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UNITED WAY OF LAREDO
ZCISD begins search for Zapatans attend campaign new chief kickoff with famous writer
Author speaks of miracles
By Judith Rayo
By César G. Rodriguez
TH E ZAPATA T IME S
THE ZAPATA TIME S
The Zapata County Independent School District board of trustees approved the search for a superintendent after pausing the search for almost 8 months. Trustees Hein named Robert Hein as acting superintendent in December after they accepted the resig-
Miracles do exist. People just need to look up and see how God works in their lives, said Christy Wilson Beam, author of the New York Times Best Seller “Miracles from Heaven: A Little Girl and Her Amazing Story of Healing.” The healing of her daughter, Annabel Beam, inspired the 2016 film “Miracles from Heaven” starring Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah. Beam delivered an inspirational speech during the United
ZCISD continues on A11
Way 2016 Campaign Kick-Off Luncheon held Thursday at La Posada Hotel in Laredo. “This is what we needed, to hear that inspirational message from someone who went through hardship and they overcame it,” said Linda C. Teniente, president of the board of directors for United Way of Laredo. Teniente said United Way of Laredo aims to raise $1.6 million by Nov. 11. The money raised will be dispersed to 23 local nonprofit organizations. “We see our hardships every Miracles continues on A11
Courtesy photo
International Bank of Commerce Zapata officers Eloy A. Lopez Jr., J. Ruben Perez, Cynthia Perez, Mayra Lopez and Jose F. “Paco” Mendoza Jr., president/CEO of the Zapata County Chamber of Commerce Convention and Visitor Center, pose for a picture with Christy Wilson Beam, author of the New York Times Best Seller “Miracles from Heaven: A Little Girl and Her Amazing Story of Healing.”
CENSUS BUREAU ANNIVERSARY OF SEPT. 11, 2001
Study: Latino population growth slips
LAST ARTIFACTS GIVEN AWAY
By Russell Contreras ASSOCIATED PRE SS
After 15 years, relics dispersed around world By Adam Geller A S SOCIAT E D PRE SS
N
EW YORK — Behind the barbed wire, the minivan’s busted windows and crumpled roof hint at its story. But forklifted to this windblown spot on the John F. Kennedy International Airport tarmac, between a decommissioned 727 and an aircraft hangar, it’s doubtful passing drivers notice it at all. In the long struggle with the memories of 9/11, though, the van’s solitary presence here marks a small but significant transition point. Tons of wreckage — twisted steel beams, chunks of concrete smelling of smoke, a crushed fire engine, a dust-covered airline slipper — were salvaged from the World Trade Center site for preservation after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Artifacts continues on A11 Jetta Fraser/The Columbus Dispatch / AP
This Sept. 3 photo shows a beam from the destroyed World Trade Center buildings, part of the 9/11 Memorial near the Veterans’ Pavilion at the Fulton County Fair, in Wauseon, Ohio.
LITE-UP TEXAS
Texas stops helping poor families pay their electric bills By Jim Malewitz TH E TEXAS T RI BUNE
Texas will no longer help low-income families pay their electric bills. Lite-Up Texas, a program that offered discounts to hundreds of thousands of poor Texas families over the years, has run out of money and the discounts ended on
Aug. 31, the Public Utility Commission confirmed. Though observers expected the money to run out after lawmakers declined to extend the program's funding source three years ago, advocates are concerned that long-time beneficiaries will be blindsided when their assistance vanishes. Bills continues on A11
Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman / AP
Nora Castillo, 31, reaches up to unscrew a light bulb to turn it off in the two bedroom living space she and her family share in O'Donnell, Texas, on Aug. 19, 2015.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The growth of the U.S. Latino population — once the nation’s fastest growing — slowed considerably over the past seven years and slipped behind that of Asian Americans amid declining Hispanic immigration and birth rates, a study released Thursday found. The Pew Research Center study, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data, found that the U.S. Hispanic population grew annually on average by 2.8 percent between 2007 and 2014. That’s down from the 4.4 percent annual growth from 2000 to 2007, before the Great Recession. By comparison, the Asian American population grew around 3.4 percent on average annually during the same period. William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, the slower growth is largely a factor of the economy. A slower economy is influencing families to hold off on having more children, and it’s discouraging migration amid stronger border enforcement, he said. Kenneth M. Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, said U.S. Hispanic women between the ages of 20 to 24 have seen a 36 percent decline in birth rates. “That’s by far the largest decline of any other group,” Johnson said. Despite slowing population growth, Latinos still accounted for 54 percent of the nation’s population growth between 2000 and 2014, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Regional growth patterns also have changed some following the economic downturn of 2007 reflecting the changing economies of states, the study found. Latino continues on A11