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BORDER PATROL STATION
HIDALGO COUNTY
BP seizes big pot load
Three arrested for abduction
A total of a hundred bundles were discovered S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
Border Patrol said Thursday its agents assigned to the Zapata Border Patrol Station discovered a large drug smuggling attempt. Agents were working their assigned duties May 26 when they came across numerous abandoned bundles of suspected marijuana on the ground. As agents conducted a more
thorough search of the area, they discovered an abandoned vehicle containing additional bundles inside. Agents inspected the vehicle and discovered a total of 80 bundles inside the vehicle and 20 bundles on the ground, for a total of 100 bundles. "Border Patrol agents continue to work diligently to disrupt criminal activity and Pot continues on A11
By César G. Rodriguez THE ZAPATA TIME S
Courtesy photo
Border Patrol agents discovered a total of 80 bundles inside this vehicle in the Zapata County area.
IMMIGRATION RIGHTS
JUDGE BLOCKS LICENSE FOR DETENTION FACILITY
Three suspects were arrested this week for their alleged involvement in the recent kidnapping of a 15-year-old girl while a fourth one remains at large, according to authorities. Elizabeth Cantu, 19, was charged with trafficking of a child and engaging in organized criminal activity. Through the Cantu course of the investigation, Hidalgo County Sheriff ’s Office also arrested Juan Valdez, 22, and Briseyda Flores, 17. Investigators believe they worked together to facilitate the sale of the 15-year-old girl Arrest continues on A11
ZAPATA COUNTY
Suspect indicted for cocaine Man allegedly had $1.5M worth of the narcotic By César G. Rodriguez Ryan McCrimmon / Texas Tribune
THE ZAPATA TIME S
Protestors left their signs on the fence surrounding the South Texas Family Residential Center near Dilley, Texas on May 2, 2015.
Injunction was to protect women, children being held By Julián Aguilar TEX A S T RIBUNE
A Travis County judge ruled Wednesday that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services cannot license an immigration detention center as a childcare facility, giving immigrant rights groups a victory in a months-long battle with the state. State District Judge Karin Crump said her injunction was needed to protect the women and children being held in the 2,400-bed facility in Dilley,
Texas. Crump said current licensing exceptions allow mixed gender detainees to room together and in some cases, force children to share quarters with adult strangers. “The exceptions allow and have allowed for situations for children that are dangerous,” she said. “And this temporary injunction addresses those concerns.” The case will proceed to a full trial in September when the court will hear arguments over whether the state agency can issue the licenses based on an
emergency rule it adopted last year. Crump added that in her opinion, the agency didn’t have the legislative authority to do so. Opponents argue that the licensing requirements are watered-down versions of what other centers must abide by and make the detention centers less safe. The facility in Dilley, operated by Corrections Corporation of America, is one of two privately run detention centers in Texas under contract with the federal government to hold undocumented immigrant women and
children. The other unit, in Karnes City, is operated by the Geo Group. The Karnes City unit can hold about 600 people and has already been issued a state license. The effort to stop the licensing is being led by Grassroots Leadership, a non-profit immigrant rights group that sued the family services agency and alleged it had no authority to license a detention center as a childcare facility when the centers act more like jails than daycare centers. License continues on A11
A man who stashed about $1.5 million in cocaine at his property in Zapata County was recently indicted, according to court documents. On May 24, a grand jury charged Jose Manuel Alaniz with conspire to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Alaniz pleaded not guilty to the allegations Tuesday. He remains in federal custody. A final pretrial conference is set for June 30. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Texas Department of Public Safety Cocaine continues on A11
Zin brief A2 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
CALENDAR
AROUND THE NATION
TODAY IN HISTORY
SATURDAY, JUNE 4
ASSOCIATED PRE SS
1 Book sale. 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m., Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. No admission charge; everyone is invited. 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. TAMIU. “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 more information, call 326-3663.
Today is Saturday, June 4, the 156th day of 2016. There are 210 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On June 4, 1986, Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty in Washington to conspiring to deliver information related to the national defense to Israel. (Pollard, sentenced to life in prison, was released on parole on Nov. 20, 2015.)
MONDAY, JUNE 6 1 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.
TUESDAY, JUNE 7 1 Les Amies Birthday Club monthly meeting. 11:30 a.m. Ramada Plaza. Hostesses are Velia Herrera, Mercedes Salinas and Mary Lou Solis. Honorees are Viola Gonzalez, Luisa Peña, Thelma Sanchez and Grace Stegmann. 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. TAMIU. “Zula Patrol: Under the Weather” at 3 p.m., “Cosmic Adventure” at 4 p.m. and “A Starry Tale” at 5 p.m. General admission is $3. For more information, call 326-3663. 1 Rock wall climbing. 4–5 p.m. LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Free. Take the challenge and climb the rock wall! Fun exercise for all ages. Must sign release form. For more information, contact John Hong at 795-2400 x2521. 1 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. Those interested in learning more about the disease, as well as gathering more information on resources available, are invited and encouraged to attend. For more information, call Melissa Guerra at 956-693-9991 or Laredo Medical Center at 956-796-3223.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. TAMIU. “Zula Patrol: Under the Weather” at 3 p.m., “Cosmic Adventure” at 4 p.m. and “A Starry Tale” at 5 p.m. General admission is $3. For more information, call 326-3663.
THURSDAY, JUNE 9 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. TAMIU. “Zula Patrol: Under the Weather” at 3 p.m., “Cosmic Adventure” at 4 p.m. and “A Starry Tale” at 5 p.m. General admission is $3. For more information, call 326-3663.
FRIDAY, JUNE 10 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. TAMIU. “A Starry Tale” at 7 p.m. and live star presentation at 8 p.m., weather permitting. General admission is $4. For more information, call 326-3663.
SATURDAY, JUNE 11 1 Laredo Northside Farmers Market. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. North Central Park. The market is located at the playground behind the trailhead facility. There will be the usual lineup of vendors and a special Father's Day raffle. They will raffle 10 authentic German glass beer mugs with various German-themed coats of arms. There will also be the usual children's games and activities.
MONDAY, JUNE 13 1 Laredo Stroke Support Group. 7 p.m. San Martin de Porres Church, Family Life Center. Meetings are held the second Monday of each month and are open to all stroke survivors, family and caregivers. Everyone is welcomed to share their story, encourage and support others, and hear informative speakers. For more information on the support groups, call 956-286-0641 or 956-763-6132.
TUESDAY, JUNE 14 1 Rock wall climbing. 4–5 p.m. LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Free. Take the challenge and climb the rock wall! Fun exercise for all ages. Must sign release form. For more information, contact John Hong at 795-2400 x2521.
Silas Bleakley / Associated Press
A train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing Friday, near Mosier, Ore. The accident happened just after noon about 70 miles east of Portland.
DERAILED TRAIN SPILLS OIL By Gillian Flaccus ASSOCIATED PRE SS
PORTLAND, Ore. — A train towing cars full of oil derailed Friday in Oregon’s scenic Columbia River Gorge, sparking a fire that sent a plume of black smoke high into the sky and leading to evacuations. The accident happened around noon near the town of Mosier, about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning, said Ken Armstrong, state Forestry Department spokesman. No injuries have been reported.
NYPD disputes that teen’s death was hate crime NEW YORK — New York City police have no solid evidence supporting allegations that a black teenager was chased by a mostly white group that shouted racial slurs before he collapsed and died, a police official said Friday. The chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, Robert Boyce, told reporters that the death last week of
About 200 students were evacuated from an elementary and middle school near the scene. Interstate 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a halfmile. The train was operated by Union Pacific. A spokesman for the railroad didn’t return calls. Silas Bleakley was working at his restaurant in Mosier when the train derailed. “You could feel it through the ground,” he told The Associated Press.
16-year-old Dayshen McKenzie was gang-related, but did not appear to be a hate crime. Boyce was responding to a report in the Daily News that quoted former police officer Diane Fatigati, who came to McKenzie’s aide before he died, and one of the teen’s friends saying the victim was chased by attackers using a racial slur and threatening to shoot him. The tabloid quoted Fatigati as saying, “To me, it’s a hate crime.” Police gave a different account they said came from
several other witnesses: McKenzie was part of a mixedrace group that had gathered to watch a gang-related, “preplanned fight” between two youths. The teen, who had asthma and a heart condition, and others ran away after someone claimed to have a gun. “It has been determined preliminarily, that McKenzie died as a result of a pre-existing medical condition,” Boyce said. “There is no evidence indicating that it was (an) assault.” — Compiled from AP reports
Ten years ago: Peru’s former president, Alan Garcia, won the country’s presidential runoff election. Five years ago: China’s Li Na captured her first Grand Slam singles title, becoming the first tennis player from China, man or woman, to achieve such a feat; Na beat Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 (0) in the French Open final. Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, 80, died in Charlottesville, Virginia. One year ago: The Department of Homeland Security announced that hackers had broken into the U.S. government personnel office and stolen identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers.
AROUND TEXAS Fort Hood officials were closing roads as truck overturned FORT HOOD, Texas — Fort Hood commanders were in the process of closing roads on the sprawling Army post in Central Texas when a truck carrying 12 soldiers overturned in a fastflowing flooded creek during a training exercise, killing five and leaving four missing, officials said Friday. The portion of road on the northern fringe of the post where the Light Medium Tactical Vehicle overturned Thursday hadn’t been overrun by water during past floods, Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug said. The vehicle resembles a flatbed truck with a walled bed and is used to carry troops. He said during a news conference Friday that the soldiers were being trained on how to operate the 21/2-ton truck when it overturned along Owl Creek, about 70 miles north of Austin.
On this date: In 1784, opera singer Elisabeth Thible became the first woman to make a non-tethered flight aboard a Montgolfier hot-air balloon, over Lyon, France. In 1892, the Sierra Club was incorporated in San Francisco. In 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing citizens the right to vote regardless of their gender, and sent it to the states for ratification. In 1939, the German ocean liner MS St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast by U.S. officials. In 1940, during World War II, the Allied military evacuation of some 338,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” In 1942, the World War II Battle of Midway began, resulting in a decisive American victory against Japan and marking the turning point of the war in the Pacific. In 1944, U-505, a German submarine, was captured by a U.S. Navy task group in the south Atlantic; it was the first such capture of an enemy vessel at sea by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812. The U.S. Fifth Army began liberating Rome. In 1954, French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc signed treaties in Paris according “complete independence” to Vietnam. In 1972, a jury in San Jose, California, acquitted radical activist Angela Davis of murder and kidnapping for her alleged connection to a deadly courthouse shootout in Marin County in 1970. In 1990, Dr. Jack Kevorkian carried out his first publicly assisted suicide, helping Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Alzheimer’s patient from Portland, Oregon, end her life in Oakland County, Michigan. In 1998, a federal judge sentenced Terry Nichols to life in prison for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Tommy Metthe / Associated Press
Homes sit in flooded waters at Lake Cisco, on Friday. Fort Hood commanders were closing roads when a truck overturned.
“It was a situation where the rain had come, the water was rising quickly and we were in the process, at the moment of the event, of closing the roads,” Haug said. Soldiers on training exercises regularly contend with highwater situations following heavy rains, he said. “This was a tactical vehicle
and at the time they were in a proper place for what they were training,” Haug said. “It’s just an unfortunate accident that occurred quickly.” The bodies of two soldiers were found late Thursday night. Three soldiers were found dead shortly after the vehicle overturned. — Compiled from AP reports
Today’s Birthdays: Musician Roger Ball is 72. Actress-singer Michelle Phillips is 72. Jazz musician Anthony Braxton is 71. Rock musician Danny Brown (The Fixx) is 65. Actor Parker Stevenson is 64. Actor Keith David is 60. Blues singer-musician Tinsley Ellis is 59. Actress Julie Gholson is 58. Actor Eddie Velez is 58. Singer-musician El DeBarge is 55. Actress Julie White is 55. Actress Lindsay Frost is 54. Actor Sean Pertwee is 52. Tennis player Andrea Jaeger is 51. Opera singer Cecilia Bartoli is 50. Rhythm-and-blues singer Al B. Sure! is 48. Actor Scott Wolf is 48. Actor-comedian Rob Huebel is 47. Comedian Horatio Sanz is 47. Actor Noah Wyle is 45. Rock musician Stefan Lessard (The Dave Matthews Band) is 42. Actor-comedian Russell Brand is 41. Actress Angelina Jolie is 41. Actor Theo Rossi is 41. Alt-country singer Kasey Chambers is 40. Rock musician JoJo Garza (Los Lonely Boys) is 36. Country musician Dean Berner (Edens Edge) is 35. Model Bar Refaeli is 31. Olympic gold medal figure skater Evan Lysacek is 31. Americana singer Shakey Graves is 29. Rock musician Zac Farro is 26. Thought for Today: “If America forgets where she came from, if the people lose sight of what brought them along, if she listens to the deniers and mockers, then will begin the rot and dissolution.” — Carl Sandburg, American writer (1878-1967).
THURSDAY, JUNE 16 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.
AROUND THE WORLD UN grapples with violent extremism’s pull on youth UNITED NATIONS — The rise of social media has rendered traditional government and religious institutions inadequate to address the growing number of youth attracted to the message of violent extremism, a top United Nations official said Friday. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said leaders must
recognize the communications revolution taking place in today’s world in order to address the problem. “Today’s young people are inherently better communicators. Just look at your children and grandchildren. They have unprecedented skills of networking. They have an almost unlimited access to information. We need a comprehensive approach to address their needs and aspirations,” Eliasson said. “These extremist groups are
CONTACT US systematically recruiting children and young people through social media and peer-to-peer networking. They use financial incentives, fear-mongering and coercion,” he added. Eliasson made his remarks at a high-level conversation on children and youth affected by violent extremism, where politicians and academics from around the world grappled with how best to counter the extremists’ message. — Compiled from AP reports
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SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Wednesdays and Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata and Jim Hogg counties. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times in those areas at newstands, The Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas, 78044. Call (956) 728-2500.
The Zapata Times
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 4, 2016 |
A3
LOCAL
Zapata High USDA unveils improvements to valedictorian streamline crop reporting SPECIAL TO THE TIME S S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
Trisha Marie Garcia is the daughter of Jose Artemio Garcia and Adreana Elisa Valadez and sister to Agustin Garcia. Her paternal grandparents are Amando Garcia Sr. and the late Evangelina Garcia. Her maternal grandparents are Zaragoza Valadez and Maria Dolores J. Valadez. Trisha plans to attend Texas A&M University — Kingsville, having been accepted into Honors College, to pursue a degree in Biomedical Sciences in hopes of becoming a practicing pediatri-
Courtesy photo
Trisha Marie Garcia
cian to later give back to the community of Zapata.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that farmers and ranchers filing crop acreage reports with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and participating insurance providers approved by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) now can provide the common information from their acreage reports at one office and the information will be electronically shared with the other location. This new process is part of the USDA Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative (ACRSI).
This interagency collaboration also includes participating private crop insurance agents and insurance companies, all working to streamline the information collected from farmers and ranchers who participate in USDA programs. “If you file your report at one location, the data that’s important to both FSA and RMA will be securely and electronically shared with the other location,” said FSA Administrator Val Dolcini. “This will avoid redundant and duplicative reporting, and we expect this to save farmers and ranchers time.”
“Accuracy in crop reporting is a key component for crop insurance, because an error in this information can affect premiums or claims. This is going to greatly improve efficiencies and reduce mistakes,” said RMA Administrator Brandon Willis. Since 2009, USDA has been working to streamline the crop reporting process for agricultural producers, who have expressed concerns with providing the same basic common information for multiple locations. In 2013, USDA consolidated the deadlines to 15 dates for submitting these reports,
down from the previous 54 dates at RMA and 17 dates for FSA. USDA representatives believe farmers and ranchers will experience a notable improvement in the coming weeks as they approach the peak season for crop reporting later this summer. More than 93 percent of all annual reported acres to FSA and RMA now are eligible for the common data reporting, and USDA is exploring adding more crops. Producers must still visit both locations to validate and sign acreage reports, complete maps or provide program-specific information.
Zapata High salutatorian shares insight By Andrea Rai Garza FOR THE ZAPATA T IME S
The thriving force that defines my individuality is the foundation in which my background is built upon. Coming from a circle of individuals that consistently strive for greatness and that are willing to combat the forces of any challenge, has enabled me to be the fierce young lady that stands tall and proud today. Furthermore, I am humbled by the mere fact that I was raised in Zapata by my extraordinary parents, Henry Antonio Garza and Claudia Aida Garza, alongside my three loving sisters Selene Natalie Garza, Claudia Amelia Garza, and Helena Alexa Garza. My parents have instilled in me the value of providing unwavering
Courtesy photo
Andrea Garza
support to those we love the most, despite all circumstances. With tremendous efforts, my parent’s guidance through this journey has been the primary objective of my successes, and there are no words to express my love and appreciation for their insurmountable time and
effort. As for my sisters, they are the friends I know I will have forever, constantly reminding me to keep a smile upon my face and to find pride in embracing my uniqueness. I am honored to say that my paternal grandparents are Natalia Garza and the late Johnny Garza, and my maternal grandparents are Amelia Del Bosque and the late Reymundo Del Bosque. Though my grandfathers are not here to celebrate this special moment with me, I know that they are smiling from the pearly gates of heaven as my grandmothers have fulfilled both duties by abundantly adoring me through all my successes. In my academic pathways, I have managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA
throughout high school, to also be a devoted athlete, and an avid community volunteer. These couples of years were difficult with the adverse experiences that I encountered along the way, but they have certainly prepared me for what to expect in real world situations. As I look upon my journey of four years, a sense of serenity overcomes my body and mind making me realize that all the hard work finally paid off because I can confidently say that I am the Salutatorian of the Mighty Hawk Class of 2016. While striving for academic success, I have also been engaged in a variety of spectrums within the high school arena of extra- curricular activities, such as participating in volleyball,
NHS, softball, and the Leo’s Club, which have been instrumental in giving me the ability of finding my truest self. Being the President of the prestigious National Honor Society HS organization and a part of the Board of Directors for the Leo’s Club has taught me the duties of a leader as well as the responsibilities that followed. This year, I had the honor of being named 2016 Youth Border Patrol Student of the Year and was awarded in a ceremony followed by a scholarship. Lastly, it gives me great pleasure to say that I was selected as a 2016 Texas A&M Terry Scholar, which surely will offer me an array of endless possibilities. My future plans are to attend Texas A&M Uni-
versity at College Station as part of the fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2020 with the aspirations of majoring in engineering and furthering my education into the vast field of dentistry. I plan to give back to my community through quality medical service and also assist the youth as a pediatric dentist. I am excited to see what my future holds because the possibilities are endless, and I am eager to begin my own life and follow my own passions. Without God, none of this would be possible, and I am grateful for every blessing bestowed upon me along with every day that has been granted to me as I am allowed to make a mark for myself in this ever-changing world.
Zopinion
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A4 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
Wonder who is backing Trump? Let’s read some emails By Rex Huppke CH ICAGO T RIBUNE
One of the joys of writing about presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is getting feedback from his supporters, most of whom share the candidate’s famous penchant for tact and kindness. The responses to Thursday’s column - in which I thanked Trump for his "casual sexism" and for behaving like "a thin-skinned child with poor impulse control" — were predictably fantastic. I’m going to share some of the email I received so you can have an answer to the common question: Who are these people who support Trump? These are notes that actual human beings wrote to another human being. They aren’t made up, and they haven’t been embellished. I’ve replaced profanities, vulgarities and other inappropriate slang with parenthetical explanations that are appropriate to print. With that, let’s meet some Trump supporters! Subject line: "America loves seeing Trump spank media!" Email: "America loves it everytime Trump spanks the (offensive word for person with an intellectual disability) and corrupt media. He invites them into his den and then humiliates them, what a guy! Trump the alpha male shows he has the guts to be not only the president of the United States but leader of the known universe. Trump is doing what Bush and other Repubs were too much of a (slang word for part of female anatomy) to do. Rex, please try to attend a Trump press conference so he can have a bowel movement on you as well. Have a great life with President Trump." I didn’t change "bowel movement." The reader actually wrote that. Must be a doctor - very clinical. Subject line: "Thanks" Email: "For being a (profanity ending in "hole") and writing falsehoods about Trump. (Offensive slang term ending in "bags") like you should be fired. He is trying to turn around this country from almost 8 years of the other (profanity ending in "hole") running this country. I can’t wait till he wins and then watch you kiss his (profanity for "butt")." Subject line: "You keep us so energized we can’t thank you enough!" Email: "Rex Baby, We look forward to reading more of your liberal pab-
lum bashing of Trump to keep us energized and a reason to push for a landslide in November. You are the great motivator for us. We’ve read where most of you leftist media propagandists are members of the LGBT community. So, are you a female posing as a male or simply a limp wristed Beta male who hangs with the transvestites. just asking! Best of luck to you darling, (try to contain yourself if you (term for a solo sex act) to my picture)." As Trump would say: Classy! Subject line: "Keep writing your comical trash so the polls soar!" Email: "Hi there Rex, What would Trump do without propagandists like you showing the American people what frauds you media types are. Us Trumpsters will have a lot to thank you for when he wipes out Crooked Hillary, as without you it would not have been possible. We will be in your debt forever for helping Donald and his hot wife replace Commie Obama and his transgender wife Michelle. You will be on suicide watch after Trump gets elected but you made your own bed of course." Subject line: "The media is America’s bowel movement!" Email: "Rex darling, America has disowned the print media long ago. Propagandists like you posing as unbiased journalists have been exposed for the frauds that you are. Bush should have taken a bowel movement on the media like Trump is doing. Have a great day sweetheart." Another email with a bowel movement reference can’t be a coincidence, so I’m guessing this is a Trump fan using two separate email accounts to give me the old hate-mail double whammy. As Trump would say: Sad! There were three other pro-Trump emails, but they were either more of the same or conspiratorial rants about Hillary Clinton. If you find these responses in any way depressing - and you should - let me lift your spirits: I received a total of eight pro-Trump emails in the wake of Thursday’s column. The number of emails from anti-Trump readers who liked the column was more than 25. Trump fans are losing. And that’s something they, like their insulthurling hero, simply can’t stand.
COLUMN
Congress must act to save Central States By Mary Sanchez THE KANSAS CITY STAR
There are two ways to tell the tale of the Central States Pension Fund. There’s the numbers story: an actuarial tale of how a pension fund that was supposed to cover the retirement years for nearly half a million Teamsters wound up headed for insolvency. And then there’s the human tragedy: aging workers fearful that pensions they earned through decades of labor are gone. Either way, this is the ultimate in a bureaucratic kicking the can down the road. Nearly a month has passed since the U.S. Treasury Department said "no" to a rescue plan to shore up the finances of the failing Central States Pension Fund, which covers some 400,000 participants. The idea was that by cutting benefits for some retirees now, some up to 60 percent, the fund could stave off insolvency. The shorted checks were to start in July. But Treasury said no deal, arguing that the plan didn’t meet regulations, and the cuts were scrapped. It was cause for a momentary sigh of relief for the retirees, who had filled auditoriums in cities nationwide to plead their case with federal officials. But the Central States
Fund is still predicted to be insolvent within 10 years. And the fund is the canary in the mineshaft for similar multi-employer pension funds also at risk. In late May, the overseer of the pension fund pretty much threw up his hands and said Congress needed to save the retirees, floating the idea of a bailout. It was explained that too much time has passed, and the trustees, actuaries and lawyers can’t figure it a new way to save the fund from insolvency that would satisfy government regulations. "Therefore, there will be no new rescue plan," was the wording on the one-page announcement by the executive director of the Central States Pension Fund. For the 400,000 people whose pensions are managed by the fund, many of them already aging and ailing, there will be no escaping the devastating effects of this decision to do nothing. If the fund goes bust, mortgages won’t be paid. Prescriptions won’t be filled. Utility bills and grocery shopping will be a regular hardship. In recent weeks, a handful of Democratic senators made pressed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to do something before Congress takes its summer
break. Fat chance. Unions are involved here, and Republicans like nothing better than showing contempt for unions. Never mind that union corruption in the 1970s is merely where the fund began to unravel. A consent decree involved the courts, Wall Street firms and other trustees into the management of the fund. Congressional decisions affecting the trucking industry through deregulation had a massive impact, as companies that had once paid into the fund went bankrupt. Congress dealt a huge blow two years ago when it struck down an enshrined American ideal. Money earned for a pension can’t be pulled out from under you like a rug once you retire. That promise, once codified in law, was upended by the passage of the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, which was tucked into a mustpass omnibus bill. President Obama signed it. The new law allowed for the proposed cuts that were to begin in July. Several bills have been introduced to help repair that damage. One would repeal the 2014 provisions allowing cuts to pension checks. Another tries to control the excessive pay and bonuses given to executives of troubled
COLUMN
Clinton is ready to take on Trump By Gary Stein SUN SENTINEL
No one can deny Hillary Clinton brings plenty of baggage to the presidential race. People believe she is untrustworthy. She is secretive. She is not a dynamic campaigner. All true. But Hillary Clinton
showed this week she will do one thing that Donald Trump’s wimpy opponents for the Republican nomination would not do. She will fight back. And she’ll do it aggressively. Good for her. Trump’s rivals wouldn’t lay a glove on him, for fear of Trump
attacking back. They also didn’t want to lose his brain-dead followers. Hillary Clinton won’t worry about that. If you have bought the Trump Kool-Aid, you aren’t going to be swayed by Clinton. She knows that. So this week she just blistered Trump, calling
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letter. Laredo Morning Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. This space allows for public debate of the issues of the day. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Also, letters longer than 500 words will not be accepted. Via email, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
pension funds, if they issue cuts to retirees. Talks are on-going about closing federal tax loopholes and redirecting some of the money to shore up the multiemployer fund pensions. Something must be done here, because the risks are great if Central States fails. It could take down the multiemployer arm of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal government’s multiemployer pension insurance program. That fund is in trouble too. Where will this saga end? Here’s a prediction. Nothing will happen until Congress is embarrassed into action. Central States or some other fund teetering on edge will go bust. Media will highlight retirees without their hard-earned pensions. We’ll find these seniors moving in with their children when they lose their homes, forgoing doctor’s appointments to save money and embarrassed to be asking for help from local food pantries. Congress will act when it is desperate enough to stave off the uncomfortable images of gray-haired men with canes suffering because of broken promises. But by then more pension funds will be in trouble and any congressional action might be little more than plugging holes in a sinking boat.
DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
him "temperamentally unfit" to be president. She talked about his "bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies." And then she said this: "It’s not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us to war just because someone got under his very thin skin." Bravo.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 4, 2016 |
A5
ENTERTAINMENT
Prince autopsy report hints at puzzling painkiller mystery By Carla K. Johnson A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
The report from the medical examiner who conducted Prince’s autopsy is tantalizing for what it doesn’t say. The single-page document lists a fentanyl overdose as the cause of death, but it offers few clues to indicate whether the musician was a chronic pain patient desperately seeking relief, a longtime opioid user whose habit became an addiction or a combination of both. Blanks for contributing causes are marked “na,” and it’s unclear whether that acronym stands for “not applicable” or “not available.” A space for “other significant conditions” is also marked “na.” Authorities probably know much more than they are willing to discuss publicly as they seek the source of the fentanyl and consider criminal charges. For now, details in the report , combined with what’s known about Prince’s final days, hint at a fuller picture. Among those details is a note that Prince’s body had scars on the left hip and right lower leg. The report doesn’t say, but it’s possible the scars were evidence of past surgeries for joint pain. At least one friend has said Prince suffered years of hip and knee pain from his athletic stage performances. In many ways, the 57-year-old superstar fit the description of a chronic pain patient who got hooked on opioids, said Andrew Kolodny, director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. Opioids lead to tolerance,
and some patients seek out stronger drugs after initial dosages stop working. “We see far more overdose deaths in middleaged people receiving legitimate prescriptions,” Kolodny said, citing a 2013 study of 250 deaths. In the study, most overdose victims were middle-aged adults who had been prescribed opioids for chronic pain. Survivors told researchers their loved ones, in the year before they died, had been misusing their medicine, taking more than prescribed or using painkillers to get high. Less than a week before Prince died, his plane made an emergency stop in Illinois on a flight back to Minnesota following a concert in Atlanta. The Associated Press and other media organizations, citing anonymous sources, reported that first responders gave him an antidote commonly used to reverse suspected opioid overdoses. Fentanyl is a powerful opioid prescribed by doctors to patients who develop a tolerance to other narcotics. It’s also a street drug with ties to labs in China that produce fentanyl equivalents for global distribution. Heroin-spiked fentanyl is marketed with brand names such as “China White” or “Fire.” “Users know this and request it by name,” said Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Lawrence Payne. Nothing in the report explains whether Prince used a pharmaceutical product or a street drug.
The report is silent on whether it was prescribed by a doctor or obtained illegally. “Was it a lozenge? Was it a skin patch?” said Dr. Yashpal Agrawal of the College of American Pathologists. What’s more, there are numerous ways to misuse and overdose on fentanyl, by applying multiple skin patches or eating one, Agrawal said. The report says nothing about other drugs Prince may have been taking. Some prescription drugs can affect the way fentanyl is processed by the body, increasing its toxicity, Agrawal said. Some opioid users — whether they start as legitimate pain patients or recreational users — become addicted and lose control over how much they take. They use much more than is prescribed or seek out drugs on the black market. Some also try to get drugs by “doctor shopping,” visiting various health professionals until they find one who will prescribe opioids. Minnesota, like most states, runs a monitoring program to track prescriptions of opioids and other high-risk drugs. The database includes the names of the patients prescribed the drugs, although those names are only available to law enforcement for 12 months from when pharmacies or doctors record it. Minnesota shares information with 21 states. Law enforcement authorities can access information about a person’s prescription history in the system if they get a search warrant.
Chris Pizzello / Associated Press
Prince performs at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas. The report from the medical examiner who conducted Prince’s autopsy is tantalizing for what it doesn’t say. The single-page document lists a fentanyl overdose as the cause of death.
A6 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
NATIONAL
Pilot safely ejects before Thunderbird crash By Josh Lederman and Dan Elliott A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — The pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird ejected safely into a Colorado field Thursday, crashing the fighter jet moments after flying over a crowd watching President Barack Obama’s commencement address for Air Force cadets. A short helicopter ride later, the pilot found himself shaking hands with the president on the tarmac at a nearby air base. “The president thanked the pilot for his service to the country and expressed his relief that the pilot was not seriously injured,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. The Air Force identified the pilot as Maj. Alex Turner, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. He has more than 270 combat hours over Libya and Iraq. News of the crash broke while Obama’s motorcade was returning to Peterson Air Force Base for his flight back to Washington. Turner ejected about 15 miles south of the Air Force Academy near Peterson, where Air Force One was waiting to take off. Emergency responders who picked up Turner in the rescue helicopter brought him to a spot that happened to be on the president’s motorcade route back to Air Force One. Turner parachuted down about a half-mile from his plane and was standing and chatting
Brennan Linsley / Associated Press
A U.S. Air Force Thunderbird rests in a field after it crashed following a flyover performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets, south of Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday. The pilot ejected safely from the jet.
with bystanders when firefighters from the nearby town of Security arrived, said Pete Smith, a member of the Security Fire Department. “He seemed pretty calm,” Smith said. “I would have been a little more upset than he was.” The pilot was in good condition, but he will undergo medical screenings, according to the Thunderbirds team. The Air Force said the Thunderbirds will cancel upcoming shows while the crash is investigated, but officials did not say how long the team will be grounded. The Thunderbirds’ next scheduled shows were at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; North Kingston, Rhode Island; Ocean City, Maryland; and Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The crash was one of two Thursday for the
military’s elite fighter jet performance teams. An official in Tennessee said a pilot was killed when his Blue Angels fighter jet crashed, but no civilians were hurt on the ground. The Navy’s Blue Angels team was near Nashville practicing for a scheduled performance this weekend. In Colorado, the Thunderbirds had just finished their traditional performance at the commencement, screaming overhead as the graduating officers tossed their white hats skyward. The jets then did multiple fly-bys over the academy’s football stadium, where the graduation took place, blasting by in tight formations or looping high overhead. There was no obvious sign of trouble with any of the jets during the performance. Peterson base spokes-
Amy Newman / Associated Press
The Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in South Hackensack, N.J. Agents were arrested on charges they flouted their duties by running the lucrative strip club.
Dancer testifies at trial about affair with top DEA official By Larry Neumeister A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
NEW YORK — A Brazilian dancer who entered the country illegally testified at a Manhattan trial Friday about her romantic relationship with a onetime top Drug Enforcement Administration official, saying it began a few months after she arrived in the United States in early 2011 and ended after his arrest last year. Prosecutors subpoenaed Andressa Delima to testify to support their claims that now-retired DEA Agent David Polos failed to disclose his extramarital relationship with the dancer and his partial ownership of a bikini bar because he knew it could cause him to lose his top-secret security clearance and his job as assistant special agent in charge of the New York office. Speaking through a Portuguese interpreter, Delima told jurors she met Polos at Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in South Hackensack, New Jersey. Polos had taken an ownership stake of it in 2011, and Delima was a dancer there. Answering yes or no to
most questions, the softspoken Delima said she came to New Jersey, where her sister lived, after entering the country illegally through Mexico. Polos, 52, through attorney Marc Mukasey, has sharply disputed the claims, saying his client’s $20,000-plus investment in the business was similar to a stock market investment and should not be considered outside work. Questioned by a prosecutor, Delima confirmed she began a romantic relationship with Polos within months of arriving in New Jersey in early 2011. She said it ended after Polos, of West Nyack, New York, was arrested in May 2015 along with Glen Glover, a DEA telecommunications specialist who has been suspended. Glover, 46, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, also is contesting the government’s claim that he violated the law when he failed to reveal his ownership position in the club. On cross-examination, Mukasey elicited from Delima that she didn’t begin dating Polos until late 2011, around the time Polos bought her boots and a winter coat.
In his opening statement this week, Mukasey said the relationship began only after his client answered questions in September 2011 on security clearance forms filled out routinely by DEA employees. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni told jurors there was a “slim to none” chance the government would have approved of DEA employees owning an adult establishment where prostitution and drug offenses were likely occurring because it raised the likelihood that employees possessing top-secret information could be put in compromising positions. The government has said in court papers that Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge offered scantily clad and sometimes topless dancers — most of them workers from Brazil or Russia in the country illegally — and private rooms for lap dances. A criminal complaint said video recovered during a search of the lounge, including from inside the private rooms, showed “multiple instances of sexual contact between dancers and patrons, with money exchanged afterward.”
man Jeff Bohn said it was unclear whether the plane developed problems while on its final approach path over empty fields. It also was unclear whether Turner maneuvered the jet into a position to crash without harming anyone on the ground. Turner had to make multiple decisions in a moment. “We’re talking fractions of seconds,” Bohn said. Justin Payne was working on wallpaper inside his house when the plane struck the ground. “What I heard was a big boom,” Payne said. “I ran outside. Three or four degrees to the left and that jet would have hit our house.” Payne said the fuselage slid about 2,000 feet before coming to rest. He said it appeared the nose was ripped from the rest of the F-16. Authorities quickly
cordoned off the area, and a hazardous materials crew was suiting up to inspect the site, said Payne, who added he was ordered to stay inside his house. A smudgy, gray skid mark extended a few hundred yards from where the plane came to rest on its belly in the tall grass. About four hours after the crash, an Army Black Hawk helicopter circled low over the downed jet and made several passes along what appeared to be the plane’s path before it crashed. Air Force Staff Sgt. Alexander Rodriguez, a U.S. Air Force firefighter stationed in San Angelo, Texas, who was visiting with his family, said he raced from his brother’s house after hearing “a few loud bangs” and saw the plane gliding close to the ground before impact. “I started booking
straight for the aircraft,” Rodriguez said. “I saw the cockpit was empty and checked for any fuel hazard — there was a single fuel leak on the right side. I heard a ticking noise that indicated something was still running and I backed off.” By then, first responders from Petersen and Colorado Springs were arriving on the scene, he said. The Thunderbirds are the Air Force’s precision flying team, known for their red, white and blue painted F-16 fighter jets. The unit, based out of Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base, will perform more than 40 shows in 2016, according to its website. The vaunted aerial demonstration team has been performing air demonstrations since 1947. During a performance at the Chicago Air and Water Show in 2005, two of the jets made contact while they were flying in formation, and a missile rail was dislodged. No one was injured in that accident. The group was in a diamond formation when a 4-foot-long missile rail came loose from the wing of one of their jets. The carbon fiber object fell into Lake Michigan, roughly 2,500 feet from where spectators had gathered to watch the show. No one was hurt. Two years earlier, a Thunderbird jet crashed at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho as about 85,000 spectators looked on. The pilot safely ejected with only minor injuries.
Zfrontera THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 4, 2016 |
RIBEREÑA EN BREVE Walk Across Texas 1 El mercado agrícola y artesanal de Zapata y Texas A&M University invita al arranque del evento Walk Across Texas, el sábado 4 de junio, de 10 a.m. a 1 p.m., que consta de un reto de ocho semanas para mantenerse físicamente activo a través de carrera/caminata. El evento es gratuito y lleno de actividades. Regístrese en walkacrosstexas.tamu.edu o el día del evento en Zapata County Plaza.Asista, ejercítese y adquiera productos frescos, saludables y locales. Informes en 956-750-6600 y 956-750-1120 o bien escriba a zapatafarmersmarket@gmail.com
Pregúntele al Cónsul 1 “Pregúntele al Cónsul”, es un programa del Consulado de México en Laredo a través de Facebook. Se informa acerca de visas, pasaportes, el perdón, castigos, entre otros temas. Puede enviar sus preguntas. Se desarrollará el jueve 9 de junio de 3 p.m. a 4 p.m. en la página tinyurl.com/-jsr3nla
A7
PATRULLA FRONTERIZA
CORTE
Decomisan cargamento de droga
Acusado se dice no culpable
E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
La Patrulla Fronteriza dijo el jueves que agentes designados a la estación de servicio de la Patrulla Fronteriza en Zapata descubrieron un intento de contrabando de droga. Los agentes estaban trabajando en sus deberes asignados el 26 de mayo cuando se encontraron con paquetes abandonados en el piso que se sospechaba contenían marihuana. Cuando los agentes realizaron una investigación con más detalle en el área, también descubrieron un vehículo abandonado conteniendo paquetes adicionales en el interior. Los agentes inspeccionaron el vehículo y descubrieron un total de 80 paquetes en el interior del
Foto de cortesía
Agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza descubrieron un total de 80 paquetes en el interior de este vehículo en el área del Condado de Zapata.
vehículo y 20 paquetes en el piso, dando un total de 100 paquetes. “Los agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza continúan trabajando diligentemente para interrumpir la actividad criminal y disuadir a las organizaciones de introducir contrabando
peligroso en nuestra comunidad”, dijo Mario Martínez, agente en jefe de patrulla. El contrabando dio positivo a marihuana. Los narcóticos tenían un peso total de 2.276.78 libras con un valor estimado en el mercado de 1.821.440 de dólares.
Ocultaba droga por valor de 1,5 millones Por César G. Rodríguez TIEMP O DE LAREDO
Un hombre que ocultaba cerca de 1,5 millones de dólares en cocaína en su propiedad ubicada en el Condado de Zapata fue recientemente acusado formalmente, de acuerdo a documentos de la corte. El 24 de mayo, un gran jurado acusó a José Manuel Alaníz de conspirar para poseer con intento de distribuir una sustancia controlada y poseer con intento de distribuir una sustancia controlada. Alaníz se declaró no culpable de los alegatos el martes. Él permanece bajo custodia federal. Una conferencia final previa al juicio está programada para el 30 de junio. La Administración para el Control de las Drogas y el Departamento de Seguridad Pública llevaron a cabo una vigilancia el 6 de mayo en una casa de seguridad en la cuadra 100 de la calle Illinois. Las autoridades se reunieron con Alaníz,
quien rentaba la propiedad. Él negó cualquier tipo de actividad criminal ocurriendo en su propiedad, de acuerdo a la querella criminal presentada el 9 de mayo. Sin embargo, los agentes federales dijeron que encontraron material de empaque en el interior de la casa y en el contenedor de la basura cuando se realizó un cateo en la residencia. Mientras se revisaba el área, los agentes especiales dijeron que localizaron una pieza de equipaje en la maleza más allá de la línea de la barda de la propiedad, se establece en los registros. El equipaje contenía 50 paquetes de cocaína con un peso de 124 libras. El contrabando tenía un valor estimado en las calles de 1.573.600 dólares. “Alaníz dijo a los agentes que le pagaron 1.000 dólares por utilizar su propiedad para albergar los narcóticos”, se establece en la querella.
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 Manuel Pérez.
ZAPATA ISD
FELICIDADES GENERACIÓN 2016
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
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
Foto de cortesía | ZCISD
La generación 2016 de la preparatoria Zapata High School tuvo su ceremonia de graduación el viernes. “El personal del campus, sus padres y la comunidad así como la Junta Directiva de Zapata County Independent School District y su suiperintendente estamos muy orgullosos de ustedes“, dijo Roberto O. Hein, Superintendente a cargo de Escuelas de ZCID al grupo de estudiantes graduados.
COLUMNA
STAAR 1 El martes 21 de junio se volverá a aplicar el examen de matemáticas a los alumnos del 5 y 8 grados; el 22 de junio, se reaplicará el examen de lectura para alumnos del 5 y 8 grados.El 11 de julio se aplicará el examen de Inglés I y el 12 de julio el de Biología e Historia de EU. El 13 de julio se hará lo propio con Inglés II y el 14 de julio el de Algebra I.
Academia Roma FC Soccer 1 Se invita a participar en la escuela Academia Roma FC Soccer para niños de 3 a 10 años. Cuota 40 dólares incluye uniforme. Informes en el 956-437-2700 ó 956-437-9112.
Héroe permanece olvidado Por Raúl Sinencio Chávez E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
Nota del editor: Rafael María Quintero fue un héroe e intelectual tamaulipeco que ha permanecido olvidado por la historia. Rafael María Quintero fue hijo de Cayetano Quintero Romero, capitán y copropietario de la hacienda del Cojo, actual municipalidad de González, en la franja sureña del estado de Tamaulipas. Deducimos que nace ahí mismo, a principios del siglo XIX. Viejos documentos muestran que vivió largo tiempo en la comarca, sugiriéndonos también que estudió Leyes.
Aparte de riquezas, el padre de Quintero y el tío Juan Quintero Romero cobran relevancia en feroz batida contrainsurgente, al mando de Joaquín de Arredondo. Tras la independencia nacional, su hermano Gabriel y su primo Juan Antonio Quintero Barberena, ex-mando de la Nueva España, detentan altas posiciones centralistas. Don Rafael, en fuerte contraste, las desdeña y abraza causas de vanguardia. En 1822, abre carrera política con una suplencia en la diputación provincial de Nuevo Santander, antecedente de Tamaulipas. En la primera legislatura constitucional de la entidad, tres años
después compone la mesa directiva. Más adelante vecino de Matamoros, le confían la presidencia municipal del puerto, ya fronterizo con EU. Complementarias de las controversias ideológicas del período 18381840, asciende a coronel graduado de caballería. Vencida la última dictadura encabezada por Antonio López de Santa Anna, en la Ciudad de México funciona el constituyente que entre 1856 y 1857 redacta la nueva carta magna de la República. Al lado de Luis García de Arellano, obtiene la representatividad tamaulipeca don Rafael y respalda esfuerzos que sientan las bases del
estado laico. Don Rafael apresura el retorno e integra la asamblea que dicta la constitución estatal de 1857, acorde con los preceptos federales. Desatada la Guerra de Reforma, defiende el código supremo la entidad, salvo Tampico, cuyo jefe militar renuncia a favor del bando reaccionario. Sitiados por De la Garza, al rescate de los sediciosos acude el compinche Tomás Mejía con numerosas tropas. En la batalla contra los enemigos del legítimo orden jurídico fallece don Rafael el 14 de mayo de 1858. La pérdida conmueve a Ignacio Ramírez, El Nigromante, correligionario en las recientes jornadas parlamentarias de la
metrópoli capitalina. Escribe don Ignacio: “Cayó Quintero en medio a su camino/ entre sangre y laureles; y consuma/ el crimen de la lid un asesino”. Son fragmentos de elegía, fechada en Tampico en abril de 1859. Al siguiente año, en memoria de este prócer surge la villa de Quintero, antigua cabecera del hoy municipio de El Mante. Los conservadores terminan derrotados. En 1984 se incorpora el nombre de Rafael María Quintero al muro de honor del legislativo tamaulipeco. (Con permiso del autor, publicado en La Razón, Tampico, el 3 de junio 2016)
A8 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
POLITICS
Zach Gibson / New York Times
President Barack Obama during a meeting with former prisoners whose sentences had been commuted, at Busboys and Poets in Washington.
Obama cuts prison sentences for 42 drug offenders By Josh Lederman A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama shortened the sentences Friday of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration. Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences. Most are nonviolent offenders, although a few were also charged with firearms violations. The White House said many of them would have already finished their sentences if they had been sentenced under current, less onerous sentencing guidelines. The latest group of commutations brings to 348 the total number of inmates whose sentences Obama has commuted — more than the past seven presidents combined, the White House said. The pace of commutations and the rarer use of pardons are expected to increase as the end of Obama’s presidency nears. “He remains committed to using his clemency power throughout the remainder of the administration to give more deserving individuals that same second chance,” White House counsel Neil
Eggleston wrote in a blog post. Eggleston added that the offenders receiving commutations had “more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance.” One of the offenders, Douglas Ray Dunkins Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas, had been held up by civil liberties groups as one of the most egregious examples of over-sentencing. Dunkins had only a minor shoplifting conviction on his prior record in 1993 when, at age 26, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to possess and distribute crack cocaine, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report. No drugs were found, but prosecutors used testimony from co-conspirators who testified in exchange for lighter sentences, the ACLU said. The ACLU said Dunkins had worked for nearly a decade as a paralegal helping other inmates with legal work and wanted to mentor youth if he ever got out. Dunkins is slated to be released in October. “The day-to-day of prison is taking an even greater toll on me. ... I wake up every day and pray in a cell that’s white and grey with little room to move around in be-
tween me and my cellmate,” Dunkins wrote in an opinion piece last year in The Guardian. “Clemency is something that I long for — not just for me, but for a lot of inmates who have served well over 20-plus years for crimes involving crack cocaine.” Though there’s wide bipartisan support for a criminal justice overhaul, what had looked like a promising legislative opportunity in Obama’s final year has mostly lost steam. As with Obama’s other priorities, the chaotic presidential campaign has increasingly made cooperation among Republicans and Democrats in Congress difficult to achieve this year. Obama has long called for getting rid of strict sentences for drug offenses, arguing they lead to excessive punishment and sky-high incarceration rates. With Obama’s support, the Justice Department in recent years has directed prosecutors to rein in the use of harsh mandatory minimums. The Obama administration has also expanded criteria for inmates applying for clemency, targeting nonviolent offenders who have behaved well in prison and would have received shorter sentences if convicted of the same crime a few years later.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 4, 2016 |
A9
BUSINESS
Wal-Mart’s CEO urges Crude oil declines after employees to reimagine OPEC decides not to company’s future impose new ceiling By Anne D’Innocenzio A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart’s CEO urged employees on Friday to reimagine its future in a fast-shifting retail landscape. The company is at a crossroads, as its longheld dominance in pricing has been chipped away at by Amazon and dollar stores. But it’s fighting back on multiple fronts, growing more aggressive with prices and going after Amazon, both online and on the doorstep, by expanding delivery services. “We want to make every day easier for busy families. We’re connecting all the parts of Wal-Mart into one seamless shopping experience with great stores, easy pickup, fast delivery and apps and websites that are simple to use,” Chief Executive Doug McMillon said at the annual shareholders’ meeting. The event was packed with 14,000 people including nearly 6,000 WalMart workers as well as shareholders, analysts and several Walton family members. The legacy of the company’s late founder Sam Walton still resonates, with executives paying homage to his philosophy of low prices and customer service. Part business meeting, part pep rally, the meeting was hosted by comedian James Corden and featured musicians including Nick Jonas, Maxwell and
Andy Grammer. Entertainment aside, Wal-Mart emphasized ways in which it’s working to be more nimble. The company is spending money on its stores and its staff. It’s in the second year of a $2.7 billion investment in training and higher wages, with the goal of making WalMart a place people want to be. Changes have been painful at times. The company announced this year it would shutter 269 stores worldwide, about half of them in the U.S. That’s a tiny fraction of its locations worldwide, but was a rare pruning for WalMart, particularly on its home turf. Yet those maneuvers to spruce up stores and increase wages appear to be paying off. The company posted its seventh consecutive quarter of rising comparablestore sales at U.S. WalMart locations, which account for 62 percent of annual revenue. It expects sales to grow again this quarter. Traffic counts are up for the sixth straight quarter. Amid a disastrous quarter for many retailers as a whole, Wal-Mart excelled. But red flags have appeared have as Wal-Mart digs in to fend off Amazon.com. Overall revenue in the fiscal year ended in January declined slightly to $478.6 billion, excluding revenue from membership fees and other income. That’s the first annual
drop since the company went public 45 years ago. Wal-Mart’s e-commerce growth has slowed dramatically even as it escalates investment there. Global e-commerce sales growth slowed to 7 percent during the first quarter, a notable downturn from nearly 30 percent two years ago. “Domestically, WalMart’s challenge remains unchanged as it attempts to adapt to a changing retail environment in which stores are only ‘part’ of the environment and not ‘only’ the environment,” wrote Credit Suisse analyst Michael Exstein. Still, Wall Street appears optimistic. WalMart shares are up 16 percent this year, while the Standard & Poor’s index for multiline retail is up only 2.5 percent. Some details on steps Wal-Mart is taking: 1 Reprioritizing Prices: Wal-Mart is cutting prices on an array of products over the next few years, though it’s not releasing specifics. Executives said that in the past few years, it hadn’t been as aggressive on prices as it should have been. The company is also bringing back the smiley face in stores and TV ads after a decade, saying nearly 70 percent of customers still equate the image with savings. 1 Expanding Online: Wal-Mart is increasing its online options, including groceries. It’s adding 14 new markets for online grocery pickup.
By Mark Shenk BL OOMBERG NEWS
Crude dropped after OPEC decided to stick to its policy of unfettered output. Futures fell on both sides of the Atlantic after closing on Thursday above $50 a barrel in London for the first time in seven months. While members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rejected a proposal to adopt a new production ceiling, ministers were united in their optimistic outlook for markets. Prices extended losses after the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose for the second time this year, according to Baker Hughes Inc. Oil has surged about 85 percent in New York from a 12-year low earlier this year amid disruptions in Nigeria, Libya, Venezuela and Canada and declines in U.S. output. OPEC needs more time to come up with a new production ceiling, outgoing Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said after the meeting in Vienna, adding that it’s hard to find a target when Iranian supply is rising and significant Libyan volumes are halted. “The good news yesterday was that OPEC is getting along better,” said Rob Thummel, a managing director and portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC who helps manage $14.1 billion. “The pain inflicted on U.S. producers, which was
their goal, also hurt OPEC members. A reconciliation process is taking place.” Output Ceiling West Texas Intermediate oil for July delivery fell 55 cents to settle at $48.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices slipped 1.4 percent this week after rising the prior three. Total volume traded was 33 percent below the 100-day average at 2:40 p.m. Brent for August settlement slipped 40 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $49.64 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices closed Thursday above $50 for the first time since Nov. 3. The global benchmark crude closed at a 53-cent premium to WTI for August delivery. Before the OPEC meeting, Saudi Arabia had floated the idea of reinstating a group production ceiling as a gesture to show it had no plans to flood the market and it was serious about making the gathering a success. Iran, which has rejected any cap on output as it restores volumes following the removal of sanctions in January, argued that a group quota would be meaningless. For the Iranian Oil Minister’s verdict on the OPEC meeting, click here. Better Atmosphere Nevertheless, relations among OPEC members improved significantly after several acrimonious meetings, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanga-
neh said in an interview in Vienna Friday. Prices are recovering and the market is in good shape, said Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Khalid AlFalih. Oil at $50 a barrel isn’t high enough to spark a significant production gain, he told reporters in his suite in a Vienna hotel. “The OPEC outcome was expected,” said Gene McGillian, a senior analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. “The continuing decline in North American output and the idea that global growth will boost demand have pushed prices higher. Whether they are enough to push us decisively over $50 has yet to be seen.” Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. rose by 9 to 325, after 2 were dropped last week, Baker Hughes said Friday. Explorers have idled more than 1,000 oil rigs since the start of last year. Rig Count “The uptick for rigs might have prompted some people to think that there’s a supply side reaction to $50 oil,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “This is just one week’s data. This doesn’t change the fact that the rig count is down a great deal or represent the beginning of a recovery.” U.S. crude supply fell last week, an Energy Information Administration report showed Thursday.
Gogo shares sink after airline cuts deal with rival ViaSat A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
FORT WORTH, Texas — Shares of Gogo Inc. fell 16 percent Friday on news that American Airlines picked rival ViaSat Inc. to provide Internet access on about 100 new Boeing jets and might drop Gogo on many jets that use it now. Airline passengers have increasingly come to expect Internet service so that they can read email, browse the web and stream entertainment during flights. That has heightened the competition among broad-
band providers. Gogo has relied on air-to-ground technology but is developing faster satellite-based broadband service so that passengers can stream Netflix and YouTube. Carlsbad, Californiabased ViaSat said Friday that it will provide satellite-based service on the Boeing 737 Max jets that American expects to begin receiving in September 2017. Chicago-based Gogo said in a regulatory filing it will provide satellitebased service on nearly 140 American planes and
continue providing airto-ground service on more than 400 others, mostly small regional jets. But, Gogo added, it expects that American will exercise an option to remove Gogo’s equipment on many of its larger, so-called mainline planes over the next several years. Casey Norton, a spokesman for Fort Worth-based American, the world’s largest airline, said faster satellite broadband is crucial on large planes because passengers must share
the available bandwidth. He said using both ViaSat and Gogo would help the airline improve onboard Internet access across its fleet more quickly than using one provider. Norton said American will upgrade many mainline planes to satellite broadband but has not picked a provider. Gogo shares fell $1.78 to close at $9.29. They have lost 48 percent in 2016. ViaSat shares gained $3.17, or 4.5 percent, to $73.08 and are up 20 percent for the year.
Mark Elias / Bloomberg
An American Airlines jet parked at a terminal of Miami International Airport. American Airlines picked rival ViaSat Inc. to provide Internet access on about 100 new Boeing jets.
A10 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
INTERNATIONAL
US sanctions expected to hit small banks’ business with North Korea By Jane Perlez NEW YORK TIME S Uncredited / Associated Press
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers his speech in a ceremony marking the 27th death anniversary of founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, at his shrine just outside Tehran, Iran.
Iran’s supreme leader on America: Don’t trust, don’t cooperate By Rick Gladstone N EW YORK T I ME S
Iran’s top leader said Friday that trusting or cooperating with the United States would be a big mistake, an assertion that seemed to rule out any greater collaboration despite the nuclear deal reached nearly a year ago. The statement by the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made in a nationally televised speech, was the latest in a series of signals that Iran’s senior leadership was not likely to allow any easing of hostility toward the United States. “We have many small and big enemies,” the ayatollah said, according to translated accounts of his speech in the Iranian media, noting that the worst are the United States, Britain and Israel, which he described as “the damned and cancerous Zionist regime.” The backdrop for Khamenei’s speech was the 27th anniversary of the death of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic revolution that overthrew the Westernbacked shah of Iran in 1979. Khamenei’s speech appeared to partly reflect Iranian frustration in not achieving any significant economic benefits so far from the nuclear agreement, which was negotiated last year and took effect in January. Under the agreement, Iran sharply reduced its nuclear activities in exchange for the end of many U.S. and European sanctions on the country. President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, an architect of the agreement, said it signaled a prosperous new era. Since then, however, it has become clear that other U.S. sanctions on Iran, unaffected by the nuclear agreement, have still dissuaded many international companies from risking business with Iran. Moreover, the Iranians have been infuriated by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in April that allowed the use of nearly $2 billion in impounded Iranian bank funds to pay American victims of terrorist attacks overseas.
Doubts also have increased about the longevity of the nuclear agreement ahead of the presidential elections in the United States. While Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has expressed support for the agreement, the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, has suggested he would renounce it. Iran’s experience in the nuclear negotiations, Khamenei said in the speech, showed that “the U.S. will never stop its destructive role.” Khamenei’s remarks came as both the United States and Iran were intensifying the fight against a common enemy in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State. Iranian-supported Shiite fighters in Iraq are heavily involved in an effort to retake the city of Fallujah from the Islamic State, and U.S. airstrikes have hit Islamic State fortifications around Fallujah in recent days. But Khamenei appeared to dismiss any possibility of greater coordination with the Americans.
BEIJING — Chinese banks that do business with North Korea stand to lose several billion dollars in the wake of new U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on all such foreign institutions, analysts said Friday. The new sanctions were announced days before a visit to Beijing by Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry for an annual meeting on economic and security issues that starts Monday and whose agenda this year includes North Korea. The Chinese banks most affected by the sanctions will be comparatively small regional ones that facilitate the bulk of North Korea’s business in China, the analysts said. Major banks in China suspended their North Korean accounts in 2013 after the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, criticized a nuclear test conducted by the North that year, the analysts said. The Bank of China, for example, which has been expanding its operations in the United States and did not want its U.S. business tainted by cooperation with North Korea, closed the account of North Korea’s most important financial institution, the Foreign Trade Bank, in May 2013. The smaller banks in the northeast area of China that borders North Korea would probably not want to risk continuing to do business with the North because the cost of sanctions by the United States would far
outweigh the benefits of such commercial ties, said Jin Qiangyi, dean of the institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Yanbian University in Yanji. China is by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner. Using a provision of the Patriot Act, the Treasury Department designated North Korea on Wednesday as a “primary money-laundering concern,” a move that will enable Washington to take aggressive measures to cut off its access to the United States financial system. Under the new designation, non-American banks and other entities are banned from conducting dollar transactions on behalf of North Korea, a prohibition intended to crimp the North’s economic activities and its ability to further expand its nuclear program. The Chinese government said Thursday that it opposed the Treasury action, although Beijing signed onto a tough new round of U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea in March as punishment for a nuclear test it conducted this year. “We consistently oppose imposing unilateral sanctions on other countries based on one’s domestic laws,” said a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying. Instead of creating new sanctions, countries should “fully implement” the U.N. sanctions established in March, she said. The U.N. resolution called on member states to terminate “joint ventures, ownership interests and correspondent
banking relationships” with banks in North Korea within 90 days. The Treasury move goes a step further with its prohibition against U.S. banks allowing North Korea access to the U.S. financial system via third-country banks. If China were committed to enforcing the U.N. sanctions it agreed to, then the Treasury move would not affect it. The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman’s pointed use of the word “unilateral,” however, raised questions about Beijing’s commitment to the March sanctions. The tough approach by the Treasury contrasted with the decision by Xi to meet this week with a senior North Korean envoy, Ri Su Yong. Ri was dispatched by his country’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, to mend North Korea’s frayed ties with China, but he told the Chinese leader that North Korea had no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons, North Korean state-run media reported. The Treasury action also came as Kim has begun a policy, named byungjin, that calls for North Korea to keep expanding its nuclear weapons program while pushing for development that would bolster its rudimentary economy. The collective impact on the regional Chinese banks by the Treasury action will probably be much greater than the losses incurred by Banco Delta Asia, a bank based in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau, when it was designated a money-launder-
ing concern in 2005 because of its dealings with North Korea, said Cho Bong-Hyn, an analyst at the Industrial Bank of Korea’s Research Institute in Seoul. The United States froze $24 million in North Korean money held in Banco Delta Asia. “The impact would amount to approximately a few billion U.S. dollars, considering most of North Korea’s foreign bank accounts are in China,” Cho said. Even so, he said, few of these banks are entirely dependent on North Korea’s business. He doubted that many banks had North Korean deposits amounting to more than 10 percent of the bank’s total deposits. “I don’t think these Chinese banks will be shaken by the said losses,” he said. “They may, however, worry about loss of future transactions.” Even if a Chinese bank processed transactions for North Koreans in the Chinese currency, the renminbi, that bank’s dollar trade would remain at risk, he said. It is not clear where North Korea might seek alternative places to conduct financial transactions outside the normal banking systems, the analysts said. Certainly, North Koreans would want locations far away from financial hubs. Recently, North Korean businesspeople have mentioned Cambodia as a possible channel, said a Singaporean analyst who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 4, 2016 |
A11
FROM THE COVER
Young Marine, missing since World War II, returned home AMARILLO, Texas — For years, for decades, the young Marine from Hereford whom his buddies called “Rabbit” was called something else, something that put a silent knot in the stomachs of his family and those he fought with on foreign soil. The Department of Defense tersely described Elmer Mathies Jr. as “unrecoverable.” Forever lost in a lost world since the morning on the beach of Tarawa on Nov. 20, 1943. Difficult enough to lose a son or brother, even more so never to get him back. “‘Rabbit’ deserved more, they all do, than to be lost or forgotten or whatever words you want to use,” retired Col. Elwin Hart, 91, of Federal Way, Washington, told the Amarillo GlobeNews. Seventy-five years ago, Mathies had to get his parents, Hereford accountant Elmer Mathies Sr. and mother Eunice, to sign for him. He was only 17 when he joined the Marines in 1941 just prior to the U.S. entering World War II. At 5-foot-3, his baby face made him look like he was 12. Mathies, who went by his Marine call name of “Rabbit,” fought with Hart at Guadalcanal. They trained for 10 months in New Zealand for the assault of the Marshall Islands. First stop, the tiny atoll of Tarawa. They were part of the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division. Together, with the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, they fought to capture the crucial little island against the well-entrenched Japanese. Landing boats dropped them hundreds of yards from the shore. Salt water splashed to their chins as they waded to
POT From page A1
dry land while bullets and mortars were all around. They found cover in a mortar pit on the beach. Mathies was a radio wire man, and Hart was a radio operator. The landing was hell on earth. A handful of Marines were in the fortified 10 feet by 10 feet mortar pit. Mathies was setting up communications for radio contact to the ships. He jumped into the pit and then pushed himself up on the edge to peel off his equipment. His sergeant yelled at the young private to get down. “Simultaneously with that yell, a single shot from a Japanese sniper hit him right in the heart,” Hart said, “He fell right into the pit. I just remember the sergeant saying, ‘No, no, no.’ He was one of his favorites.” Rabbit’s body would remain with them for nearly three days just a few feet from that protected pit. He was one of 1,200 Marines who would die in the first three days of that chaotic bloody fight. Indicative of the times, it was not until 34 days later that a Western Union telegram arrived at the Hereford home of Elvin Sr. and Eunice Mathies where daughter Mary Jo and son Thomas also lived. It was Christmas Eve. Mary Jo, 12, was at a Campfire Girls party, laughing and opening gifts when she looked up and saw her father standing there. “He just said, ‘Come on, we need to go home,”’ she said. A flag in the window was replaced by a Gold Star. They would wait on Elmer Jr.’s return for his funeral service. They silently waited, and waited. Hopeful, but no word. “My parents were very strong people,” Mary Jo
Hopson, 85, said. “But my mother and dad very seldom spoke of my brother from then on. They never said very much.” Nearly 1,700 U.S. servicemen and 4,690 Japanese were killed in just three days of fierce fighting on Tarawa. That is more than 88 an hour for 72 straight hours. Fallen Marines and soldiers were placed in makeshift graves. Not all would make it home. Rabbit never did. All that remained were just a few black-and-white photographs, including one from Marine boot camp where he looked more like a Boy Scout. “I know it hurt my parents,” Mary Jo said. “It hurt them more than they let on.” Eunice Mathies died in 1981, and Elmer Sr. died in 1986. Their other son, Thomas, died as well. More than 73,000 Americans are still unaccounted for from World War II. Rabbit was one of them. Mary Jo, daughter Denise Coble and son-inlaw Ken, all now in Plano, wrote some letters and made a few calls with long odds that something could be done. Nothing really happened. A few years ago, his sister got word from the Department of Defense
ASSOCIATED PRE SS
ROME — Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone is back on his feet after canceling a string of concerts because of two collapsed vertebrae that raised questions about the continued prodigious output of the 87-year-old music legend. Morricone, whose
memorable scores to “The Mission,” “Cinema Paradiso” and other films Morricone have made him one of Hollywood’s most soughtafter composers, says he’s doing fine now and is ready to get back on tour to mark his 60 years in
ARREST From page A1 for $300. Flores and Valdez face the same charges as Cantu. Ricardo Mata, 36, was arrested last week and charged with aggravated kidnapping. He remained in custody. A fourth assailant identified as Erick Martinez Lopez has an active warrant for his arrest. Authorities said the case unraveled May 24, when the Zapata County
LICENSE From page A1 Grassroots Leadership has also argued the state is only interested in moving forward with the licensing to comply with an order a federal judge issued last year. In July, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered that immigrants held in
that her brother’s remains were “unrecoverable.” “Once my mother heard that,” said Denise, “she quit trying. She gave up hope,” About 20 years ago, Mary Jo received a headstone from the Marines for her brother. It marked an empty grave at West Park Cemetery in Hereford on a family plot. Rabbit, it seemed, was left to heaven and history. But Hart, a retired Marine, was not content to let it go. It went against the core of every Marine — to leave one of the fallen behind. “He is the one above all who has been pushing this,” Denise Coble said. A godsend, a charity known as History Flight, felt the same. For the last 10 years, History Flight has flown more than 100 missions to find, recover and repatriate missing American soldiers. Hart had written a story a little more than a year ago for the 2nd Marine Division Association’s official publication, “Follow Me.” The title of the article, “Find Rabbit,” was a pointed appeal to bring back the Marine who was killed next to him more than 70 years ago. “The director of the association was reading the article, and went to
his vehicle,” Hart said. “He had Rabbit’s dog tags. He called me and said, ‘He’s been found.”’ History Flight had made a trip to Tarawa in 2015 and recovered the graves of several dozen Americans in yards, trash pits, even pigsties. A group of 33 were found under an old air strip. One appeared to be Mathies. Officials reached out to Mary Jo last July for a DNA sample. Finally, just a month ago, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency called. Elmer Mathies Jr., after nearly 73 years, had been found. Elwin Hart and wife flew from Seattle to Amarillo last week and on to Hereford. He spoke in front of about 400 at the First United Methodist Church for a memorial service a grateful family thought they would never see. “I didn’t bring him home,” Hart said, “but I wanted to be there when he did get home.” Dan Eytcheson of Heritage Funeral Home in Hereford had traveled to Oklahoma City to retrieve Mathies’ remains, which were flown there from Pearl Harbor. Eythechson arrived back in Hereford late that same afternoon, and when he did, many in
Hereford began lining the streets on the edge of town all the way to the funeral home. Mary Jo thought it would be a solemn private service, but her uncle’s was anything but that. Navy Capt. Stephen J. Shaw and Methodist church pastor Kevin Bushart officiated. Col. Hart spoke. Those representing local and federal government, including U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry’s office, were there. The History Flight crew, led by Mark Noah, and the Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency, led by Hattie Johnson, were there to see their work come to a rewarding conclusion. Marines from Combat Logistics Battalion 453 in Lubbock served as body bearers. Following a procession lined with people and flags, the Marines provided a three-volley salute at West Park Cemetery. They folded the U.S. flag and Hart presented it to the family. Rabbit had finally came home to rest, not 6,023 miles away on a nondescript South Pacific atoll, but with his parents in familiar soil. As it should be. The greatest tragedy in war is not the ultimate sacrifice, but in forgetting. Rabbit was not.
Morricone marks 60 years as Hollywood composer By Paolo Santalucia
dissuade organizations from smuggling dangerous contraband through our community,” said Mario Martinez, chief patrol agent. The contraband tested positive for marijuana. The narcotics had a total of weight of 2,276.78 pounds with an estimated street value of $1,821,440.
Sean Steffen / Associated Press
People line the side of the street to honor Elmer Mathies Jr. in Hereford, Texas. For years, for decades, the young Marine from Hereford whom his buddies called Rabbit was called something else, something that put a silent knot in the stomachs of his family and those he fought with on foreign soil. The War Department tersely described Mathies Jr. as unrecoverable.
Valdez
Lopez
Mata
Flores
Sheriff ’s Office reported to Hidalgo County authorities that a mother reported the kidnapping of her 15-year-old daughter. A man allegedly called the mother of the girl demanding ransom.
Hidalgo and Zapata County authorities worked together to locate and rescue the 15-yearold. During the investigation, authorities arrested Mata and identified Martinez Lopez as another suspect in the
Texas and elsewhere be released as soon as possible because their detention violates the provisions of a 1997 legal settlement — the Flores v. Meese agreement — requiring that undocumented juveniles be held in the places that protect their overall health and safety. In that ruling, Gee declared conditions in the detention centers “deplor-
able.” That case is being appealed in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. “I think that what we heard over the last few weeks and what we’ve known is that the reason for the licenses was not about the protection of children but was about helping the federal government enforce this harsh immigration regime,” Bob Libal, the
the industry. In an interview at his home in an elegant Rome palazzo, Morricone says even after all his years, he still gets the jitters before going on stage to conduct. “I get very nervous, because sometimes despite the good will, accidents can happen,” he said from his art-filled living room. “Even small accidents can bother me,
things that the audience doesn’t even notice.” “I rather prefer to write music, but obviously it is natural that I direct the music I wrote,” he adds. Morricone is still basking in his second Oscar win earlier this year, for scoring Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” He previously won a lifetime achievement Academy Award in 2007.
“It is a nice satisfaction,” he said, a copy of his Hollywood Star on the coffee table. “But what is important is not to think about it.” Morricone does put a lot of thought into what eventually goes down on paper, however. “I used to bring some paper by bedside table to write down an idea that could arise,” he said.
case. “During interrogation, Mata admitted to buying the 15-year-old female and that he and Martinez Lopez had sexually assaulted her,” states a news release from the Hidalgo Sheriff ’s Office. To report Martinez Lopez’s whereabouts, call the Hidalgo County Sheriff ’s Office investigations division at 956-3838114. People can also call the Hidalgo County Crime Stoppers hotline at 668-TIPS (8477).
COCAINE From page A1 conducted surveillance May 6 at a suspected stash house in the 100 block of Illinois Street. Authorities met with Alaniz, the renter of the property. He denied any criminal activity occurring on his property, according to a criminal complaint filed May 9. However, federal agents said they found packaging materials inside the home and in the
garbage bin while searching the residence. While canvassing the area, special agents said they located a piece of luggage in the brush beyond the property’s fence line, records state. The luggage contained 50 bundles of cocaine weighing 124 pounds. The contraband had an estimated street value of $1,573,600. “Alaniz told agents he was paid $1,000 to utilize his property to house the narcotics,” states the complaint.
executive director of Grassroots Leadership, said after the hearing. Crump’s decision Wednesday came after hours of testimony during which expert witnesses told the court that detaining children for long periods was detrimental to their health. “They are under considerable fear and deprivation,” said Luis H.
Zayas, the dean of the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work. “They are dealing with constant stress and hyper vigilance about what’s going to happen to them.” Todd Disher, the assistant attorney general who represented the agency, referred all comments to the attorney general’s office. But during Wed-
nesday’s proceedings, he told Crump that by licensing the facilities, the state would allow its own agents to keep tabs on the officials at the detention facilities. "If you can’t issue them a license, you can’t regulate them,” he said. “Who better to police compliance, the facility itself or DFPS?” he asked the court.
A12 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 4, 2016 |
NCAA FOOTBALL: BIG 12
B1
NCAA: OKLAHOMA SOONERS
Big 12 resumes football title game for 2017
Sue Ogrocki / AP file
Fourth in the Heisman voting last year, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield regained a lost year of eligibility lost in his transfer from Texas Tech thanks to a Big 12 rule change.
Heisman contender Mayfield regains year of eligibility LM Otero / AP
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, right, and Oklahoma President David Boren speak at the Big 12 meetings in Irving. The conference is expected to add a football championship game in 2017.
By Cliff Brunt
The league could play the season in two five-team divisions
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Big 12 will have to deal with Baker Mayfield for two more years instead of one. The conference adopted a rule change Thursday that gives back the Oklahoma quarterback the year of eligibility he lost when he transferred from Texas Tech, meaning he will be eligible to play for the Sooners in 2017. Mayfield finished
By Jimmy Burch FO RT WORT H STAR-T E LE GRAM
IRVING — The Big 12 football championship game is back. League officials announced Friday that the game will return for the 2017 season, with the site to be determined. A possibility exists that the
league could play the 2017 season in two five-team divisions, said commissioner Bob Bowlsby, although a final decision has yet to be reached. Bowlsby said Fox and ESPN will alternate telecasts of the games, with Fox showing the 2017 contest. ESPN will handle the telecasts in even-
NBA: SAN ANTONIO SPURS
numbered years through the 2024 contest. Bowlsby said he envisions holding the game at neutral sites but acknowledged bids might be taken for venues at campus sites. The league has been the only conference without a championship game in football during the College Football Playoff
era. In 2014, league cochampions Baylor and TCU were both omitted from the playoffs with 11-1 records. Last season, Oklahoma won an outright title and made the playoffs as the No. 4 seed with an 11-1 record. Data provided by independent analysts Big 12 continues on B2
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fourth in the Heisman balloting last season and led Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff. If the proposal had failed, this season would have been his last for the Sooners. Mayfield had appealed to Texas Tech to override its rule forcing him to lose the year, but a five-member panel of Tech’s athletics council unanimously rejected it, saying its decision was in line with school and NCAA rules. Mayfield had been a vocal Mayfield continues on B2
NBA FINALS GAME 1: GOLDEN SATE 104, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS 89
WARRIORS’ BENCH WINS GAME 1 Darren Abate / AP file
Spurs guard Tony Parker, right, and center Boban Marjanovic will meet up in an Olympic tune-up game representing France and Serbia, respectively.
Spurs' Parker, Marjanovic to square off in Paris, France By Nick Moyle SA N A NT ONI O E XPRE SS-NEWS
As Spurs teammates, Tony Parker and Boban Marjanovic spent an entire season chasing a singular goal, only to have the quest abruptly ended by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now the two will begin the pursuit of an even loftier objective, though they'll do so as adversaries this time around. Parker, a member of the French national team, and Marjanovic, the Serbian national team's projected starting center, have been tasked with leading their countries back to the Olympics. But before the Olympic qualifying tournaments begin in July (4-10), France and Serbia will prepare by playing a
couple of tune-up games against each other. The first game is set for June 21 at the Accorotels Arena in Paris. The teams last met in the bronze medal game of the 2015 EuroBasket tournament, with France winning 81-68 as Parker went for 13 points. The Spurs prohibited Marjanovic from playing in the tournament due to risk of injury after signs of pain in his foot. France and Serbia are competing in different qualifying tournaments, so these friendly matches will be the last they see of each other unless they advance to the Olympics. Earlier this year there was some trepidation among his French teammates and coaches that Parker might not play due to the impending Spurs continues on B2
Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle
The Warriors celebrated after their Game 1 victory in the NBA Finals over Cleveland 104-89 on the strength of their bench.
Curry, Thompson combine for just 20 points By Jon Krawczynski ASSOCIATED PRE SS
OAKLAND — Even as he spent the first 43 games of the season on the sideline while recovering from back problems, Steve Kerr always kept his finger on the pulse of the Golden State Warriors. That connection, the sense of what buttons to push and what whiteboards to smash, was all over Game 1 of the NBA Finals. “He has just a great feel for the energy and the
temperature of the team,” said Warriors guard Shaun Livingston, who scored 20 points in Golden State’s 104-89 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night. “He’s great at just taking the temperature and finding the right matchups for us and putting us in places where we can excel.” The Warriors sent a statement to the Cavaliers that the “Strength In Numbers” message on those gold shirts that were draped over the seats at Oracle Arena is
so much more than just a catchy slogan. Kerr’s first big move of the series was the one he didn’t make. After veteran Andre Iguodala helped the Warriors tilt the Western Conference finals and come back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kerr resisted the temptation to start him against LeBron James and the Cavs. Iguodala was the Finals MVP a year ago for his all-around performance against the Cavaliers, but Kerr stayed with
the same starting lineup that had worked during a record-setting 73-win regular season. The oftcriticized Harrison Barnes started at small forward and hit 3 of 4 shots in the first quarter to get the Warriors rolling. “Harrison has started for two years and it’s been a pretty good two years for us,” Kerr said. “We’ve had a good run. It’s been very effective playing the way we’ve played in terms of the lineup and the rotation. I Finals continues on B2
B2 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
SPORTS
Judge: US women’s soccer team has no right to strike By Michael Tarm And Anne M. Peterson A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago ruled Friday that the world champion U.S. women’s soccer team does not have the right to strike to seek improved conditions and wages before the Summer Olympics, seeming to end the prospect of an unprecedented disruption by one of the most successful American national teams. The case pits the team’s union, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Players Association, against the Chicagobased governing body, the U.S. Soccer Federation, which sued to clarify the strike issue. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman’s written ruling says the team remains bound by a no-strike clause from earlier agreements with the federation. The federation warned that a strike could have forced the women’s team, which is seeking its fourth straight Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, to pull out of the Games and said that would have hurt U.S. soccer as a whole. The union wanted the option of striking, though it hadn’t said definitively
that it would strike. The lawsuit focused on strike rights is related to a complaint filed by five players in March with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that alleges wage discrimination by the federation. Friday’s ruling does not directly impact that complaint. U.S. stars Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn and Megan Rapinoe say they are paid far less than their counterparts on the men’s national team. U.S. Soccer says that’s misleading, including because the men and women are paid differently under separate collective bargaining agreements. During oral arguments before Coleman last week, the federation said a collective bargaining agreement for all purposes remains in effect until Dec. 31, while the union says any such agreement has already expired. The union didn’t immediately address whether it would appeal Coleman’s decision, but in a statement to The Associated Press, the union’s executive director, Richard Nichols, said the ruling didn’t affect wider grievances. “To be clear, the court’s ruling today does not
Jack Dempsey / AP file
A federal judge ruled that the U.S. women’s team does not have the right to strike to seek improved conditions and wages before the Summer Olympics.
negate the fact that U.S. Soccer does not fairly compensate the Women’s National Team, or in any way impact the players’ demands for equal pay for equal work,” he said. In her 13-page ruling, Coleman said the union didn’t convince her that terms of an earlier collective bargaining agreement — including a nostrike clause — did not carry over when the sides signed a memorandum of understanding seeking to clarify contractual terms in 2013. Coleman was dismissive of union arguments that a no-strike provision should have been spelled out explicitly in the memorandum. “Federal law encourages courts to be liberal in their recognition and interpretation of collective bargaining agree-
ments, so as to lessen strife and encourage congenial relations between unions and companies,” she wrote. “A collective bargaining agreement may be partly or wholly oral and a written collective bargaining agreement may be orally modified.” U.S. Soccer issued a brief statement saying officials were “pleased with the Court’s decision and remain committed to negotiating a new (collective bargaining agreement) to take effect at the beginning of next year.” The two sides have continued to meet in a bid to agree to a new collective bargaining deal. If a new agreement is not reached by Dec. 31, the players would then have a clear right to strike.
MAYFIELD From page B1 critic of Tech since that time, saying its ruling was unfair because he was never on scholarship. Mayfield noted his approval of the change, tweeting: “And y’all thought you were getting rid of me....” Just a day earlier, things looked bleak. Faculty athletic representatives had deadlocked 5-5 on Wednesday regarding a proposed change that would have given him the year back, meaning it failed because it lacked a majority. On Thursday, a new proposal sought to
“One of the provisions in our administrative policies is any current student athlete would be
SPURS From page B1
"And so yes, I'll be there for OQT and I will be in the Olympics if we qualify. I want to play for France." To do so, France will have to get through the Manila qualifier, which features a strong Canadian team on the other side of the bracket.
Parker could have some help in the form of teammate Boris Diaw, though if the Spurs choose not to guarantee his contract, he could potentially sit out to avoid injury. The colossal Marjanovic will help guide his team through the
Belgrade qualifier, which includes Angola, Puerto Rico, Japan, Latvia and the Czech Republic. Serbia has not qualified for the Olympics since the 2004 games in Athens. Only one team can advance from each of the tournaments.
game, a run that really caught fire after guard Matthew Dellavedova swiped at the ball but hit Iguodala in the groin. The Cavaliers had come back to take the lead in the third quarter, and Curry just couldn’t find the mark. But Kerr trusted the depth of his team, and let his reserves take center stage for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. The lead ballooned to 20 points during that stretch. “He obviously plays the matchups well,” Livingston said. “Just to be able to kind of rotate is impressive.” The only time he lost his cool was when the ball stopped moving and the turnovers started coming in the third quarter. The Cavs jumped in front and Kerr shattered his whiteboard with his marker like a judo champion breaking a stack of bricks. The move even worked out for the league’s coach
of the year. “Destruction tends to ease some of the anger,” Kerr quipped. “So I try to take it out on a clipboard instead of a player. So it’s better that way. Better not to break your players.” Now the pressure is on Cavs rookie head coach Tyronn Lue to make adjustments. Lue’s defensive game plan worked marvelously against Curry and Thompson, with the Cavs getting physical with the twotime MVP and forcing Thompson into early foul trouble to get him out of rhythm. But the Cavs still lost by a wide margin and had no answer for the Warriors surge that seemingly comes every game. The Cavaliers shot 38 percent, turned the ball over 17 times and only had 17 assists. “They’re a great team when you just hold the ball and pound the ball,” James said. “So we’ve got
to do a better job with that, which coach Lue and the coaching staff will make sure we do in Game 2.” This is why the Cavaliers made that stunning coaching change in midseason, firing David Blatt after he led them to the finals last year and a 30-11 start to this season. The Cavaliers, and James in particular, trust Lue in ways they never did Blatt. And now it’s up to him to match wits with one of the best coaching staffs in the NBA. “Their bench played well,” Lue said. “So we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how to take those guys out of the game.” Game 2 is Sunday in Oakland. “I’m looking forward to the film session and seeing ways we can get better going into Game 2,” James said. “And I think our team is as well.”
birth of his daughter, due in late July. "We talked a lot with (wife) Axelle and we agreed. She knows how important it is to me," Parker told L'Equipe.
FINALS From page B1 Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, right, and Oklahoma President David Boren speak at the Big 12 meetings in Irving. The conference is expected to add a football championship game in 2017.
BIG 12 From page B1 showed the league’s chances of making the playoffs on an annual basis would increase by as much as 20 percent, said Oklahoma president David Boren, chairman of the Big 12 board of directors. That information, Boren said, led to Friday’s unanimous vote to approve the title game. After having a championship game in the first 15 years of the league’s existence, the Big 12 has not held a championship game in football since adopting its current 10team configuration for the 2011 season.
In other league business, league officials announced it would distribute $304 million to its members from conference-generated revenues. That is an average of $30.4 million per school and, for the first time since joining the league four years ago, both TCU and West Virginia received full shares of the league-distributed earnings. Each Big 12 school has independent deals for additional TV rights, the best known of which is the Longhorn Network that produces $15 million for Texas. Oklahoma made a profit of $5 million last year on its additional rights agreements, Boren said.
by the result of today’s Big 12 vote — not just because it potentially impacts Baker Mayfield, but because it was the right thing to do,” he said. Oklahoma President David Boren said new rule leaves no room for confusion. “Requiring written evidence of an offer of scholarship, which in the case of Baker Mayfield there was no such offer — I think that strengthens it from an evidentiary point of view,” he said. “The conference does not want to get into a he said, she said sort of situation. I think that (the new rule), procedurally, is very strong.”
er is transferring from does give a written offer of aid. That proposal passed 7-3.
Alonzo Adams / AP file
LM Otero / AP
which the women’s team qualified earlier this year, start Aug. 5 in Brazil. The women’s team won the 2015 World Cup with a 5-2 victory over Japan in Canada. Before Friday’s ruling, the union hadn’t formally identified grievances that could have led its members to strike. Many players, however, have voiced concern over gender equity in soccer. Some pointed to the comparatively hard artificial turf the women had to play on in Canada while the men’s World Cup was played on natural grass. Before the World Cup, a number of players protested over the artificial turf, with Abby Wambach leading a group that filed a complaint in a Canadian court.
able to take advantage of rules changes to their benefit,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. “In the case of Baker Mayfield, this would permit him to have transferred from Texas Tech and enroll at Oklahoma on aid without forfeiting a year of eligibility because he had not received a written offer of aid at Texas Tech.” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said in a statement that he was glad to see the issue revisited after Wednesday’s vote. “I appreciate the Big 12 faculty athletics representatives spending more time studying the important issue of walk-on transfers and am pleased
Fourth in the Heisman voting last year, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield regained a lost year of eligibility lost in his transfer from Texas Tech thanks to a Big 12 rule change.
allow non-scholarship transfers within the conference to avoid losing a year if the school the play-
Federation lawyer Russell Sauer Jr. said during oral arguments that a no-strike clause is implied in the still-valid memorandum of understanding. A lawyer for the union balked, saying the federation failed to secure a no-strike clause in writing and cannot argue now that such a provision is implied. Asked by the judge why the federation did not insist on a no-strike clause in the memorandum, federation lawyer Amy Quartarolo said it was made clear in emails and other communications that a no-strike provision in previous CBAs carried over into the 2013 agreement. In her ruling, Coleman largely agreed with that contention. The Olympics, for
didn’t feel any need to change our lineup for Game 1 of the series.” The ability to step back and look at the bigger picture in the chaos of the moment has always been one of Kerr’s strong suits and the Warriors have flourished under his even-keeled approach. Even watching Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson morph from the greatest shooting tandem in NBA history into a pair of brick layers wasn’t enough to rattle the seemingly unshakeable coach. The Splash Brothers combined for just 20 points on 8-for-27 shooting and were 4 for 13 from 3-point range. The Warriors’ bench rose to the occasion, with Livingston, Leandro Barbosa and Iguodala picking up the slack and Kerr rode them during the turning point in the
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 4, 2016 |
Dear Heloise: My mother taught me to WATER MY HOUSEPLANTS from the bottom. She said that this will strengthen the roots by training them to seek out the water. Do you have any hints about watering houseplants? Thank you! -Elizabeth in Columbus, Ohio Hi, Elizabeth. Houseplants can add so much to your home or office. Some plants are easier to take care of than others, but watering is key for all of them. If the pot is in a saucer, pour the water in there. However, depending on your water supply, you may see a white powder on the soil. Salt and lime minerals are not good for the plants. Save rainwater to water houseplants -it's free, and better. If you are a newbie and want to start out adding some green to your home, IVY is the way to go! You
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HELOISE
can grow it in water or soil. I have several plants from which I have given cuttings to friends, spreading the green. They keep growing. -Green Thumb Heloise LIPSTICK LOVER Dear Heloise: I love dining out socially, but what is the correct way to refresh my makeup after eating? Do I have to excuse myself and run to the ladies' room? -- Lettie M. in San Antonio Hi, Lettie. There are no "laws," but as the saying goes, "When in doubt, don't," and keep that in mind. There are many variables: Who are you with? Where are you? Can you quickly just do a "swipe" of your lips without making a big show? Readers? -- Heloise
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B4 | Saturday, June 4, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES