The Zapata Times 8/19/2017

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DALLAS CITY COUNCIL

EL PASO, TEXAS

Man arrested for human smuggling 23 illegal immigrants were found hidden in semitrailer at Border Patrol checkpoint ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Tom Fox / AP

This July 18 photo shows a statue honoring Robert E. Lee, right, with a soldier riding alongside him, in Robert E. Lee Park, a City of Dallas park, in the Turtle Creek area of Dallas.

Officials seek to remove historic statues

By Claudia Lauer A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

DALLAS — The four black councilmen in Dallas called for the city’s Confederate statues to be removed Friday, saying it will allow the community to start healing from its racist past.

Dwaine Caraway, a councilman who serves as mayor pro tem, held a news conference Friday afternoon with the other three black city councilmen to “present a unified statement” on the statues. Councilman Kevin Felder called the monuments “symbols of racism” and says he has talked with Mayor Mike Rawlings about speeding up a proposed 90-day study by a task force to decide what to do with the statues.

“Taxpayer dollars should not support vestiges of racism, white supremacy and oppression,” Felder said. “I also support the opportunity for the chance for dialogue and action to address the continued discrimination in the city of Dallas in housing, employment, lending institutions — discrimination in contracting opportunities against black contractors.”

Earlier this week, Rawlings proposed forming a task force that would report back to the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs and make a recommendation to the City Council around Nov. 8 regarding the future of the statues.

The councilmen said removing the statues will not be a permanent fix to Dallas’ racial issues, but they hope it would lead to a larger conversation about the city’s racial climate.

Organizers of a rally against white supremacy said they expect thousands to show up for the event Saturday at Dallas City Hall plaza, a short distance from the city’s Confederate War Memorial. The monument has a large stone pillar with an anonymous Confederate soldier on top. Stone statues of four leaders of the Confederacy sit at each of the pillar’s four corners. The statues are of Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. Albert Johnston.

The monument was dedicated in 1896 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was in a park but was moved to its current location in the 1960s to make way for R.L. Thornton Freeway.

Petitions have circulated in the last few years

EL PASO, Texas — Federal officials say a man has been arrested on a charge of transporting people who

are illegally in the U.S. after 23 people were found in the semitrailer he was driving on Interstate 10 near El Paso.

U.S. Immigration and Customs

Enforcement says 44-year-old Comothial Harper, a U.S. citizen from Bainbridge, Georgia, was arrested Wednesday and charged with transEl Paso continues on A13

406TH DISTRICT COURT

ADOPTION COMPLETES A ZAPATA FAMILY

Cuate Santos / Laredo Morning Times

406th District Court Judge Oscar J. Hale, right, poses with the family of Rene and Sandy Elizondo, of Zapata, after they participated in an adoption case where they adopted their son Friday.

Dallas continues on A13

WHITE HOUSE

Trump eyeing new approach to Afghan war

By Robert Burns A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is “studying and considering his options” for a new approach to Afghanistan and the broader South Asia region, the White House said Friday after the president huddled with his top national secu-

rity aides at Camp David.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a brief statement saying Trump had been briefed extensively on a new strategy to “protect America’s interests” in the region. She did not specifically mention Afghanistan.

“The president is studying and considering his options and will make an announcement to

the American people, to our allies and partners, and to the world at the appropriate time,” she said.

The administration has struggled for months to formulate a new approach to the war. But stepping up the fight in a way that advances peace prospects may be even more difficult, in part because the Taliban has War continues on A13

Massoud Hossaini / AP

In this July 15 file photo, a U.S. soldier salutes during a change of command ceremony at Resolute Support headquarters, in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Zin brief A2 | Saturday, August 19, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE WORLD

TODAY IN HISTORY

MONDAY AUG. 21

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Ray of Light Anxiety and Depression Support Group Meeting in Spanish. 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Recur-

ring event. Spanish group meets every 3rd Monday of the month.

Holding Institute, 1102 Santa Maria Ave., classroom 1. Ray of Light Anxiety and Depression Support Group provides a forum for people with anxiety and/or depression to meet, talk, share experiences and learn more about the conditions.

Support groups can help individuals make connections with others facing similar challenges. While a support group does not replace an individual's medical care, it can be a valuable resource to gain insight, strength, and hope. The support group welcomes adults suffering from anxiety and/or depression to participate in free confidential support group meetings and social events. For more info, contact Anna Maria Pulido Saldivar at gruporayitodeluz@gmail.com or 956307-2014.

TUESDAY. AUG. 22 Habitat for Humanity fundraiser.

Wings To Go family sports restaurant, 2019 Bob Bullock Loop near H-E-B Plus! will donate percentage of sales to Habitat For Humanity Laredo-Webb County. Wings To Go is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Call 7289464 for takeout orders. For Habitat information call, 724-3227.

Today is Saturday, Aug. 19, the 231st day of 2017. There are 134 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History: On August 19, 1942, during World War II, about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering more than 50percent casualties.

Manika Kamara / AP

Volunteers prepare to bury coffins during a mass funeral for victims of heavy flooding and mudslides in Regent at a cemetery in Sierra Leone, Freetown on Thursday.

SIERRA LEONE DEATH TOLL RISES AFTER MUDSLIDES

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 23 Release of new pictorial history of Laredo by Dr. Jerry Thompson. 6

p.m.-8 p.m. Villa Antigua Border Heritage Museum, 810 Zaragoza St. The brand new edition of “Laredo: A Pictorial History” by Thompson makes its long-awaited debut at a reception hosted by the Webb County Heritage Foundation. The event celebrates the latest publication of this exciting local history which features five new chapters and beautiful photos. To pre-order the book, call the Heritage Foundation at 956-727-0977.

First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon.

1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Rescue officials in Sierra Leone warned Friday that the chances of finding survivors in the debris of this week’s mudslides “are getting smaller every day,” as bereaved and homeless survivors faced the magnitude of all they have lost.

Burials and rescue efforts pressed on amid the threat of further disaster. Up to 450 bodies have been recovered in and around the capital, Freetown, after Monday’s mudslides and flooding, according to Dr. Simeon Owiss Koroma, the government’s chief consultant forensic patholo-

gist. Some 600 others are missing and feared dead.

At least 122 of the victims are children, and a similar number have been orphaned by the disaster, the aid group Save the Children said.

Burials have begun in a cemetery that holds victims of the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak that killed thousands in the West African country. Many people have been unable to find loved ones and victims often are too mangled and decomposed to be identified. But the government has vowed to hold burials for all.

SATURDAY, AUG. 26 Football Tailgating Cook-Off. 2 p.m. - 11 p.m. Uni-Trade Stadium.

Event will feature cook-off competitions, brisket tasting/sampling for People's Choice from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., car show, live music, food vendors, arts & crafts and merchandise vendors and much more. For more information, contact LULAC Council 14 at 956-2869055

MONDAY, AUG. 28 Google Computer Science Club. 4

p.m. - 5:30 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library. 1920 Palo Blanco. This free program is limited to 18 participants each week. Participants, ages 12-17, will receive community hours. Learn to code social media projects with the Scratch programming language.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 30 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon.

1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

THURSDAY, AUG. 31 Spanish Book Club. 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

Joe A Guerra Public Library off Calton Road. For info, call Sylvia Reash 763-1810,

SATURDAY, SEPT. 2 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 6 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon.

1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 13 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon.

1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon.

1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon.

1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

Legal marijuana sale faces challenges by banks in Uruguay MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — The legal sale of marijuana in Uruguayan pharmacies is facing challenges as banks refuse to deal with companies linked to the drug in order to follow international financial laws.

A government official said

Friday that Uruguayan banks risk running afoul of laws that ban receiving money tied to the drug. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In July, marijuana went up for sale at 16 pharmacies as part of a 2013 law that made Uruguay first to legalize a pot market covering the entire chain from plants to purchase.

But one pharmacy in the capital, Montevideo, has decided not to sell it after a warning

by a local branch of Spanish bank Santander. The bank said it has opted to remain out of this line of business.

State-owned Banco Republica, Uruguay’s largest bank, also told pot-selling pharmacies that it must close their accounts.

Some U.S. marijuana retailers in states that have legalized sales have encountered similar banking difficulties as the drug remains illegal on a federal level.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Eclipse to have big impact on California power SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When the moon passes in front of the sun during Monday’s eclipse California will lose enough solar energy to power more than 1.5 million homes, a figure that underscores the state’s growing reliance on energy from the sun.

The eclipse presents an unusual challenge for those who manage the state’s power grid because the solar energy will drop off and re-emerge more quickly than during usual conditions involving clouds or nightfall. For about three hours Monday, there will be diminished solar power available.

Grid managers say they’ve been preparing extensively for more than a year and are confident nobody will lose power.

During the eclipse, however, the sky will darken and lighten two or three times as fast as a

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

In this Thursday photo, workers walk past solar panels at a Pacific Gas and Electric Solar Plant, in Dixon, California.

usual, according to the California Independent System Operator, which runs the grid for most of California and a small portion of Nevada.

California ISO projects it will need to replace just over 6,000 megawatts of capacity during the peak of the eclipse, about two-thirds from lost production at commercial solar farms

and the rest due to higher demand from people and businesses that would otherwise draw from rooftop solar panels.

The Solar Energy Industry Association says California solar panels produce enough energy to power 258 homes on average.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND TEXAS Texas asks Supreme Court to uphold voting maps AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop before 2018 the partial redrawing of congressional maps that were found to have racial gerrymandering.

A three-judge panel in San Antonio has previously ruled that Republican lawmakers intentionally discriminated against minorities while draw-

On this date: In A.D. 14, Caesar Augustus, Rome's first emperor, died at age 76 after a reign lasting four decades; he was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius.

In 1934, a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler.

In 1936, the first of a series of show trials orchestrated by Soviet leader Josef Stalin began in Moscow as 16 defendants faced charges of conspiring against the government (all were convicted and executed).

In 1955, torrential rains caused by Hurricane Diane resulted in severe flooding in the northeastern U.S., claiming some 200 lives.

In 1964, The Beatles opened their first full-fledged U.S. tour as they performed at San Francisco's Cow Palace.

In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Kansas City.

In 1980, 301 people aboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency return to the Riyadh airport.

In 1987, a gun collector ran through Hungerford, England, 60 miles west of London, killing 16 people, including his mother, before turning his gun on himself.

In 1991, Soviet hard-liners stunned the world by announcing that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had been removed from power. (The coup attempt collapsed two days later.)

Ten years ago: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner paid an unannounced and highly symbolic visit to Baghdad — the first by a senior French official since the war started. Elvira Arellano, an immigrant without legal status who'd taken refuge in a Chicago church to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son, was deported to Mexico. (Arellano eventually made her way back to the U.S. and was paroled by immigration authorities in March 2014; her case remains under review.)

Five years ago: Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, the conservative Republican U.S. Senate candidate, said in an interview on KTVI-TV in St. Louis that it was "really rare" for women to become pregnant when they were raped. (Akin afterwards backed off his on-air comments, saying that he'd misspoken; Akin lost the November election to Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill.) NATO said a man in an Afghan police uniform shot and killed an international service member, raising the death toll to 10 in such attacks in the space of just two weeks.

One year ago: The Obama administration defended its decision to make a $400 million cash delivery to Iran contingent on the release of American prisoners, saying the payment wasn't ransom because the Islamic Republic would have soon recouped the money one way or another.

Today's Birthdays: Actor L.Q. Jones is 90. Actress Debra Paget is 84.

Former President Bill Clinton is 71.

Actor Gerald McRaney is 70. Tipper Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore, is 69. Actor Jim Carter is 69. Pop singer-musician Elliot Lurie (Looking Glass) is 69. Rock musician John Deacon (Queen) is 66. Bluegrass musician Marc Pruett (Balsam Range) is 66. Actor-director Jonathan Frakes is 65. Political consultant Mary Matalin is 64. Actor Peter Gallagher is 62.

Actor Adam Arkin is 61. Singer-songwriter Gary Chapman is 60. Actor Martin Donovan is 60. Actor Eric Lutes is 55. Actor John Stamos is 54. Actress Kyra Sedgwick is 52. Actor Kevin Dillon is 52. Country singer Lee Ann Womack is 51. Actor Matthew Perry is 48. Country singer Clay Walker is 48. Rapper Fat Joe is 47. Olympic gold medal tennis player Mary Joe Fernandez is 46. Actress Tracie Thoms is 42. Actor Callum Blue is 40. Country singer Rissi Palmer is 36. Actress Erika Christensen is 35. Actress Melissa Fumero is 35. Pop singer Missy Higgins is 34.

Actor Peter Mooney is 34. Actress Tammin Sursok is 34. Country singer Karli Osborn is 33. Olympic silver medal snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis is 32. Actor J. Evan Bonifant is 32.

Rapper Romeo is 28.

Thought for Today: "Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers." — Janis Joplin, American rock singer (1943-1970).

CONTACT US ing voting maps in 2011. Texas is also fighting a similar ruling over the state’s voter ID law.

— Compiled from AP reports

Civil War monument protest planned HOUSTON — Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo says public safety is the primary mission but his officers won’t allow defacing or destruction of property at a rally scheduled for a downtown park where a

Confederate monument has stood since 1908. Black Lives Matter Houston is organizing an event for Saturday afternoon at the city’s Sam Houston Park.

The park is home to the “Spirit of the Confederacy” monument that features a bronze statue of a winged angel holding a sword and palm leaf with the inscription: “To all the heroes of the South who fought for the Principles of States Rights.” Rally organizers have said they want the monument removed.

— Compiled from AP reports

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THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, August 19, 2017 |

A3

STATE

Confederate flag no longer waves at Six Flags Over Texas A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Confederate flag will no longer wave at Six Flags Over Texas. Instead, the Dallas-area theme park will fly six American flags.

The Arlington park’s Friday change comes as communities across the nation debate Confederate memorials and symbols after the deadly rally over a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Spokeswoman Sharon

Parker says they “always choose to focus on celebrating the things that unite us versus those that divide us.”

The park was named for the six flags that’ve flown over Texas. In addition to the Confederate flag, the others were those of Spain, Mexico, France, the Republic of Texas and the U.S. The Confederate flag the park flew wasn’t the battle flag known for its cross design but an earlier one known as the “stars and bars.”

Dallas woman jailed, must pay $51M fraud restitution A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

DALLAS — A Dallas woman must serve 10 years in federal prison and repay $51 million in a health care services fraud case involving home visits.

Myrna S. Parcon was sentenced Thursday in Dallas. Parcon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud involving Medicare beneficiaries.

Prosecutors say three other people who were convicted await sentencing, including a doctor.

Authorities say many Medicare patients in the case were certified for home health care — whether they needed it or not — from 2009 through mid-2013.

Co-defendant Ransome Etindi of Waxa-

Authorities say many Medicare patients in the case were certified for home health care — whether they needed it or not — from 2009 through mid-2013. hachie also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in prison. Etindi must repay $18 million.

Another person who pleaded guilty was sentenced to two years and ordered to repay $4.2 million.

More than 250 arrested in Houston-area sex sting

By Michael Graczyk ASSOCIATED PRE SS

HOUSTON — More than 250 sex buyers and traffickers have been arrested in the Houston area during a monthlong sting operation, authorities said Friday.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the arrests by his agency and Houston police accounted for about 25 percent of more than 1,000 arrests made by a coalition of 37 law enforcement agencies in 17 states. The nationwide crackdown on sex trafficking is coordinated by the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office in Illinois and known as the National Johns Suppression Ini-

tiative.

In Houston, eight hotel operators cooperated with law enforcement agencies in the operation from June 28 through July 31 that involved authorities placing ads on online sites known to attract people interested in buying sex.

“They sat back and waited for the folks to ring,” Gonzalez said.

“When the caller said they wanted to meet in person so they could pay for sex, our undercover deputies and officers obliged. In hotel rooms 161 sexual predators offered our deputies and officers money for sex, and that’s when they were arrested.”

Another 88 sex buyers

and nine people identified as sex traffickers were arrested by Houston police.

The sheriff said those arrested were business professionals and a suburban Houston church pastor. They also included a man in possession of 60 grams of the opioid Hydrocodone, a man who already had been arrested in January for prostitution, a convicted sex offender and two suspects with handguns in their vehicles.

“Our aim is for Harris County and Houston to shed the dubious distinction as America’s sex trafficking capital.” Gonzalez said. “By focusing our efforts on sex buyers who are seeking to take

advantage of sex trafficking victims, we are putting these predators on notice that our community won’t tolerate their behavior.”

Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Thomas Dart earlier this month announced the arrests of 140 people in his county under the national initiative, the 14th his department has coordinated since 2011. Seattle had 160 arrests, among them a convicted child molester, and Phoenix police rescued a 16-year-old trafficking victim, he said.

Elsewhere in Texas, authorities in McLennan County, which includes Waco, announced last week they made 71 arrests under the program.

Houston man Woman in gets 40 years ID thefts for Medicare gets 10 years scheme ASSOCIATED PRE SS

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

HOUSTON — The owner of Houston home health care clinics has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for a scheme involving more than $17 million in fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare billing.

The Houston Chronicle reports that before the sentencing Thursday, Godwin Oriakhi told U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, “I never set out in any way to defraud the government.”

Oriakhi pleaded guilty

in March to two counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to launder the illegal proceeds of his operation.

Court documents say Oriakhi and his daughter ran five clinics. She’s pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

They submitted claims to Medicare and Medicaid for patients who didn’t need or receive services. Patients were recruited via marketers in exchange for kickbacks.

DALLAS — A Texas woman is going to prison for a $1.2 million scheme that stole identities to get tax refunds to buy and ship used cars to Nigeria.

LaTonya Carson was sentenced Thursday to spend 10 years in a U.S. prison. The Dallas woman was convicted on several charges, including aggravated identity theft, money laundering and wire fraud.

Federal prosecutors in Dallas say some victims were in prison when their personal information was stolen.

Investigators say that starting in 2012, Carson

Federal prosecutors in Dallas say some victims were in prison when their personal information was stolen.

and others involved in the scheme used bogus tax refunds to buy and export nearly 280 vehicles to Nigeria.

Another suspect, Smith Olsola Akin of Plano, Texas, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The two other indicted suspects remain at large.

Zopinion

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

A4 | Saturday, August 19, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COMMENTARY

OTHER VIEWS

I detest our Confederate monuments, but they should stand.

By Lawrence A. Kuznar WA S H INGT ON P O ST

As an anthropologist who has studied the meaning of monuments and sacred spaces in other cultures, the recent controversy and violence surrounding Confederate monuments has been ethically challenging. I love my country, and part of my professional responsibility is to foster tolerance. I have also worked with our military to help thwart the Islamic State, an organization that instituted slavery in our time. As such, I detest the legacy of division, bigotry and slavery these monuments represent. But I think they should remain.

In the 1980s, I worked as an archaeologist at ancient Mayan ruins in Central America and saw how monuments to their rulers were defaced during the tumultuous fall of their civilization. The Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten similarly defaced and destroyed statues of earlier Egyptian gods in his religious reform 3,300 years ago, and Spanish conquistadors destroyed Aztec and Inca monuments and statuary in their war on idolatry in the New World.

And there are plenty of examples of the desecration of monuments in the 21st century. The Taliban blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan in 2001; we aided Iraqis in toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in 2003; and nothing can compare to the scale of destruction of monuments at the hands of the Islamic State.

Simply removing monuments and moving them so they are out of sight is likewise not new, either.

The Inca Empire of South America removed icons of conquered peoples’ gods and effectively held them hostage in a temple in the Incan capital of Cuzco. In our time, the post-Soviet Russian government removed many statues of Lenin and others, which now reside in Muzeon Arts Park in Moscow.

People effectively act as though destruction of a monument exorcises its power and removal banishes the power from their midst. But these pieces of metal and stone only have the meaning we assign to them, and that meaning can take any form we like. They can be revered or reviled; honored or ridiculed; or coopted for a new purpose.

I understand the affront that Confederate monuments are to those whose ancestors were held as slaves or died preserving our country, and to those who suffer and oppose racism today.

However, destroying

monuments takes a page out of the playbook of mobs across the centuries, lowering one’s self to that moral plane.

Further, removing Confederate statues amounts to whitewashing our history, turning our heads away from the inconvenient truths of our past. We should let them stand and use them to remind ourselves of what we are and are not, the cost our forebears paid for our freedom and to educate our children.

And the facts are plain: The South seceded from the United States over the issue of slavery. Many Americans believed in the superiority of Europeans over Africans at that time. Slave owners used that belief to justify the owning and abuse of millions of human beings.

In the late 1800s, the era of Jim Crow disenfranchisement of blacks was ushered in and continued until the 1950s. This period witnessed the greatest spike (especially from 1900 to 1930) in monument building honoring the Confederacy. A smaller spike occurred from 1954 to 1968, in reaction to the civil rights movement.

The Civil War was the single most devastating war our nation ever fought. Nearly as many Americans died in that war than all of our other wars combined. Americans never paid so dearly for their country and what it was to be. With regard to fighting against racist ideology, World War II claimed 400,000 American lives. These two wars may account for 80 percent of the blood spilled for our country.

Civil War monuments bear a constant testimony to all of this history, none of which should be forgotten. The monuments should remain, and we should constantly remind ourselves of what they represent.

When racists revere these monuments, those of us who oppose racism should double our efforts to use these monuments as tools for education.

Auschwitz and Dachau stand as mute testimonials to a past that Europeans would never want to forget or repeat. Why not our Confederate monuments?

Destroying or removing monuments is the easy way out of our obligation to understand our past and improve our future. Monuments to our nation’s racism can be as much a tool to counter it as they can be a tool to foment it. The choice and obligation is ours.

Lawrence A. Kuznar is a professor of anthropology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

LETTERS POLICY Laredo Morning Times does not publish anonymous letters.

To be published, letters must include the writer's first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity.

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

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

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

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.

EDITORIAL

Bannon’s banishment changes nothing

By Francis Wilkinson BL OOMBERG

If one scorpion is removed from a bag that’s busy with them, does Donald Trump begin to look like a president?

Steve Bannon, who was jettisoned from the bag Friday, has always been the most mysterious member of Trump’s lumpen B-Team. Most of the other scorpions have readily identified portfolios. They work in the Department of Nepotism or the Ministry of Lies or in the Anti-Immigrant Brigade. They oversee the dismantling of Barack Obama’s legacy, or the disrespecting of Hillary Clinton’s person, the two highest pursuits of the Trump administration.

The alleged winners from Bannon’s banishment are the emissaries to the White House from the lands of finance and business, where two plus two very often equals four and where regula-

tions and taxes are for cutting. It’s unclear, however, what exactly they’ve won. The president is still incompetent, the Congress is still dysfunctional and the Republican tax agenda, once it is known, will still be unpopular.

Bannon was the threadbare ideological stuffing inside of Trump’s presidency.

Like everything else in this administration, it ended up leaking all over the place.

Bannon’s departure coincided with Trump’s fullest embrace of white supremacy since the real-estate heir’s political career began. And it followed directly in the wake of a book revealing Bannon’s influence on Trump, and Bannon’s interview with a lifelong liberal writer, in which Bannon called ethno-nationalists a “collection of clowns.”

These are the same

clowns who Bannon courted and cajoled, reassuring them in their racial and masculine insecurities as he built up the propaganda site Breitbart. The name political scientists give to these clowns is “Trump’s base.” Perhaps Bannon is suddenly eager to abandon them. Trump clings to them for his political life.

It seems Bannon is either a deeply confused man pretending to be brilliant or a morally muddled man who uses whatever tool is at hand to advance his cause.

Perhaps he is both.

There is also a possibility that he is a chess master with more dimensions to his game than a plebe like me can count. But losing his White House job is not strong evidence of that.

What will the subtraction of one scorpion from the bag mean for the presidency and the

country? How could it mean much of anything?

Trump is a moral and psychological wreck. His malice can be constrained by law and by a Congress that’s willing to exert itself. But not much by his own staff, who answer to his rage. It’s hard to expect clarity from inexperienced, compromised White House personnel buried in Trump’s rubble.

Bannon will no doubt pursue an interesting path. He could resort to his previous life as a seedy propagandist. Or perhaps, as he suggested to Robert Kuttner, the liberal writer, his former life is a clown show he’s eager to leave behind.

That would be easier to believe, of course, if he hadn’t worked so hard to turn the White House into a circus.

Francis Wilkinson writes editorials on politics and U.S. domestic policy for Bloomberg View.

COMMENTARY

Sessions is the MVP in the aftermath of Charlottesville

By Ed Rogers WASHINGTON P O ST

In the wake of what happened in Charlottesville, everyone should be thankful that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has not quit. That includes President Donald Trump.

For whatever reason, Trump wanted Sessions off the team a few weeks ago. But Sessions is now turning out to be Trump’s most valuable player in the aftermath of Charlottesville, Va. The irony should not be lost on anyone that it is Sessions who is instinctively doing the right thing at the most important agency after what happened last weekend. He toughed out the president’s criticism, and Trump now has Sessions to thank for his Justice Department’s nimble handling of the critical issues associated with Charlottesville.

Sessions’ instincts have been spot-on at every step of the way.

And you can bet Sessions is acting with autonomy.

He is neither waiting for nor seeking instruction from the White House.

He is quickly doing what the law requires, and by any measure, he is doing the right thing.

This week, Sessions told NBC’s “Today”: “You can be sure this Department of Justice in this administration is going to take the most vigorous action to protect the right of people like Heather Heyer, to protest against racism and bigotry. We’re going to protect the right to assemble and march.

And we’re going to prosecute anybody, to the full extent of the law.”

Considering Sessions’ response to the tragedy in Charlottesville, I can’t help but question the motives of anyone who insists on disparaging his character. Let’s not forget, in a blatant example of Democrats playing the race card and pursuing identity politics, it was

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who spoke out against Sessions, testifying at his confirmation hearing that “Senator Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requisite of the job - to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights and justice for all of our citizens.”

Give me a break. Booker should call Sessions and admit that he had been wrong the whole time. As should Trump.

They should both call him to apologize.

It’s probably a trap, but even the liberal New York Times is praising Sessions. In one story, Charlie Savage and Rebecca R. Ruiz write that by “aggressively responding to the deadly car attack . . . in Charlottesville, announcing a federal civil rights investigation within hours and labeling the attack an act of domestic terrorism,” Sessions has earned the

praise of civil rights advocates.

Remember, this is the same New York Times whose editorial board described Sessions as “radical” and “extreme” at the beginning of Trump’s presidency.

Jeff Sessions is a man of principle. It probably isn’t within Trump to admit he was wrong, but by acting on his instincts and sticking to his principles, Sessions is making a bad situation more tolerable. And Trump is lucky to have him.

Trump’s response to what happened in Charlottesville was inexcusable. But Sessions did everything right. His actions in the immediate aftermath of the attack only serve to further demonstrate his commitment to upholding the law and seeking out justice for the victims of the crimes that occurred.

Trump should recognize that and be thankful.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, August 19, 2017 |

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NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS A&M AGGIES

Prescott improving his weaknesses at camp Cowboys QB improving his passing ability down field

By David Moore TH E DA L LAS MORNING NEWS

OXNARD, Calif. — If there was one criticism of Dak Prescott’s remarkable rookie season — let’s face it, no matter how good an athlete is, there will always be prattle about how much better he would be if only — it’s that he didn’t take enough shots down the field.

Prescott is aware of where he needs to improve more than any critic or observer. In the opening days of training camp, the quarterback spoke of how he wanted to push himself outside his comfort zone in some practices, throw a pass here, test his arm strength there in ways he normally won’t in a game.

He did that. Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan felt this group connected on more deep balls in camp than in his previous three years with the Cowboys.

Gus Ruelas / Associated Press file

Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott is working on improving on his deep-passing game during camp this offseason.

"We get a lot of respect with our running game," Linehan said. "Being able to do that, especially not just one-on-one throws but downfield, I think we improved our ability to do that in a lot of ways."

Linehan points to a back-shoulder pass Prescott made to Cole Beasley in Wednesday’s practice, a day in which the quarterback was 18 of 18 against

the Cowboys’ defense.

"Probably the best throw I’ve seen him make in a long time," Linehan said. "You have to throw that in one place and you have to have a guy like Cole who can adjust and keep his feet in.

"I’m not sure he would have tried that last year."

How has Prescott gone about throwing a better deep ball?

"Just more time working with the guys," Linehan said. "He was working with these guys this time last year maybe 10 plays a practices. Now it’s every play.

"That’s part of it, a lot of one-on-one, a lot of red zone, lot of in-the-field competition, that’s how you learn to throw it."

No one expects Prescott to transform into a gunslinger. That’s not his style. The second-year quarterback relies on execution and makes precious few mistakes. He threw only six interceptions during the team’s four weeks in Southern California.

Prescott did this while completing more deep passes along the way.

"He has shown physical improvement," Linehan said. "The anticipation and his arm strength looks better and it was good to begin with.

"He has had a great camp."

NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS LONGHORNS

INJURIES HAVE PLAGUED TEXAS’ RUNNING BACKS

Scott Halleran / Getty Images file

Texas A&M leads the nation in student sports passes sold, selling out for a seventh consecutive season.

A&M sales lead nation from student sports passes

By Brent Zwerneman HOUSTON CHRONICLE

COLLEGE STATION — The largest student section in America has once again reached its maximum. Texas A&M announced Friday that it has sold out of its student sports passes for a seventh consecutive season.

The Aggies have sold more than 35,000 passes for students for games at Kyle Field this fall, a record since the stadium was expanded to a capacity of more than 100,000 three years ago. Most of the students sit behind the opponent's bench at Kyle, with 28,000 of those seats taking up three

decks and stretching from end zone to end zone.

Kyle Field is the SEC's largest stadium, fourth largest in college football and fifth largest in the world among all stadiums, with its capacity of 102,733. A&M has led the SEC in home attendance for three consecutive seasons, all 8-5 finishes for the Aggies.

A&M opens its home schedule on Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. against Nicholls State, but first the Aggies will travel to UCLA for a Sept. 3 night game in the Rose Bowl. A&M defeated UCLA 31-24 last year in overtime at Kyle Field before 100,443 fans.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: HOUSTON ASTROS

Liriano still not used to his new relief role

By Hunter Atkins HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Cooper Neill / Getty Images file

Chris Warren III suffered a concussion this offseason and is one of multiple Longhorns running backs that have dealt with an injury.

Texas’ rushers have battled injuries entering 2017 season

By Nick Moyle SA N A N TONI O E XPRE SS-NEWS

AUSTIN — Texas’ running backs have a troubling knack for showing up on the injury report. That looms as a serious issue with the season opener against Maryland two weeks away.

Chris Warren returned from a concussion this week, and has looked “really good,” according to coach Tom Herman.

Still, the bulldozing junior can’t be considered a stable option given his checkered injury history, despite how good he has looked when healthy.

“The thing he’s doing the best right now is he’s respecting the game,”

running backs coach Stan Drayton last week.

“He’s been a little bit of a lethargic football player in the past in regards to practice. I think he's becoming a better practice player, and I think he needs to continue to do that for the rest of his career — play the game on the practice field.”

Presumptive starter Kyle Porter (shoulder) hasn’t been a picture of pristine health, either.

The 5-foot-10, 220pound sophomore was a non-contact participant in Thursday’s practice but likely won’t play in Saturday’s scrimmage.

Coach Tom Herman believes he should be able to make a full return next week.

If Porter’s injury woes extend into the season, Warren — assuming he isn’t injured — would run with the starters.

“Right now if we started a game with Kyle Porter out, Chris Warren would jog in the game with Kirk (Johnson) backing him up,” Herman said.

It should be noted that Johnson missed nearly the entire first week of fall practice with a hamstring injury. Sophomore back Tristian Houston has battled through a shoulder issue.

Behind Warren and Johnson, Herman said freshmen Daniel Young and Toneil Carter would receive a roughly equal share of reps.

The two newcomers are undeniably talented.

With the running back room ravaged by injuries, Carter earned the lion’s share of carries during the spring scrimmage and ran well, going for 60 yards on 10 carries.

Running backs coach Stan Drayton isn’t sure a “bell cow” will emerge from this group. Both Porter and Warren possess lead back traits, but it might be tempting fate to hand either one too grueling a workload.

One season after D’Onta Foreman feasted on over 65 percent of UT’s backfield carries, it appears the Longhorns will adopt a committee approach.

Astros pitching coach Brent Strom sat down with reliever Francisco Liriano before Thursday's finale against the Diamondbacks at Minute Maid Park.

After studying the latest video footage of Liriano, Strom had identified two areas for him to improve: Liriano needed to commit to a slower slider with more break and a slower heart rate in his transition from starting pitcher to lefthanded specialist.

Liriano was the Astros' lone acquisition before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. The team envisioned deploying him against lefthanded batters, but expected Liriano - a former Cy Young candidate as a starter - could be a solid option to complete entire innings.

Entering Thursday, he had disappointed in both regards. His fastball command wavered. He flattened out his breaking ball by throwing it too hard. In 3 2/3 innings, he had two strikeouts, five walks, four hits surrendered and a 4.91 ERA. Worse, in three of his five appearances, manager A.J. Hinch had to take him out because he could not finish an inning.

Liriano's ineffectiveness has exacerbated the ire of fans who wanted the Astros to trade for more formidable pitching for an injured rotation and ailing bullpen.

The pressure on Liriano

Bob Levey / Getty Images file

Trade deadline acquisition Francisco Liriano has had a tough adjustment to the bullpen so far for the Astros.

to satisfy those expectations burdened him during his transitional period.

He had gotten used to the lengthy process of preparing to start games. Now he is struggling to warm up quickly — to be ready in two minutes, he said — after getting the call to the bullpen.

He has had to temper the immediate, unfamiliar rush of adrenaline, which has flattened his slider and rattled his mechanics.

Strom recommended his slider should decrease from 90 mph to 87 mph to give it more vertical movement.

He also said his new role relies more on his fastball because he throws fewer off-speed pitches, in both the bullpen warm-up and games.

He plans to start loosening up his body earlier, in the fourth or fifth innings of games.

For now, Hinch likely will simplify Liriano's assignments to one or two left-handed hitters in an outing until the southpaw can prove more capable.

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RIBEREÑA EN BREVE PERMISO DE ESTACIONAMIENTO

1 El Departamento de Policía del distrito escolar Zapata County Independent School District invita a los estudiantes de preparatoria que son conductores de vehículos a que recojan su permiso de estacionamiento desde hoy y hasta el viernes 25 de agosto de 9 a.m. a 12 p.m. y de 1:30 p.m. a 3:30 p.m. en la oficina frontal de la preparatoria Zapata High School. Estudiantes deberán presentar comprobante de seguro vigente y licencia de manejo.

Costo del permiso 5 dólares. Mayores informes al departamento de policía de ZCISD o con Patricia Flores.

TORNEO DE PESCA 1 Torneo Anual de Pesca para Niños organizado por la Cámara de Comercio del Condado de Zapata, sábado 19 de agosto de 7 a.m. a 3 p.m. en Bravo Park. Para niños de 3 a 12 años de edad. Premios en efectivo para el 1er, 2do y 3er lugar. El padre o un guardán debe estar presente.

Evento gratuito.

CASO HOMICIDIO

OPINIÓN

Recibe condena Mata a esposa, pasará 30 años en prisión Por Taryn Walters TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Un jurado en la Corte de Distrito 111 encontró a Alberto Espinoza culpable de homicidio el miércoles después de escuchar el testimonio de psicólogos que dijeron que Espinoza sufría de una severa enfermedad mental cuando apuñaló a su esposa en la garganta en el 2014.

El jurado sentenció a Espinoza a 30 años en prisión y se le fijó una multa de 10.000 dólares.

Espinoza, de 30 años de edad, no puso en disputa haber dado muerte a su esposa, sino que se declaró no culpable por razones de locura.

Espinoza dijo a las autoridades que escuchó voces que le decían que su esposa, Yolanda Martínez-

Cuate Santos / LMT

Alberto Espinoza cubre su cara mientras escucha el testimonio de un testigo en el juicio en su contra que se llevó a cabo en la Corte de Distrito 111, el martes. Espinoza está acusado de dar muerte a su esposa en su hogar en el 2014.

Pérez, intentaba matarlo al envenenar las papas que cocinaba esa mañana del 22 de julio del 2014.

Tres psicólogos sub-

ieron al estrado el miércoles, y estuvieron de acuerdo en que Espinoza realmente sufría delirio ese día.

Para que una defensa por locura prevalezca, la defensa debe probar que el acusado, como resultado de una severa enfermedad mental o defecto, no sabía que su conducta estaba mal al momento del crimen.

Dos de los psicólogos, llamados por la defensa para testificar, creen que la capacidad de Espinoza para saber que sus acciones estaban mal se encontraba dañada por una severa enfermedad mental al momento del crimen.

El Dr. Timothy Proctor, testigo experto de la fiscalía, concluyó que Espinoza probablemente sabía que dar muerte a su esposa

estaba mal cuando le cortó la garganta.

Joaquín Amaya, quien representa a Espinoza, solicitó al jurado que mostrara compasión por Espinoza cuando llegaran a un veredicto.

“Antes que esto sucediera, Alberto era un buen esposo. Era un buen padre. Trabajaba duro...él no quería esta enfermedad. Él no la pidió y trató de obtener ayuda”, dijo Amaya.

Espinoza se hospitalizó dos veces en los días previos a la muerte de su esposa para ser tratado de ataques de ansiedad.

Martínez-Pérez, de quien había estado separado durante varios meses, viajó de Dallas a Laredo para buscar ayuda para su esposo, llevándolo al hospital y con un curandero.

CIUDAD DE ROMA

EMERGENCIA 9-1-1

CONSULADO MÓVIL 1 El Consulado General de México en Laredo tendrá el Consulado Móvil en la Ciudad de Roma el sábado 26 de agosto de 8 a.m. a 1:30 p.m. Centro Mundial de las Aves ubicado en la Plaza Histórica. Esquina de Portscheller St. y Convent Ave. Se realizarán los servicios de trámite de pasaporte mexicano, matrícula consular, credencial para votar, y actas de nacimiento entre otros servicios.

Se requiere programar cita en http://consulmex.sre.gob.mx/ mcallen/ o en la aplicación móvil mi Miconsulmex o llamar al teléfono 1-877-MEXITEL

REGRESO A CLASES 1 El primer día de clases para las escuelas del distrito escolar Zapata Independent School District se realizará el 28 de agosto.

SOCIEDAD GENEALÓGICA 1 La Sociedad Genealógica Nuevo Santander invita a su reunión el sábado 9 de septiembre a las 2 p.m. en el Museo de Historia del Condado de Zapata. Moisés Garza, Somos Primos/We Are Cousins, presentará: “Recursos para obtener el máximo de su ADN”. Admisión 5 dólares.

Evento gratuito para miembros de la sociedad.

NOCHE MEXICANA 1 La Ciudad de Roma invita a la Noche Mexicana que se celebrará el 14 de septiembre de 7 p.m. a 11 p.m. Disfrute de bailes folclóricos y antojitos mexicanos en la Plaza Guadalupe de la Ciudad de Roma.

FESTIVAL NUEVO SANTANDER 1 La Sociedad Genealógica Nueva Santander invita al Festival Nuevo Santander el 13 y 14 de octubre en el Museo de Historia.

Foto de cortesía | Departamento de Policía Ciudad de Roma

Los departamentos de Policía y Bomberos de la Ciudad de Roma dieron una presentación a los niños de la comunidad en el Centro Comunitario Roma los primeros días de agosto. Los oficiales presentaron un video educativo sobre el servicio 9-1-1 presentando al teléfono celular Sally y hablando con los menores y asistentes sore la importancia del servicio de emergencia 9-1-1 y cuándo realizar la llamada. Los oficiales también expresaron la necesidad de que todos, especialmente los niños aprendan sus domicilios y permanezcan tranquilos al llamar al servicio de emergencia.

COLUMNA

La última voluntad de Hidalgo Por Raúl Sinencio Chávez TIEMP O DE LAREDO

Todo sentenciado a la pena capital tiene un deseo postrero. Antes de que lo fusilaran, pidió el suyo don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Era algo simple. Nada indica que lo hayan satisfecho.

Los jefes insurgentes habían sido a traición capturados en las Norias de Acatitas de Baján, Coahuila. Trasferidos enseguida hasta la ciudad de Chihuahua, allá los sometieron a juicio militar. El proceso fue mero formulismo, pura faramalla. Las sentencias resultaban previsibles.

El virrey ofreció indultarlos semanas atrás, “siempre que reconociesen a la legítima autoridad” de España. Aunque en apuros, Hidalgo e Ignacio Allende rechazaron la oferta. Estamos “resueltos a no entrar en composición alguna, si no es que se ponga por base la libertad de” México, respondieron al monarca.

Repuesta del susto que le produjo el grito de Dolores, Guanajuato, la élite del virreinato quiso dar a los independentis-

Foto de cortesía

Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Óleo de Antonio Fabrés, 1904.

tas castigos que infundieran terror. Por ende, la condena impuesta ordenó que el 26 de junio de 1814 Allende, Juan Aldama y Mariano Jiménez acabaran “pasados por las armas, por las espaldas, en señal de afrenta e ignominia” y “sus cabezas … llevadas a un sitio que (después) se determine para …]escarmiento”.

Mariano Abasolo moriría en una prisión española.

Faltaba don Miguel.

“Reo de alta traición, sedicioso, tumultuario, conspirador”, lo consideraron sus captores. Se-

gún la parte acusadora, los pueblos quedaron con él “propensos a levantarse y … desear la independencia”. En virtud de ello, Hidalgo murió también fusilado, de frente, el 30 de julio de 1811. Su cabeza y las de los demás insurrectos colgarían en la Alhóndiga de Granaditas durante casi diez años.

La víspera, lunes 29, al cura lo sometieron a degradación eclesiástica.

Con tal motivo, le rasparon las manos, “arrancándole las vestiduras sacerdotales”. Volvieron a preguntarle los porqués de la rebelión “contra el rey”. Valiente, don Miguel manifestó “que ya había expuesto sus razones al juez militar … sin más delito que haber querido hacer independiente esta América de España”.

Por último, lo entregaron al ejército realista para “que … ejecutara la sentencia”, asienta el testimonio manuscrito.

Sin embargo, se añade: “Despojado de los ornamentos sagrados, … se le encontró en el pecho, llena de sudor, la soberana imagen de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, … bordada de seda sobre

pergamino”.

Al retirarle la insignia del pecho, don Miguel explicó: “Esta señora Madre de Dios, ha sido la que he llevado de escudo con mi bandera, que marchaba delante de mis huestes en las jornadas de Aculco y Guanajuato”.

Para concluir, pediría: que la imagen “sea llevada al convento de las Teresitas de Querétaro, donde fue hecha por las venerables madres, quienes me la dieron en mi santo de 1807”.

Nada cuesta entender la súplica expresada por el cura en las horas previas al patíbulo. Tampoco entraña un asunto complicado o de embarazoso cumplimiento. Por lo contrario. Sólo pedía conducir la pieza al referido convento de la capital queretana. Pero nadie en particular hizo el compromiso de atender la encomienda.

Mal disimulaban su odio los enemigos del Padre de la Patria. Más adelante, Maximiliano de Habsburgo recibió dicho escapulario como obsequio. Este último y la aquí citada acta permanecen hoy a cargo del Archivo General de la Nación.

NAFTA, la hora de la verdad Mario Canales E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Esta semana inició la primera ronda de negociaciones en el proceso de modernización del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (NAFTA, por sus siglas en inglés).

2.0 El tema de la renegociación surge con mayor fuerza por la campaña de Donald Trump a la presidencia. Sin embargo, siempre es bueno ser receptivos a los ajustes que busquen mejorar, como al parecer aspiran a ser las del NAFTA. Estados Unidos, México y Canadá en la mesa de negociaciones para lograr un impacto positivo en sus comunidades. Cada uno peleará por obtener mayores beneficios, pero, en algunas se ganarán y en otras se tendrá que ceder.

Por eso, es importante resaltar el impacto positivo que el NAFTA ha tenido para los tres países, en especial, para la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos: la región Laredo.

Norteamérica representa 25 por ciento de la economía mundial con solo 7 por ciento de la población. Mayor integración comercial les ha permitido obtener ventajas comerciales en un mundo cada vez más competitivo.

Algunos resaltan que el Tratado de Libre Comercio ha beneficiado solo a México, la realidad es que millones de empleos en Estados Unidos dependen directa e indirectamente del comercio con México.

Los estados con mayor inclinación a la agricultura y a la manufactura son los más afectados con el resultado del NAFTA. De acuerdo con un análisis publicado por el Wall Street Journal, el estado de Texas está entre los estados cuyo comercio con México y Canadá representa entre el 27 y el 8 por ciento del total de su producto interno bruto (GDP, por sus siglas en inglés).

Interesante es que los estados más relacionados con el NAFTA, como Texas, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky y North Dakota son todos estados que ganó Donald Trump en la pasada elección presidencial. Irónicamente, es el mismo Trump quien busca cancelar este acuerdo.

Esta integración económica se traduce en una cohesión social cuyas raíces se extienden más allá del alcance del NAFTA. No hay en el mundo región más afectada por la tendencia proteccionista del Presidente Trump, que la región Laredo.

Se debe continuar en el ánimo que hasta ahora ha prevalecido y que ha generado que los tres países se sienten en la mesa de negociaciones a dialogar.

El impacto ante una posible falta de consenso entre los negociadores o su posterior rechazo legislativo sería una derrota histórica con alcance más allá de lo económico.

Llegó la hora de la verdad, porque a pesar de las diferentes circunstancias que han enfrentado a estos tres países, hoy, los beneficios superan los costos; porque así lo exigen los tiempos; llegó la hora de la verdad, porque todos merecen un acuerdo que traspase generaciones.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, August 19, 2017 |

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BUSINESS

Target ends relationship with Hampton Creek

By Olivia Zaleski BL O O MBE RG

Target Corp. will no longer sell products made by food startup Hampton Creek Inc. after an internal review, the latest major blow to the beleaguered maker of Just Mayo eggless mayonnaise and other plantbased foods.

The retail giant decided to end the relationship about two months after receiving what it described as “specific and serious food safety allegations about Hampton Creek products.”

Target pulled the San Francisco company’s

products from shelves in June while it looked into the matter and shared the claims with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Hampton Creek has said its products are safe and comply with FDA rules. The FDA has said it won’t investigate unless it receives reports of consumers getting sick and has “no safety concerns with Hampton Creek at this time.”

“Although the FDA is not pursuing this further, we used the opportunity to review our portfolio, as we regularly do, and decided to reconsider our relationship

with Hampton Creek,” Target wrote in an emailed statement Friday.

“We are not planning to bring Hampton Creek products back to Target and have openly communicated our decision with the Hampton Creek team.”

Hampton Creek said Target’s decision stemmed from a statement the startup released without the retailer’s consent last week. “Target informed us that sharing with the public the FDA’s conclusion that our products are safe violated Target’s vendor communication guidelines,” Hampton

Creek wrote in an email.

The loss of Target’s business is a big setback for Hampton Creek after a year filled with scandals. Before Target’s review this summer, it was the venture-backed startup’s largest retail customer, representing about a third of Hampton Creek sales from stores, two people with knowledge of the business have said. Target was bringing in $5.5 million a year for the money-losing food maker, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the financial information is private.

Brady McCombs / AP

An eclipse glasses sold out sign is posted outside the Clark Planetarium main doors advising people to safely view the eclipse with a pinhole projector after the planetarium ran out of glasses Thursday in Salt Lake City.

Americans scurry to find safe eclipse viewing glasses

By Brady Mccombs ASSOCIATED PRE SS

US rig count decreases by 3 this week A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

HOUSTON — The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. decreased by three this week to 946.

A year ago, just 491 rigs were active.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes said Friday that 763 rigs sought oil and 182 explored for natural gas this week. One was listed as miscellaneous.

Among major oil- and gas-producing states,

California gained two rigs and New Mexico increased by one.

North Dakota declined by two rigs while Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Utah were down by one apiece.

Arkansas, Colorado,

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming were all unchanged.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May of 2016 at 404.

Foot Locker plummets as investors brace for ‘years of pain’

By Matt Townsend and Janet Freund BL O O MBE RG

Foot Locker suffered its worst stock decline since the depths of the last recession after a bleak outlook renewed concerns that the industry’s growth streak has come to an end.

Shares of the footwear chain fell as much as 28 percent in the wake of results that were weaker than expected by most every benchmark: profit, sales and margins. Foot Locker also forecast continued sales declines over the rest of 2017, with Chief Executive Officer Dick Johnson citing sluggish demand for top brands, including Nike Inc.’s Jordan and Adidas’s Stan Smith.

Foot Locker’s samestore sales fell for the first time since 2010. That sent ripples across the sporting-goods industry on Friday, dragging down shares of the field’s biggest companies.

“We certainly didn’t see the business dropping off as much as it did,” Johnson said on a call with analysts. In May, when Foot Locker reported disappointing first-

Richard Drew / AP

The Foot Locker logo appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on June 21.

quarter results, Johnson said the company had rebounded from a rough February with robust sales gains in March and April.

The results follow disappointing numbers from others in the industry, including Under Armour, Hibbett Sports, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Cabela’s. That’s a sign that the broader field may be headed for “several years of pain,” Quo Vadis Capital analyst John Zolidis said in a research note.

“The consumer has moved on to other things,” Zolidis said.

The falloff doesn’t bode

well for the back-toschool shopping season, which is in full bloom right now, according to Matt Powell, an analyst for NPD Group. Total U.S. athletic footwear sales continued to slide in July, falling 5 percent, according to NPD data collected from retailers.

Sales in July for Nike, which has only reported results through May, declined at a high-singledigit percentage rate, NPD said. And the company’s Jordan and Converse brands suffered an even steeper drop.

Under Armour, which has only disclosed results through June, experi-

enced a double-digit decline last month, according to the researcher.

Skechers USA Inc., which has also only reported through June, saw shoe revenue in the U.S. fall at a high-single-digit rate.

The U.S. sneaker slowdown can be chalked up to a slew of problems, according to Powell. Basketball, once the industry’s stalwart, continues to be weak. And the classic-looking sneakers — led by Adidas lines such as Stan Smith — have peaked, with the overall category falling 8 percent in July. There’s also a material decline in sneaker sales to Hispanics. The theory is that they’re shopping less — a trend highlighted by Target’s CEO — amid fears over increased immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump.

“Foot Locker, being the largest sneaker retailer in the U.S., is reflecting the malaise we have seen all year,” Powell said.

Shares of Foot Locker fell as low as $34.41, marking the biggest intraday drop since November 2008. Even before the tumble, the stock had already lost a third of its value this year.

SALT LAKE CITY — Eclipse mania is building and so is demand for the glasses that make it safe to view the first total solar eclipse to cross the U.S. in 99 years.

Lines are forming, prices are rising and shelves are emptying as people scurry to obtain special eyewear to view the sun Monday as it is obscured by the passing moon.

Complicating the rising demand from last-minute shoppers was a recent recall by Amazon that forced libraries and health centers around the country to recall glasses they gave away or sold.

For stores that still have the glasses, prices are spiking. The ones still for sale on Amazon were going for steep prices Friday, around $11-$12 each.

Nancy West, a 67-yearold retired nurse from Utah, was delighted to be among the final people to get glasses Thursday before the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City ran out. It sold nearly 90,000 pairs at $2 each this week.

“I will never see a total eclipse again because I will not live long enough,” West said. “It’s an opportunity to understand how our universe works and what part I play in that.”

Amy Watts and her 13-year-old son, Ethan, waited in line for an hour at the planetarium so they could have a safe way to watch the historic moment.

“We heard the frenzy of getting ahold of some eclipse glasses so we thought, ‘What the heck, we’ll give it a shot,”’ said Watts, a health coach. “We actually scored some.”

Doctors around the U.S. launched campaigns this summer to warn people that they can damage their eyes staring directly at the sun, even the slimmest sliver of it. They advised

people to get special eclipse glasses. The American Astronomical Society put out a list of 15 approved manufacturers.

Doctors say people who don’t have the glasses can look indirectly with a pinhole projector — which can be made from a shoebox — that casts images of the eclipsed sun onto a screen at least 3 feet away.

NASA also has a webpage listing safety tips for how to view the eclipse.

One of the approved manufacturers selling the special glasses, American Paper Optics, has sold 45 million pairs over the last two years — 10 million since mid-July, said John Jerit, president of the Memphis, Tennesseebased company.

Among their customers was Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which had to recall 8,000 glasses purchased from an unidentified third-party vendor and given out at a county fair last weekend.

The center was offering people the chance to exchange the faulty glasses for new, certified ones from American Paper Optics Friday through Monday.

The scramble was on even for those not affected by recalls.

The Boise Public Library started giving out free eclipse glasses Aug. 1.

With lines of eager eclipsewatchers stretching out the door, the main branch ran out in about 15 minutes, spokesman Kevin Winslow said.

The rest of the Boise library branches also ran out quickly: the entire supply of more than 2,000 glasses was gone in under an hour.

“We got about a dozen calls in the last hour asking if we still had them,” Winslow said Thursday.

“I’m telling people, ‘If you have a family of three or four, not everyone has to have their own pair — you can pass it around.”’

A10 | Saturday, August 19, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

ENTERTAINMENT

Luis Fonsi savoring ‘Despacito’ success

By Sigal Ratner-arias A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — The global phenomenon “Despacito” may be overwhelming to many, but not to Luis Fonsi — even when it has transformed him into a 24/7 globetrotter. The Puerto Rican sensation considers it a real blessing that the megahit arrived two decades into his career.

“It is a lot, but I’m trying just to enjoy every day and be very grateful and I’m blessed that it came 20 years in,” the singer-songwriter told The Associated Press during a brief stop in New York this week.

Many people around the world are just learning his name, but “I’m not new to this,” he said.

“I know how to really enjoy it... I’m very grounded, I’m very grateful and I love music... It’s what I’ve done all my life. Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to be a musician — I didn’t want to be famous; I wanted to be a musician.”

Fresh from the European leg of his “Love and Dance World Tour,” Fonsi said it was fun to sing in front of so many new audience members. The tour next takes him to Latin America and, starting Sept. 8, to the U.S. With dates through the summer of 2018, it’s the biggest tour he’s done, thanks to “Despacito.”

“This took me to Turkey, to Cyprus, to Egypt, Sweden... Just to see so many people that are really there because they know one of my songs it’s huge, and they were singing along to that one song and enjoying the rest of my repertoire,” he said. “It keeps me very

John Bazemore / AP

In this July 13 file photo, rapper Meek Mill poses during a portrait session to promote his new album "Wins & Losses," in Atlanta.

Rapper Meek Mill arrested for reckless dirt biking ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Lynne Sladky / AP

In this April 27 file photo, Luis Fonsi performs during the Latin Billboard Awards in Coral Gables, Florida.

humble and is very refreshing to have to sort of prove myself to this new audience who is going like ‘Who is this Luis Fonsi?’ ‘Who is this Mr. Despacito?’... It keeps it really interesting.”

Some things have changed for the Latin artist, who was better known before as a balladeer. But some things have not: “The way I go about doing my daily things, the way I treat people, the way I go about respecting the stage and writing songs and doing my normal things, those things will never change,” he said.

“What changes is that ‘Despacito’ has opened a lot of doors for me, so now I’m able to collaborate with artists that maybe before wouldn’t pay so much attention.”

He recently joined DNCE and Nicki Minaj on a remix of “Kissing Strangers” and said “some amazing collaborations are coming up, literally as we speak,”

although he wasn’t ready to give any details.

“It’s not a drastic difference from what I’ve done, but it’s a little more pop oriented, a little bit more just rhythmic oriented,” he said. “I want to just push the envelope and keep kind of mixing and intertwining different genres and just really explore within the range of pop music.”

Traveling the world with the biggest hit of the year has been fun, but it doesn’t come without a high price to the father of two: Mikaela, 5, and Rocco, born last December just a few days before “Despacito” was released.

“That is THE only negative about my job, the only thing that I’d say ‘Ugh!”’ Fonsi admitted. “I can go a week without sleeping and I’ll take it.

(But) not being with my kids, you know. I have a 7-month-old and every day he learns something new and I’m missing out a lot.”

NEW YORK — Police say the rapper Meek Mill has been arrested on a charge of reckless endangerment for riding an illegal dirt bike through New York City streets.

The 30-year-old rapper was arrested late Thursday. His real name is Robert Rihmeek Wil-

liams.

The Daily News reports that Mill was seen on Instagram popping wheelies on the dirt bike Wednesday night.

According to Instagram posts by fans, Mill turned on his livestream when police detained him the next day based on the social media posts.

The dirt bike photos could no longer be found on Mill’s Instagram account by late Thursday.

Mill’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said Mill was being singled out because of his celebrity.

Tacopina said that if Mill’s name had been John Smith, “he wouldn’t even have been arrested.”

Taylor Swift left ‘a blank space, baby’ on social media ASSOCIATED PRE SS

NEW YORK — Taylor Swift had a “blank space, baby” across social media Friday — and Swifties went wild.

There was no immediate word from the Swift camp on what happened, but the “Blank Space” pop star is known for promotional trickery on her social streams ahead of major music drops.

In addition to Face-

book, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, her website went Swift dark and the hashtag “TS6IsComing” — as in her sixth studio album — trended worldwide. Her profile pictures were also removed.

All of this comes days after federal jurors in

Denver found a former radio host, David Mueller, assaulted and battered Swift during a meet-andgreet in 2013. And all of this also comes as the three-year anniversary of “1989,” her last studio album, approaches in October.

Perhaps more significantly: Aug. 18 is three years on the nose that Swift dropped “Shake It Off” and announced “1989” was on the way back in 2014.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, August 19, 2017 |

A11

NATIONAL

Civil War reenactment canceled amid violence

By Antonio Olivo WA S H INGT ON P O ST

A Civil War reenactment in Virginia was canceled Friday after participants shared worries over their safety following the recent violence in Charlottesville.

The two-day event in Manassas, scheduled to start Aug. 25, was meant to share how both Union and Confederate soldiers lived during the Civil War. In previous years, the event that started in 2011 featured tent cities set up in the downtown area, an evening ball and lectures about how the war started and why.

Patty Prince, a Manassas city spokeswoman, said some of the reenactors called event organizers with worries that the racially charged at-

mosphere around the country over whether to tear down Civil War monuments would lead to violence.

“It’s just not a good time to have it,” Prince said, about the event that the city began hosting to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. “It’s a very sad time in our country.”

Manassas is where the First Battle of Bull Run was fought in 1861, a key victory for the Confederate Army that forced the Union Army to realize the conflict would not be as easy as it initially believed. The Second Battle of Bull Run was fought a year later.

Those facts and other aspects of the war that killed 620,000 people are important for people to remember, said Georgia

District ends practice of cheese sandwich punishments A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

CUMBERLAND, R.I. — There will be no more cheese sandwich punishments given out at a Rhode Island school district.

The Providence Journal reports the Cumberland School Committee has ended the controversial practice of giving cold cheese sandwiches to students whose parents fall behind on hot lunch payments.

Committee member Mark Fiorillo told the

paper Friday it isn’t fair to penalize children for their parents’ decisions. He said it was also unfair the cheese sandwich meals, which also included fruit, vegetables and milk, were charged at the full hot lunch price.

Fiorillo said under the new policy, the school will notify parents by phone and email when their balance is overdue, rather than having the notice being handed to the child.

Westerly and other school districts are also considering similar changes.

Oregon becomes fifth state to change legal cigarette smoking age

By Jenni Bergal WA S H INGT ON P O ST

Oregon has become the fifth state to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21.

Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, signed the bill into law early this month. It bars the sale of tobacco products to people younger than 21, effective Jan. 1, 2018.

Hawaii and California were the first two states to pass such a law. In July, New Jersey joined them, and last week, Maine enacted a law after legislators overruled a veto by Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who called the bill an attempt at “social engineering.”

In most states, the legal age to buy tobacco products is 18; in a few, it is 19.

Supporters of a stricter standard say raising the legal age to 21 would save lives as well as cut

In most states, the legal age to buy tobacco products is 18; in a few, it is 19. medical costs for states.

They point to a 2015 Institute of Medicine report that predicted that raising the age to 21 would reduce smoking by 12 percent by the time today’s teenagers are adults. It also would result in about 223,000 fewer premature deaths.

But opponents say a change would hurt small businesses, reduce tax revenue and violate the personal freedom of young adults who are legally able to vote and join the military.

In the past several years, a growing number of local governments have taken action on their own to boost the legal age to 21.

Meadows, vice president of the 49th Virginia Infantry reenactment group, which had been preparing to participate in the Manassas event.

“We don’t take sides,” said Meadows, who started her organization with her husband Tony Meadows 32 years ago.

“You can’t erase it and you can’t replace it. You’d be surprised how many school children don’t know who won or lost or even the cause of the Civil War.” Meadows was surprised to learn the event had been canceled, but said she understood the reason.

Though there were no plans to reenact a battle, several people were worried the event would invite trouble after violent protests in Charlottesville last weekend

Earl Neikirk / AP

This Civil War reenactment shows the Confederate troops enter the Muster Grounds on July 29 in Abingdon, Virginia.

led to the death of Heather Heyer, 32, who was hit by a car allegedly driven by a white nationalist.

Two police officers were

also killed when their helicopter crashed.

“We’re out there standing in 100-degree heat to teach people his-

New Hampshire confirms identity of suspected serial killer

By Holly Ramer ASSOCIATED PRE SS

CONCORD, N.H. — Authorities on Friday said they have confirmed the identity of a man suspected of killing six women and children while using numerous names in multiple states.

The announcement came seven months after law enforcement officials said a man who died in a California prison in 2010 after killing and dismembering his girlfriend also likely had five earlier victims, including his toddler daughter and the mother of another girl he raised for several years and then abandoned. The man went by at least five names, including Bob Evans in New Hampshire and Lawrence Vanner in California, but authorities said Friday that his real name was Terry Peder Rasmussen.

Sgt. Michael Kokoski of New Hampshire State Police’s cold case unit said he hopes the new information will lead to tips about Rasmussen — and possibly other victims — during the several years before he arrived in New Hampshire in the late 1970s.

“We’ve found his real identity, and more significantly, that he appears to have used this identity up until the time he comes to New Hampshire,” he said. “The hope is that ... someone will recognize him and say, ‘Yeah, I knew Terry,’ and be able to potentially identify any females or children that were accompanying him in his travels for those critical years.”

According to investigators, Rasmussen was born in 1943 in Denver, grew up in both Colorado and Arizona, and attended high school in Phoenix before joining the Navy.

After being discharged in 1967, Rasmussen got married in Hawaii and then moved to Arizona, where he and his wife had three daughters and one son.

Around 1973, Rasmussen’s wife left him, authorities said, and the last time she and the children saw him was when he showed up unexpectedly for a visit around Christmas 1974. A DNA sample from one of those children helped confirm Rasmussen’s identity, Kokoski said. One of the daughters declined to comment Friday.

“They all obviously want their privacy, but I

think it’s fair to say they were all very troubled by what we were telling them about what Terry had gone on to do with his life,” he said.

Authorities know little about Rasmussen’s whereabouts from 1974 to 1978 but say it’s likely he spent time in Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Virginia and New Hampshire.

By 1981, Rasmussen was living with girlfriend Denise Beaudin and her 6-month-old daughter, Dawn, in Manchester, New Hampshire. All three disappeared that year, but Beaudin’s family never reported her missing because they believed the couple left town because of money troubles.

Although her body has not been found, authorities believe Rasmussen killed Beaudin somewhere between New Hampshire and California, where, by 1985, he was living at an RV park with Beaudin’s daughter and using the name Gordon Jenson.

In June 1986, Rasmussen abandoned the girl, whom he called Lisa, and fled. He later served about 18 months in jail for child abandonment but took off after being parol-

ST. MARYS, Pa. — A woman is accused of burning her 3-year-old son with chemicals, putting him on a leash and keeping him in a dog cage.

Police in St. Marys charged Arwen Kuhn last week with a slew of

charges including aggravated assault and false imprisonment of a minor.

A judge on Thursday set a preliminary hearing for Aug. 29.

According to a police affidavit obtained by the Courier Express (http:// bit.ly/2uZ2D9H0) the child’s dad says he

ed in 1990, authorities said. In 2003, he was convicted of killing Eunsoon Jun, whom he had married two years earlier in an unofficial ceremony in Richmond, California.

Her partially dismembered body was found in their basement, buried under cat litter.

In addition to Beaudin and Jun, authorities believe Rasmussen killed a woman and three girls whose bodies were found in barrels near a New Hampshire state park in 1985 and 2000. Based on DNA evidence, authorities believe Rasmussen was the father of one of the girls.

Authorities from around the country have been investigating more than 50 tips about the identities of those victims, the location of Beaudin’s body and Rasmussen’s early life.

“This has been a cooperative venture with a lot of agencies involved,” said Jeffery Strelzin, senior assistant attorney general. “Because he left victims from one end of the country to the other, a lot of people have been working together on this and continue to work together, and we very much appreciate that.”

Montana wildfire grows, destroys 2 homes ASSOCIATED PRE SS

LOLO, Mont. — One of several wildfires burning in Montana destroyed two homes after jumping control lines as firefighters braved another day Friday of high temperatures, gusty winds and low humidity.

The homes, southwest of the town of Lolo, were among 750 residences evacuated after the fire, started by lightning in July, blew up late Wednesday. Several outbuildings were burned late Thursday.

“We’ve got a couple of very challenging days ahead of us,” fire operations manager Mark Goeller said late Thursday.

“You’re going to see a lot of smoke in the air and a lot of ash fallout.”

The blaze burned nearly 30 square miles of forest land. Evacuations were in effect along the U.S. Highway 93 and U.S. Highway 12 corridors. The town of Florence was under an evacuation warning.

Fire commander Greg Poncin said the fire is going to burn for a long time, and he did not know

how long people would be out of their homes.

“I wish at this point I could give you a definitive answer,” Poncin said.

Heavy smoke from other wildfires made air quality hazardous in the town of Seeley Lake in northwestern Montana and unhealthy in Butte.

In Oregon, more than two dozen wildfires were burning around the state, including 10 fires in the so-called “zone of totality” for Monday’s solar eclipse.

Totality is when the moon appears to completely blot out the sun.

Police: Mom burned son, put him on leash, locked him in cage A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

tory, and we don’t get paid for it,” Meadows said. “Now we have to deal with this kind of nonsense.”

dropped the boy off at Kuhn’s house for three days last year. He says when he picked up the child, he noticed a scab on his bellybutton and bruises on his head.

He took the child to a hospital, where it was determined that the boy had chemical burns. His

eyes were also red and said they hurt in the night.

Investigators say they believe the 38-year-old Kuhn dropped the boy on his stomach and sprayed hydrogen peroxide in his eyes, in addition to leashing him and locking him in a cage.

The boy also had sei-

zures while at Kuhn’s house, and she did not seek help or treatment for him, according to court records.

Police allege she had taken videos of some of the abuse.

No attorney information was available. Her phone number isn’t listed.

The blazes prompted authorities to close large portions of Mt. Jefferson Wilderness and Three Sisters Wilderness, both in central Oregon’s Willamette National Forest and both considered top eclipse-viewing locations.

Residents about 6 miles west of the city of Sisters were told to prepare for evacuation after a wildfire there grew Thursday.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE TEXAS ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CODE THAT: Muy Pizza-Tejas LLC d/b/a Pizza Hut #33914 HAS FILED APPLICATION FOR A: Wine and Beer Retailer’s Permit SAID BUSINESS TO BE CONDUCTED AT: 209 North US Highway 83, Zapata, Zapata County, Texas 78076 Owner: Muy Pizza-Tejas LLC James H. Bodenstedt, Manager L-65

A12 | Saturday, August 19, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

INERNATIONAL

Memorials grow along site of deadly attack in Barcelona

Finnish police arrest suspect after two killed in stabbing

By Albert Stumm and Joseph Wilson

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

HELSINKI — Two people died in a stabbing attack in the center of the southwestern Finnish city of Turku on Friday, with police announcing an investigation into the motive and identity of a male suspect they shot and arrested.

The suspect was described as "a young foreigner" late Friday and taken to hospital after being shot in the thigh, police said.

Finnish police were cooperating with international agencies including Europol. The Finnish security police SUPO were also taking part in the probe.

Police said a search was under way to rule out other assailants, but the situation was under control.

"So far we are not investigating this as terror attack, but we can not rule that out," a spokesman for the Finnish Central Criminal police said.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting via conference call late Friday, where police gave a briefing.

Sipila said the government "condemned the attack" and expressed condolences to the victims and their next of kin.

President Sauli Niinisto issued a statement saying the attack was "shocking and cowardly."

There were conflicting reports about how many were injured. Teemu Elomaa, a doctor at Turku Central University Hospi-

BARCELONA, Spain — An ever-expanding jumble of flags, candles, teddy bears and flowers grew Friday at the base of Barcelona’s ornate Canaletes Fountain, where a local legend says that those who drink from the monument will fall in love with the city and always return.

The makeshift memorial sprang up with others along the historic Las Ramblas promenade, the site of a van attack that killed 13 people, injured 120 others and brought Islamic extremism to the heart of Catalonia.

Jesus Borrull, a lifelong resident, gently pushed through the crowd to kneel and pray in front of the Canaletes monument, which for two centuries has been a symbol of the city and a meeting spot for FC Barcelona soccer fans after a victory.

“The only thing we can do is go forward with peace and goodness,” he said. “Even though it’s difficult, we have to do it.”

The promenade reopened to pedestrians early Friday and vehicle traffic later in the day as life along the usually bustling street began to return to normal, albeit under the watch of dozens of armed police in blue and neon-yellow uniforms.

Newsstands were again selling papers and souvenirs, and ice cream shops lifted their security gates.

But the street’s flower

Carl Court / Getty Images

People gather around tributes laid on Las Ramblas near the scene of yesterday's terrorist attack on Friday in Barcelona, Spain.

stalls stayed closed, and metal gates covered the entrance to La Boqueria, the expansive market that is one of the city’s big tourist attractions.

Tensions flared briefly Friday evening when riot police held back a group of about 20-30 far-right protesters from reaching hundreds of counterprotesters at the start of the promenade. The far-right group held up a sign saying “Stop Islamization of Europe,” while the counterprotesters held up their middle fingers and shouted “Barcelona, antifascist.”

But the atmosphere was otherwise calm and unusually quiet as residents and tourists took stock of the carnage a day earlier and marveled at their own survival.

Taxi driver Mariano Romero, 53, said he was in his cab across the street from the start of the promenade when he saw the white van veer onto the pedestrian walkway.

“I heard it hit the people, saw the people flying,” he said. “There was

a family nearby so I told them to get in.

They were tourists and were trembling with fear.

I took them free of charge to their hotel near La Sagrada Familia” church, he said.

Abdel Azar, manager of Aromas de Istanbul restaurant near the top of Las Ramblas, said he was standing out front when he saw the van jump the curb and start smashing into people.

“It came up over there at the entrance and sped up to a tremendous speed, tremendous,” he said. “I kept hearing ‘boom!’ when it was hitting people.”

Pointing to the curb about 20 feet away, he said: “I saw an injured girl right there. Seeing it is shocking. I don’t want to overstate my role, but seeing the terror on people’s faces was just horrible.”

The city and its officials observed a minute of silence at noon, a rare moment when the question of Catalonian independence didn’t divide its people.

Roni Lehti / AP

An armed police officer secures the area following a multiple stabbing attack on the Market Square in Turku, Finland on Friday.

tal, said nine people received medical attention, and that three people were in intensive care. He said all the victims were adults.

Police told reporters they could not confirm whether the assailant had shouted any words in Arabic, as some witness accounts quoted by local media said.

Paiman Afzali, 26, told Swedish broadcaster SVT that he had left work at 4 p.m. when he heard screams and people running towards him. "I see a guy with a huge, big knife stabbing a female and stabbing a male," Afzali said.

Some bystanders chased the suspect, some shouted to warn other bystanders that the assailant had a knife, witnesses and police said.

Interior Minister Paula Risikko, who was also present in Turku, said police would be more visible in public places, and their level of alert had

been raised. Border checks were also stepped up.

Police said they have seized a knife. In addition to witnesses at the scene they also said there many surveillance cameras in the city center that could contribute to the probe as well as video footage taken by bystanders. Witnesses were urged to come forward.

Turku city officials said a crisis center had opened and the city cathedral organized a prayer vigil attended by among other Niinisto and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo.

Police have also stepped up their presence at the Helsinki airport and railway stations. Local daily Turun Sanomat said police checked trains and buses leaving Turku.

The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, criticized "this unprovoked attack which comes only 24 hours after the horror that unfolded in Spain."

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, August 19, 2017 |

A13

FROM THE COVER

Tina Fey makes appearance on SNL

Gasoline prices drop

By Arthur Hahn ASSOCIATED PRE SS

By Bethonie Butler WA S H INGT ON P O ST

Not everyone is laughing at Tina Fey and her sheet cake.

On Thursday night, the “Saturday Night Live” and University of Virginia alum appeared on “Weekend Update: Summer Edition” and lamented the violence that unfolded in Charlottesville last weekend.

Fey, wearing a U-Va. sweatshirt, proposed an alternative strategy to getting into arguments with neoNazis.

“I know a lot of us are feeling anxious and we’re asking ourselves, like, what can I do? I’m just one person,” she said. “I would urge people this Saturday instead of participating in the screaming matches and violence, find a local business you support, maybe a Jewish run bakery or African-American run bakery. Order a cake with the American flag on it . . . and just eat it.”

Fey proceeded to take several large bites of a sheet cake, ranting in between mouthfuls to Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost, who asked, “How does that help?”

“When you see a bunch of white boys in polo shirts screaming about taking our country back and want to scream that ‘it’s not our country, we stole it . . . from the Native Americans and when they have a peaceful protest at Standing Rock, we shoot at them with rubber

Will Heath / AP

This Aug. 17 photo shows Tina Fey on set during the an episode of "Weekend Update: Summer Edition," in New York.

bullets, but we let you chinless t---- march through the streets with semi-automatic weapons’, when you want to yell that . . . don’t yell it at the Klan, Colin, yell it into the cake,” she said.

When Jost chimed in that several upcoming Neo-Nazi rallies had been canceled, Fey scooped more cake onto her fork. “You see, it’s working already. Sheetcaking is a grass-roots movement.”

Fey got a good deal of applause from the SNL audience and the bit quickly inspired Twitter praise and hashtags including #sheetcakemovement and #sheetcaking. But others dismissed her message - to essentially ignore racism and anti-Semitism - as tone-deaf.

This isn’t the first time Fey has been called out for racially insensitive humor. She penned the 2004 film “Mean Girls,” which has been crit-

EL PASO From page A1

DALLAS From page A1

porting for financial gain people illegally in the U.S. He remained in jail Friday. Jail records didn’t list an attorney.

Officials say the immigrants — three Guatemalans and 20 Mexicans — appeared to be in good health.

It’s the second time this week that a large number of people were found in a tractor-trailer near El Paso. Agents found 20 immigrants hidden in a tractor-trailer Monday at a Border Patrol checkpoint.

and a renewed push was made this week to rename the freeway that gets its name from a former Dallas mayor and prominent member of the local Ku Klux Klan.

Supporters of keeping the Confederate monuments have posted that they plan to be at the rally Saturday. It’s not clear whether an organized counterprotest is expected.

Police and city officials said in statements this week that they are preparing to have increased officer presence and some road closures as a result of the rally.

The councilmen said Friday that the city is prepared to “shut it down” if any violence erupts.

icized for stereotypical depictions of various racial and ethnic groups. Her Netflix comedy “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” has been condemned for running jokes about the Native American heritage of one character (played by Jane Krakowski, who is white). In a 2015 interview with Net-a-Porter, Fey said she had decided “not to explain jokes.”

“I feel like we put so much effort into writing and crafting everything, they need to speak for themselves,” she said. “There’s a real culture of demanding apologies, and I’m opting out of that.”

Fey’s cake comments weren’t the only jokes that offended some during her Weekend Update appearance. Another was: “Part of me hopes these neo-Nazis do try [rallying] in New York City,” Fey said. “I hope they try it and get the ham salad

kicked out of them by a bunch of drag queens. Because you know what a drag queen still is? A 6’4â€3 black man.”

She also treaded into racially charged territory with an apparent reference to Sally Hemmings, the enslaved woman who historians believe gave birth to six children fathered by the nation’s third president.

“I love you Charlottesville,” Fey proclaimed. “And as Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘Who is that hot light skinned girl over by the butter churn?’ “ Given Fey’s history, many were quick to point out that she probably isn’t the one to look to for a solution to racial division.

Another common thread zeroed in on the fact that Fey’s cake routine was just that - a comedic routine.

Others pointed out that the show could have turned to another SNL alum with ties to UVA - Sasheer Zamata, who quietly left the sketch comedy show in May after four seasons. On Monday, she reflected on her time there in a series of Instagram posts.

“I got really sad and scared after reading the news and didn’t know what to do with my emotions, but after thinking about it for a while, I’ve decided to write out some positive memories I have from my time in Charlottesville that make me smile when I think of them,” Zamata wrote.

The statewide gas price average in Texas is $2.15 for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel, according to the AAA Texas Weekend Gas Watch. That is two cents less than last week and is 18 cents more per gallon compared to this day last year.

Of the major metropolitan areas surveyed in Texas, drivers in El Paso are paying the most on average per gallon at $2.20, while drivers in San Antonio are paying the least at $2.06 per gallon. The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $2.34, which is two cents less than last week and 21 cents higher than the price per gallon at this same time last year.

One fuel station in Brenham had unleaded regular for $2.05 a gallon.

According to market analysts, as strong gasoline production levels and seasonal demand stay on track, drivers will likely see prices climb across the country.

Overall, the inventory in the South and Southeast states, which include Texas, is the largest inventory of any region in the country, keeping gasoline prices among the lowest in the country.

Demand remains strong into the end of summer. Various regions of the country are expecting a tourism increase as a result of the August 21 solar eclipse, locally consumers across the South and Southeast region are settling into backto-school preparations and routines, and the anticipation of Labor Day travel closing the summer vacation season are all contributing to higher demand as the summer draws to a close.

"Prices at the pump continue a slow, upward climb as the robust summer travel season ends. AAA Texas branch offices can work with families to stretch those last vacation budget dollars to fit in a final summer trip before school starts," said Sarah Schimmer, AAA Texas/AAA New Mexico representative.

Ashley Landis / AP

African American Dallas City Council members, from left, Tennell Atkins, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, Kevin Felder and Casey Thomas speak at a news conference Friday at City Hall in Dallas.

WAR From page A1 been gaining ground and shown no interest in peace negotiations.

Trump met at the presidential retreat in nearby Maryland with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, top intelligence agency officials and other top military and diplomatic aides. Mattis said earlier this week the administration was “very close” to finalizing a new approach.

The meeting participants did not include Steve Bannon, the Trump strategist who has clashed with other members of the national security team over how to proceed in Afghanistan. His resignation was announced at midday. Also excluded: Gen. Joseph Votel, the Central Command chief who is responsible for U.S. military operations in the greater Middle East, including Afghanistan. Votel told reporters traveling with him in the region this week that Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Joint Chiefs chairman, represent him in the White House-led Afghanistan strategy review. Votel said he has not talked directly to Trump as part of the months-long review.

By retreating to the seclusion of Camp David in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, Trump was taking an opportunity to regroup after a politically

Rahmat Gul / AP

In this April 17 file photo, U.S. forces and Afghan commandos are seen in Asad Khil village east of Kabul, Afghanistan.

bruising week of criticism of his response to the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Solutions for Afghanistan, the longest war in American history, eluded the Obama administration and haven’t come easily to Trump, who said almost nothing about the conflict during his presidential campaign. Since taking office, he has considered options ranging from walking away from the war to sending in additional troops. Abandoning Afghanistan is seen as unlikely in light of U.S. concerns about countering terrorism.

In remarks at the State

Department on Thursday, Mattis told reporters the Camp David talks “will move this toward a decision.”

“We are coming very close to a decision, and I anticipate it in the very near future,” he added.

Months ago the Pentagon settled on a plan to send about 3,800 additional troops to strengthen the Afghan army, which is stuck in what some call a deteriorating situation with the Taliban insurgency. Within in the White House, questions persist about the wisdom of investing further resources in the war. Even if the administration decides to

add more troops, it’s unclear whether they could get there quickly enough to make a difference in the current Afghan fighting season, which winds down in autumn.

The administration has said its Afghanistan strategy will be informed by a review of its approach to the broader region, including Pakistan and India. The Taliban have long used Pakistan as a sanctuary, complicating efforts to defeat the insurgency in Afghanistan and stabilize the country.

The region includes other actors who pose political problems for Washington, including Iran, which has

influence in western Afghanistan.

The outlook is clouded by the Afghan government’s struggle to halt Taliban advances on its own. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has said the Taliban hold sway in almost half the country.

Government forces also are battling an Islamic State affiliate that has carved out a foothold mostly in the east. Trump has vowed to crush IS, so its expansion in Afghanistan poses an additional challenge with no immediate solution. Just this week, a U.S. soldier was

killed and nearly a dozen were wounded in combat with IS fighters.

The U.S. has about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan. Their primary roles are to train and advise Afghan forces and to hunt down and kill members of al-Qaida and other extremist groups.

Trump has expressed frustration at the prolonged fighting in Afghanistan. Earlier this summer he raised the idea of firing the top U.S. commander there, Gen. John Nicholson.

Asked this week if Trump has confidence in Nicholson, Mattis demurred. “Ask the president,” he answered.

Trump is “looking at all aspects” of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan “as he must in his responsibilities as the commander in chief,” Mattis said.

Nicholson was not participating in Friday’s talks at Camp David.

Lawmakers in Congress also are frustrated by the war and the prolonged debate within the administration on how to break the stalemate. Last week, Republican Sen. John McCain declared that “America is adrift in Afghanistan.” He proposed a war strategy that would expand the U.S. counterterrorism effort and provide greater support to Afghan security forces.

McCain said bluntly, “We are losing in Afghanistan, and time is of the essence if we intend to turn the tide.”

A14 | Saturday, August 19, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES