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WEBB COUNTY
Rangel sentenced Former official will go to prison for 3 years By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES
Photo by Victor Strife | The Zapata Times file
Webb County Justice of the Peace Pct. 2, Place 2, Ricardo Rangel speaks to the media at the Webb County Justice of the Peace Courthouse in this Septmeber 2014 file photo.
Ricardo Rangel, the former Webb County Precinct 2, Place 2 justice of the peace that pleaded guilty in federal court in September to taking a bribe, has been ordered to serve 37 months in prison Friday and assessed a $5,000 fine. While awaiting judg-
ment, Rangel, 49, asked U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña for clemency, stating his intentions were never wrong. “I know that I did wrong, but I did more good than wrong,” Rangel said. “I know I was getting paid as a justice of the peace, but sometimes it just wasn’t enough to do good for people.”
Rangel served on the bench from 2002 up until he pleaded guilty in September. He received $85,000 a year in the capacity. In September, he pleaded guilty to accepting a $250 bribe in exchange for setting a $1,000 surety bail bond for a person who was charged with driving while intoxicated. He
faced up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine. The bail bondsman who offered the bribe, Juan Enrique Rodriguez, 35, of Border Bail Bonds, was sentenced to 13 months in prison and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine. Rangel is the uncle of District II City Council-
See PRISON PAGE 13A
SCHLUMBERGER
HURRICANE KATRINA
FAMILIES REBUILD Photo by Pat Sullivan | AP file
This Oct. 18, 2007, file photo, shows a Schlumberger logo on a tower at the entrance to Schlumberger’s Sugar Land, Texas, campus.
Industry shake-up Company aims to develop better ways to extract oil miles underwater By RHIANNON MEYERS HOUSTON CHRONICLE Photo by Pat Sullivan | AP
Chevelle Washington combs her sister Chelette Price’s hair at a hospice hospital in Houston on Aug. 13. A decade ago back in New Orleans, she recalled, “I had 21 people at my house” when Hurricane Katrina struck. “They came to my house for shelter, because I had an up- and downstairs.”
Scattered kin, 10 years after the storm By ALLEN G. BREED ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Akex Brandon | AP file
In this Aug. 29, 2006, file photo, Champernell Washington, left, is embraced by Donna Banks as Washington grieves for a relative who died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. A decade later, she recalls, “I had 21 people at my house. They came … for shelter.”
HOUSTON — Bunk beds dominate the narrow living room of Chevelle Washington’s modest three-bedroom brick townhouse apartment. A large box in the corner is piled high with kids’ shoes. The 51-year-old is raising six of her grandchildren. Her home is a refuge, a haven. It was that way back in her native New Orleans, too — never so much as on Aug. 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck. “I had 21 people at my house,” she says of that horrible night. “Because I had an up- and downstairs.” The water rushing through the city’s breached floodwalls climbed all 17 of those front stairs, stopping just below the porch. It had receded to the 11th step by the following day, when a uniformed man appeared in a motorized flatboat. As their anonymous
“
The people who have not returned have been disproportionately African-American, renters, low-income, single mothers and persons with disabilities.” LORI PEEK, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
savior steered the craft into the lake that the Upper Ninth Ward had become, Washington burst into tears. “It ain’t never going to be the same no more,” she cried. Her youngest son, Steven, remembers how the man at the helm tried to comfort his mother.
Schlumberger’s move to buy equipment maker Cameron International pushes it to the forefront of a race to develop better and cheaper subsea technology for extracting oil and gas from complex reservoirs under miles of water and rock.
The $12.8 billion deal is the latest move by the oil field services giant to shake up the offshore market. It comes two years after Schlumberger and Cameron teamed up to develop new technologies for wresting more oil from deep-water fields. Other companies since
See OIL PAGE 13A
IMMIGRATION
Trump risks deepening GOP rift By JULIE PACE AND BILL BARROW ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has exposed anew the deep rift inside the Republican Party on immigration, a break between its past and the country’s future that the party itself has said it must bridge if the GOP ever hopes to win back the White House. As they headed into the 2016 election, Republicans thought they had a strate-
See KATRINA PAGE 13A See IMMIGRATION PAGE 13A
TRUMP
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spiritual Wisdom in Health and Healing at the Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton, 2nd floor, Classroom A. Free Bilingual Book Discussion and HU Chant. Se habla español. Presented by the Texas Satsang Society, Inc. For more info call 210-831-7113.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 30 Loteria Mexicana at the Holy Redeemer Church at 3 p.m. Prizes. If you have any questions please call Amparo Ugarte at 286-0862.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 The Alzheimer’s support group will meet at 7 p.m. in meeting room 2, building B of the Laredo Medical Center. The support group is for family members and caregivers taking care of someone who has Alzheimer’s. For information, please call 956-6939991. Les Amies Birthday Club will hold its monthly meeting at the Ramada Plaza at 11:30 am. The hostesses will be Ma. Luz Bustamante, Leonor “Noni” Daves, and Teresa Saenz. The honorees will be: Rosita Alvarez, Viola Garcia,Olga Jovel, Lydia Linares, Frances Madison and Mercedes Salinas.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 The Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society will meet from 3 to 5 p.m. at St. John Neumann to discuss the state conference. Call Sanjuanita-Martinez Hunter at 722-3497 or visit vsalgs.org for conference info.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 Martin High School Class of ’75 40th year reunion from 7 p.m. to midnight at 105 Regal Drive. Contact Yolanda Gonzalez-Robbins at 286-4627 or yolandarobbins@hotmail.com.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 Martin High School Class of ’75 40th year reunion from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at The Mirage, 5411 McPherson Rd. Contact Yolanda Gonzalez-Robbins at 286-4627 or yolandarobbins@hotmail.com. RSVP required. Used book sale at First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Hardcovers $1, paperbacks $.50, magazines and children’s books $.25. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The public is welcome. 8th Annual Football Tailgating Cook-Off at L.I.F.E. Downs from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Cook-off teams in finger ribs (money prizes and trophies), chicken thighs (jackpot prize) and spare ribs (jackpot prize). Also, a showmanship contest for best decorated team (truck, tent and members), live music, food vendors, a car show, Webb County Trail Riders, Ranch Rodeo and Team Roping and more. $2 per person at gate, age 12 and under free. Call 956-286-9055 to participate in cook-off or as a vendor.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 Ruthe B. Cowl Rehabilitation Center continues with the UT Kids-Pediatric Orthopedics Clinics at the center, 1220 N. Malinche Ave. Dr. John Faust and Dr. Sekinat McCormick hold clinics every second Tuesday of the month. Prior registration and $5 processing fee. Orthopedic clinics benefit children with cerebral palsy, club foot, scoliosis, spina bifida and more. Contact Norma Rangel at 956-722-2431.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 LCC Fall Student Art Show at the Visual and Performing Arts Center, West End Washington Street, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Creations by Laredo Community College art students in the Martha Fenstermaker Memorial Visual Arts Gallery.
Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location, purpose and contact information for a representative. Items will run as space is available.
Photo by Rachel Denny Clow/Corpus Christi Caller-Times | AP
Work continues on the Caribbean Journey expansion at the Texas State Aquarium on Tuesday in Corpus Christi. The $50 million expansion is expected to open in Spring 2017. Workers also are making progress on a shark exhibit as the scheduled spring 2017 opening for the Caribbean Journey expansion approaches.
Aquarium expansion begins ASSOCIATED PRESS
CORPUS CHRISTI — Crews have begun laying steel and building columns as the $50 million expansion at the Texas State Aquarium takes shape. Workers also are making progress on a shark exhibit as the scheduled spring 2017 opening for the Caribbean Journey expansion approaches. The expansion will add 65,000 square feet and will double the aquarium’s animal collection. Vice president and chief operating officer Jesse Gilbert said they have secured $41 million for the project so far and that the aquarium is on “track timeline wise” for the expansion. “It’s an interesting building, there are a lot of moving parts to it,” he said. “Not only do we have sharks and fish and everything
that swims, but now we have a large bird collection, mammal collection and a botanical collection that the aquarium has never had to house. So a lot of things had to fall into place.” The aquarium’s new wing will have three levels, with the first floor including fish tanks and a 100-seat 4-D theater. The second level will feature interactive jungle exhibits, while the top level will mostly be event space with windows providing sweeping views of the aquarium grounds and the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. While work continues on the building, other work has begun off-site to prepare for what will be a doubling of the animal collection, Gilbert said. “There’s a lot of work going on this fall and winter to make sure we are absolutely ready to open in spring 2017,” Gilbert said.
Hospice executive charged Family, media view video in death of man, 96 of man’s death in jail
Student contracts first case of rubella since ‘04
EDINBURG — The administrator of a South Texas hospice has been charged with capital murder in the death of a 96-yearold man who authorities say had left her his estate. Monica Melissa Patterson of Harlingen is being held on a $1 million bond following her arraignment Thursday. Authorities also have charged 37-year-old Angel Mario Garza. He’s also being held on bond of $1 million, charged with murder.
DALLAS — The family of a man who died in a Dallas County jail lobby has been shown surveillance video of the panicstricken man’s erratic behavior before being subdued and handcuffed by deputies and losing consciousness. Joseph Hutcheson’s family had demanded to see the 40-minute silent video of the 48-year-old Arlington man’s death Aug. 1. Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez later screened the video for reporters.
FORT WORTH — Health officials have confirmed that a Texas Christian University student has contracted the first known case of rubella in Texas since 2004. Tarrant County officials are working to notify about 70 students who may have had contact with the unidentified student. The student had recently traveled in a region known to have rubella cases. Lab tests confirmed the case Wednesday.
Spate of violence prompts crackdown by El Paso PD
Abbott wants new abortion limits
Robbery ring members face 100 years in prison
EL PASO — A surge in violence in parts of El Paso prompted a crackdown by police that has led to more than 100 arrests over a two-week period. Police patrols were increased in the city following a spate of violence that included gang feuds that led to fatal shootings of two men and the deadly stabbing of a teenager.
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on the Legislature to approve several new abortion restrictions — even though Texas already has some of the nation’s toughest limits on the procedure. Abbott said he’d like laws changed to make performing partial-birth abortions a state felony.
HOUSTON — A suburban Houston man and a man from New Orleans each face a minimum of more than 100 years in federal prison after being convicted of multiple robbery and firearms charges related to a series of violent robberies. They will be sentenced in November. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION Clinton sends Biden a message MINNEAPOLIS — In ways both subtle and blunt, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign is sending a message to Vice President Joe Biden about his potential presidential campaign: This won’t be easy. While Clinton and her team speak warmly of Biden in public, they have taken steps to make clear how they’ve taken control of the party’s establishment in hopes of discouraging the vice president from entering the race. In a speech Friday to the party’s most committed activists, Clinton cast herself as its standard-bearer and vowed to win the presidential race.
Teacher who was late 111 times says he was eating TRENTON, N.J. — An elementary school teacher who was allowed to keep his job despite be-
Today is Saturday, August 29, the 241st day of 2015. There are 124 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast near Buras, Louisiana, bringing floods that devastated New Orleans. More than 1,800 people in the region died. On this date: In 1533, the last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, was executed on orders of Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro. In 1814, during the War of 1812, Alexandria, Virginia, formally surrendered to British military forces, which occupied the city until September 3. In 1877, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Brigham Young, died in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age 76. In 1915, Academy Awardwinning actress Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm, Sweden. (Bergman died in London on this date in 1982 at age 67.) In 1944, 15,000 American troops of the 28th Infantry Division marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis. In 1958, pop superstar Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana. In 1964, Roy Orbison’s single “Oh, Pretty Woman” was released on the Monument label. In 1965, Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles “Pete” Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after 8 days in space. In 1975, Irish statesman Eamon de Valera (AY’-muhn dehv-uh-LEHR’-uh) died near Dublin at age 92. In 1987, Academy Awardwinning actor Lee Marvin died in Tucson, Arizona, at age 63. Ten years ago: Economist Jude Wanniski, who advocated tax cuts as economic stimulus and was credited with coining the term “supply-side economics,” died in Morristown, New Jersey, at age 69. Five years ago: Five years after Hurricane Katrina’s wrath, President Barack Obama sought to reassure disaster-weary Gulf Coast residents during a speech at Xavier University that he would not abandon their cause. One year ago: A federal judge threw out new Texas abortion restrictions that would have effectively closed more than a dozen clinics statewide in a victory for opponents of tough new antiabortion laws sweeping across the U.S. (The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later ruled that Texas could fully implement the abortion law, but the Supreme Court later said the clinics should be allowed to operate, pending appeal.) Today’s Birthdays: Actress Betty Lynn (TV: “The Andy Griffith Show”) is 89. Movie director William Friedkin is 80. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is 79. Actor Elliott Gould is 77. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is 60. Dancerchoreographer Mark Morris is 59. Actress Carla Gugino is 44. Actor John Hensley is 38. Actress Jennifer Landon is 32. Actor Jeffrey Licon is 30. Actress-singer Lea Michele is 29. Rock singer Liam Payne (One Direction) is 22. Thought for Today: “Be yourself. The world worships the original.” — Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982).
CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Cliff Owen | AP file
In this April 2, 2013, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton appear onstage at the Vital Voices Global Partnership 2013 Global Leadership Awards gala in Washington. ing late for work 111 times in two years said Friday that breakfast is to blame for his tardiness. “I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and I lost track of time,” 15-year veteran teacher Arnold Anderson told The Associated Press.
In a decision filed Aug. 19, an arbitrator in New Jersey rejected an attempt by the Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick to fire Anderson from his $90,000-a-year job, saying he was entitled to progressive discipline. — Compiled from AP reports
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500. The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net
Local
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
Zapata Lions Club recognized for event
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
ANNUAL BACK-TO-SCHOOL KID’S FISHING TOURNAMENT WINNER
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
The Lions Clubs of Texas recognized the Zapata Lions for their Harlem Ambassadors event that took place in February. “It was a night to remember and a night that very well could impact children’s lives into the future,” the Lions Clubs of Texas said in a press release. Members of the Zapata Lions Club, in association with local merchants and civic organizations, organized a two-day event built around the themes of exemplary character, emphasizing three hallmark concepts: stay in school, stay drug free and stop bulling. When the Lions Club decided to host an event they looked for family fun to match Zapata’s character. They turned to a charity-minder organization called the Harlem Ambassadors whose goal is to deliver a quality basketball show to audiences throughout the United States and internationally. The organization has partnered with over 3,000 non-profit organizations in all 50 states and 20 countries. The Harlem Ambassador event took place at the Zapata High School Gym on Feb. 5 at 7 p.m., but it was preceded the day before by coordinating visits to the elementary schools and the middle schools. Each of the professional athletes has their own inspirational story to tell. Lion Aurelio Villarreal, who was involved in the hosting, remarked, “One of the most moving moments occurred during the Middle School Assembly where the Ambassadors had the entire student body cheering from one end to the other, shouting ‘Drug Free, College Degree.’” The event, the following night, was a complete sell out, with over 1,500 people attending. The gym was so crowded that people had to be turned away. All were treated to a fun evening of exemplary basketball skills, comedy, a lot of fun, and a great message. The event was made possible due to Law Enforcement Sponsors and local merchants, including the Webb-Zapata District Attorney’s Office, the Zapata County Attorney’s Office, the Zapata Sheriff’s Department, State Representative Tracy King, the Holiday Inn Express of Zapata (who provided all the lodging for the players), Steak House Restaurant (who provided dinner for the players) and the Zapata Independent School District for lending out the facilities at the high school. "It was a magnificent example of what the Lions can do when they team with their local schools, government, and community merchants to dedicate their cooperative efforts to help children," Lion Villarreal said.
Courtesy photo
First Place Winner Ashley Loyde is shown with her trophy at the Annual Back-to-School Kid’s Fishing Tournament in Zapata. “What a great event we had last week, and it was all thanks to you. We hope you had a good time and enjoyed the activities, food, and conversation,” the Zapata County Chamber of Commerce said in a press release.
Book highlights past local teams SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
“Mexican American Baseball in the Alamo Region” celebrates the game as it was played in the Tejano and Tejana communities throughout Texas. This regional focus explores the importance of the game at a time when Spanish-speaking people were demanding cultural acceptance and their political and civil rights in cities like San Ygnacio, Zapata, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, New Braunfels, San Diego, Kingsville and Pleasanton. All had thriving Mexican American communities that found comfort in the game and pride in their abilities on the field. The background image on the cover of the book is a photo of the Bluebirds from San Ygnacio. Throughout the book are historical images and wonderful stories that are now immortalized, taking their rightful place in the annuals of the game. The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Arcadia Publishing.
Courtesy photo
The Bluebirds were based in San Ygnacio and played throughout the southern parts of the Lone Star State. The team continued to play until 1942, when most of its players joined the armed forces. For example, Chano Rodriguez served in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army. Shown in the first row is Arturo Benavidez, Lalo Solis, Manuel Boteo, Jose Luis Torres, Alonso Uribe, Nalo Benavidez, and Julian Solis. In the second row is Tino Solis, Jose Lerma, Blas Maria Uribe, Chencho Benavidez, Romeo Uribe, and Chano Rodriguez.
Courtesy photo
This team was organized in 1957 by Zapata County Sheriff C.M. Hein. The Hawks were a semi-pro team. The 1958 area championship team poses here. The member are from left to right, (first row) Roberto Cuellar, Ramiro Torres, Homero Espinoza, Mario Flores and Gilberto Davila; (second row) Leobardo Benavidez, Sheriff Hein, "Borado" Garza, Rodolfo Espinoza, Luis Martinez, Jorge Gonzalez and "Beto" Tamez. Despite Hein’s German surname, he was “puro” Mexican American.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
WORST WEEK IN WASHINGTON
OTHER VIEWS
Valley speech trips Bush’s campaign up By CHRIS CILLIZZA THE WASHINGTON POST
When you’ve got one foot in a bear trap, the natural reaction is to scramble to get your other foot to safe ground. But what if, in your panic, you step in another bear trap? That’s what Jeb Bush did this past week. Trying to make amends with irate Latino voters after he used the term “anchor babies” to describe the U.S.-citizen children of undocumented immigrants who cross the border to give birth, he unleashed this gem by way of “explanation.” “What I was talking about was the specific case of fraud being committed where there’s organized efforts — and frankly it’s more related to Asian people — coming into our country, having children in that organized effort, taking advantage of a noble concept with birthright citizenship,” Bush said during a visit to the border in McAllen, on Monday. Aha! So it’s “Asians” who are the problem. Got it. Donald Trump, never one to miss an opportunity
to jab at someone else’s gaffe, took to Twitter to lambast Bush. “Asians are very offended that JEB said that anchor babies applies to them as a way to be more politically correct to Hispanics,” Trump tweeted. “A mess!” Trump was needling Bush in other ways, too. Even as the former Florida governor ramped up his rhetoric against the real estate reality star, polling on the race suggested that the two were going in opposite directions. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed Trump well ahead of the rest of the GOP field at 28 percent — exactly four times as much support as Bush won in the same survey. (Bush’s 7 percent was good enough for a three-way tie for third.) Jeb Bush, for becoming the latest GOP presidential hopeful to be Trumped, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something. (Chris Cillizza writes “The Fix,” a politics blog for the Washington Post. He also covers the White House.)
EDITORIAL
Enjoy cheap gas while it lasts PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
The fall of oil and natural gas prices is a boon to U.S. consumers and the economy. Americans should enjoy the break while it lasts. Lower prices at the gasoline pump and in utility bills puts more money in everyone’s pocket, which boosts spending and the overall commerce. Considering the slow pace of America’s economic recovery, the market needs all the help it can get. The drop in the world price of oil is due to several factors related to supply and demand. One is that the demand from China, which had been strong, is now lagging, a result of its own economic slowdown. Another factor is that the big producers, including Saudi Arabia and now the United States, have not reduced production, for different reasons. The 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a villain in past decades, has lost much of its punch as individual producers have been unwilling to cut production to influence the world price. Chief among the cartel
members is Saudi Arabia, which pushed production to record levels last month to maintain its spending on, among other things, weapons and benefits to its people. The aging monarchy faces threats from various sources, including Islamic radicalism opposed to the ruling family. In the United States, companies drilling for oil and exploring deep gas deposits made the country a new leader in production. While slipping prices have curbed some new exploration for wells, it has not changed the fact that record U.S. oil extraction has slashed dependency on imports. The countries that have taken a licking on the world market are smaller producers such as Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf states, Nigeria, Russia and Mexico. This week, Venezuela called for an emergency OPEC meeting on the plunging prices. In the meantime, U.S. drivers, homeowners and businesses should take advantage of the situation. No one knows when prices will turn back up.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata 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. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No namecalling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
EDITORIAL
Koreans back off rhetoric PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
The latest round of tensions between North Korea and South Korea was a threat not only to peace in the region but also to relations among the world’s major powers. Fortunately, both sides have backed down. Hostilities rose earlier this month when two
South Korean soldiers were injured by a North Korean landmine on the border. The South then began broadcasting propaganda from loudspeakers. Last week both sides traded gunfire until marathon talks began, aimed at calming relations. The basis of the conflict between North and South is a war that ended 62
years ago but which has not been brought to a real close. The truth remains that the Koreans are one people and their reunification, like the Germans’, is a matter of time. The 25 million North Koreans and 50 million South Koreans speak the same language, eat the same food, have the same culture
and, until World War II, the same history. It was only afterwards that their political systems went in radically different directions. Both sides should be commended for having cooled their tempers. Perhaps the dialogue which produced the stand-down can lead toward greater cooperation.
COLUMN
Don’t try people in the press AUSTIN — I’m not sure it ever really happens but if it does, it shouldn’t: Criminal defendants shouldn’t be tried in the press. The Court of Public Opinion, of course, is a powerful thing. But, short of cases in which the potential juror pool is hopelessly polluted by publicity, cases generally are decided on the facts heard in the courtroom. That’s as it must be. With that predicate, I was dismayed (and you should be too) during Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s arraignment (he’s charged with felony securities law violations) Thursday when defense lawyer Joe Kendall (in one of his final acts prior to quitting as Paxton’s lawyer) urged state District Judge George Gallagher to bar cameras from the courtroom. Kendall made it clear he was raising an objection directly from Paxton. “We don’t want this tried by media,” Kendall said. I know this happened because, from the comfort of my desk at the office here in Austin, I watched
“
KEN HERMAN
the live feed provided by a Dallas-Fort Worth TV station. If you wanted to, you could have watched it too. And you and I, if we had wanted to, could have been in the Fort Worth courtroom to watch the arraignment live. We’re kind of proud here in the U.S. of A. of our fine tradition of public trials. Oh I know there might be a politician or two not happy about being seen in the defendant role. But, hey, equal treatment for all. In my mind, a live camera in a courtroom is the best protection a defendant — be it an attorney general or a regular person — has against being tried in the press. The live camera lets you see, unfiltered, what actually happened in a courtroom you are perfectly welcome to be in. Without the live camera, all you get — and far be it from me to diminish
this product — is the view of the proceeding as seen and reported by the press. Forty years into this profession, I’m here to tell you that is nowhere near as twisted and skewed as some would have you think. I know I’m inviting comment here, but we actually do a pretty good job of reporting just the facts from a courtroom. That’s why I thought it was nonsense when Kendall relayed Paxton’s complaint that cameras in the courtroom somehow equate to being tried in the press. A live TV camera provides just the opposite, albeit while allowing the unflattering politician-asdefendant images so despised by politician-defendants. The unfortunate bottom line here is Paxton eventually may get his way. Because it was just a pretrial matter being handled in Fort Worth by Judge Gallagher, who was appointed to hear the case, the Thursday arraignment was held in Tarrant County under that county’s in-court camera rules. Collin County rules bar cameras in the courtroom.
Let’s hope Gallagher, when he is presiding in Collin County when and if the Paxton case comes to trial, finds a way to let the public in via TV cameras connected to the worldly wonderfulness that is the World Wide Web. Yes, Mr. Paxton, you should not be tried in the press. You should be tried by testimony heard and evidence seen in the courtroom. And the same public that has the right to hear and see that firsthand has the same right to hear and see it through a live feed. Why is that even controversial? Gallagher, in no uncertain terms, made it clear that his courtroom will be his courtroom, even if it’s in Collin County, and he’ll rule on whether there’ll be cameras in it when Paxton goes to trial. “It is my decision,” said the judge, who made the right one when he denied Paxton’s motion to avoid showing up for the Thursday proceeding at which his not guilty pleas were entered. (Ken Herman’s e-mail is kherman@statesman.com.)
CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
State
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
Neighborhood vanishes, its church endures By J.B. SMITH WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD
WACO — Outside Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church, the ears are assaulted by restless, relentless change. A river of cars and diesel trucks thunders by on Interstate 35. Next door, nail guns blaze away on a new burger joint. Across Ninth Street, boarded-up houses wait for bulldozers to turn them into clean lots for student housing and fast food. But step inside and you’ll find a congregation that sees its longtime location as something more than desirable real estate. “This is holy ground,” says Deacon Bennie Neal Jr., who has attended this historically black church all his 75 years. Others in the congregation of 220 feel the same as they celebrated their 100th anniversary with a multiday revival recently. The older ones saw a superhighway built at their doorstep in the ’60s, and now see the orange stakes in the front lawn, marking I-35’s expansion area. They have watched the decline of a tight-knit neighborhood where many of them grew up, and have seen land all around them sell to developers. But their site is not for sale. The congregation moved here from East Waco in 1924 and built a new church building in 2008 under the leadership of its current pastor, the Rev. Kerry Burkley. In recent years, the church has turned away inquiries from real estate buyers interested in redeveloping the corner. “This property is wanted by a lot of folks,” Deacon Elroy Cross told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “We don’t expect them to understand. Our mothers and fathers picked cotton, chopped cotton, put nickels and dimes together to build that first church.” Cross, 68, is a housekeep-
er’s son who grew up near the church on Ninth Street. He acknowledges the big changes in the surroundings since he was a boy. “We’re not a regular neighborhood anymore,” he said. “Back in the day we were the center of a community. The community had a relationship with the church.” In those days before I-35, Dutton Avenue was the main drag, and the mostly unpaved streets around it were packed with small houses and corner stores. Families would walk to church from the South Waco neighborhood, joining others who had walked from farther reaches of Waco, or even country towns such as Downsville. Dressed in their Sunday best, they would settle in for an entire day of singing, preaching and fellowship. “The singing started as
Photo by Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune Herald | AP
Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church member Michael McDowell, left, greets fellow member Betty Felder, right, during a revival Aug. 21. soon as you got to church,” said Deaconess Mable Cobb, recalling how the older ladies would strike up a capella versions of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Guide Me Over Thou Great Jehovah.” As a boy, Bennie Neal came in from North Waco, but he felt something power-
ful as he approached the doors of that wood-framed building on Dutton. “When I came down here, you could feel the Holy Spirit,” he said. “You could hear those women’s heels clicking on the wood floors. Hear the humming and singing before we got there. People in a hurry to get there.
When you got there the church was packed. The women had on their gloves and hats, like they were dressed to kill. “I was a young kid at that time. I remember exactly where I was when I got saved. I was sitting on that front mourner’s bench. The pastor, J.L. Lee, took us around behind the church to the baptism pool, and then they wrapped me in a sheet. That night they gave me the right hand of fellowship. I ain’t forgot none of that.” Neal still remembers every corner of that old woodframe church building, which was built in 1924 and substantially renovated in 1940 and wrapped in brick in 1969. Notable for its red windows — bought at a time when stained glass was too expensive for a workingclass congregation — it was razed to make way for the
new million-dollar building, complete with stained glass. The beginnings of the church were even humbler. In 1915, the Rev. J.S.A. Trowser organized a church of 11 members at a little house at 117 Oak St., right next to an Elm Street cotton gin where several members worked. The Oak Street Baptist Church grew and by 1918 was able to pay Trowser a salary of $17.50 a week. In 1924, the church was renamed Ebenezer Baptist Church as it moved to Dutton Street and began growing one lot at a time as the congregation could afford. Around 1940, Trowser passed the pulpit to the Rev. J.E. Deckard, who served seven years. Since then, seven pastors have led the church: J.L. Lee, W.D. Mims, G.B. Booker, Richard Carter, Gregory Griggs, Michael Walton and Burkley, who started in 2005.
PÁGINA 6A
Zfrontera Se dice no culpable
SÁBADO 29 DE AGOSTO DE 2015
CORTE
Ribereña en Breve ARRESTOS
CIUDAD VICTORIA, México — Alejandro Gallegos Alemán, de 29 años, un presunto jefe de una banda de secuestradores fue detenido en el municipio de General Terán, Nuevo León, México. Gallegos Alemán, apodado “El Pando”, cuenta con una orden de aprehensión vigente en el Estado de Tamaulipas por el delito de secuestro agravado y asociación delictuosa. De acuerdo a investigaciones de la Coordinación Estatal Antisecuestro, el sospechoso está involucrado en más de tres averiguaciones previas por el delito de secuestro, y se le acusa de haber ordenado privar de la libertad a víctimas que escogía previamente. CIUDAD VICTORIA, México — Aníbal Onacis Tapia Barrera, Jorge Luis García Ledezma, Moisés Amaya Rodríguez y José Pedro Salazar García, quienes supuestamente son integrantes de un grupo delincuencial que opera en Matamoros, México, fueron detenidos en posesión de ocho armas largas. El arresto fue realizado en calles de la Colonia México. A los cuatro presuntos delincuentes se les aseguró un automóvil Toyota Camry, color negro, sin placas; un Buick color azul, con placas de Tamaulipas; una camioneta Toyota Tahoe negra, con placas del Estado de Louisiana; un Ford Fiesta con placas de Texas y un Chevrolet Cruze LS color gris, con placas de Texas. Autoridades informaron que al grupo le fueron aseguradas 1.132 cartuchos, 42 cargadores, tres radiofrecuencias, seis uniformes negros completos, cinco pares de botas, cuatro juegos de fajillas y seis rodilleras. REYNOSA, México — Miguel Angel Rodríguez Pestaña, de 24 años, y Raúl Rodríguez Mújica, de 28 años, fueron detenidos después de presentarse una denuncia ciudadana que les acusa de operar de manera clandestina un taller para reproducir videos y música. Cuando autoridades visitaron el taller ubicado en la colonia Unidad Obrera realizaron el decomiso de 4.447 discos compactos con material ilegal y 18 cajas de cartón con 10.800 discos compactos nuevos. Igualmente aseguraron 16 CPU con ocho equipos de duplicación de CD, DVD y Blu-ray. Además 31 equipos de duplicación conocidos como quemadores y cuatro contenedores de plástico con material apócrifo, consistente en diversos videogramas y fonogramas; así como 96 discos compactos nuevos, de acuerdo al reporte del Gobierno de Tamaulipas. ALDAMA, México — Arturo Antonio de la Garza Winkelkemper, de 44 años de edad, y presidente de la Asociación Ganadera de Aldama, falleció cuando una persona desconocida ingresó a una tienda de conveniencia ubicada en el centro de la ciudad, y abrió fuego contra un grupo de personas, aproximadamente a las 11:40 a.m. del 26 de agosto. Otras cinco personas resultaron lesionadas El Agente del Ministerio Público del Fuero Común integró la averiguación previa correspondiente, y dio fe que la víctima Los nombres de los lesionados no fueron dados a conocer por las autoridades del Gobierno de Tamaulipas. Ellos fueron trasladados a diferentes instituciones médicas para su atención. Su estado de salud se reporta fuera de gravedad. El sospechoso huyó del lugar Hasta el cierre de esta edición no hubo arrestos.
LA VOZ DE HOUSTON
Foto por Rodger Mallison | Star-Telegram/AP
El fiscal general de Texas, Ken Paxton, llega a la corte de Fort Worth para su primera comparecencia ante el juez que presidirá su caso.
El fiscal general de Texas, Ken Paxton, se declaró no culpable de tres cargos de haber cometido fraude en una operación de inversión al comparecer este jueves en una corte de Fort Worth e informó al juez que presidirá su juicio de que tiene que conseguir un nuevo abogado. Dos de los cargos contra Paxton se deben a que presuntamente cometió fraude al no revelar a personas a las que estaba proponiendo que invirtieran en Servergy, una compañía texana del sector de tecnología, que él recibiría un beneficio económico si hacían dichas inversiones. El tercer cargo se debe a que Paxton, quien se entregó a las autoridades el pasado 3 de agosto pe-
ro que puede seguir ejerciendo sus funciones, no se registró como asesor de inversiones en el estado de Texas. Asimismo, Paxton está buscando un nuevo abogado que le defienda, ya que George Gallagher, el juez que preside su juicio, accedió a la petición de Joe Kendall para dejar de ser el representante legal del fiscal general. A este respecto, el canal KPRCNBC informó de que Paxton se ha puesto en contacto con algunos abogados de Houston para negociar si le representan en este proceso. El fiscal general no hizo declaraciones a su salida de la corte. La próxima fecha importante en este proceso es el 3 de septiembre, ya que ese es el día límite para que Paxton tenga un nuevo abogado.
CONDADO DE WEBB
TAMAULIPAS
Irá a prisión por 37 meses
‘FAMILIAS SALUDABLES’
POR PHILIP BALLI TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Ricardo Rangel, un ex juez de paz para el Condado de Webb, quien se declarara culpable a extorsión en 2014, fue sentenciado a 37 meses en prisión el viernes. En septiembre, se declaró culpable de aceptar 250 dólares en sobornos a cambio de dar una fianza por 1.000 dólares a una persona que fue acusada de conducir mientras RANGEL estaba intoxicada. Él enfrentaba hasta 20 años en prisión y una multa por 250.000 dólares. El viernes, se le ordenó pagar una multa por 5.000 dólares. El agente de fianzas que ofreció el soborno, Juan Enrique Rodríguez, fue sentenciado a 13 meses en prisión. La Oficina del Fiscal de EU dijo que Rangel aceptó 250 dólares en marzo de 2012 por parte de Rodríguez a cambio de dar una fianza por 1.000 dólares. A través de una conversación telefónica por el FBI, autoridades grabaron conversaciones entre Rangel y Rodríguez. El 25 de marzo de 2012, Rangel llamó a la Cárcel del Condado de Webb para fijar una fianza por 1.000 dólares a una persona acusada de conducir mientras estaba intoxicada. Entonces él envió a su asistente a recoger el dinero que se prometió en un negocio de juegos de azar, de acuerdo con documentos de la corte. El asistente entregó el dinero en la casa de Rangel. Rangel renunció como Juez de Paz del Precinto 2 Lugar 2 en enero. Sirvió como juez de paz desde 2002 y ganó las elecciones anticipadas en marzo de 2014.
Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas
En el marco de la jornada ‘Familias Saludables’, el secretario de Salud en Tamaulipas, Norberto Treviño García Manzo, pidió a los presidentes municipales de los cinco municipios ubicados en la frontera chica, a la sociedad civil y Comités de Salud, unificar esfuerzos en la lucha contra enfermedades como dengue o chikungunya.
Promueven lucha contra dengue y fiebre TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
M
IGUEL ALEMAN, México — El Secretario de Salud de Tamaulipas, exhortó a municipios, comunidad y comités de salud, a formar un frente común contra enfermedades como dengue o chikungunya. Norberto Treviño García Manzo, secretario de Salud, convocó a los alcaldes de Miguel Alemán, Ramiro Cortez Barrera; de Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Nathyelli Elena Contreras Villarreal; de Mier, Roberto González González; de Camargo, Blas López García y de Díaz Ordaz, Jorge Refugio Longoria Olivares, a unificar esfuerzos a través de la jornada “Familias Sa-
ludables”. Los alcaldes comprometieron su esfuerzo y capacidad de respuesta de sus administraciones, señala un comunicado de prensa. Durante la convocatoria Treviño García Manzo dispuso acciones inmediatas y focalizadas para continuar la lucha contra el dengue y la fiebre por virus del chikungunya, mediante la participación social a través de la eliminación de criaderos, e institucional con estrategias anticipadas de prevención, control larvario, estudios entomológicos y seguimiento de casos. Hasta el momento el Laboratorio Estatal de Salud Pública ha confirmado 239 casos de dengue y 2 de chikungunya en Tamaulipas. “El éxito de los programas de
salud… Se deben fundamentalmente al trabajo y la aportación de sus más grandes aliados, los integrantes de los comités de salud” dijo. De acuerdo con reportes los meses de agosto y septiembre son los que aportan el 50 % del total de casos que se registran por año en Tamaulipas. Durante la jornada, el secretario instruyó el despliegue de unidades médicas móviles, farmacia itinerante, módulos de consulta y orientación y se hizo acompañar de los subsecretarios de Prevención y Promoción de la Salud, Seguro Popular, Planeación y Vinculación Social y de Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios, señala un comunicado de prensa.
COLUMNA
Marte R. Gómez fue un legislador contrastante Nota del Editor: Esta es la primera parte de dos artículos donde el autor nos presenta influencia y decisiones de Marte R. Gómez en la legislatura de Tamaulipas.
POR RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZ ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Hombre culto, ligado al cacicazgo portesgilista, Marte R. Gómez alcanza la gubernatura de Tamaulipas. Desde ahí promueve innovaciones normativas que provocan el asombro
de los entendidos. Algunas, merced a serios desatinos. Otras, por la factura progresista. Marte Rodolfo Gómez Segura era nativo de Reynosa, México. Ingeniero agrónomo e hidráulico quien en su producción bibliográfica concede importancia a temas agrarios e incursiona en la historiografía. También se codea con artistas e intelectuales de renombre, incluido el pintor Diego Rivera. Debido a que este perfil
deviene insuficiente para que haga carrera política, prefiere desarrollarla a la sombra del oficialismo posrevolucionario. Así salta de un modesto escaño doméstico a las cámaras baja y alta del Congreso de la Unión, en forma sucesiva. Plegado a Plutarco Elías Calles, el ingeniero encabeza la Secretaría de Agricultura; más tarde conduce la de Hacienda y Crédito Público, sumándole encargos internacionales. Lázaro Cárdenas asume
en 1934 la presidencia de México y rompe con la tutela callista. Llega así el momento de renovar la administración tamaulipeca. Aspira Marte a dirigir el terruño. Lo apadrina Emilio Portes Gil, expresidente de la República, bien relacionado con las elites e indiscutible cacique de la entidad. Se vuelve entonces Gómez Segura gobernador de Tamaulipas durante el cuatrienio 1937-1941. Correspondiéndole al titular del poder ejecutivo la
atribución de promover ante el congreso local disposiciones jurídicas, Marte R. Gómez presenta en consecuencia numerosas iniciativas de carácter reglamentario, sin ninguna mejora a la carta magna. Reducida de 15 a 7 curules, la asamblea parlamentaria resulta por demás maleable. Dichas propuestas muestran empero posturas contradictorias. (Con permiso del autor, según fuera publicado en La Razón, Tampico)
Nation
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A
Former student convicted of sex charges By LYNNE TUOHY ASSOCIATED PRESS
CONCORD, N.H. — A graduate of an exclusive New England prep school was cleared of rape but convicted Friday of lesser sex offenses against a 15-yearold freshman girl in a case that exposed a tradition in which seniors competed to see how many younger students they could have sex with. A jury of nine men and three women took eight hours to reach its verdict in the case against Owen Labrie, who was accused of forcing himself on the girl in a dark and noisy mechanical room at St. Paul’s School in Concord two days before he graduated last year. Labrie, who was bound for Harvard and planned to take divinity classes before his arrest put everything on hold, could get up to 11 years in prison at sentencing Oct. 29. The 19-year-old from Tunbridge, Vermont, will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He wept upon hearing the verdict, and then, as his lawyers conferred with the judge, sat alone at the defense table, shaking his head slightly and looking up at the ceiling. His mother sobbed. His accuser appeared stoic and huddled with members of her family in the courtroom. “Owen’s future is forever changed,” defense attorney J.W. Carney said, adding that the sex convictions will be like “a brand, a tattoo” that he will bear for life. The scandal cast a harsh light on the 159-year-old boarding school that has long been a training ground for America’s elite. Its alumni include Secretary of State John Kerry, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau, at least 13 U.S. ambassadors, three Pulitzer Prize winners and sons of the Astor and Kennedy fam-
Photo by Geoff Forester/The Concord Monitor | AP, Pool
Former St. Paul’s student Owen Labrie puts his hands to his face as his verdict is read at Merrimack County Superior Court on Friday, in Concord, N.H. Labrie was cleared of felony rape but convicted of misdemeanor sex offenses against a 15-year-old girl. ilies. Students pay $53,810 a year in tuition, room and board. Prosecutors said the rape was part of Senior Salute, which Labrie described to detectives as a competition in which graduating seniors tried to have sex with underclassmen and kept score on a wall behind a set of washing machines. The young man was acquitted of the most serious charges against him — three counts of felony rape, each punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison. But he was found guilty of three counts of misdemeanor sexual assault, using a computer to lure a minor for sex and child endangerment. Essentially, the jury by its verdicts signaled it didn’t believe Labrie’s assertion that there was no intercourse, but it also didn’t believe the girl’s contention
that it was against her will. In the end, it found Labrie guilty of having sex with an underage girl. Prosecutor Scott Murray said that he was satisfied with the verdicts and that they “vindicate the victim.” The girl is “leaving with her head held high,” said Laura Dunn, a spokeswoman for the teenager. “It was a step in the right direction.” But the girl’s family lashed out at the prep school, saying in a statement: “We still feel betrayed that St. Paul’s School allowed and fostered a toxic culture that left our daughter and other students at risk to sexual violence. We trusted the school to protect her, and it failed us.” St. Paul’s rector Michael G. Hirschfeld commended “the remarkable moral courage and strength dem-
onstrated by the young woman who has suffered through this nightmare,” and said the prep school is committed to teaching its students to act honorably. Labrie was allowed to remain free on $15,000 bail while he awaits sentencing. The aspiring minister and former captain of the school soccer team testified that he and the girl made out, but he said he stopped short of intercourse because he suddenly decided “it wouldn’t have been a good choice for me.” He acknowledged bragging to friends that he had intercourse with the girl, but he said that was a lie told to impress them. He also admitted deleting 119 Facebook messages, including one in which he boasted that he “pulled every trick in the book” to have sex with her.
In graphic and sometimes tearful testimony, the girl, now 16, said she willingly went with Labrie to the rooftop of an academic building after he invited her to take part in Senior Salute, a tradition she knew about. But she said she was prepared for kissing at most. She said that Labrie soon become aggressive and that she told him, “No, no, no” as he moved his face toward her crotch. She said he eventually penetrated her, and she felt “frozen” — incapable of moving or reacting. “I tried to block out the feeling as much as I could,” she said. “I didn’t want to believe this was happening to me.” Under cross-examination, she said she helped Labrie remove her shirt and pants. And she acknowledged ex-
changing breezy email and Facebook messages with Labrie in the hours afterward, saying she kept the conversation light because she was trying to find out whether he had worn a condom. After Labrie’s arrest, St. Paul’s announced it would expel anyone participating “in any game, ‘tradition’ or practice of sexual solicitation or sexual conquest under any name.” The school, which first admitted girls in 1971 and has about 530 students, also brought in experts to discuss such topics as harassment and relationships. Carney, Labrie’s lawyer, said the young man’s boasts about having sex with the girl amounted to the most damning evidence against him. He said Labrie was convicted because he wasn’t mature enough to tell his friends the truth.
Nation
8A THE ZAPATA TIMES
George Bush visits New Orleans By CAIN BURDEAU AND JEFF AMY ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS — Former President George W. Bush enjoyed sympathetic audiences in New Orleans and Mississippi on Friday as he returned to the region where Hurricane Katrina sank his popularity 10 years ago. Bush visited a school rebuilt with support from former first lady Laura Bush’s foundation, then flew to Gulfport, Mississippi, to honor police and firefighters who saved lives after Katrina’s towering storm surge swamped the coast. “The 10th anniversary is a good time to honor courage and resolve,” Bush said in Gulfport. “It’s also a good time to remember we live in a compassionate nation.” Bush took no questions at either event, and made no mention of his administration’s lackluster initial response to Katrina, which historians consider a low point for his presidency. In New Orleans, he focused instead on promoting charter schools. The comeback from Katrina has been uneven. While Mississippi’s Gulf Coast recovered all its population and then some, Bush and his team have been so deeply resented in New Orleans that Carnival goers displayed them in effigy at annual Mardi Gras parades. For days after the storm, bodies decomposed in the streets and thousands of people begged to be rescued from their rooftops in New Orleans. In Mississippi, relief came so slowly that Biloxi’s Sun
Photo by Rogelio V. Solis | AP
Former President George W. Bush poses for a “selfie” at the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Friday, in Gulfport, Miss. Herald newspaper published a front-page editorial, entitled “Help Us Now.” The storm set off a “confluence of blunders,” and Bush’s approval ratings never recovered, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University who wrote “The Great Deluge,” a detailed account of the first days after Katrina. Bush didn’t help his image by initially flying over the flooded city in Air Force One without touching down, then saying “Heckuva job, Brownie” to praise his ill-prepared Federal Emergency Management Agency director, Michael Brown, who resigned shortly thereafter. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Bush isn’t to blame for the disaster that ultimately killed more than 1,830 people. “I think he certainly did a tremendous amount of good. It was just a tremendous storm. No one was prepared,” Bryant said. Bush’s administration eventually spent $140 billion on the recovery. On Friday, he praised former Gov. Haley Barbour, for-
mer U.S. Sen. Trent Lott and current U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, for making sure much of it landed in Mississippi. “Haley and Lott and Thad, I kind of got tired of their phone calls. Every time, it was ‘We need a little more money.’ But the money was well spent, and this part of the world is coming back stronger than it was before,” Bush said. In New Orleans, most city schools had been foundering before Katrina, suffering from corruption, broken buildings and failing grades. Only 56 percent of the students graduated high school on time. Katrina served as a catalyst for a state takeover. Louisiana eventually turned all 57 schools under its control into independently run charters, publicly funded and accountable to education officials for results, but with autonomy in daily operations. “Isn’t it amazing? The storm nearly destroyed New Orleans and yet, now, New Orleans is the beacon for school reform,” Bush said of Warren Easton Charter High School.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
911 calls demanded help By REBECCA BOONE AND MARTHA BELLISLE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Homeowners frantically asked for help as a swiftly moving wildfire headed toward their houses, 911 audio calls show, and dispatchers tried to clear up confusion over injured firefighters from a blaze in Washington state that ultimately killed three firefighters. The Aug. 19 fire near Twisp, Washington, also injured four firefighters — one critically. The dispatch recordings were released to The Associated Press on Friday by the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office in response to a records request. “Send somebody fast please,” one of the first callers to report the fire told dispatchers. “I just looked out my window, and the fire is coming up the hill right towards my house.” A short time later, one of the first-responders warned dispatchers of the risk the fire was posing to “resources,” an industry term for firefighters and equipment. “We’ve got houses up here, but we can’t get resources up here and get them out safely,” the firefighter from a local fire district said after describing his location in the rural, forested neighborhood. “And there’s nothing, there’s no safe zones up here.” Several major fires were already burning in the region when the 911 calls for the Twisp River blaze began pouring in during the noon hour on Aug. 19. When it was first reported, the wildfire was only about two acres — slightly smaller than an average city block. But it quickly grew, fed by winds and the trees that covered the hilly terrain, which were left tinder-dry
Photo by Elaine Thompson | AP
Homeowners frantically asked for help as a wildfire near Twisp, Washington, headed toward their houses, 911 audio calls show. after months of severe drought. Within a few hours of the first 911 call, an emergency responder asked dispatchers to send an ambulance for a burn victim. Around the same time, a woman with the Washington Department of Natural Resources called to report that firefighters were trapped and needed an air ambulance. Dispatchers sent a ground ambulance and an aircraft ambulance, and then focused on trying to figure out whether the separate reports were referring to injuries occurring at the same site or two separate incidents. The location provided for each was nearby but not identical. Meanwhile, the fire crews at the scene weren’t responding to the dispatcher’s calls for clarification. The dispatcher ultimately called another agency’s dispatch center to try to find the answer. “Yeah, we don’t have any confirmation on number of patients yet,” the second dispatcher replied. “I’m looking through the log and everybody here, we haven’t heard confirmation of numbers yet other than the one, but definitely I did hear ‘multiple.’ " The confusion was eventually resolved when medics arrived at the scene. Not
long after, a law enforcement officer called the dispatch center with tragic news. “Listen, have you been in contact about any dead firefighters yet? Got any information on that?” he asked the dispatcher. “Listen up, here’s what I need then. We got three dead Forest Service firefighters, so you need to notify the coroner. Try not to do it over the air, do it over the phone.” “Oh god ... that’s terrible,” the coroner said, when the dispatch center gave him the news. Twenty-year-old Tom Zbyszewski, 26-year-old Andrew Zajac and 31-year-old Richard Wheeler were killed after their engine crashed down an embankment and was caught by the quickly moving fire. Their cause of death was smoke inhalation and thermal injuries, the Okanagan coroner told The Associated Press on Friday. Daniel Lyon, 25, was critically injured with burns over 60 percent of his body when he got caught by the flames nearby. He remained in critical but stable condition on Friday after undergoing two successful burn surgeries, according to a hospital spokeswoman. Three other firefighters who were with Lyon also sustained burns.
On-air rampage was difficult to predict By JAY REEVES AND DAVE DISHNEAU ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROANOKE, Va. — Living alone in a world of perceived slights, Vester Lee Flanagan II festered and fumed. His hair-trigger temper directed at a random collection of people he encountered never seemed to stray into the type of violent behavior that would have put him on the radar of police or mental health professionals. By not crossing that line, he avoided doing anything that would have made it illegal for him to purchase the gun he used to kill two former co-workers on live TV in Virginia. Flanagan, 41, had never been arrested for a felony and had no criminal record. There are no records indicating he was ever committed for psychiatric care or had been the subject of a restraining order. Hop-scotching around the country for work, he rarely stayed anywhere longer than a year and didn’t appear to socialize much. The people on the receiving end of his anger shifted from day to day. Instead, he left lasting impressions of a man who lashed out at others for imagined offenses. He lived alone in an apartment near the TV station that had fired him two years ago, across the country from his family and California hometown. How can anyone stop a massacre when no one seems to be close enough to notice hints of looming violence? “We all wish we could predict human behavior accurately all the time,” said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI behavioral profiler. “The behavior doesn’t cross the line until he shows he presents a realistic, immediate threat to himself and others.” Flanagan fatally shot himself while fleeing police and can’t explain why he killed WDBJ-TV reporter Alison Parker, 24, and 27year-old cameraman Adam Ward. In a fax to ABC
News, Flanagan wrote that he had been mistreated for being black and gay, and the “tipping point” was the shooting that killed nine black people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June. In his last hours before shooting himself to death, Flanagan — using his onair name, Bryce Williams — posted a grisly video of himself killing Parker and Wade and sent a series of tweets complaining about the two, who often worked together on the station’s morning show. Of Parker, an intern when he was at the station ahead of his February 2013 firing, he complained she had made racist comments; of Ward, he claimed the cameraman went to the station’s HR department after working with him just a single time. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Thomas Faison said Flanagan legally purchased the gun used in the slaying that also wounded a local economic development official, something that couldn’t have happened if he had prior felony convictions or a history of mental health commitments. It’s unclear whether Flanagan had ever been treated for psychiatric problems. The people he encountered described him as unstable and with a hairtrigger temper, but no one has said he made threatening remarks.
Justin McLeod, who worked as reporter at WDBJ for a time with Flanagan, described him as having a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality. He was a volatile man who had trouble making friends and would get angry at the slightest perceived insult, McLeod said. “It was something that was truly scary,” McLeod said. He stayed in Roanoke after being fired and would occasionally be seen around town. Video obtained by NBC News shows a sparsely decorated apartment and a refrigerator plastered with photos of himself, including old class pictures and modeling shots that he also posted on social media. Police were called to escort Flanagan from the station when he was fired because he refused to leave, but he was never charged with a crime. Flanagan, who was black, yelled a racial epithet and threw a cap as he exited. He pressed a wooden cross into his news director’s hand, telling him: “You’ll need this.” Roanoke police said in a statement Friday that Flanagan sat in his personal car until he received paperwork about his dismissal, then left without problems. Mark Sichel, a New York-based psychotherapist and author, said Flanagan was a classic “injustice collector,” a person whose
fragile ego leads to paranoid behavior, such as overreacting to perceived slights and creating enemy lists, as a protective mechanism. It usually doesn’t lead to physical violence, but as the list grows, so does the person’s rage and sense of moral superiority, Sichel said. Intervention rarely works, as such a person scoffs at therapy and rejects offers of help. These people tend to alienate people they know, but their behavior tends to be dismissed unless they threaten or harm someone. “They could call the police and say this person is a danger to others, but I’m not sure the police could do anything,” Sichel said. Sichel said Adam Lanza, who killed 27 people, including 20 students at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newton, Connecticut, in 2012, fit the profile. The phrase “injustice collector” also appears in an FBI report on threat assessments prepared in response to the 1999 Colum-
bine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, perpetrated by teenage gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Others crossed Flanagan in seemingly mundane incidents after his firing. In one instance, he wrote a rambling letter to a restaurant, complaining that staff told him “have a nice day” instead of “thank you.” In another, a co-worker at a health insurance company’s call center, Michelle Kibodeaux, 46, said he tried to grab her after she made an innocuous remark about him being unusually quiet one day. “He said, ‘Don’t you walk away from me. Don’t you turn your back on me,”’ she recalled. “I said, ‘This is not going to happen’. And he said, ‘Don’t you ever speak to me again,” Kibodeaux said. His history of workplace disagreements kept him from getting at least one job. Adam Henning, news director at WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Alabama, said
he declined to hire Flanagan in 2011 after checking with people Henning knew at least one other station where Flanagan had worked. Henning said he never spoke to Flanagan personally. Companies often want to know the chances an employee will react violently after being fired, but there is no easy answer because it can take years for anger to reach a boiling point, said Van Zandt, who now works as a consultant. Chris Hurst, a WDBJ-TV anchor who was Parker’s boyfriend, said he and his colleagues wondered in hindsight if there wasn’t more they could have done for Flanagan “to extend him love.” “But he needed, at the time, to be pushed away, because he was not someone who was helping our station and helping our newsroom,” Hurst said. “But I wonder if I had said the right combination of words to him whether that might have tried to light a spark of change.”
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Actors toast to diversity at pre-Emmy party By SANDY COHEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — With hit shows like “Empire,” “black-ish” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” diversity is the new normal in TV. That was the message at a pre-Emmy party celebrating the industry’s diverse talent on both sides of the camera. “Diversity no longer means niche,” said Jason George, head of diversity efforts for the actors union. “Diversity is mainstream.” The TV academy and the SAG-AFTRA actors union held its third annual pre-Emmy diversity reception Thursday at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. With little on the agenda other than to cele-
Photo by Rich Fury/Invision | AP
Photo by Rich Fury/Invision | AP
Shirley Neal, left, and Louis Gossett, Jr. arrive at the 2015 Dynamic and Diverse Emmy Celebration at the Montage Hotel on Thursday.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons arrives at the 2015 Dynamic and Diverse Emmy Celebration on Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif.
brate, stars including Daniel Dae Kim, Garcelle Beauvais and “American Crime” supporting actor nominee Richard Cabral ate, drank and mingled un-
tors are toasting the opportunities on the small screen for women, people of color and people with disabilities. Diverse casting could
der the stars on the warm, breezeless night. In a year when the Academy Awards were criticized for an all-white slate of acting nominees, TV ac-
even make history on Emmy night: If either Taraji P. Henson of “Empire” or Viola Davis of “How to Get Away With Murder” win for lead dramatic actress,
she will be the first black woman to do so in that category. George said “the ’Empire’ effect” and “the Shonda Rhimes effect” have inspired agents and studios to intentionally seek actors “from the diversity categories” for lead roles. Kim and Beauvais said Hollywood has to embrace diversity because viewers are demanding to see people who look like themselves on TV. “We’ve got a long way to go yet, but there are strides made every year, whether it’s for race or gender or sexual orientation,” Kim said. “I think television, especially, is leading the way in being more progressive.” The Emmy Awards will be presented Sept. 20.
Costume wars heat up early By LEANNE ITALIE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Donn Jones/Invision | AP
Maddie Marlow, left, and Tae Dye, of Maddie & Tae, pose for a portrait at Love Shack Studio in Nashville, Tenn. on Thursday.
Maddie & Tae fight stereotypes By KRISTIN M. HALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The country duo Maddie & Tae took on gender stereotypes in their first platinum single, “Girl in a Country Song,” and now they are targeting another overused effect in today’s country music: electronic drum machines. “Fake drums,” said Maddie Marlow, clenching her fists in mock anger. “I hate the fake drums. Those need to go away!” Country music’s young provocateurs came out swinging last summer with their on-point criticism of lyrics that portrayed women as simply objects of desire in cutoff jean shorts and bikini tops. Now that they’ve got everyone’s attention, Marlow, 20, and Taylor “Tae” Dye, 19, have got much more to say on their debut album, “Start Here,” out on Friday. The two songwriters from Texas and Oklahoma met at age 15 and found inspiration in the other female artists known for starting trouble in country music, the Dixie Chicks.
But they never expected “Girl in a Country Song” to ever get played on radio, much less make them the first female duo to have a Top 10 country song since 2007. They wanted to follow up with a song that would be just as powerful, but also a true representation of their harmony-laden melodies and original lyrics. “We were just trying to be machines to put out something that would live up to the first single,” Dye said. “And then finally we were like, ‘Let’s stop lying to ourselves and put something out that we believe in.’ It doesn’t matter if it’s fast or slow.” “Fly,” an acoustic guitardriven song about spreading your wings through adversity, is currently No. 14 on Billboard’s Hot Country songs chart. “Of course there’s pressure ... if you don’t have this slamming up-tempo (song) that has a little rap thing in it, then it’s not going to make it on country radio,” Marlow said. “We are saying something and we’re not backing down. This is the message. This is what we want to say.”
NEW YORK — Who gets to decide what grown people wear for Halloween? Apparently everybody. The Halloween wars focused on pop culture costumes have heated up early this year. Petitions and social media outrage are already flying over a bloodspattered dentist’s smock paired with a Cecil-like lion head, along with a replica of Caitlyn Jenner’s creamcolored corset set she wore for her joyful coming out on the cover of Vanity Fair. But exactly how do the latest examples in the costume clashes for a holiday with a long, bawdy history differ from always off-base behavior like blackface, ala Julianne Hough, or Prince Harry’s turn as a non-Halloween Nazi? Is the rule of “too soon” at play? Has the digital age spawned an overly politically correct genie with no immediate plans to be stuffed back in the bottle? Richard Lachmann, a professor at the University at Albany who includes Halloween in his sociology of culture course, said costumes seem to be more provocative every year, with equally amped-up backlash. And there’s always a base of people who feel it’s an “irreligious pagan holiday to begin with and are ready to be upset,” he said. Throw in a heavy dose of gore, loaded parody and ultra-sexy costumes, Lachmann added, and Halloween is now a free-for-all debate on decency and where the never-OK line belongs. But is there a line at all? “It seems like there isn’t,” he said. “The point for adults is to be provocative, to do something that breaks the lines of what’s considered acceptable.” The fashion and lifestyle site Refinery29 is one of many online voices decrying Jenner costumes and accessories, calling out one
Photo courtesy of Costumeish | AP
This image shows a man holding a fake lion head while dressed as a dentist, referring to the dentist who who killed Cecil the lion. seller of a “Unisex Miss-ter Olympic Wig” that costs $14.99, in a recent update to a running attempt to take down the gear. Why? Because as the writer, Liz Black, said in her post: “Every Halloween, there always seems to be a need for articles that explain why you shouldn’t dress up in a costume that mocks another marginalized culture.” At least four online sellers are hawking Jenner stuff, including one of the largest retailers, Spirit Halloween, but opponents have seen little satisfaction as the companies declare it’s all in fun. “At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based on celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes,” said a statement from Lisa Barr, Spirit’s senior director of marketing and creative. “Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and our exclusive Caitlyn-inspired costume reflects just that.” Spirit’s version goes for $49.99. The wig? Sold sepa-
rately at $16.99 a pop. Anytimecostumes.com went with a cartoonish, beefy dude in a brown wig to show off its “Call me Caitlyn Unisex Adult Costume” with a sash declaring just that, lest you not realize who it’s supposed to be. It comes with a bustier and white shorty shorts for $74.99. Is it worth blackfacelevel anger? Lachmann’s not convinced. “With blackface there’s a link to the whole history of violence against AfricanAmericans,” he said, echoing Black’s train of thought on what many in the trans community regularly face. “Certainly people can try to convince others that it’s not a good idea to wear a certain costume.” That’s exactly what animal rights activist Doreen Harley in Indianapolis set out to do in a dustup with Johnathon Weeks, owner in Palm Springs, California, of Costumeish.com. He came up with the “Lion Killer Dentist” costume based on Walter Palmer, the Minne-
sota dentist who generated a world of wrath when he and his hunting party killed the beloved Cecil in Zimbabwe. Weeks recently put the costume on sale for $59.99, upping the price to $99.99. Harley took to Facebook and Twitter to protest, and she started an online campaign to have Weeks pull the costume. She now has more than 50,000 signatures and a promise from Weeks to donate his profits from the dentist’s smock, lion head and bloody surgical gloves to a wildlife organization. “When I saw the costume, that disturbed me that someone was trying to make a profit off of this incredibly disturbing story,” Harley said. Does she consider Caitlyn Jenner costumes equally insensitive and disturbing? “I have friends and family that are gay, transgender, lesbian. It does offend me. It’s almost like mocking someone. It is offensive to that community. I’m more passionate, I guess, toward animal rights. I have to pick and choose my battles and I’m choosing the Cecil the lion battle right now.” She wouldn’t say whether she believes the Cecil costume reaches that neverOK line, such as blackface: “I think adults get to decide what they want to wear for Halloween. “This is the one that stood out for me.” The lion-hunting dentist is just one of about 14,000 costumes Weeks sells at Costumeish and a larger site, Brandsonsale.com. So far he has sold 50 bloody dentist costumes. Weeks plans a reverse take on Cecil with a lion suit that comes with a severed human head, and possibly another costume with extralarge trousers and little kids sticking out one side for people looking to dress as Jared Fogle, the fallen Subway pitchman.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
LUIS ARROYO CISNEROS Died Aug. 22, 2015 Luis Arroyo Cisneros passed away on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015 at Laredo Medical Center in Laredo, Texas. Mr. Arroyo is preceded in death by his parents, Pedro and Santos Arroyos; and sisters, Concha Arroyo Estrada and Alicia (Candido) Pachuca. Mr. Arroyo is survived by his wife, Lalita Arroyo; brothers, Rogelio (Rebecca) Arroyo, Pedro (Sara) Arroyo, David (Abigail) Arroyo, Pablo (Berta Alicia) Arroyo; sisters, Maria Arroyo, Francisca (Enrique) Jara, Febe (Guillermo) Rebolledo; brother-in-law, Daniel Estrada and by numerous nephews, nieces, other family members and friends. Visitation hours were held on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a wake at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. A Chapel Service will be held on Friday, Aug. 28,
By BARBARA ORTUTAY ASSOCIATED PRESS
2015, at 10 a.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. Committal services will follow at Zapata County Cemetery. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83, Zapata, Texas.
CRISANTA GARCIA Died Aug. 26, 2015 Former Brownsville, Texas, resident Crisanta Eliza Garcia, 71, died Aug. 26, 2015, in Tempe, Arizona. Visitation hours will be held on Monday, Aug. 31, 2015 at 8 a.m. with a rosary at 9:30 a.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home in Zapata, Texas. A mass will be held after the rosary at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Interment will follow at Zapata County Cemetery. Ms. Garcia was born May 15, 1944, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico to Ramon and Genoveva Gonzalez. Crisanta graduated from St Augustine High School in Laredo, Texas, received her teaching degree from San Marcos State University, and taught for 25 years in various districts including the Brownsville Independent School District, Del Rio Independent School District, Corpus Christi Independent School District in Texas, The Mesa Public School District, Tempe Union High School District, and the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona. As an educator and mother she devoted her life to encouraging her students and children to accomplish their dreams and made the world a better place in doing so. She was an active member of the Brownsville Area Retired School Employees Association (BARSEA), Brownsville H2U Line Dancers Club, and the Brownsville Friends Birthday Group. Her lovely smile and warm, giving spirit will be missed by
A billion Facebook users in 1 day NEW YORK — A billion people logged in to Facebook on a single day this week, marking the first time that many members used the world’s largest online social network in a 24-hour period. The number amounts to one-seventh of the Earth’s population. Monday’s milestone was mostly symbolic for Facebook, which boasts nearly 1.5 billion users who log in at least once a month. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the network in his Harvard dorm room 11 years ago, reflected on the occasion with a post. “‘I’m so proud of our community for the progress we’ve made,” he wrote. “Our community stands for giving every person a voice, for promoting understanding and for including everyone in the opportunities of our modern world.” Facebook achieved 1 billion overall users in 2012, but this week’s milestone is perhaps more significant. It means the social network has become an essential service in many of
Photo by Eric Risberg | AP file
In this March 25 file photo, Mark Zuckerberg talks about the Messenger app during the Facebook F8 Developer Conference. our lives, a sort of online connective tissue that binds us to friends, family and even strangers who find themselves in similar circumstances. We need it daily, or more. Facebook has long sought to connect everyone in the world with its service. A lofty goal, it’s not so different from the three other tech superpowers that are changing commerce, communication and worming their way into every part of our lives. Apple has its gadgets, Amazon delivers our every physical need and Google, well, when was the last time you went a day without Google? (Google, incidentally, receives an average of 100
billion search requests per day, which makes it likely that more than a billion people use it daily.) Most of the billion people who logged in to Facebook on Monday were outside the U.S. and Canada. Of Facebook’s overall users, more than 83 percent come from other countries. In a video posted Thursday, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, mulled what a billion really means. “Look closely, and you’ll see more than a number,” she said in the video, a montage showing Facebook users’ photos, posts and videos from all over the world. “It’s moms and little brothers and cousins
and cousins of cousins. There’s Sam, Dante, Ingrid and Lawrence. It’s camping trips, religion ... there’s likes, loves and unfortunately still some hate. Look past the number. You’ll find friendships.” As it grows, Facebook’s next billions of members will likely come from outside the U.S., from India, South America, Africa and perhaps even China, where the site is officially blocked. To help expand its flock, Facebook has been working to make its service easier to use on the basic, oldfashioned phones used in many parts of the world. It’s also working to get Internet access to the roughly two-thirds of the world’s population that is not yet connected — or about 5 billion people. Two years ago, Facebook launched Internet.org, a partnership with other tech giants that aims to improve Internet connectivity around the world. The group’s plans include developing cheaper smartphones as well as working with telecommunications companies to provide basic, free Internet services.
Turbulent week ends in peace By ALEX VEIGA ASSOCIATED PRESS
her friends and family. She is survived by her son, Mario A. Garcia Jr. (Betsy Garcia); daughter, Ursula V. Barrie (Michael Barrie); granddaughter, Megan Barrie; sisters, Edmonia Montes (Roberto Montes) and Cornelia Levy (Leon Levy); and many nieces, nephews and grand-nieces and grand-nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Ramon and Genoveva Gonzalez; and her daughter, Crisanta Elisa Garcia. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: BARSEA Scholarship Fund P.O. Box 3863 Brownsville, TX 785233863. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83, Zapata, Texas.
Well, that was exciting. Days after China threw the biggest scare into Wall Street in years, U.S. stocks have come surging back and ended the week Friday on a placid note that suggested the worst may be over for now. Even so, investors are buckling their seat belts for more turbulence ahead. The Dow Jones industrial average fell a scant 11.76 points Friday, or 0.1 percent, to 16,643.01, capping a week that saw stomachchurning losses and gains of around 600 points per day. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.21 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,988.87. The Nasdaq composite added 15.62 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,828.32. U.S. stocks went into their swoon last week, mostly over signs of a slowdown in China, the world’s second-biggest economy. Before the six-day losing streak had ended, the Dow had plummeted 1,900 points and the S&P 500 was undergoing its first “correction,” a decline of 10 percent or more, in nearly four years. But stocks soared at midweek, cutting the Dow’s losses nearly in half, in a rally analysts attributed to bargain-hunting, signs that
Photo by Richard Drew | AP
Specialist Meric Greenbaum works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday. the Federal Reserve may hold off raising interest rates this fall, and a new report that said the U.S. economy is growing at a more robust rate than previously believed. Still, the concerns that triggered the sell-off remain: slumping oil prices, a slowing Chinese economy, weak corporate earnings forecasts and uncertainty over interest rates. That means there’s likely to be more market volatility ahead, something that history backs up. September has been the worst month for stocks. “For the last few years, let’s face it, there’s been very little volatility,” said JJ Kinahan, TD Ameritrade’s chief strategist. “We’ve had a very impressive rally. Not that we can’t go higher, but it’s not going to be an easy path to get there.”
The S&P 500 is still nearly three times higher than its post-2008 financial crisis low in March 2009. The Dow is up roughly 2 1/2 times higher. Despite the bounce-back this week, stocks are on course for their worst monthly performance in more than three years. The S&P 500 is down 5.5 percent in August, and the Dow is down 5.9 percent. “That kind of volatility is pretty scary,” said Hans Chang, 33, who was visiting New York on Friday. Because he recently left his job, Chang has to sell investments he bought with stock options within 90 days — something he can’t do now without taking a big loss. But for other investors like James Day, a data management specialist in Ferndale, Michigan, the stock
market swoon was a signal to buy low and boost his contributions to his 401(k). “I’m not looking to retire tomorrow, so as far as I’m concerned, I have time,” said Day, 43. “If I don’t think I’m staring down the barrel of some long-term recession or unemployment, I look at these dips as an opportunity.” Investors can expect the volatility to continue at least until the market gets a better idea from the Fed on the timing of an interest rate increase, something many investors fear could put a damper on the U.S. economy. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said Friday that before the recent turbulence, there was a “pretty strong case” for raising rates in September. But he said the Fed is watching how events unfold. Traders and strategists have often described the U.S. stock market as overbought. Even with the wild swings this week, investors are paying close to $18 for every $1 of earnings in the S&P 500 — above the $15 investors have historically paid for stocks after World War II. “It’s still an expensive market,” said Kevin Dorwin, managing principal of San Francisco’s Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough.
International
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
Migrant crisis brings new death Scheme took babies from poor mothers By GEORGE JAHN AND MOHAMED BEN KHALIFA ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA — Death and desperation mounted in Europe’s migrant crisis Friday as Austrian police said 71 people appeared to have suffocated in the back of an abandoned truck, while an estimated 200 people were feared drowned off Libya when two overloaded boats capsized. More than 300,000 people have sought to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2015, up from 219,000 in all of last year, as European authorities grapple with the largest influx since World War II. The death of 71 people locked in the truck on a highway south of Vienna shows “the desperation of people seeking protection or a new life in Europe,” said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva. The International Office of Migration has recorded 2,636 deaths linked to Mediterranean crossings this year, and more may have vanished beneath the waves out of sight of rescuers. Each day, thousands are boarding flimsy boats for Italy or Greece, and many more are placing themselves and their families at the mercy of human traffickers by slogging for days or weeks through the western Balkans toward what they hope will be a brighter future. Most are fleeing war, conflict or persecution in countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. Several factors are driving the surge of Syrian refugees, including worsening conditions in that country’s refugee centers partly due to budget cuts and the reluctance of neighboring countries to take in more people, the U.N. said. In a rare statement issued under his name and not a spokesman, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said he was “horri-
Photo by Boris Grdanoski | AP
Macedonian police officers block a larger group of migrants from rushing into Macedonia from Greece on Wednesday. fied and heartbroken” by the latest deaths and stressed that a “large majority” of people undertaking such dangerous journeys are refugees who have the right to protection and asylum. He called on all governments to act with compassion and said he plans a “special meeting devoted to these global concerns” on Sept. 30, during the annual General Assembly of world leaders at U.N. headquarters. Two ships went down Thursday off the western Libyan city of Zuwara, where Hussein Asheini of the Red Crescent said at least 105 bodies had been recovered. About 100 people were rescued, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, with at least 100 more believed to be missing. “A coast guard team is still diving in and checking inside to see if there’s anyone else,” Asheini added. Workers pulled the dead from the water and placed them in orange-and-black body bags that were laid out on the waterfront in Zuwara, about 105 kilometers (65 miles) west of Tripoli. Several victims floated facedown in a flooded boat towed into the harbor. At least one of the dead wore a life vest. Most of the people rescued came from Syria and
sub-Saharan African countries, said Mohamed al-Misrati, the spokesman for the Red Crescent in Libya. “You can imagine what they are going through. Some of them are still looking for their friends. We’re trying to speak to them but many of them are too traumatized to even talk about the incident,” he said. Lawless Libya, which doesn’t have the resources to deal with the flow of migrants, is a prime starting point for many, with human traffickers filling boats they know cannot reach European shores but figuring that rescuers will pick up the passengers and take them to Italy. Often, the smugglers force migrants below deck where their chances of survival are even dimmer. Rescuers who boarded one boat Wednesday counted 52 people who suffocated in the hold, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Survivors said the smugglers beat them with sticks to keep them below deck, and one said they demanded money to let the migrants come up for fresh air. While the U.N. agency said more than 300,000 refugees crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, the International Office of Migration, an intergovernmental agency, put the number at 332,000 on Friday. Hungarian police arrest-
Tsipras’ popularity tanks By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s former governing radical-left party is unlikely to win an outright majority in a crucial national election next month, and its lead over the opposition conservatives has narrowed, early opinion polls showed Friday. The polls also found that former prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ popularity has tanked in recent months to the lowest since his election in January. The poll results, which indicate that the debt-crippled country might even need a second election before a government can be formed, came hours after a caretaker government was formed ahead of the Sept. 20 vote. Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou, the first woman to hold the post, was appointed Thursday following Tsipras’ resignation last week. He
stepped down after a rebellion by members of his radical-left Syriza party who objected to his agreement with the conditions of Greece’s third international bailout. The deal rankled with many Greeks, as Tsipras was elected on promises to reverse the resented income cuts and tax hikes that accompanied Greece’s first two bailouts, contributed to a spike in unemployment that is still above 25 percent, and wiped a quarter off the economy. Tsipras, who resigned barely seven months into his four-year term, has said he needs a stronger mandate to implement the tough austerity measures accompanying the new three-year, 86 billion euro ($97 billion) bailout. The first opinion polls since Tsipras’ resignation, published Friday, showed that his popularity has fallen significantly since the bailout deal, while Syriza
has lost ground to the conservative main opposition New Democracy. A University of Macedonia survey for private Skai TV gave Syriza 25 percent, down from 34.5 percent in June — and not nearly enough to secure him more than half of parliament’s 300 seats. That compares to 22 percent for ND, which gained from 16.5 percent in June. It also projects that nine parties will enter parliament. Crucially, it shows that Tsipras’ former coalition partner, the right wing populist Independent Greeks — the only party Tsipras has said he could form a new coalition with — will fall short of the three percent parliamentary entry threshold. If confirmed, and if Tsipras sticks to his word, that would leave him unable to form a coalition, but ND would face similar difficulties. Tsipras’ popularity has tanked to 30 percent, from 70 percent in March.
ed four people overnight after the decomposing bodies of 71 migrants, including eight women and four children, were found in the truck on Austria’s main highway. The suspects, allegedly part of a larger BulgarianHungarian smuggling ring, include an Afghan and three Bulgarians, one of whom owns the truck, Hungarian national police spokeswoman Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs said. Police raided houses and questioned almost 20 others in the case. Hans Peter Doskozil, chief of police in eastern Burgenland province, said the migrants probably suffocated. At least some of the dead were Syrian, travel documents indicated, though most of the partially decomposed bodies remained unidentified. The 71 bodies were moved from a warehouse, where the abandoned truck was towed Thursday, to a Vienna morgue for autopsies. Workers in gloves and masks lifted body bags into coffins neatly lined up on the warehouse ramp. The tragedy “should serve as a wake-up call ... for joint European action” in dealing with the migrants flocking to Europe, said Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner. Added Fleming: “We believe this underscores the ruthlessness of people smugglers who have expanded their business from the Mediterranean Sea to the highways of Europe. It shows they have absolutely no regard for human life, and that they are only after profit.” At Budapest’s Keleti train station, volunteers tending to migrants asked people to bring candles and flowers for a tribute there Friday in memory of the 71 victims. The U.N. refugee agency urged authorities to crack down on smugglers and to expand safer, legal ways for refugees to reach Europe.
By MARK STEVENSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — A child welfare official in northern Mexico took at least nine babies from poor or drug-addicted mothers and offered them to adoptive parents in exchange for payments ranging from $5,000 to $9,000, authorities said Friday. Raul Ramirez, the head of the government human rights commission in the border state of Sonora, said the scheme apparently went on for years and may involve many more children. “They searched for vulnerable mothers, poor people or those who had problems of drug addiction, and took away their babies and offered them in adoption in return for money,” Ramirez said. Three of the babies have been identified and recovered, but Ramirez said “there may be many more, from years back, and some of these children could be 20 years old by now.” The problem, he noted is that “the children have developed affection for their (adoptive) parents, and now they’re crying for their parents.” All the children were apparently adopted by Mexican couples. The state prosecutors’ office said the main suspect, Vladimir Arzate, 30, worked in the office of the state prosecutor for child protection. The office had the power to take in at-risk children, but would have had to
turn them over to a child welfare agency. Instead, Arzate is accused of working in collusion with a doctor, who would deliver fake birth certificates for the stolen babies under the adoptive parents’ names, listing them as the biological parents. Ramirez said many of the babies went to middle-class or upper-middleclass families desperate to adopt and avoid the lengthy, complex process that rules adoptions in Mexico. The prosecutors’ office said 16 arrest warrants have been issued, which appear to cover some of the adoptive parents. Since none of the children appear to have been abused, prosecutors are charging the suspects with child trafficking or child theft. Those charges are punishable by 151/2 to 40 years in prison. The question remains as to how the scheme was allowed to operate for so long. Apparently, few of the biological parents had contacted authorities seeking the return of the children. Ramirez said one possible biological grandmother had contacted the office. Local media cited the story of a farmworker whose son was taken from a local hospital after she brought him in for treatment of heatstroke. Ramirez suggested more officials or doctors may have been involved. “The big losers here are the children,” said state Attorney General Carlos Navarro.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 13A
PRISON Continued from Page 1A man Esteban Rangel. Esteban Rangel said he is very proud of his uncle for owning up to the mistakes he made. “As elected officials we’re always understandably in the spotlight,” Rangel said. “If you walk down the streets in South Laredo, anyone will tell you that my uncle was a man that was willing to help the people. There are still those who call him judge because he earned that title through his service to the community. At the end of the day we respect the law and let it run its course.” During the sentencing hearing, Saldaña reviewed the pretrial services report on Rangel, which outlined 13 specific instances
in which Rangel accepted bribes from bail bondsmen. Although Rangel was not charged with any of the 12 other instances, Saldaña referred to them as relevant conduct that could affect his sentence. The bulk of the other instances occurred in 2012, during which time Rangel accepted bribes offered to him from bail bondsmen from Border Bail Bonds and J & E Bail Bonds. In one instance, Rangel accepted a trip for him and his wife to Las Vegas that Rodriguez of Border Bail Bonds paid for. The trip cost Rodriguez approximately $1,700. Rangel also accepted bribes to lower the bonds for individuals that had
been arrested for aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and even kidnapping. Before sentencing him, Saldaña told Rangel his actions were unacceptable and egregious. “This was going on to the point that there was no regard whatsoever what these individuals were charged with,” Saldaña said. “It all went out the window for payment.” On Dec. 21, 2012, Rangel was approached by FBI agents who wanted to talk to him about the bribes. In an oral statement to the agents, Rangel said he began receiving donations from bail bonds companies in 2007 for lowering bonds. He estimated to the
OIL Continued from Page 1A have formed similar partnerships. The oil industry has struggled with the escalating costs of offshore exploration and production as companies chased oil and gas into more challenging and deeper waters. The plunge in oil prices over the past year has reduced drilling rig rental rates, which make up about half the costs of deep-water operations. But the costs of pulling oil out of a well once it’s drilled have remained stubbornly high, said Byron Pope, managing director who analyzes oil field services companies at energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. That’s largely because the equipment needed to haul the hydrocarbons to the surface is big, expensive and custom-made. The industry has been pushing to standardize subsea architecture and hardware, said Bill Sanchez, managing director at Scotia Howard Weil. “Every new field doesn’t have to be redesigned,” he said. “We don’t need to start over from scratch.” Production platforms cost billions and take years to manufacture, and oil companies could reap huge savings by moving production equipment to the seafloor instead of building it to float on the ocean’s surface, Pope said. “You save a lot of costs by not needing all that steel and structural components,” he said. The merger announced Wednesday seems primed to attack the challenges by marrying Schlumberger’s knowledge of underwater reservoirs with Cameron’s experience making subsea valves that regulate the flow of hydrocarbons as they
gush from the wellbore, Pope said. “That’s really the beauty of Schlumberger and Cameron coming together,” he said.
Offshore’s strong allure While the fall in oil prices to six-year lows has reduced some appetite for offshore exploration and production, the sea continues to hold a seductive promise over the long-term because good fields can produce vast amounts of oil and gas for decades. The first company that can figure out how to make production cheaper and more efficient stands to gain a lot of new business, and Schlumberger’s bid for Cameron could thrust the company ahead of its competitors in the quest, said Praveen Narra, an analyst at Raymond James. “We need offshore production eventually,” Narra said. “If you can be the company who’s far more efficient and doing it differently, you can grow your business.” The companies have already been working together to improve offshore production. Their 2012 joint venture, OneSubsea, gave Schlumberger and Cameron a chance to court each other, allowing executives of each company to see how its rival operated before deciding to fuse their companies. “I think that was a precursor to this deal,” said Rob Desai, analyst at Edward Jones. “The companies know each other and the management knows each other. It makes sense.” In the years since the two joined forces, other companies have followed suit with the same goals:
agents that he received between $10,000 and $15,000 from Border Bail Bonds, less than $5,000 from J & E Bail Bonds and less than $2,000 from Lares Bail Bonds in 2012 alone. Nathan Chu, who represented Rangel, said Rangel had an unfortunate relationship with these bail bond companies, but that he never denied his actions. “There is no excuse for what he did, and he wanted to make it crystal clear that he was accepting responsibility from the beginning,” Chu said. The instance to which Rangel pleaded guilty occurred in March 2012. Through an FBI wiretap, authorities recorded conversations between Ro-
driguez and Rangel. On March 25, 2012, Rangel called the Webb County Jail and set the bond of the person charged with DWI at $1,000. Rangel received a text later that day from a woman named “Yvette,” who, according to court documents, works at Border Bail Bonds. Rangel allegedly sent his assistant to pick up the money promised to him at a maquinita, according to court documents. After his assistant picked up the $250, he allegedly delivered the money to Rangel’s home. A pole camera captured the exchange, and Rangel acknowledged the individ-
ual accepting the money in the video was him. Rangel won the March 2014 primary. He initially submitted a letter of resignation on Sept. 19, following his arrest. A second letter of resignation was submitted by him Jan. 1 and was accepted by the Commissioners Court. In November, Rangel secured a job with an oilfield company. Saldaña allowed both men to self-surrender. Following their prison sentences, Saldaña ordered both men be placed on supervised release for three years. (Philip Balli may be reached at 728-2528 or pballi@lmtonline.com)
IMMIGRATION Continued from Page 1A
Boost oil companies’ ability to recover more oil and gas offshore while lowering the costs of such deep-water projects. GE Oil & Gas launched a new business with McDermott International in January to improve design and planning of offshore oil and gas fields. In March, FMC Technologies and Technip announced a joint venture to overhaul subsea field operations. And oil field services companies Baker Hughes and Aker Solutions in April created a subsea alliance. While the offshore appeal seems to be driving the deal, Schlumberger also stands to gain in the North American oil patch. “This transaction broadens their suite of products and services they offer their customers, beyond just offshore,” said Sanchez, the Scotia Howard Weil executive.
Approval expected Coupling its expertise squeezing oil and gas from tricky reservoirs with Cameron’s manufacturing know-how, Schlumberger can more easily create smarter, more efficient products that trim per-barrel costs, Raymond James analysts said. The deal is expected to close early next year, pending approval from shareholders and regulators, although the companies have such vastly different operations that a merger may not raise anti-trust concerns. Schlumberger said it expects to achieve $300 million in savings in the first year, and double that amount in the second year by cutting costs and making operations more efficient.
gy for moving past their immigration woes. Outlined in a so-called “autopsy” of 2012 nominee Mitt Romney’s loss to President Barack Obama, it called for passing “comprehensive immigration reform” — shorthand for resolving the status of the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Those plans ran aground in the GOP-controlled House, falling victim to the passionate opposition among conservatives to anything they deem “amnesty” for such immigrants. Some Republicans then hoped candidates with more moderate positions on immigration — such as Jeb Bush, the Spanishspeaking former Florida governor, or Sen. Marco Rubio, a Miami native and son of Cuban parents — would rise during the 2016 campaign and boost the party’s appeal to Hispanic voters. Instead, it’s Trump — with his call to deport everyone living in the U.S. illegally and eliminate birthright citizenship — who has surged to the top of the summertime polls, reinforcing the lasting power of white, conservative voters who the GOP has courted for decades and continue to dominate the party’s presidential primaries. “Donald Trump is telling the truth and people don’t always like that,” Donald Kidd, a 73-year-old retired pipe welder from Mobile, Alabama, said at a weekend rally for Trump. Kidd added that Trump was “like George Wallace,” the former Alabama governor and presidential candidate known for his outspoken conservative rhetoric and segregationist views. Trump’s growing support appears to have pushed some of his rivals to match his hard-line po-
sitions on immigration. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker quickly echoed Trump’s call for ending birthright citizenship. While Walker later backed off, Cruz has refused to join with those who criticized Trump after he called immigrants from Mexico rapists and criminals. On Thursday, Cruz and Trump announced plans to appear together at a rally next month in Washington. “Other campaigns should look at incorporating what he’s saying,” said South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan, who represents the most Republican congressional district in the early-voting state. He said he doesn’t know how Trump’s proposals are playing with Hispanics, but said his message “resonates with average Americans.” Trump mixes his boasts on immigration, including his pledge to build a “beautiful” wall on the nation’s Southern border to stop illegal crossings, with talk about how he’ll focus on jobs if elected president, which would be a boon for minorities who endure higher rates of unemployment. But Ferrel Guillory, a longtime political observer at the University of North Carolina, said it is rhetoric that nonetheless “signals to white voters, especially through the immigration issue.” The billionaire businessman has frequently referred to his supporters as the “silent majority,” a phrase used by Richard Nixon as part of his “Southern strategy” to bolster support from working class white voters in the 1968 and 1972 elections. At a news conference in South Carolina on Thursday, Trump brushed aside questions about the term’s loaded history.
“I’m just bringing it to modern day,” he said, arguing that his backers are “a silent majority in this country that feels abused, that feels forgotten, that feels mistreated ... that wants the country to have victories again.” For decades, Republicans sank their presidential hopes into winning over white working- and middle-class voters. But as the country grows increasingly diverse, winning the majority of white voters — which may yield victories in the GOP primaries — is no longer enough to power a candidate to success in the general election. That was the stark lesson for Republicans in 2012. GOP nominee Mitt Romney won 59 percent of the white vote in the general election, but garnered just 27 percent from Hispanics, 26 percent from Asians and 6 percent from black voters. It was the worst performance from a Republican candidate among Hispanic voters in a decade, and Obama swept every competitive state in the nation save North Carolina. That’s undoubtedly why Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, has argued that there’s little difference between Trump and the other GOP candidates on immigration. And why Bush, who is married to a Mexican woman and famously said Republican candidates for president must be willing to risk losing in the primaries if they hope to win in the general election, has been among his sharpest critics. “He’s appealing to people’s angst and their anger,” Bush said this week. “I want to solve problems so we can fix this and turn immigration into what it’s always been — an economic driver for our country.”
Chevelle talked of a friend who moved her family back — only to have three of her boys killed in a drive-by shooting, victims of apparent mistaken identity. “I’m not ready to bury none of my kids,” says the former hotel maid, who now makes do largely on disability benefits for one of the children. Much as she loves her hometown, it’s not worth the risk. Besides, she says, “It would never be home again.” ——— It’s not that life in Houston was horrible, says Chevelle’s son Steven, who lives in a one-story apartment complex halfway between Treasure and Abundance streets in New Orleans. His new high school made room on the football team for the running back from New Orleans. But off the field, it seemed he was forever trying to dodge tensions — like the taunt “N-O!” that the Houston kids would shout whenever New Orleans refugees passed in the hallways. Bottom line, he was homesick. “I just couldn’t really do Houston,” he says. After an uncle moved back to New Orleans, Steven joined him. He ended
up in a different school from the one he’d left, with different kids. He found jobs after graduation, most recently in the city’s vibrant restaurant industry. Yes, New Orleans is dangerous. But most of the time, Steven says, the victim “probably did something he had no business doing.” Ten years after climbing into that boat, he admits that he’s not satisfied with where he is in life. “Just making it,” he says. Last year, Steven had a baby girl, My’chel Marie. He sent her to live with his mother in Houston. Between shifts, he’s found time to take computer and business courses at Southern University New Orleans. His uncle has been talking about expanding, and Steven thinks he could run a restaurant. More and more, he’s thinking he’ll have to leave New Orleans. “Too many of the wrong young people are coming back,” he says. Although he says he has no regrets about coming back to New Orleans, his advice to other young people is: Unless you’re returning for a good job or to study, stay where you are.
KATRINA Continued from Page 1A “You’re moving on to something better,” he said. An estimated 1.5 million Gulf Coast residents fled Katrina, scattering like windtossed seeds to all 50 states. Many thousands of them, like Chevelle Washington, have taken root where they landed. But for son Steven, the pull of home, of New Orleans, was too strong. A few months after Katrina, he returned to his ruined city, hoping to recapture that sense of belonging he couldn’t find in Texas. Standing on that 11th step recently, his mind wandered back to the day he and his family climbed into that boat. He was never really sure what the man meant by “something better.” A short-term shelter? A bigger house? A safer city? Like so many families splintered by the storm, the Washingtons are still searching. ——— The storm did not “drown” New Orleans. But there’s no denying it is a changed city. The black population has dropped from nearly 67 percent in 2000 to 59 percent today; whites, once about onequarter of residents, now account for nearly a third.
“The people who have not returned have been disproportionately African-American, renters, low-income, single mothers and persons with disabilities,” says Lori Peek, an associate professor of sociology at Colorado State University and co-editor, with University of South Carolina psychologist Lynn Weber, of the book, “Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora.” Since the storm, rents in the Crescent City have skyrocketed — up 33 percent for a one-bedroom apartment and 41 percent for a two-bedroom. Following Katrina, officials demolished four of the city’s notorious projects, vowing to replace them with modern, mixed-income developments. Despite much progress, there are still about 3,200 fewer low-income, public housing apartments than before the storm. Most of the people living in those units were black. Like Linda Nellum. Revitalization had already pushed Nellum out of the murder-plagued Magnolia projects. Living in temporary Section 8 housing when Katrina hit, Nellum was evacuated to Houston. From Texas, she applied
for return and was put on a waiting list. She’s still waiting. “Every now and then, you think about going home,” the 43-year-old says, a tear trickling down her cheek. She feels “trapped” in Houston. Chevelle Washington chooses to see it differently. ——— Growing up, sisters Chevelle and Champernell Washington never saw any reason to fear the landscape around them. But there was something different about that mid-summer’s day 10 years ago, says Champernell. “You could just about smell it in the air,” she says. When the skies began to clear, Chevelle Washington thought all was well — until she opened the door to the garage below. A refrigerator and her grandson’s basinet swirled up toward her, “like trying to see who was going to get up the stairs first.” Steven, then 16, waded down the front steps and stared as shrimp and crawfish skipped past. When the rescue boat arrived the next day, Chevelle Washington was reluctant to get in, not wanting to split up the family. The boatman dropped
them on a nearby street where, hours later, a military truck took them to the Superdome. The Washingtons managed to find space in the hometown Saints’ end zone. Surely, this dangerous, leaky-roofed open latrine was not the “something better” they’d been promised. After a few days, the refugee family escaped New Orleans. Champernell had once lived in Houston. She’d loved the schools there, and there always seemed to be plenty of work. And so, she, Chevelle and other family members resettled in Texas. ——— In southwest Houston, the Washington clan has created a little slice of New Orleans. Chevelle lives just a couple of miles from Champernell and her two girls. About a 10-minute drive east, brother Rene’s restaurant, Sleepy’s Po Boys, offers fellow Katrina refugees a taste of home. Each has been back to New Orleans numerous times. Despite obvious progress, “It’s still that sense of death in the air,” says Champernell, 45, night manager at a hotel.
14A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
Erika loses steam, but death toll rises By EZEQUIEL ABIU LOPEZ AND CARLISLE JNO BAPTISTE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Tropical Storm Erika began to lose steam Friday as it dumped rain over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but it left behind a trail of destruction that included at least a dozen people killed on the small eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, authorities said. Heavy winds from the storm toppled trees and power lines in the Dominican Republic as it began to cut across neighboring Haiti. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system was expected to move north across the island of Hispaniola, where the high mountains would weaken it to a tropical depression on Saturday and possibly cause it to dissipate entirely. There’s a chance it could regain some strength off northern Cuba and people in Florida should still keep an eye on it and brace for heavy rain, said John Cagialosi, a hurricane specialist at the center. “This is a potentially heavy rain event for a large part of the state,” he said. Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for the entire state, which could begin seeing the effects of the system late Sunday and early Monday and officials urged residents to prepare by filling vehicle gas tanks, stockpiling food and water, and determining whether they live in an evacuation zone. Erika’s heavy rains set off floods and mudslides in Dominica that are now blamed for at least a dozen deaths, the government said. At least two dozen people remained missing and authorities warned the death toll could rise. “There are additional bodies recovered but it is an ongoing operation,” Police Chief Daniel Car-
Photo by Tatiana Fernandez | AP
Workers clean highway gutters as Tropical Storm Erika approaches Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, on Friday. Tropical Storm Erika began to lose steam Friday over the Dominican Republic, but it left behind a trail of destruction that included several people killed on the small eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, authorities said. bon said, declining to provide specifics. “It will take us a couple of days to recover as many bodies as we can. So the count will increase.” Erika is a particularly wet storm, and was expected to dump up to 8 inches of rain across the drought-stricken region. Given how weak the storm is and how dry Puerto Rico and parts of Florida have been, “it could be a net benefit, this thing,” said MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel. The center of Erika was located about 25 miles southeast of Port-auPrince, Haiti, and was moving west at about 21
mph, the Hurricane Center said. The storm’s maximum sustained winds dropped slightly to 45 mph. Erika drenched the popular tourist areas of Punta Cana, Samana and Puerto Plata, as well as the capital of Santo Domingo. The storm previously slid to the south of Puerto Rico, knocking out power to more than 200,000 people and causing more than $16 million in damage to crops including plantains, bananas and coffee, but causing no major damage or injuries. Dominica, meanwhile, was struggling in the aftermath. Assistant Police Superintendent Claude
Weekes said authorities still haven’t been able to access many areas in the mountainous island because of impassable roads and bridges. “The aftermath is loads of damage,” he said. “It really has been devastating.” An elderly blind man and two children were killed when a mudslide engulfed their home in the southeast of Dominica. Another man was found dead in the capital following a mudslide at his home. People on the island told of narrowly escaping being engulfed by water as Erika downed trees and power lines while unleashing heavy floods that
swept cars down streets and ripped scaffolding off some buildings. “I was preparing to go to work when all of a sudden I heard this loud noise and saw the place flooded with water,” said Shanie James, a 30-yearold mother who works at a bakery. “We had to run for survival.” Mudslides destroyed dozens of homes across Dominica, including that of 46-year-old security guard Peter Julian, who had joined friends after leaving work. “When I returned, I saw that my house that I have lived in for over 20 years was gone,” he said. “I am blessed to be alive. God
was not ready for me ... I have lost everything and now have to start all over again.” Meanwhile in the Pacific, Ignacio strengthened into a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. It was centered about 785 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and was moving northwest near 8 mph. Also in the Pacific, Jimena turned into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph. It was centered about 1,135 miles southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. It does not pose a threat to land.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS
NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS A&M AGGIES
Improved up front File photo by Butch Dill | AP
Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin has begun to build his Aggies program in part because of his reputation off the field.
Sumlin’s style a hit with players Photo by Tony Avelar | AP
Dallas defensive end Randy Gregory was selected in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft to improve the Cowboys’ pass rush.
Cowboys bring stronger D-Line into 2015 By RICK GOSSELIN MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
OXNARD, Calif. - The 2000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the gold standard for Rod Marinelli.
He was the defensive line coach of the Buccaneers then and unleashed his "rush men" on the NFL. That’s when Marinelli established his reputation as a defensive guru, as
the pass-rush whisperer. His Bucs terrorized quarterbacks that season, finishing second in the NFL with 55 sacks. That set the template that Marinelli has been
trying to duplicate ever since. But he hasn’t come close. His rush men finished in the 40s in sacks three more times in Tampa
See COWBOYS PAGE 3B
LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES: PEARLAND, TEXAS
Photo by Matt Slocum | AP
Along with Mexico, the Pearland, Texas Little League team will have a second chance in the Little League World Series playing undefeated Lewisberry, Pennsylvania for the U.S. championship on Saturday.
A second chance for Texas By JOE KAY ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The title round at the Little League World Series is flush with second chances. Pearland, Texas, hit a pair of homers in the bottom of the eighth inning
Thursday night for a 9-7 victory over Bonita, California, and a berth in the U.S. championship game against what amounts to the tournament’s home team. After Bonita pulled ahead 7-6 in the top of the second extra inning, starting pitcher Ben Gottfried
hit a tying solo shot and Caleb Low ended it with a two-run homer. Pearland will play undefeated Lewisberry, Pennsylvania for the U.S. championship on Saturday. The winner will face the International bracket champion on Sunday for the World Series title.
Lewisberry beat Pearland 3-0 on Wednesday night to earn a berth in the title game in front of an estimated 35,000 fans, most of them cheering for the Pennsylvania team, which is only a two-hour drive away. “It’s going to be crazy,”
See TEXAS PAGE 2B
Texas A&M head coach resonating with team and recruits By KRISTIE RIEKEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLLEGE STATION — A visit to Texas A&M football practice is musically akin to a trip to a swanky hip-hop club in downtown Houston or a hotspot on Miami’s South Beach. The Aggies opened fall practice with Drake’s Meek Mill diss track “Back to Back” as a prelude to several other tunes on the cutting edge of rap. In the middle of the bobbing heads of more than a 100 young men in their late teens to early 20s was Kevin Sumlin, who at 51 just might be the coolest coach in college football. Just so we’re all clear, Sumlin did not party with Rick Ross and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel during the weekend of the 2013 National Championship game. But the fact that Sumlin had to debunk such a story speaks to his place within the hierarchy of college football coolness. “There’s things outside of football that I think everybody enjoys,” Sumlin said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Different guys get credit for different things ... I’ve got a life, too.” He’s gained points with recruits by swooping into high school football games in a maroon helicopter emblazoned with an A&M logo on
Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin’s style and personal taste has been a reason he’s been able to recruit so effectively. loan from a booster that has been dubbed the “SwagCopter.” Sumlin has said it’s mostly to avoid traffic. But he flashed a broad smile when talking about its lure a couple of seasons ago and added: “The helicopter is undefeated” with recruits. Part of his reputation for being more hip than most coaches also comes from being photographed at various events. He’s been to a Drake concert and loves MMA fighting. Since it’s happened so much, he was tickled to have gone unnoticed when he and his wife attended the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in May. Sumlin, who is entering his fourth season with the Aggies, had a seat near Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari and he ran into Texas Tech coach Kliff
See TEXAS A&M PAGE 2B
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: SEATTLE MARINERS The Mariners have fired general manager Jack Zduriencik after seven disappointing seasons during which the club failed to end its playoff drought. Team President Kevin Mather announced the decision to fire Zduriencik Friday.
Mariners fire general manager Zduriencik By TIM BOOTH ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE — A year to the day after praising Jack Zduriencik as he was rewarded with a contract extension, Seattle Mariners President Kevin Mather found himself speaking
with ownership this week on all the areas he believed the club was lacking. It was clear to Mather that Zduriencik’s time as Seattle’s general manager was at an end and his regret was not making a change sooner.
“I was so optimistic about 2015 at the major league level that I waited too long to start asking myself and others the tough questions about what is going on here,” Mather said. “Why aren’t
See MARINERS PAGE 2B
Photo by Ted S. Warren | AP
PAGE 2B
Zscores
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
Illinois fires Beckman a week before opener By DAVID MERCER ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois abruptly fired coach Tim Beckman one week before the start of the season Friday after an investigation of player mistreatment allegations revealed he had meddled in medical issues and inappropriately treated athletes who remained on scholarship after leaving the team. With three of his programs under scrutiny, athletic director Mike Thomas said the timing was unfortunate but “it was in the best interests of student-athletes to act now.” Thomas said the final report of the investigation would not be completed and publicly released until during the season. Illinois said Beckman will not receive $3.1 million remaining on the final two years of his original fiveyear contract or the $743,000 buyout. Offensive coordinator Bill Cubit, who was head coach at Western Michigan from 2005-12, has been named interim coach. The Illini face Kent State at home Sept. 4 to start the season. Beckman was 12-25 at Illinois, improving the team’s record each season. The Illini went 6-7 last year and reached the Heart of Dallas Bowl. He did not immediately respond to a phone message left by The Associ-
File photo by Bradley Leeb | AP
Illinois head coach Tim Beckman was fired Friday a week before the start of the season. The school said preliminary results of an investigation found some truth to allegations of player mistreatment and inappropriate behavior. ated Press. Citing the investigation being handled by a law firm, Thomas said he learned of efforts to deter injury reporting and influence medical decisions that pressured injured players to avoid or postpone treatment and continue playing. In some instances, he said, athletes were treated inappropriately with respect to whether they could remain on scholarship during the spring semester of their senior year if they weren’t on the team. Former starting lineman Simon Cvijanovic com-
plained first on Twitter on May 9 and in subsequent interviews that Beckman and his staff had tried to shame him into playing hurt, and had misled him about medical procedures following a knee injury. “All I can say right now is I think it’s a step in the right direction,” he told the AP by phone after learning Beckman had been fired. “It seems like there’s more than just Beckman that needs to be held accountable.” A number of former and present players have supported Beckman, saying
TEXAS A&M Continued from Page 1B Kingsbury there. “I think those kind of settings, those kind of atmospheres, anybody’s who’s in any kind of competitive organization or business, I think you enjoy that and I wasn’t shocked to see any of those guys there,” he said. Though he can’t take credit for the trendy tunes that serve as a daily soundtrack to his team’s preparation for the rigors of Southeastern Conference play, he does like that people have taken notice of their musical stylings. James Duncan, the video coordinator for the athletic department, is in charge of the playlist. “I see some people at practice, like Eddie George was at practice one day with his head bobbing and he went straight to Shazam,” Sumlin said. “He was trying to figure out what it was.” The music isn’t just for head bobbing — it helps players learn to concentrate in noise so the loud and hostile crowds they’ll face on the road won’t be daunting. “Sometimes he can relate to us,” receiver Ricky Seals-Jones said. “When the music plays he sings it and we’re just like: ’Hold on, coach. What you know about that?”’ Sumlin spent four seasons at the University of Houston before moving
about 100 miles northwest to the much less urban setting of College Station, Texas. Some of his throwback selections are heavily influenced by his time in the hip hop mecca of Texas where various Houston rappers were regulars on the Cougars’ sideline. He often picks songs from the godfather of Houston rap Scarface, and has a personal connection to the Geto Boys front man. The young son of Scarface, whose real name is Brad Jordan, used to visit his house for playdates with his son Jackson when he lived in Houston. “I didn’t even know it for a couple of years. I couldn’t put two and two together until I was like: ’Your name’s what?”’ Sumlin said, cracking up. Sumlin, who has four children, is widely lauded for his ability to relate to players. He takes great pride in helping to mold young men and talked about what he hopes his players learn from him. “A sense of responsibility,” he said. “Here we consider ourselves a developmental program. We’ve got a lot of bells and whistles and a lot of TVs, a lot of flat screens, I don’t know how many TVs we’ve got in this place but I don’t want to get that confused with what this program’s really about.”
Those relationships don’t end when players leave College Station. He still speaks to Manziel, who’s had a tough time since his halcyon days with the Aggies. Sumlin said they’ve talked a few times since his trip to a rehab facility and believes the fact that Manziel, now with the Cleveland Browns, checked in on his own is a positive sign. “You’ve got to remember this was not a thing forced on him,” Sumlin said. “So anytime you have a guy who looks himself in the mirror and says: ’Hey, I’ve got to do something.’ Stayed 30 days and then said: ’Hey I need to stay some more’ ... you can’t help but be encouraged.” The Aggies finished 8-5 last season and were 3-5 in the SEC. Sumlin said it was a process to build a team made to deal with the rugged SEC West. His appeal just isn’t in the music. Players agree his style resonates. “He’s direct. He’ll tell you want he wants,” star sophomore defensive end Myles Garrett said. “He’ll get on you when you need it but he’ll also praise you when you do something right. He’s always trying to have fun and he knows when to be serious and that’s a quality we all need to have.”
they were never mistreated or saw any reason for concern. "Will always have the utmost respect for Coach Beckman for giving me an opportunity that no one else did,” receiver Mike Dudek posted on Twitter. The football accusations were just the first to be raised by former Illini athletes this year. Seven former women’s basketball players sued the university last month amid claims that coach Matt Bollant and some staff used race to divide the team and force out unwanted players.
Former assistant coach Mike Divilbiss left the school after the initial allegations surfaced earlier, in the spring. Bollant and current staff members have denied the allegations. And former women’s soccer player Casey Conine sued the school in June, claiming she had been improperly cleared to play after a concussion. The lawsuits are ongoing. Thomas said the review being done by the Franczek Radelet law firm is ongoing. He said the firm has interviewed more than 90 individuals and reviewed
200,000 documents, along with a large volume of practice and game video from Beckman’s three years in Champaign. Beckman is a former Ohio State assistant who was Toledo head coach for three years before replacing Ron Zook at Illinois. He went 2-10 in his first season and 0-8 in the Big Ten. The Illini improved on the field, winning four games in Year 2 and getting bowl-eligible last year by beating Northwestern in the final game of the season. They lost the Heart of Dallas Bowl to Louisiana Tech. Beyond just wins and losses, though, Beckman had several public missteps. He was criticized for going to State College, Pennsylvania, to try to recruit Penn State players after the Nittany Lions were sanctioned by the NCAA for the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Later, he was spotted by television cameras during one game using smokeless tobacco on the sideline, a violation of NCAA rules. Beckman is not the first coach to be fired for player mistreatment. Rutgers fired basketball coach Mike Rice after video became public of him screaming obscenities, pushing and throwing basketballs at players. Texas Tech fired Mike Leach in 2009 amid accusations he mistreated a player suffering a concussion. Leach later filed suit.
TEXAS Continued from Page 1B Pearland manager Andrew Solomon said. “It was crazy out there last night. It’s going to be fun, though.” At least they know what to expect from the crowd the second time around. “They sounded like my mom when she’s mad,” Gottfried said about the Lewisberry fans, adding, “I probably shouldn’t have said that.” Low was replaced by a pinch-hitter in his previous at-bat. He didn’t give his manager a chance to call for a pinch-hitter again in the eighth, sprinting out of the dugout with bat in hand when his turn came up. “To be quite honest, Caleb ran out of the dugout so fast we didn’t have a choice,” Solomon said. “That’s the honest truth.” Really, Caleb? “Kind of,” he said. “I felt more confident tonight.” Mexicali Baja California, Mexico, didn’t need any drama to beat Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 11-0 earlier Thursday and advance to the International title game. Mexicali gets a rematch with Tokyo, which won their earlier matchup 3-1. The international game ended not with a dramatic homer, but with a swingand-a-miss. Mexicali players ran from their positions to a spot between the mound and the plate, celebrating their berth in the
International championship game. One player was missing. The last one to arrive was Daniel Zaragoza, who had to run all the way from right field — his position for the final out. It was the only time all day that No. 18 wasn’t wasn’t right in the middle of everything. The left-hander who patterns himself after Fernando Valenzuela gave up only three hits, leading Mexicali to the win. He also had a two-run double that got it started. Peering over his tanand-black glove to get signs from the catch and then delivering the ball with a deliberate motion, Zaragoza looked a little bit like the famous Mexican pitcher — also a lefty — who sparked Fernandomania with the Dodgers in 1981. Asked for his favorite player, Zaragoza quickly answered: “Fernando.” Why? Because of his screwball. Can he throw one, too? “No,” Zaragoza said. “It’s hard.” Tokyo’s 3-1 win over Mexicali early in the tournament puts a little extra on the line. “Baseball gives you revenge,” said manager Jorge Joel Armenta, who has a tattoo of a rosary and No. 69 — his number
as a player — on his right forearm. “We want to play Japan.” Barquisimeto came within one strike of reaching the International title game on Wednesday, before Tokyo tied it with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth and then won it with three runs in the eighth. Barquisimeto used up its pitching staff in that one. “Last night’s game hurt, but we came in focused on today’s game,” manager Domingo A. Carrasquel said. “Mexico just played better.” Zaragoza’s double in the second inning made it 2-0. Alberto Bustos had a tworun double in the third and a two-run homer in the fifth as Mexicali pulled away. Catcher Raul Leon added a three-run homer, his second in two games. Zaragoza gave up three singles in 5 2-3 innings, leaving after reaching the limit with 89 pitches. He switched positions with right fielder Gerardo Lujano for the final out, and then made the long jog back toward the mound to join the celebration. Mexicali thinks it’s in a better place for the rematch with Japan. The offense has come around — Leon, the cleanup hitter, has driven in eight runs in the last two games — and the pitching and defense have remained a constant.
MARINERS Continued from Page 1B we having more success here? What’s going wrong, here?” Zduriencik was fired Friday after seven disappointing seasons where the club failed to end its playoff drought under his watch. Zduriencik came to Seattle before the 2009 season, arriving from Milwaukee as one of the top talent evaluators in baseball and with the task of rebuilding a thin farm system while putting a winning product on the field at the major league level. But Seattle missed too often both in player development through the draft and in free agency. “I really enjoyed my seven years here. There is not anything I could say in a negative vibe about anything that went on in Seattle,” Zduriencik told reporters in Chicago on Fri-
day. “It was a great experience and we’ll move on.” Zduriencik was given a contract extension last August and this season was to be the culmination of his work, with the Mariners coming off an 87-win season in 2014, the addition of slugger Nelson Cruz and the expectation that the second-longest playoff drought in baseball would come to an end. Instead, baring a stunning September run, the drought dating to 2001 will continue. The floundering club began Friday 10 games under .500 and 12 games behind Houston in the AL West. Assistant general manager Jeff Kingston taking over on an interim basis. Mather said he kept waiting for this year’s team to overcome its early
slumps and rally its way back into contention. He said the optimism caused him to “drag my feet” and wait too long on re-examining the state of the organization under Zduriencik. That process hit a critical juncture on Wednesday — one year after Zduriencik’s extension was announced — when Mather spoke with CEO Howard Lincoln about making a change. Mather flew to Chicago on Thursday and informed Zduriencik of the decision Friday morning. “We made this decision today not on the 2015 major league club, but the 2016 to 2020 major league team and getting back to meaningful baseball in October,” Mather said. Mather said he would like to find a general man-
ager with experience and not someone who needs time to learn on the job. His hope is to have a small pool of candidates by the end of the regular season and a decision made on who will take over by midOctober as to not fall behind on the upcoming offseason. “I think we have the nucleus of a very good baseball team. The nucleus of this team should bode well for candidates,” Mather said. Zduriencik was hired in part because of his drafting and development track record in Milwaukee, but only one player drafted during his Seattle tenure has developed into an AllStar: third baseman Kyle Seager. Three times Seattle had top-five draft selections with Zdureincik in charge, but none of those
players — Danny Hultzen, Dustin Ackley and Mike Zunino — developed into solid contributors in the majors. Seattle did land Robinson Cano and Cruz in free agency the past two seasons, but Zduriencik’s had too many misses in free agency and via trades. Seattle struggled to recover from the signing of Chone Figgins and trades for Cliff Lee, Jesus Montero and Milton Bradley failed, creating even more discontent among fans. Seattle had just two winning seasons during Zduriencik’s tenure. There was also a lack of continuity between Zduriencik and his managers. Zduriencik hired Don Wakamatsu as his first manager in 2009, but he was fired during the 2010 season. Eric Wedge was hired
before the 2011 season, but chose not to return after the 2013 season in part because of issues with the front office. Current manager Lloyd McClendon is under contract through 2016. Mather said he will encourage keeping McClendon but that it will be up to the next GM to decide who Seattle’s field manager will be in 2016. “I think Lloyd has done a very good job, I think his coaching staff has done a very good job and I am certainly going to as I narrow in on candidates get their opinion of our manager and coaching staff and encourage them because to keep them because quite frankly I think they’ve done a tremendous job,” Mather said. “But it’s clearly the general manager’s decision.”
Sports
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B
Islanders legend Arbour dies By TOM CANAVAN AND JOHN WAWROW ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Matt York | AP
Arizona Cardinals training camp coaches Jen Welter and Willie Williams celebrate during camp in Glendale.
Welter reflects on NFL work By BOB BAUM ASSOCIATED PRESS
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jen Welter’s groundbreaking days as an interim NFL coach are nearing an end. “It’s been fantastic,” she said. “This is such a good group of guys who I think really embraced what could have been a challenging situation, and they just ran with it. I mean these players and these coaches have just been fantastic for me. It’s been like a dream come true.” When coach Bruce Arians brought in Welter as an intern working with inside linebackers, she became the first female to hold any coaching position in the NFL. “We showed little girls that even in the final frontier of sports that anything is possible,” she said. “That is breathtaking to me. It’s something that I never thought was possible.” Arians cleared the way for her acceptance, Welter said, “just by being a man who is true to himself in how he coaches and how he deals with people.” “I heard one player say it best: ’I knew Bruce and the kind of guy he was and he wasn’t going to bring anybody here who didn’t belong.’ ” Arians said the way Welter “approaches it is a little bit different from a lot of people, because she is female and she thinks differently.” “But it’s good to have
that on your staff,” he said. One of those “different” things was leaving notes for her players in their lockers before games. “It came from the heart,” she said. “To me it’s something I would have wanted as a player. It never occurred to me that other people weren’t doing it, and yet the feedback from all the guys was really fantastic. They were like ’Coach, we never had anybody do that before.” They were notes of inspiration individualized to each player. She said he had “just gone with my intuition on what the right thing was and to be true to myself and my beliefs that these guys needed to know they were important as people, not just football players.” Known as Dr. Jen back in Texas, Welter has a PhD in psychology. She talks about putting on a helmet as a small child and asking her cousins to tackle her. She played in women’s professional football, and for one season played on a men’s team, the Texas Revolution of the Indoor Football League. Her hiring in Arizona came as a result of a comment Arians made at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix, when he said a woman would be hired to coach “the moment they can prove they can make a player better.” The coach of the Revolution got in touch with the Cardinals, and Dr. Jen soon was on the staff.
Al Arbour, the bespectacled gentleman of a coach who molded a young and talented New York Islanders franchise into an NHL dynasty that won four straight Stanley Cups in the early 1980s, has died. He was 82. The Islanders confirmed Arbour’s death in a release issued Friday afternoon. Arbour had been in declining health, battling Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and living in a longterm care facility in Florida. Beginning in 1973-74, Arbour led the Isles to 15 playoff appearances and won 119 playoff games — an NHL record with one team — over 19 seasons. His 740 career regular-season wins with the Islanders are the most with one NHL team. “Al will always be remembered as one of, if not the greatest coaches ever to stand behind a bench in the history of the National Hockey League,” Islanders President and general manager Garth Snow said. “From his innovative coaching methods, to his humble way of life away from the game, Al is one of the reasons the New York Islanders are a historic franchise.” Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 in the builder category, Arbour had success as a player but his real talent was in coaching. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Arbour was brilliant as a tactician and coach. “Al Arbour directed the Islanders’ rapid transformation from expansion team to NHL powerhouse,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement released by the league. “As it grieves the loos of a profound influence on coaching and on the game itself, the NHL sends its heartfelt condolences to Al’s family and friends, to his former teammates and to all the players he motivated.” The defensive-minded defenseman won titles with the Detroit Red Wings in 1954, the Chicago Blackhawks (’61) and the Toronto Maple Leafs in ’62 and ’64 during an NHL career that spanned three decades and 14 seasons.
File photo by Ed Betz | AP
Former Islanders head coach Al Arbour, who coached New York to four consecutive Stanley Cup titles and is the NHL’s second-most winningest coach, died Friday at 82. His last four seasons were with the expansion St. Louis Blues, who took him to three more Cup finals and gave him his start behind the bench. His coaching statistics were even better. Besides the four consecutive Cups, he won 782 games, making him the NHL’s second winningest coach behind his mentor, Scotty Bowman (1,244). The Islanders also set an NHL record by winning 19 consecutive playoff series. No team in any major sport has won four straight titles since Arbour’s Islanders did it. The Montreal Canadiens hold the NHL record with five straight titles (1956-60). Bowman referred to the Islanders string of series wins as a record that will be tough to break. And he called it a testament to Arbor for being able to enjoy so much success with one franchise. “Most of us coaches, we have to move around to get our message across,” Bowman told The Associated Press by phone on Friday. “But he was able to do it over a 20-year span. It’s an awesome feat. You’re dealing with completely new players but with the same team. I think that tells you a lot about him, that’s for sure.” Arbour’s success was a result of a lengthy period of stability on Long Island, where he was the coach of a team that was built by general manager Bill Torrey — the franchise’s first employee. In their heyday, the Islanders core players included forwards Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and
Clark Gillies, defenseman Denis Potvin and goalie Billy Smith. Former Islanders player Ray Ferraro paid tribute to Arbour on Twitter, saying: “Have so many thoughts on passing of Al Arbour. So sad, he impacted my career, life deeply. Rest peacefully Al.” Arbour’s last win came in 2007, when the Islanders brought the then 75-yearold out of retirement to coach his 1,500th game with the franchise, a 3-2 win over the Penguins. Arbour’s death comes at a time when the Islanders are in transition. The franchise is moving from its longtime and outdated home — Nassau Coliseum — in Uniondale, New York, to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn this season. The NHL named Arbour its coach of year in 1979. The Sudbury, Ontario, native also was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1992 for contributions to ice hockey in the United States. “He had that special touch that only a few people are gifted to have naturally,” said former goaltender Glen ’Chico’ Resch, who played on the Islanders’ first title team. “It’s sort of like the superstar hockey player who has that special talent to score goals but continues to be humble and accommodating and everyone loves the guy.” One of the last NHL players to play wearing glasses, he never hesitated to go down and block shots and he had a couple of hundred stitches to prove it. As a coach, he respected
his players, but found ways to push them. Failing to listen would result in fewer shifts and games missed. “He hated to tell people they were not playing,” Resch said. Resch said the Arbour was one of the few coaches in his era who did not coach from “a position of fear.” He did what he had to do to win, Resch said. “He coached a team that overachieved in 1974 and then led a Stanley Cup team that reached every ounce of its potential,” Resch said. As a player, Arbour finished with 12 goals and 58 assists in 626 career games. Bowman was with the Blues when they acquired Arbour in the NHL expansion draft. And it was Arbour who eventually succeeded Bowman as coach in St. Louis. “He made the league and stayed in the league only because he was able to work harder than the next guy,” Bowman recalled. “And I think that’s where his work ethic was a reason why he had so much success.” In retirement, Arbour was an avid NHL follower and sometimes critic. During the 2012 playoffs, he complained about the NHL’s inconsistencies in disciplining players, and how it led to stars such as Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux having to become involved in fights to defend themselves. He is survived by his wife Claire, and children Joann, Jay, Julie and Janice.
COWBOYS Continued from Page 1B and once in Chicago. But his troops have never managed another year like that 55sack assault in 2000. And Marinelli has never had a worse season than 2014. He now coordinates the Dallas defense, and the Cowboys managed a paltry 28 sacks - the first time in his 19 year NFL coaching career his troops couldn’t get into the 30s, much less the 40s or 50s. Marinelli sounded the alarm in the offseason, and Jerry Jones listened. To compete for a Lombardi Trophy, you must be able to rush the passer. The NFL instituted sacks as an official statistic in 1982 and since then, the 33 Super Bowl champions have averaged 43.6 sacks. That’s a far cry from 28. But seemingly overnight the Cowboys changed the dynamic of their pass rush and have given Marinelli a front four that, across the board, may one day rival any he’s ever coached. The Cowboys signed Pro Bowl end Greg Hardy in free agency and drafted Nebraska All-America Randy Gregory in the second round. DeMarcus Lawrence, the club’s highest draft pick in 2014, missed most of 2014 with a broken foot but flashed in the playoffs. He’ll be in the mix from the start. Marinelli also is a fan of Tyrone Crawford at the key under tackle position. Hardy will miss the first four games with a league suspension and Gregory could have some struggles as most rookies do. But let’s say for argument sake that all four of those defen-
File photo by Tony Avelar | AP
Dallas signed troubled but talented defensive end Greg Hardy in the offseason, the Panthers’ single-season leader in sacks.
sive linemen collect nine sacks this season. That still wouldn’t match the front four of the 2000 Bucs. Hall of Fame tackle Warren Sapp collected 16 1/2 that season, end Marcus Jones 13, tackle Anthony McFarland 6 1/2 and end Chidi Ahanotu 3 1/2. That’s 39 1/2. Sapp, Jones and McFarland were all first-round draft picks, by the way. The starting 11 of the Bucs that season collected 49 sacks. The starting 11 of Marinelli’s 2014 Cowboys
collected 16 sacks. Tampa Bay received only three sacks from its starting linebackers, but Ronde Barber contributed 5 1/2 sacks blitzing off the corner. The cornerback on the 2015 Cowboys with blitz capabilities was Orlando Scandrick, but his season ended in Oxnard with a knee injury. The philosophy of Marinelli’s Tampa Two scheme is to play the run on the way to the quarterback. The 2000 Bucs excelled there as well, finishing in
the top 10 in run defense on their way to the playoffs. The 2014 Cowboys also finished in the top 10 in run defense but spent too much time in the trenches and not enough time in the offensive backfield. In Hardy, Gregory and a healthy Lawrence, the Cowboys now have the speed to invade opposing backfields. "The talent is there," said Marinelli of his remodeled front four. "But it’s more than talent. It’s the ability to work every day. You have to be tough. You have
to be physical. You have to disrupt the run and come off the ball every single play. It’s all the get off. We’re reading upfield. We want to get energy and movement up the field fast. It sounds easy, sounds fun . until you have to do it. It’s a grind. "You can have talent. We had talent in Tampa. But they worked. They were tougher than nails. Chicago, the same way. We put it together toward the end with Julius Peppers. Henry Melton. But it’s a tough
front to play." Hardy will be a key when he returns. He gives Marinelli the flexibility of lining him up anywhere across the front for matchup purposes. A bigger key is Crawford, who plays the most demanding - and the most important - spot in the front: the under tackle. Sapp was the under tackle in this scheme in Tampa. He’s in the Hall of Fame. John Randle played under tackle in this same defensive scheme for the Vikings in the 1990s. He’s in the Hall of Fame. Keith Millard preceded Randle there at Minnesota. He was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1989. Tommie Harris played there for Marinelli in Chicago. He was a Pro Bowler. Jason Hatcher also played there for Marinelli in Dallas. Another Pro Bowler. "It’s a tough hat to wear," Marinelli sad. "It’s a big hat. But there are a lot of guys who have worn it well." Now the Cowboys need Crawford to wear it well. They need Hardy to rebound from a year off, Lawrence to accelerate his second year growth and Gregory to flash his presumed first-round potential. The Cowboys need sacks in 2015. That will allow them to survive the loss of Scandrick on the corner. That will create turnovers. This Cowboys front may not get 55 sacks like those 2000 Bucs. But it needs to get into the 40s. A Super Bowl berth could hinge on it. But Marinelli now has a cast to get there.
4B THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015