMENTARY

GOP, don’t get too spooked to finish off Obamacare

By Ed Rogers WASHINGTON P O ST

The idea that some Republicans in Congress would rather sustain Obamacare than vote for pretty much any alternative is a terrible mistake.

Are Republicans really spooked by their same old enemies who want them out of office, screaming that widows and orphans will suffer and that some government studies say the problem will be worse a decade from now if nothing else is done? Well, every problem will be

worse a decade from now if nothing else is done.

Democrats are working with the mainstream media to intimidate GOP members of Congress and it appears to be working.

Now, let’s look at the reality of Obamacare.

First, Obamacare is sick and dying. According to Alleigh Marre, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, “Last year alone, 83 insurers left the Obamacare marketplace leaving millions of Americans paying more and getting

less.”

So much for having more options at a lower cost, not to mention keeping your plan and your doctor.

Second, voters want change. Remember, President Donald Trump was elected nearly eight months ago on the promise that he would not operate like a standard, cookie-cutter politician.

GOP voters want something to happen. Republicans should say that, and they should believe it.

It is time to think big and talk big.

And third, Republicans

COMMENTARY

Do GOP senators have an escape hatch on the awful health care bill?

By Jennifer Rubin WASHINGTON P O ST

To the surprise of very few who have watched her carefully over the course of her career and have listened intently to her recent statements, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Monday announced (via Twitter): “I want to work w/ my GOP & Dem colleagues to fix the flaws in ACA. CBO analysis shows Senate bill won’t do it. I will vote no on [the motion to proceed].”

A motion to proceed is essentially the vote to debate and then vote on the merits. Collins is saying that she is not going to vote to begin the debate on a bill so fundamentally flawed. “CBO says 22 million people lose insurance; Medicaid cuts hurt most vulnerable Americans; access to health care in rural areas threatened,”

she continued. “Senate bill doesn’t fix ACA problems for rural Maine. Our hospitals are already struggling. 1 in 5 Mainers are on Medicaid.”

The Congressional Budget Office scoring sealed the deal, perhaps, but Collins didn’t need the CBO to predict that a bill taking $800 billion or so out of Medicaid was going to wallop her state.

She became the third official no vote - the others are Sens. Rand Paul, RKy., and Dean Heller, R-Nev. Heller, like Collins, can see what the Senate bill would do to his state.

Paul sincerely believes that the federal government shouldn’t be regulating or subsidizing health care for able-bodied, nonelderly Americans. Then, later Monday night, Sen. Ron Johnso, R-Wis., told CNN’s Dana Bash that he would vote against a mo-

tion to proceed. Others who say they need more data may be more explicit about voting no on a motion to proceed.

Normally, when senators say that they “don’t have enough information,” the political world interprets that as equivalent to “I am undecided.” But remember - the key vote that could stop the bill even before a vote on the merits would be the “motion to proceed.” Saying that they do not have enough information to vote to proceed puts other senators right where Collins is: “No” on a motion to proceed.

To be certain, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is forcing this result by his insistence on voting on the bill later this week. His hurryup-and-vote gambit was designed to stop opposition from gathering and to

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The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary.

Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the

letter. Laredo Morning Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms.

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Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Also, letters longer than 500 words will not be accepted.

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have campaigned for major change. But a vote to sustain Obamacare will only allow the problems plaguing this country to metastasize. The GOP’s Obamacare replacement is a step in the right direction to restore market economics to America’s broken health-care system and place major entitlements on some semblance of a budget.

The health-care reform bill does not have to be perfect, but it does have to be serious. Republicans must pass this bill, or we will suffer the consequences.

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

maximize pressure on his members to fall into line.

But the artificial deadline also gives members who cannot vote for the bill on the merits an easy way out. Some voters will see this as nothing more than a no vote on the Senate bill; others will give their senator a break for refusing to be rushed into a ill-considered debate.

Even President Trump sounded as though he might be looking for a way out. On Monday, he tweeted, “Republican Senators are working very hard to get there, with no help from the Democrats. Not easy! Perhaps just let OCare crash & burn!”

Perhaps McConnell does force a vote. But if so, they have left a trail of embarrassing and selfincriminating statements a mile long, which future opponents will use against them.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 |

A5

STATE ZAPATA COUNTY BLOTTER TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

1 Daniel Eduardo Villarreal, 17, was arrested June 11 and charged with possession of marijuana.

1 Precilla Ruiz, 39, was arrested June 14 and charged with tamper/ fabricate physical evidence with intent to impair and possession of a controlled substance.

TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE GAME WARDENS

1 Jose Armando GarciaGonzalez, 40, was arrest-

ed June 11 and charged with public intoxication.

1 Tomas Medina, 35, was arrested June 11 and charged with driving while intoxicated.

1 Marlena Martinez, 27, was arrested June 14 and charged with possession of a controlled substance.

ZAPATA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

1 Gilberto Torres, 20, was arrested June 10 and charged with theft, purchase/furnish alcohol to minors and two counts of evading arrest.

1 Tony Verver, 24, was

arrested June 14 and charged with possession of a controlled substance.

1 Manuel Barrera-Guadalupe, 30, was arrested June 15 and charged with burglary of a vehicle.

1 Juan Alberto Gonzalez, 34, was arrested June 15 and charged with theft.

1 Alvaro Angeles-Lobaton, 31, was arrested June 16 and charged with aggravated assault of date, family, household member with weapon.

1 Augustin Rolando Garcia Jr., 23, was arrested June 16 and charged with possession of marijuana.

1 Amado Sarmiento Santiago, 25, was arrested

June 16 and charged with possession of marijuana.

1 Julio Cesar Valadez Jr., 23, was arrested June 16 and charged with possession of marijuana.

1 Juan Dariel Valadez, 18, was arrested June 16 and charged with possession of marijuana.

1 Noe Barrientos, 45, was arrested June 17 and charged with assault.

1 Ramon Gonzalez III, 28, was arrested June 17 and charged with public intoxication.

1 Eulalio Sanchez Jr., 44, was arrested June 17 and charged with failure to appear in court for an intoxication assault with vehicle charge.

Warrant: Couple kept adoptive son in wooden shack A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

BELTON, Texas — Authorities have arrested a Central Texas couple on allegations that they kept their adoptive son in a wooden shack without air conditioning and limited access to food.

An arrest warrant issued by the Bell County sheriff’s office shows 62year-old Warner Stadler and 58-year-old Suzanne Stadler were arrested Friday on charges that include child abandonment.

Online jail records indicate they’re no longer

Bomb threat at Texas university was hoax A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

RICHARDSON, Texas — Police say a phoned-in bomb threat that led to the evacuation of the University of Texas at Dallas campus was a hoax.

A university police spokesman says other campuses around the country received similar threats Tuesday. The one in Texas in the Dallas suburb of Richardson was reported about 2:45 p.m. on the university’s

Twitter page.

University officials directed thousands of students, faculty and staff to leave campus buildings and parking garages and keep their distance from those places. The evacuation occurred during a rainstorm.

Police searched the campus and issued an “all clear” message about 30 minutes after the evacuation.

About 27,000 students attend classes at the campus.

being held.

The warrant indicates their 14-year-old son was denied medications and access to running water.

The only available water was from a garden hose nearby.

The warrant says the parents lived in “more

adequate quarters.”

They adopted the boy eight years ago.

He’s now in state custody and undergoing a mental health evaluation.

A phone message left at a listing for the Stadlers was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Officer who shot man fired ASSOCIATED PRE SS

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Fort Worth officer has been fired after his aggravated assault trial in the shooting of a man walking in his neighborhood holding a barbecue fork ended in a hung jury.

Officer Courtney Johnson was fired Tuesday in the 2015 shotgun shooting. Craigory Adams, who has a mental impairment, had dropped the

fork and gone down on a knee when he was shot.

In a letter to the Fort Worth Civil Service Commission, Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald said “Johnson made the wrong decision, and he could have killed Craigory Adams.” Fitzgerald said Adams was complying with police orders when he was shot.

Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson dismissed the charge against Johnson after the mistrial.

New life sentence for inmate on death row

By Michael Graczyk ASSOCIATED PRE SS

HOUSTON — A Texas death row inmate determined to be mentally impaired will now be spared from capital punishment after a state judge resentenced him to life in prison Tuesday for the abduction and killing Campbell of a woman 26 years ago.

The new sentence for Robert James Campbell came after prosecutors and the inmate’s attorneys agreed he should not be executed because of his mental impairment.

Campbell will be eligible for parole, but prosecutors have promised to oppose that.

“In unison with his victims and their families, we will do everything we can to see that he serves every second of his life sentence,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.

The 44-year-old Campbell was 18 in January 1991 and already on parole after serving four months of a five-year sentence for robbery when authorities say he abducted 20-yearold Houston bank teller Alexandra Rendon from a gas station. She was taken to a desolate area, raped and fatally shot.

Her body wasn’t found until 12 days later.

The family of Rendon, who had been making marriage plans, eventually buried her wearing a wedding dress she had recently bought.

Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole was the only other sentencing choice for the Harris County jury that convicted Campbell of capital murder in 1992.

The jurors decided he should be put to death.

Life without parole did not become a sentencing option in Texas capital cases until September 2005. An accomplice, Leroy Lewis, received 35 years in prison after being convicted of murder and kidnapping. He was paroled in 2012.

Zfrontera A6 | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE INSCRIPCIONES PARA PORRISTAS

1 El distrito escolar Zapata County Independent District invita a los padres de alumnos de 3o., 4o. y 5o. de la primaria Zapata North Elementary, el jueves 29 de junio y el 13 de julio. Para mayores informes llame al 956-7656917.

TALLER PARA PEQUEÑAS EMPRESAS

1 BBVA Compass Bank y la Fundación Industrial del Condado de Starr invitan al Taller Gratuito para Pequeñas Empresas Grow Your Small Business, el 28 de junio de 12 p.m. a 2 p.m., se incluye comida.

Centro Comunitario de Roma, 502 6th, St., en la ciudad de Roma. Inscripciones en el 956-487-2709.

DÍA DE LA INDEPENDENCIA

1 La Ciudad de Roma invita a la Celebración del 4 de Julio en el Distrito Histórico de Roma de 6 p.m. a 11 p.m.

PAGO DE IMPUESTOS

1 Desde diciembre, los pagos por impuestos a la propiedad de la Ciudad de Roma deberán realizarse en la oficina de impuestos del Distrito Escolar de Roma, localizado en el 608 N. García St.

CONVENIOS DE COLABORACIÓN

OFICINA DEL ALGUACIL

Continuarán fuerzas federales en Tamaulipas

Arrestan a uno por robo

By César G. Rodríguez

Buscarán cubrir déficit de policía estatal E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE LAREDO

Ciudad Victoria, México— Los convenios de colaboración entre las Fuerzas Federales y el Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas, México, ya fueron revisados y aprobados, con lo cual se garantiza su permanencia en Tamaulipas.

La presencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Federales en Tamaulipas, México, en particular del Ejército Mexicano ha sido y es importante para apoyar en las tareas de seguridad y combate a la delincuencia en la entidad.

Desde junio de 2016 se ha mantenido la misma cantidad de personal militar en el estado, informó la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSPT). Incluso, este año se robusteció la presencia militar en el Esta-

do al formalizarse el establecimiento, de manera permanente, de una Unidad en Ciudad Mier.

Tamaulipas es uno de los estados del país donde mayor despliegue de personal militar existe, dada la problemática delictiva y la existencia de un elevado déficit de policías estatales.

El Gobierno de Tamaulipas, en acuerdo con la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) y la Secretaría de Marina (SEMAR), revisaron y aprobaron ya los convenios de colaboración que garanticen la permanencia de efectivos de las Fuerzas Armadas Federales, en apoyo a la Policía Estatal.

La formalización de los nuevos convenios está en proceso pero se mantiene vigente la cooperación, y con ello la presencia de las Fuerzas

Armadas Federales, a través de los convenios firmados en anteriores administraciones, indicó la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública.

La participación de la Policía Federal también es vital en las tareas de seguridad en el Estado.

Por ello se ha reforzado la colaboración con esta corporación.

Un compromiso del Gobierno de Tamaulipas es seguir avanzando en el reclutamiento de nuevos integrantes de la Policía Estatal, ya que se debe cubrir el déficit elevado que se acumuló por años. Se requieren entre nueve a 11 mil elementos para alcanzar niveles óptimos. En la actualidad se tiene alrededor de una tercera parte de las necesidades.

Con mayor número de elementos se podrán combatir de mejor forma los delitos del fuero co-

mún que agravian a los tamaulipecos, agregó la SSP. Sobre la vigilancia en la zona de El Barretal y Santa Engracia, en los municipios de Nuevo Padilla y Güemez, la SSPT precisó que ante el incremento de la actividad delictiva en esa región se estableció un destacamento de la Policía Estatal y se ha hecho la petición tanto al Ejército Mexicano como a la Policía Federal para que den apoyo, con el fin de establecer un puesto de control.

El objetivo es hacer frente a las actividades de cobro de piso y extorsiones que han afectado a los productores citrícolas. En este aspecto, el apoyo de las Fuerzas Armadas Federales será de gran importancia, reafirmó la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública de Tamaulipas.

CIUDADES SANTUARIO

CUESTIONAN NUEVA LEY

PAGO EN LÍNEA 1 La Ciudad de Roma informa a sus residentes que a partir de ahora el servicio del agua puede pagarse en línea a cualquier hora las 24 horas del día.

MUSEO EN ZAPATA 1 A los interesados en realizar una investigación sobre genealogía de la región, se sugiere visitar el Museo del Condado de Zapata ubicado en 805 N US-Hwy 83. Opera de 10 a.m. a 4 p.m.

Existen visitas guiadas. Personal está capacitado y puede orientar acerca de la historia del Sur de Texas y sus fundadores. Pida informes en el 956-765-8983.

GRUPOS DE APOYO

1 El grupo de apoyo para personas con Alzheimer se reunirá en su junta mensual, a las 7 p.m., en el Laredo Medical Center, primer piso, Torre B en el Centro Comunitario. Las reuniones se realizan el primer martes de cada mes en el mismo lugar y a la misma hora.

BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU

Alertan por estafas al buscar trabajo BETTER BUSINE SS BUREAU

1 La Ciudad de Roma ofrece el servicio de llenado de aplicaciones para CHIP, Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, Chip, Prenatal y otros. Contacte a Gaby Rodríguez para una cita en el centro comunitario o en su domicilio al 956246-7177.

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 956849-1411.

Un hombre que era buscado por un cargo de robo ha sido arrestado, de acuerdo a la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Zapata.

Rolando González Jr., de 36 años de edad, era buscado por robo agravado, un delito de segundo grado que porta un castigo de hasta 20 años tras ls rejas y una posible multa de 10.000 dólares.

Los registros de custodia muestran que se encontraba detenido en la cárcel Regional del Condado de Zapata el martes por la tarde.

El martes, las autoridades habían publicado en Facebook que buscaban a González. Más tarde, oficiales de la oficina del alguacil publicaron que ya lo tenían bajo custodia.

Por Miguel Segura

LLENADO DE APLICACIONES

LABORATORIO COMPUTACIONAL

THE ZAPATA TIME S

Foto por Eric Gay | Associated Press

Numerosas personas protestan en San Antonio contra una ley que afecta a las ciudades santuario en Texas, el lunes. La normativa coincide con la postura más estricta del presidente Donald Trump contra la inmigración ilegal.

COLUMNA

Tiene papalote origen chino Por Raúl Sinencio Chávez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Durante generaciones enteras propiciaron gozos infantiles. A partir de sencillas estructuras, cordel, trapos y carrizo, los papalotes lucían diseños coloridos, ligeros, audaces.

De antiquísimo origen chino, el artefacto llega a Mesoamérica con la conquista española. Nada análogo conocían los mexicas. Terminan llamándolo papalote, denominación certera y deliciosa, vista la sustancia etimológica.

El vocablo procede del náhuatl papalotl, que significa mariposa. Papalotl –define Guido Gómez de Silva—deriva a la vez de papalli, hoja, y otl, cosa. O sea, cosa de hojas o con hojas. Los nuevos vasallos debieron de encontrar bastantes semejanzas entre la aerodinámica pieza y el insecto, que posee alas rígidas y anchas. Cuba, Honduras

y Costa Rica emplean la referida locución.

Para el mismo objeto nuestro país aporta otro nombre de raíces prehispánicas, aunque menos extendido. Porque aquí los volantines, cometas o barriletes –según les dicen en distintas latitudes—se conocen también como güilotas, ya castellanizada la variante. Adquiere coherencia el término al saber que en lengua del poeta Nezahualcóyotl –puntualiza Gregorio Bautista Lara— huilotl quiere decir paloma. “Es ave migratoria”, abunda don Guido.

Dichas armazones ganan fama bajo el virreinato novohispano.

Francisco de Ajofrín –fraile capuchino recién desembarcado– en 1764 observa: “Los muchachos se divierten con … los papalotes” que “fabrican muy grandes … y de noche” les “ponen un farolito con luz; forman en su elevación un murmullo o ruido … agrad-

able … Los meses de julio, agosto y mayo … echan las velas a esta diversión por estar entonces el aire alto, y por abajo apenas se percibe”.

Sectores citadinos parecen empero incurrir en prácticas riesgosas para su integridad física.

Con tal motivo el virrey Antonio María de Bucareli prohíbe las cometas.

Han producido numerosos “accidentes y desgracias, por lo que se castigará a los transgresores con dos meses de cárcel”, decreta en 1774. Sus relevos ratifican la medida.

Veamos en parte qué pasaba. José Grácida reporta dos y media décadas adelante que Esteban Rosas, “niño de 7 años”, “cayó de la azotea por volar un papalote”.

Obtenida la independencia patria después, guerras, epidemias y pugnas ensombrecen larguísimo periodo. Al despuntar el último tercio decimonónico, por ende, Tamaulipas dicta

sanciones contra quienes suelan “volar papalotes o cometas con navajas o pedazos de vidrio en la cola”.

Distendida la escena y abierto el siglo XX mexicano, Juan Rulfo en “Pedro Páramo” narra: “Pensaba en ti, Susana.

Cuando volábamos papalotes en la época del aire.

Oíamos allá abajo el rumor viviente del pueblo mientras estábamos encima de él, arriba de la loma, en tanto se iba el hilo de cáñamo arrastrando por el viento”. Sin quedarse atrás, Silvio Rodríguez compone la melodía cubana “El papalote”, cuyos versos evocan: “Qué pájaro perfecto, / cuántos colores, que lindo canto”.

Postes, antenas, cables y torres disputan hoy el firmamento metropolitano a las mariposas de papel o plástico. Regidos los modernos ocios por aparatos electrónicos, mucha de la actual gente ni siquiera conoce los papalotes.

Buscando un trabajo puede ser difícil y tardado.

Desafortunadamente, estafadores reconocen esto y publican trabajos en los mismos medios que los empleadores legítimos —en línea, en periódico o vía correo electrónico. Si usted está en búsqueda de un trabajo, Better Business Bureau le aconseja tener cuidado con las estafas de empleo.

Las estafas de empleo vienen en diferentes formas. De acuerdo con la Comisión Federal de Comercio (FTC por sus siglas en inglés), estafadores promueven aperturas de trabajo anticuadas o falsas, publican listas de trabajos falsos en sitios de anuncios clasificados y envían oportunidades para trabajar de casa o como comprador secreto por correo electrónico.

Los estafadores suelen cobrar una nómina para cubrir servicios o materiales de capacitación.

Ellos afirman que le pueden garantizar la colocación de empleo después de pagar. Sin embargo, el trabajo prometido nunca se materializa y la empresa no devuelve sus llamadas. Si necesita pagar primero para obtener un trabajo o tiene que proveer su tarjeta de crédito o número de cuenta bancaria, es una luz roja.

Al buscar un trabajo en línea, BBB le ofrece los próximos consejos: 1 Investigue el negocio.

1 No pague por adelantado.

1 Tenga cuidado con correos electrónicos desconocidos.

1 Tenga cuidado con la “oferta perfecta”.

Si usted se ha topado con una estafa de empleo, puede presentar un reporte con la FTC y su BBB local. Para encontrar o reportar una estafa visite bbb.org/scamtracker.

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 |

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: HOUSTON TEXANS

NFL: HOUSTON TEXANS

Texans like slot receiver Braxton Miller's size, speed Miller reeled 15 passes as a rookie

By Aaron Wilson H OUSTON CHRONICLE

As a rookie, Braxton Miller displayed glimpses of potential while operating as the Texans' primary slot wide receiver.

The converted Ohio State quarterback and former Big Ten Conference Offensive Player of the Year's best play of the season came against the Oakland Raiders during a Monday night game in Mexico City. Miller beat Raiders cornerback David Amerson on a double-move pattern, cutting across the middle for a 12-yard touchdown catch.

Overall, Miller started six of 10 games after being drafted in the third round and caught 15 passes for 99 yards and one touchdown.

Miller started six of 10 games at slot receiver, catching 15 passes for 99 yards and one touchdown. He had three runs for zero yards as a Wildcat quarterback and three kickoff returns for 41 yards.

The Texans are upbeat about Miller's potential as a larger slot receiver at 6-1, 205 pounds.

“He has the quickness and the speed that you’re looking for in there," Texans receivers coach John Perry said.

Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle

Braxton Miller caught 15 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown in 10 games during his rookie season.

"The thing that’s really intriguing is that he’s generally a larger guy than most slot receivers, but he does have that quickness and speed to go along with that. That’s

something that’s really valuable and gives him options to play on the outside and do those things, too. He’s fighting to try to get on the field in a lot of different ways.”

Miller's season was halted in December when he was placed on injured reserve because of a sprained AC joint suffered when he landed hard on his right shoulder against the Green Bay Packers. Miller missed time earlier in the season with a strained hamstring.

"I learned a lot," Miller said."It's just learning the little small details about getting separation, how to run your route, the little teaching techniques. I'm going to come back in 2017 and turn it up to another level.

"I just want to make sure my body is in line for the coming season, eat healthy, make sure I'm on the right workout plan, enhance the things I already know and be a better player."

Miller finished his Buckeyes career with 8,609 yards of total offense on 5,295 passing yards and 3,314 rushing yards and 52 touchdowns.

Now, the Texans are hoping Miller will be much more productive this season.

“I was talking to Braxton the other day and the thing that really helped C.J. Fiedorowicz last year was recognition of coverages," Perry said. "That’s what I’ve been really trying to spend a lot of time with Braxton on. It’s much different when you’re under center recognizing coverages as opposed to being out wide and recognizing coverages. When he knows who he has to beat, he’s very good, but he has to keep working on that coverage aspect of it. You’ll see a lot more improvement there.”

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

COWBOY GETS INEVITABLE ENDORSEMENT DEAL

Texans rookie Dylan Cole catches coaches' eye

By Aaron Wilson HOUSTON CHRONICLE

The caveat about performance during NFL spring practices always involves the lack of contact drills.

It's especially difficult to judge a linebacker when he's not actually tackling running backs to the ground.

Still, the Texans came away impressed by undrafted rookie linebacker Dylan Cole.

Cole is athletic and aggressive and hustled all over the practice field, hustling to chase down ball carriers in the open field with sound pursuit angles.

When the Texans signed Cole, they made their largest investment on him out of their undrafted rookie class.

The former Missouri State All-American was given $27,000 in guaranteed money, including a $12,000 signing bonus and the Texans guaranteeing $15,000 of his base salary.

Named the top linebacker in the nation among Football Championship Subdivision schools by athletic directors, Cole bench pressed 225 pounds 32 times at his Pro Day workout and had a 39-inch vertical leap.

The Texans are eager to see how Cole will do during training camp at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia in July and August.

So far, he's off to an encouraging start.

"Dylan's doing a good job himself," Texans linebackers coach Bobby King said. "He's learning the defense right now and he's playing fast and doing a good job."

NFL: DALLAS COWBOYS

Elliott, Edelman, Thomas among others bare all for ESPN Body Issue

By Debbie Emory THE WRAP

Max Faulkner / TNS file

Dallas’ Taco Charlton signed an endorsement deal with Taco Bueno on Tuesday.

Irving-based Taco Bueno signs Dallas rookie

By Greg Anglin SA N A NT ONI O E XPRE SS-NEWS

W

hen the Dallas Cowboys drafted Michigan defensive end Taco Charlton this spring, you had the feeling he was coming to the right place.

Texas has no shortage of Mexican restaurant chains, and you had to believe one of them would land Charlton as their spokesman.

Sure enough, Irving-based Taco

Bueno announced today that it had signed him to a deal.

"When I woke up in the morning (after the draft), my phone lit up with the news that the Cowboys had drafted a Taco," company CEO Mike Roper told ESPN. "We had to do something."

Roper said he could see the 6foot-6, 275-pound Charlton promoting Taco Bueno's Wholotta Box, a combination of a dozen tacos and burritos that goes for $15.

About half of Taco Bueno's 180

A7

locations are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

No word on whether San Antonio-based Taco Cabana, which also has a presence in the Metroplex, was in the running. But Charlton's agent, Joel Segal, said he and his team met with several contenders.

In any case, make no mistake: Charlton isn't just in it for the money.

"I love my name and I actually do love tacos," Charlton told the Dallas Morning News.

NFL players Ezekiel Elliott and Julian Edelman, NBA great Isaiah Thomas and tennis star Caroline Wozniacki are among the famous athletes who have stripped for the the ninth annual ESPN Body Issue.

ESPN announced the roster on Monday for the magazine that will hit newsstands on Friday, July 7.

Other standouts include adaptive snowboarder/mountaineer and retired Marine Corps Sgt. Kirstie Ennis, who is the first veteran featured in the Body Issue, and sprinter/four-time Olympic medalist Novlene Williams-Mills, the first cancer survivor to be featured.

ESPN The Magazine launched the Body franchise almost a decade ago with one mission: to celebrate and showcase the athletic form through powerful images and interviews, ESPN said in a statement. Many of the world’s elite athletes having participated in this issue over the years.

During his interview for the special issue, Dallas Cowboys running back Elliott revealed that he actually dreamed of becoming a MLB star

growing up.

“I started out as a baseball player. That was really my dream and my first love. It helped develop my hand-eye coordination, and then I started football when I was seven,” the 21-year-old said.

“And I think that helped my toughness and just being a physical athlete. I was also a basketball player. My parents always made sure I was doing a sport no matter what season it was.

“Every time I step onto the field, every play, I try to out-physical my opponent. I want them to tap out by the end of the game. I try to take my opponent’s will away,” continued Elliott, who was picked fourth overall in the 2016 NFL Draft by the Cowboys and went out to have a standout rookie season.

As for this traffic and defense-stopping body, “What everyone thinks is the big thing [with me] is my abs, because I wear the crop top. When I started in college, it was just the way I wore my jersey, just kind of more comfortable for me. And it drew a lot of attention.

When we went to the White House after winning the national championship, even the president took notice,” the former Ohio State RB said.

A8 | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

ENTERTAINMENT

3 CNN journalists resign For a week, Fallon retakes the lead from Colbert over retracted story

By David Bauder

By David Bauder A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — For a president seemingly at perpetual war with “fake news,” the resignation of three CNN journalists over a retracted story about a Donald Trump Russian connection is a gift from the political gods at a time the struggling effort to repeal Obamacare dominates the headlines.

Trump quickly took advantage with a series of tweets on Tuesday, and conservative provocateur James O’Keefe piled on by releasing a video with a CNN producer caught on camera talking about the network’s Russian coverage being ratings-driven.

The network on Monday accepted the resignations of journalists Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris over last week’s web story about Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci’s pre-inaugural meeting with the head of a Russian investment fund. CNN retracted the story a day later, saying it had not met its standards, and apologized to Scaramucci.

Trump has been unhappy with CNN since he was a candidate last year, and hasn’t granted the network an interview since he’s been president.

He’s been particularly annoyed by its reporting on connections with Russia. The misstep on a relatively minor story — it was never mentioned on any of CNN’s television networks — left some White House staff members jubilant, believing it has handed them a new talking point to use as a cudgel against mainstream media organizations they feel are largely biased against them.

Trump tweeted that “they caught Fake News

CNN cold.” He lumped ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post together in the same “fake news” category. He said that “CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!”

A spokeswoman for CNN chief Jeff Zucker didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

CNN’s public relations staff refuted Trump’s notion that the network is hurting, saying it is completing the mostwatched second quarter in the network’s history.

The president was livid at CNN’s story but also felt vindicated because it seemed to confirm his belief that the cable network was trying to undermine his presidency, according to one staffer who demanded anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The White House was considering unleashing its surrogates on the network, planning to hit the mistakes hard in order to change the subject for what has been a stretch for the presidency, with questions about the Russia probe swirling and the Republican health care bill in dire straits. Aides also believe that highlighting media mistakes could be a useful way of questioning the credibility of much of the reporting on the scandals surrounding the White House to convince supporters that Trump was the victim of a witch hunt.

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., suggested in an interview with Breitbart News that “maybe Jeff Zucker should do an

on-camera briefing about CNN’s fake news scandal before the White House does any more of them.”

CNN’s White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, has been particularly vocal in protesting the administration’s dwindling number of on-camera news briefings.

He also tweeted a link to the video posted by O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.

The hidden-camera video showed John Bonifield, an Atlanta-based producer in CNN’s medical unit, talking about how the “ratings are incredible” for the network’s Russian coverage. He said the network has no “smoking gun” showing wrongdoing by Trump and that “the president is probably right to say, look, you are witch-hunting me.”

CNN said in a statement that it is standing

by Bonifield. “Diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong,” CNN said. “We welcome it and embrace it.”

O’Keefe said Project Veritas got the video last Friday and that a portion, in an elevator, was recorded at CNN’s headquarters. He said that Project Veritas plans to release another video involving another CNN employee, with the timing dependent on how CNN reacts to the Bonifield material.

O’Keefe and Project Veritas have a track record of aiding Republican causes, often by using hidden cameras and hiding identities, and Trump’s nonprofit foundation has made two $10,000 donations to the organization. His sting operation led to the downfall of ACORN, a community organizing group that O’Keefe portrayed as engaging in criminal activity via hidden camera.

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

NEW YORK — Jimmy Fallon has topped Stephen Colbert in latenight ratings for the first time since Donald Trump has been president. But the NBC comic might want to keep the champagne on ice.

The Nielsen company said that Fallon’s “Tonight” show averaged 2.66 million viewers last week, a whisker above the 2.62 million achieved

by Colbert’s “Late Show.”

CBS’ Colbert, with his sharp anti-Trump humor, eclipsed long-time leader Fallon the week after Trump’s January inauguration and hasn’t looked back.

NBC’s comparatively strong prime-time schedule in the summer may have helped; CBS has been airing mostly re-

Fallon

runs lately in prime time.

CBS also aired Colbert reruns on Thursday and Friday that were excluded in the ratings. The network believes it would have won if Colbert aired original shows on those nights, and that it will win when people who watch on a time-delayed basis are later counted in.

NBC won the week in

prime time behind its summer hit, “America’s Got Talent,” and the companion series “World of Dance.”

Fox was nearly invisible in the prime-time ratings, with its longrunning “So You Think You Can Dance” supplanted by NBC in the hoofer competition.

NBC averaged 4.6 million viewers for the week, CBS had 4.3 million, ABC had 3.6 million, Fox had 2 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.32 million, Telemundo had 1.26 million and the CW had 760,000.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.4 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 1.57 million viewers, MSNBC had 1.49 million, USA had 1.48 million and HGTV had 1.46 million.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 |

A9

BUSINESS

Some shoppers fret when companies take over brands

By Anne D’innocenzio A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — Some shoppers are fretting about big companies they don’t like taking over their favorite brands.

Amazon’s move to purchase Whole Foods has spurred worries about a decline in quality and ethical standards, or that the store will become like other supermarkets.

Walmart’s purchase of clothing labels ModCloth and Bonobos has some shoppers anxious that the world’s largest retailer will cheapen the quality of the clothes, or they’re vowing not to buy the brand again because they don’t want to support Walmart.

For big companies, the challenge is always expanding the reach of a beloved niche brand without alienating its core customers. Of the recent deals, that’s a bigger job for Walmart, since its reputation is more about low prices than trendy fashion — and shoppers might not view the world’s largest retailer very positively.

“Bye bye Bonobos,” T.D. Arkenberg wrote on Twitter. “I’ll miss you.

You were a great brand.

But as Sears destroyed Lands’ End, Walmart will destroy Bonobos!”

Arkenberg, of Arlington Heights, Illinois, has five pairs of Bonobos pants and loves the way they fit. He planned to buy more, but now says he’ll shop more at Nordstrom and other small boutiques. Arkenberg believes Walmart puts cost-cutting ahead of workers.

“In my mind, Walmart’s participation of the brand will cheapen it,” he said in an interview.

Retail history is full of big companies taking over smaller labels, with mixed results. Cosmetic giant Estee Lauder kept the

Elise Amendola / AP

This June 5 photo shows the exterior of a Whole Foods Market in Andover, Massachusetts.

Bebeto Matthews / AP

In this file photo, a man walks by the Bonobos Guideshop in New York's Financial District.

irreverent spirit of MAC Cosmetics when it bought the remaining stake of the upstart makeup brand in 1998. And when Marriott International purchased the swank Ritz-Carlton chain that same year, it found success because it took a hands-off approach, says Allen Adamson, founder of the firm BrandSimpleConsulting.

But plenty of cases didn’t turn out so well, as Arkenberg noted. Sears Holdings Corp. purchased sporty outdoor chain Lands’ End in 2002, but sales deteriorated before Sears spun it back off in 2014. Cereal giant Kellogg Co. bought Kashi in 2000 as it sought to get into the organic food market. But sales of Kashi tumbled

after Kellogg stopped letting Kashi run its business independently.

Arkenberg is also worried about his local Mariano’s grocery store changing for the worse now that its parent company is owned by Kroger Co., the nation’s second-largest food retailer. He hasn’t seen any negative impact so far — but is watchful.

“There is a level of distrust among big institutions,” said Wendy Liebmann, CEO of consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail. “So there’s a very delicate balance for big companies to continue to support (the label) and let it grow, and taking costs out of it to make it more efficient.”

Joan Walsh, a Whole Foods customer from

Seattle, is concerned that Amazon could ruin the shopping experience at her favorite store.

“I really like Whole Foods for its quality, customer service, and also its proximity to my home and the fact they have all natural ingredients, nonGMO products,” said Walsh. “I just worry that Amazon will really degrade the kind of customer service and quality I’m accustomed to.”

Neither Amazon nor Whole Foods has said much about what they plan. They have said, though, that they don’t intend to change Whole Foods’ standards, which include a ban on artificial ingredients. And Walmart says it’s keeping the stable of online brands it’s bought up, including ModCloth and Bonobos, independent. It says they won’t be sold in Walmart stores — only through Jet.com, which Walmart acquired last year.

Andy Dunn, co-founder and CEO of Bonobos, said that when news of the possible deal leaked two months ago, it gave him a chance to test the reaction. And he found that customer growth actually accelerated.

But Dunn concedes there’s work to be done in appeasing what he calls a dissatisfied minority who are loud on social media.

He says some shoppers don’t understand that Walmart is a different company than it was in the past, and he plans to be a “mouthpiece” to trumpet the company’s moves to increase pay for workers and its environmental efforts.

“We need to help them rethink the Walmart they thought they knew,” he said. Being owned by Walmart will improve logistics like faster shipping, he said, and promised that the quality and service will be at least the same.

John Carl D'Annibale / Albany Times Union

A UPS driver questions U.S. Treasury officials Robert Neis and Janet Laufer during a town hall about the looming pension cuts for teamsters on June 14 in Albany, New York.

UPS to freeze pensions for 70,000 nonunion workers

By Mary Schlangenstein and Katherine Chiglinsky BL OOMBERG

United Parcel Service Inc. will freeze a pension plan for about 70,000 nonunion U.S. employees because of escalating costs and volatility in determining future payments, replacing it with a different retirement benefit.

The shift won’t occur until Jan. 1, 2023, giving affected workers more than five years to prepare, the shipping company said Tuesday. Most of the employees, which account for about 16 percent of the company’s workforce, are in administrative or management positions.

UPS joins companies including DuPont Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. in freezing pension plans, which means that some or all participants may stop accumulating benefits. The plans became more expensive to maintain after interest rates fell during the financial crisis. UPS’s pension obligations are on top of a $1 billion jump in capital spending the company plans for this year to pay for automation and other

efforts to handle e-commerce shipments.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Kevin Sterling, a Seaport Global Holdings analyst. “They’ve been making huge pension contributions to more adequately fund it, so I’m not surprised they are freezing it as as way to control those liabilities.”

UPS’s pension plans in the U.S. had a $9.85 billion shortfall at the end of 2016, meaning they were about 76 percent funded, according to the filing.

Last year, about 22,000 former UPS employees accepted one-time lump sums of their vested pension benefit under a buyout offer, accelerating payments of $685 million, the Atlanta-based company said.

Accruals to the existing defined benefit retirement plan being frozen will end Jan. 1, 2023, and UPS will begin a defined contribution program that will place between 5 percent and 8 percent of a worker’s eligible salary into a 401(k), depending on seniority. Some employees also will get a transition benefit.

Current UPS retirees aren’t affected by the change, said Steve Gaut, a company spokesman.

GOP health bill: Big tax cuts for rich, not much for others

By Stephen Ohlemacher A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WASHINGTON — Millionaires would get tax cuts averaging $52,000 a year from the Senate Republicans’ health bill while middle-income families would get about $260, according to a new analysis of the foundering bill.

The analysis was done by the

nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

It found that half of the tax cuts would go to families making more than $500,000 a year.

Senate Republican leaders were scrambling Tuesday to rally support for the bill but had to delay a vote this week because it lacked adequate support. The disputes, however, were not related to tax provisions.

Moderate Republicans were concerned that too many people would lose health coverage under the bill while conservatives said it wouldn’t do enough to reduce premiums.

The Republican health bill would repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health law. The law imposed a series of tax increases targeting mainly high-income families. The

Senate Republican bill would repeal the taxes, though not all at once.

“The Senate bill would cut annual household taxes by about $670 on average. But the variation among income groups would be very wide,” Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center wrote on the group’s website.

“Much like the House-passed

American Health Care Act, the Senate leadership’s health bill includes a huge tax cut that mostly benefits the nation’s highest-income households,” Gleckman said. For example, families making $20,000 a year would get an average tax cut of about $200. But the super rich, those making $5 million or more, would receive an average tax cut of nearly $250,000.

A10 | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL Life-ending drug now legal in California

Lawyers prepare to defend travelers to US at airports

By Julie Watson A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

By Colleen Long And Amy Taxin

SAN DIEGO — California health officials reported Tuesday that 111 terminally ill people took drugs to end their lives in the first six months after a 2016 law made the option legal in the nation’s most populous state.

The data was part of the California Department of Public Health’s first report on the law since it went into effect June 9, 2016.

According to the data generated from forms doctors were required to submit between June 9 and Dec. 31, 2016, a total of 191 people received lifeending drugs after being diagnosed with having less than six months to live and 111 people took them and died. Another 21 individuals died before taking the drugs. The outcomes of 59 others who received the prescriptions were not reported by their doctors within the sixmonth period, according to the report.

Of those who died, 87 percent were 60 years old or older, most were white, college educated, receiving hospice or palliative care and had health insurance, either provided by the state or private carriers.

The median age was 73, and the majority had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, according to the report.

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

NEW YORK — When the Trump administration’s travel ban takes partial effect this week, immigrant-rights lawyers plan to head to the nation’s major airports to make sure eligible foreigners are able to get into the country.

But attorneys say few people are likely to be affected, and they don’t expect a repeat of the mass confusion that resulted earlier this year when President Donald Trump rolled out his

Seth Wenig / AP

Volunteer lawyers work to help free travelers detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Jan. 29.

original ban on travel from a group of mostly

Muslim countries.

“Our hope is unlike the

chaos that previously occurred, there will be a much smoother and much less traumatic result,” said Caitlin Bellis, an attorney at Public Counsel in Los Angeles.

The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t offered any guidance on how this week’s Supreme Court ruling on the ban will be interpreted, so attorneys are preparing for anything and will monitor airports from Los Angeles to New York in case they are needed to assist foreigners held for questioning or denied entry by customs and border agents.

Advocates have a hotline and email addresses where relatives can seek help if family members get stuck. There’s also an app that routes information about troubled travelers to lawyers monitoring the airports.

On Monday, the Supreme Court said it will hold a full hearing on the ban in October, but until then, the Trump administration can bar travelers from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Yemen, Libya and Somalia if they lack a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship” with someone or some institution in the U.S.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 |

A11

FROM THE COVER

Tim Duncan confronts financial adviser

By Guillermo Contreras SA N A NT ONI O E XPRE SS-NEWS

With his ex-coach, a trusted team executive and a couple of his former teammates by his side, retired Spurs star Tim Duncan took to a different court Tuesday and spoke directly at the financial adviser he blames for defrauding him out of millions of dollars.

“I just wanted you to own up, pay up and we’d move on,” Duncan told Charles A. Banks IV during a victim impact statement at Banks’ sentencing in federal court.

“You wouldn’t, so now we’re here with this in front of a judge.”

In a separate four-page statement, Duncan said he never wanted to see his name in the papers after his 19-year NBA career ended, because he’s a private individual who spent time in the spotlight because he had to make a living to last him the rest of his life.

“I also prided myself on not being the stereotypical dumb athlete that can easily be taken advantage of,” the statement said, adding he put together team “to keep eyes on each other to make sure I wouldn’t be another athlete sitting in this exact predicament at some point.”

But he trusted Banks, perhaps too much.

“He earned my trust as my financial advisor and friend, so I felt comfortable moving forward without replacing the checks and balances as he moved on to running his own thing,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, I was wrong about that decision.”

Banks pleaded guilty to wire fraud earlier this year for defrauding Duncan in a $6 million financing investment deal.

Manu Ginobili, Sean Elliott, Spurs Coach Greg Popovich and Spurs gen-

William Luther / San Antonio Express-News

Tim Duncan, left, leaves the federal courthouse in San Antonio on Tuesday with Wendy Kowalik, his current financial adviser, after giving a victim impact statement during the sentencing phase of the NBA legend's former financial adviser Charles Banks, who admitted he bamboozled Duncan into guaranteeing a $6 million loan used as part of an investment in a sports-merchandise company linked to Banks.

eral manager R.C. Buford sat with Duncan and his lawyers and advisers and intently listened to a full day of testimony during Banks’ sentencing.

None, other than Elliott, would comment to reporters. Elliott said all of them came as a show of support for Duncan.

“It’s unfortunate. I think every athlete’s gone through their troubles with people financially,” Elliott said. “I don’t know if there’s any athlete that’s immune to being deceived out of money in one way or another, so it’s all relative. Unfortunately, it was a large amount that affected somebody that we all love very much and care for, so it is what it is.”

But they have yet to

ROBBERY From page A1 the Zapata County Regional Jail on Tuesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, authorities had

RULING From page A1 Texas — San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Dallas— are suing to block the measure and their attorneys told Garcia that his ruling could determine if other states to pursue copycat measures. Lawyers for the Texas attorney general’s office responded that the new law has less teeth than Arizona’s “Show Me Your Papers” measure in 2010 that the was partially struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I’ll suggest that what we had in Arizona was a far more aggressive piece of legislation,” said Darren McCarty, special county to the Texas attorney general.

Garcia pushed attorneys on both sides over how exactly the law would play out on the streets. Would an officer during a traffic stop question the immigration status of every passenger, or just the driver? What would happen if a rankand-file police officer who determined that someone wasn’t in the country legally didn’t turn over

learn how much time Banks will get. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery continued the sentencing hearing until Wednesday morning.

According to testimony, Duncan lost most of the $24.1 million he invested with Banks. Banks had been his advisor since Duncan was a rookie entering the NBA in 1997, and Duncan continued making investments in Banks’ business ventures after Banks left CSI in 2007.

Also in court was another retired NBA star, Kevin Garnett. He also invested in Banks’ business ventures, and was an equal partner in an entity called Hammer Holdings that Banks reportedly used to funnel

posted on Facebook that Gonzalez was wanted. Later in the afternoon, sheriff’s officials posted they had taken custody of Gonzalez.

At 5:49 a.m. Tuesday, deputies responded to the Valero

that information to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement?

The answer to the second questions is that nothing would happen, said McCarty, but he went on to contend that a police chief or sheriff who told his officers not to ever press people about their immigration status would be in violation.

“Texas must know what they’re doing,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. “They’re setting up a system that incentivizes people to enforce immigration law to the maximum.”

The four Texas cities — all of which are among the top 15 in the nation in population — accuse the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature of passing a law that is unconstitutional, vague and would have a chilling effect on immigrant communities. Abbott has said only lawbreakers have anything to worry about.

The hearing revisited the racial tension that simmered in the Texas Capitol both before and after Abbott signed the law. Democratic state

SON From page A1 money through.

In pleading guilty, Banks, 49, of Atlanta, admitted he bamboozled Duncan into guaranteeing a $6 million loan used as part of an investment in a sports-merchandise company, Gameday Entertainment LLC that Banks was chairman of. Garnett had been a previous investor in Gameday, and at the time also was a 50-50 partner in Hammer. He had also invested in Gameday.

But Banks denies defrauding Duncan on any other investments Duncan made with Banks that Duncan’s current advisers say they found problems with. The discrepancies arose while Duncan was going through his divorce in 2013, according to Wendy Kowalik, Duncan’s current financial adviser.

She was brought on board by Sue Hall, Duncan’s divorce lawyer, and while trying to make sense of his finances, they learned about the $6 million loan guarantee that followed a prior $7.5 million loan to Gameday.

Duncan had no documents to provide to Hall, but told her that “Charles handled everything” referring to Banks. When Hall and Kowalik tried to get his financial documents, they were stalled, lied to by Banks or given incomplete documentation.

“It was a struggle,” Kowalik said. “We kept asking for stuff over and over. To this day, we don’t have a full picture.” Kowalik also testified that Duncan invested with Banks in wineries, hotels and cosmetics, but the entities are either in bankruptcy, fighting lawsuits, or are not making enough money for Duncan to recover any or little of his $24.1 million. Of that amount, Kowalik said, Duncan has received only $7 million back, and only from interest payments.

on 1202 U.S. 83 for a robbery report. A female store clerk told authorities that Gonzalez entered the store and went behind the cash register counter.

Gonzalez was allegedly

Rep. Ana Hernandez, who did not become a U.S. citizen until she was 18 years old, wiped away tears on the witness stand as she recalled Republican colleagues referring to people who are not citizens as “illegals” during debate over SB4.

Weeks later, on the final day of the legislative session, tensions boiled over when Republican state Rep. Matt Rinaldi told Democrats that he had called federal immigration agents on protesters in the Capitol who held signs saying they were illegally in the country. One Democratic legislator admitted pushing Rinaldi, who responded by telling one Democrat that he would “shoot him in self-defense.”

The Trump administration, like Texas, has made “sanctuary cities” a target since the beginning of the year. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has threatened to pull federal money from jurisdictions that hinder communication between local police and immigration authorities and praised Texas last week for passing the law.

said justice will prevail in court.

At 10:14 a.m. June 22, a deputy responded to a domestic dispute in the 400 block of Elm Street in Zapata. He encountered Soniary Galicia Soto who appeared to be “in a distressed state.” The deputy also noticed she had red markings on her neck.

Soto stated that her boyfriend, Sigifredo Gonzalez III, had assaulted her. A complaint filed against him alleges he grabbed her by the arms and threw her to the ground.

“While on the ground, Gonzalez proceeded to kick Soto in the lower stomach near her cesarean scar causing bruising and swelling. Gonzalez then got on top of her and began to strangle her for approximately 15 to 20 seconds,” the complaint states.

She allegedly told Gonzalez to stop because she could not breathe. She managed to free herself and made her way to the door to leave the home.

Gonzalez tried to stop her and allegedly grabbed her hard enough to leave red marks on the right side of her torso.

She yelled at Gonzalez to stop or she would call police.

“Gonzalez kept telling her that it didn’t matter if she called the police because the police would not do anything to him because of who his father is, and that the one who would be in trouble was going to be her because she was on probation,” states the complaint.

Gonzalez allegedly told authorities he was tired of the way Soto was acting.

He no longer wanted her

MEXICO From page A1 cludes data on a big jump in the number of calls to an immigration advice hotline and requests for legal assistance at Mex-

armed with a rock.

He allegedly demanded money from the register and began threatening the clerk, saying he would assault her if she would not open the register, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

there. He allegedly stated he pushed her only to get her out of the residence.

Gonzalez showed the deputy two scratch marks to his neck that the woman had inflicted, according to the complaint. He allegedly admitted to grabbing her by the neck but only to control her and stop her from shoving him.

“After further investigation, it was determined that Gonzalez was the aggressor of the domestic dispute,” states the complaint.

Soto was also arrested for allegedly pushing Gonzalez’s mother. She was charged with assault by physical contact, a Class C misdemeanor. A criminal trespass warning was issued to Soto.

‘Sigi’ reacts Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said witnesses of the incident have different versions of what happened.

“The officer investigating the case never talked to any of the witnesses.

He never took my son’s statement,” he said.

Gonzalez said his son had “defensive wounds.”

“A person that exhibits defensive wounds is the victim not the aggressor,” he said.

He added, “That will be settled in court.”

“We’re pretty certain that after the jury hears the witnesses that were present, no jury will convict a person with that type of testimony,” he said. “Justice will prevail.”

ican consulates since May, when Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill, known as SB4.

Sada Solana said “in our community there is concern, there is discomfort, and there is fear of this situation.”

He then forcefully took away the phone from clerk’s hand.

Fearing for her safety, she complied with the suspect. He made it out with $160 and a telephone worth about $30. He was arrested later in the day.

DISPATCHERS From page A1 and call out contacts for field personnel.

1 Maintain rotation/request wrecker log, private vehicle repossession log.

1 Perform all transactions (inquires, entries, modifications, deletions) for the department into the Texas and National telecommunications network.

1 Receptionist to transfer

Gonzalez allegedly told authorities he was tired of the way Soto was acting.

caller to appropriate extension, refer callers to the appropriate agency, or take messages for appropriate agency employees.

1 Maintain and update emergency contact file for residences and businesses.

1 Complete and maintain significant activity log.

1 Maintain/file all county

warrants and any other warrants issued due to an investigation conducted

by The Zapata County Sheriffs' Office.

1 Maintain and update protective order file.

1 Control access to the building and specific areas of the building.

1 Maintain familiarity with jurisdictional geography and subdivisions.

1 Perform other duties, task, and assignments as directed.

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A12 | Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES