The Zapata Times 9/12/2015

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SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

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Man caught guiding group

Treatment program Zapata veterans can find substance abuse help By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

Man arrested for smuggling 14 immigrants By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ Photo by Cesar Rodriguez | The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES

A Mexican citizen was arrested for guiding a group of illegal immigrants near Falcon Lake in Zapata County, according to court documents. The suspect, Uriel RamirezAlvarado, was charged with human smuggling. U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the lake area said that on Aug. 30, they discovered footprints in a desolated desert area that is teemed with ticks, scorpions, poisonous snakes and spiders. “This area is rarely used by the general public as a hiking area. Normally, groups encountered in this area have entered the United States illegally,” states the criminal complaint filed Sept. 3. Records further state the human and narcotics smugglers use the desolated area to avoid law enforcement detection. Agents said they followed the foot prints and caught up to a group of 15 people in the thick brush area near a private cemetery, west of U.S. 83. “The entire group was laying face down in the desert brush in an obvious attempt to avoid detection,” states the complaint. All people allegedly admitted to being Mexican citizens without proper documentation to be in the country. They were taken to the Zapata Border Patrol Station for processing. “A subsequent interview of the undocumented (people) revealed that Uriel Ramirez-Alvarado was the foot guide,” records state. Ramirez-Alvarado invoked his right to an attorney when federal authorities attempted to question her, according to court documents. Immigrants held as material witnesses stated to agents they crossed the Lake in a boat. Also, the immigrants allegedly identified Ramirez-Alvarado as the foot guide. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

Eduardo Mauricio Treviño, a U.S. Army veteran, signs the Veterans Treatment Program board after he graduated from the program Thursday.

Veterans in Zapata County can find a helping hand in the Veterans Treatment Program that takes place in a Laredo court. “The mission of the 406th Veterans Treatment Program is to break the cycle of alcohol and substance addiction by address-

ing certain mental issues (including post-traumatic stress disorder) through court intervention, education and treatment, and by encouraging our veterans to live a more positive lifestyle,” reads a brochure of the program. The program also aims to reduce the recidivism rate of the

See HELP PAGE 12A

US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION

CUBANS FLOOD TEXAS PORTS

The Zapata Times file photo

Pedestrian and vehicle traffic is shown at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge in downtown Laredo.

About 18,520 have tried to enter through Laredo area By JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE

Call it another immigration surge of the United States’ own making. But unlike last summer’s crisis of children and families arriving from Central America, lawmakers aren’t quick to call on this current group of refugees to go home. From October 2014 to June 2015, about 18,520 Cubans have sought entry to the United

States through Texas’ Laredo field office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes ports from Del Rio to Brownsville. That’s compared to the 18,240 unaccompanied minors that were caught or surrendered to U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley from October 2014 through July of this year, according to CBP statistics. If the current trend holds, the number of Cubans seeking

entry through Laredo will be about 24,700 this fiscal year. That’s about 60 percent more than 2014’s 15,600 and nearly twice as many as 2013’s 12,445. The influx of Cubans to Texas is a result of the Obama administration’s efforts to normalize relations with the communist Castro regime, said Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the U.S. Immigration Policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-

based think tank. “That is a jaw dropping statistic that I haven’t seen before,” Rosenblum said of the spike. “In general there is a suspicion among many Cubans that the special status that Cubans receive is in jeopardy.” The special status is a policy allowing Cubans who make it to a U.S. port of entry to enter and seek legal permanent resi-

See CUBANS PAGE 12A

ST. LOUIS

Rick Perry first to exit 2016 Republican presidential race By STEVE PEOPLES AND WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. LOUIS — Out of money and relegated once again to the back-of-the-pack debate, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday dropped out of the race for president, ending his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination and becoming the first major candidate of the 2016 campaign to give up on the White House. The longest-serving governor in Texas history, who had never lost an election until he started

running for president, told a group of conservative activists in St. Louis that “some things have become clear” and that it was time to suspend his campaign. “We have a tremendous field of candidates — probably the greatest group of men and women,” Perry said. “I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, as long as we listen to the grassroots, listen to that cause of conservatism. If we do that, then our party will be in good hands.” Four years ago, Perry’s first

bid for the White House essentially collapsed after a GOP debate in which he couldn’t remember the name of the third federal agency he’d wanted to close if elected — he was only able to mutter “Oops.” This time around, he couldn’t win enough support in early polls to even qualify for the party’s primetime debates, finding himself relegated instead to second-stage affairs. After formally kicking off his bid in early June, Perry an-

See PERRY PAGE 12A

Photo by Sid Hastings | AP

Republican presidential candidate and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry embraces Madeline Martin, daughter of Eagle Forum president Ed Mark, before speaking at the Eagle Council XLIV, sponsored by the Eagle Forum in St. Louis Friday. During the speech Perry said he is ending his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination.


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Zin brief CALENDAR

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Operation Feed the Homeless at 3 p.m. at Jarvis Plaza. Please feel free to volunteer time feeding the homeless or donating food, books or clothing. For more information please visit our Facebook page, LFT Operation Feed the Homeless. TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 2 p.m.: Accidental Astronaut*; 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4 p.m.: Extreme Planets; 5 p.m.: Led Zeppelin. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. *Matinee Shows are $1 less. Call 956-326-DOME (3663).

Today is Saturday, Sept. 12, the 255th day of 2015. There are 110 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Sept. 12, 1962, in a speech at Rice University in Houston, President John F. Kennedy reaffirmed his support for the manned space program, declaring: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” On this date: In 1914, during World War I, the First Battle of the Marne ended in an Allied victory against Germany. In 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded the right of self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia. In 1953, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addressed questions about his Roman Catholic faith, telling a Southern Baptist group, “I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.” In 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by Ethiopia’s military after ruling for 58 years. In 1977, South African black student leader Steve Biko died while in police custody, triggering an international outcry. In 1995, the Belarusian military shot down a hydrogen balloon during an international race, killing its two American pilots, John Stuart-Jervis and Alan Fraenckel. In 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first first lady to win an election as she claimed victory in the New York Democratic Senate primary, defeating little-known opponent Dr. Mark McMahon. Ten years ago: Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown resigned, three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Five years ago: The United States won its first world basketball championship since 1994, beating Turkey 81-64 in Istanbul behind a sensational performance from tournament MVP Kevin Durant, who scored 28 points. One year ago: A South African judge found Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide, or negligent killing, in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and declared the double-amputee Olympian not guilty of murder. Today’s Birthdays: Actor Dickie Moore (“Our Gang”) is 90. Actor Freddie Jones is 88. . Singer Maria Muldaur is 73. Actor Joe Pantoliano is 64. Original MTV VJ Nina Blackwood is 63. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is 59. Actress Rachel Ward is 58. Rock singermusician Ben Folds (Ben Folds Five) is 49. Actor-comedian Louis C.K. is 48. Golfer Angel Cabrera is 46. Country singer Jennifer Nettles is 41. Rapper 2 Chainz is 38. Actor Ben McKenzie is 37. Singer Ruben Studdard is 37. Basketball player Yao Ming is 35. Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson is 34. Actor Alfie Allen (TV: “Game of Thrones”) is 29. Actress Emmy Rossum is 29. Thought for Today: “Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.” — Thornton Wilder, American playwright (1897-1975).

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 Chess Club will meet at the LBV–Inner City Branch Library from 4–6 p.m. Compete with other players in this cherished strategy game played internationally. Free for all ages and skill levels. Basic instruction is offered. Chess Club meets every Monday. Call John at 795-2400x2521 for more information.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 6 p.m.: Extreme Planets; 7 p.m.: Stars of the Pharaohs. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. Call 956-326-DOME (3663). Take the challenge and climb the Rock Wall! Fun exercise for all ages and it’s free. All participants must bring ID and sign release form. Open every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at LBV–Inner City Branch Library, located on 202 W. Plum St. For more information call 795-2400x2520.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 6 p.m.: Extreme Planets; 7 p.m.: Stars of the Pharaohs. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. Call 956-326-DOME (3663).

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 2 p.m.: Accidental Astronaut*; 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4 p.m.: Extreme Planets; 5 p.m.: Led Zeppelin. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. *Matinee Shows are $1 less. Call 956-326-DOME (3663). LCC presents “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhed.” In this theatrical parody, our favorite blockhead begins to question the afterlife during this coming-of-age drama that pushes the limits of social conventions and teenage angst. The play is intended for adult audiences. General admission is $7 and $5 for seniors and students. The show will play at the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Fine Arts Center Theater, West End Washington Street.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 Chess Club will meet at the LBV–Inner City Branch Library from 4–6 p.m. Compete with other players in this cherished strategy game played internationally. Free for all ages and skill levels. Basic instruction is offered. Chess Club meets every Monday. Call John at 795-2400x2521 for more information.

Photo by Photo by Callie Richmond | Texas Tribune

Chelsea Stewart listens to a lecture in the College of Health Professions at Texas State University. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently reclassified the school as an Emerging Research University, and starting next fall, the system plans to encourage nontraditional students to take free massive open online courses before arriving on campus.

Free freshman year? By MATTHEW WATKINS TEXAS TRIBUNE

The Texas State University System has an idea for future students busy with families and jobs: Don’t even show up on campus freshman year. Starting next fall, the system plans to encourage nontraditional students to take free massive open online courses, known as MOOCs, before arriving on campus. If they take 10 courses and pass tests for college credit, students could show up at school with a year’s work complete before paying a single tuition bill. The courses will be run by the New Yorkbased nonprofit the Modern States Education Alliance through a program called Freshman Year for Free. The group plans to launch a free online portal providing access to about three dozen free online courses next

Body could be someone missing from flood

Texan gets life term for killing ex-girlfriend

Thieves steal more than 90 guns from store

SAN ANTONIO — Search crews have found the body of someone they believe to be the one missing after flash floodwaters in a San Antonio creek swept four people off their feet, drowning one other. San Antonio Fire Department crews found the body Friday afternoon in Martinez Creek at Fulton Avenue near Interstate 10. That’s about two miles downstream from where the four were swept off their feet by rapidly rising waters.

FORT WORTH — A North Texas man must serve life in prison without parole for killing his ex-girlfriend, her older sister and the mother of the two women. Cedric D. McGinnis Jr. pleaded guilty to capital murder in all three deaths and was sentenced Thursday in Fort Worth in a plea deal. McGinnis acknowledged killing 21-year-old April Serrano, 35-year-old Kathy DeLeon and 48year-old Cynthia Serrano in their Fort Worth home.

PLANO — Police are looking for several thieves who stole more than 90 guns from a North Texas firearms store. Plano police on Thursday released store security video of the crash-and-grab theft involving at least four suspects. Investigators say at least 93 firearms were stolen. Law enforcement officials are offering a reward of up to $10,000 leading to arrest and conviction of the thieves.

Black bear rescued in South Texas dies at zoo

Dad, teenage daughter face bank robbery charge

Woman found guilty in death of deputy

ABILENE — A North American black bear has died of heart trouble years after being saved from a roadside zoo in South Texas in a rescue that drew TV attention. Abilene Zoo officials say Boris the bear was euthanized Thursday. Boris, believed to be 21 years old, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

GRANDVIEW — A North Texas father and daughter have been accused of bank robbery and leading police on a chase with speeds reaching 150 mph. Johnson County jail records show 41-year-old Michael Bailey and 19-year-old Megan Bailey were being held Friday on aggravated robbery counts.

HOUSTON — A 30-year-old woman has been found guilty for slamming her SUV into a Harris County sheriff ’s patrol car, killing a deputy last year. Kelly Jo Ivey was found guilty of intoxication manslaughter Thursday. Ivey faces 15 years to life in prison. — Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 6 p.m.: Extreme Planets; 7 p.m.: Stars of the Pharaohs. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. Call 956-326-DOME (3663). Take the challenge and climb the Rock Wall! Fun exercise for all ages and it’s free. All participants must bring ID and sign release form. Open every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at LBV–Inner City Branch Library, located on 202 W. Plum St. For more information call 795-2400x2520.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 Spanish Book Club will meet from 6-8 p.m. at the public library on Calton Road. Call Sylvia Reash at 7631810. 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.

fall. Students who complete the courses will be eligible to take Advanced Placement or College-Level Examination Program tests to collect credit. The students would only have to pay for the tests, costing about $90 per class. The program will be available to all students planning to attend schools that accept AP or CLEP test scores, including all public schools in Texas. But Texas State is the first system in the state that has committed to actively promote the program. "We want as many tools for students as we can give," said Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall. "We thought this was a particularly good one for older, busy, driven and disciplined students." The Texas State System includes Texas State, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Sul Ross State universities.

New England cottontail doesn’t need protection DOVER, N.H. — Public and private conservation efforts have helped the New England cottontail rebound to the point where it can be taken off the list of species under consideration for protection, the federal government said Friday. The small, brown rabbit has been threatened by a loss of habitat throughout its range in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. It’s vanished from Vermont. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been studying whether to list it under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Video shows ex-tennis pro being thrown to ground NEW YORK — Video surveillance released Friday of the mistaken arrest of former tennis star James Blake shows a plain-

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 Heidi Holman/New Hampshire Fish and Game Department | AP file

This undated file photo shows a New England cottontail rabbit. Conservation efforts have helped the New England cottontail rebound to the point where it can be taken off the list of species under consideration for protection. clothes police officer who has a history of excessive-force complaints grabbing Blake by the arm and tackling him to the ground. Officer James Frascatore’s rough arrest of the hometown favorite outside a midtown Man-

hattan hotel on Wednesday prompted apologies from New York City’s mayor and police commissioner. Frascatore was the subject of four civilian complaints in a seven-month period of 2013. — 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 and State

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Property rights meeting slated 85 parents SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Zapatans are invited to attend the South Texas Property Rights Association’s 10th annual meeting and fundraiser Oct. 15 from 2:30–7 p.m. The event will take place at Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Center, 1730 West Corral Ave. in Kingsville. There will be presentations by various speakers, including State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, who will give an update on the

Keynote speaker will be United States General Barry McCaffrey. 84th Texas Legislative session. Sylvia Longmire, author and TV commentator, will speak on border security and immigration reform. Keynote speaker will be United States General Barry McCaffrey. He will also host a conversation with former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Todd Staples

and Longmire. Ticket prices are $70 for South Texas Property Rights Association members $85 for non-members. All tickets include meeting materials and dinner. Non-member tickets include a one-year associate membership. Evening events include

cocktails, a raffle, a live auction and silent auction. Guests will also enjoy live entertainment and dinner featuring beef from McAllen Ranch All Natural Beef. Registration opens at 1:30 p.m. Cocktails will begin at 5 p.m., with dinner to follow at 6 p.m. RSVP by Oct. 8. For sponsor auction donor and exhibitor opportunities, please contact Bonnie L. Ray at bonnie@stpra.org or 361-228-1902.

Local health fair set for Oct. 16 SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

A health fair will take place in Zapata next month. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 16 at King’s Way

Church, 508 Hawk St. The health fair will include free information booths, HIV testing, health wellness screenings, eye exams, BMI, pediatric and geriatric screenings, diabetes

and glaucoma screenings, diabetic shoe sizing, hearing aid fittings, free flu shots, small child entertainment booths, natural healing products and exhibitor promotional items.

For questions or more information, contact Mary Pulido at 693-0124 or maryzapata911@yahoo.com; or Patricia Guerra at 693-0125 or prguerra14@gmail.com.

9/11 events take place across state ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS — Gov. Greg Abbott ordered all flags in Texas to be flown at half-staff Friday to remember victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Events were planned through the weekend across Texas to honor those killed 14 years ago in the attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. A steel sculpture in the form of a cross, taken from the rubble of the World Trade Center, went on display Friday at Dallas Love Field. A recently opened fire station in Beaumont was getting a new flagpole dedicated on what’s also known as Patriot Day. The Greater Austin Crime Commission planned a memorial gather-

ing. A ceremony was planned Friday at the Lincoln-Juarez Bridge in Laredo to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks. A 9/11 heroes run has been scheduled Saturday at Ellington Airport in Houston, with proceeds benefiting organizations that assist first responders and their families. Citizens should remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to law officers, said Steven McCraw, Texas Department of Public Safety director. “This anniversary is a stark reminder that terrorists and criminals exist who wish to harm communities, target critical infrastructures and destroy our way of life,” McCraw said.

Photo by Andrew D. Brosig/Tyler Morning Telegraph | AP

First graders wear hand-made paper hats with the legend, "We Remember" during a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony, on Friday at Jack Elementary School in Tyler, Texas. Gov. Abbott ordered all flags in Texas to be flown at half-staff Friday to remember victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

arrested in 3-day roundup By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES

A three-day operation to round up individuals who failed to pay child support yielded the arrests of 85 parents in Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Webb counties, according to a press release from the Office of the Texas Attorney General. A press release from the Office of the Texas Attorney General announced the results of the Rio Grande Valley Sheriff ’s Conduct Child Support Roundup. The roundup was organized by Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar, Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio, Hidalgo County Sheriff J. E. “Eddie” Guerra and Starr County Sheriff Rene “Orta” Fuentes. The sheriffs were supported by Child Support Division investigators who assisted by providing logistical assistance to locate missing parents. “We were glad to assist in this operation alongside investigators from the office of the attorney general,” Cuellar said in a statement. “Our office is here to support all federal, state and local agencies that are after individuals who are breaking the law.” All parents arrested during the roundup were the subjects of arrest warrants because of their failure to pay child support. The operation began Tuesday and ended Thursday. The sheriffs dispatched teams of deputies to span the counties tracking down noncompliant parents wanted for contempt of court for violating civil court orders. “Caring for your children is the fundamental and moral responsibility of any parent,” Attorney General Ken Paxton stated in the press release. “I commend everyone involved in holding accountable those who attempt to evade child support. Their efforts help ensure better care and better lives for Texas children.” Parents who have fallen behind on their child support payments — but are not yet subject to warrants for their arrest — should immediately contact the Attorney General’s Child Support Division at 800-252-8014 to make payment arrangements. Statewide, child support collected by the Attorney General’s Office exceeded $3.9 billion for the state fiscal year that ended Aug. 31. Parents in Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Webb counties paid $265 million of that amount, the press release states. (Philip Balli may be reached at 728-2528 or pballi@lmtonline.com)


PAGE 4A

Zopinion

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Japanese prosperity isn’t real TOKYO — Visitors to Japan are often surprised by how prosperous it seems. It doesn’t look like a deeply depressed economy. And that’s because it isn’t. Unemployment is low; overall economic growth has been slow for decades, but that’s largely because it’s an aging country with ever fewer people in their prime working years. Measured relative to the number of working-age adults, Japanese growth over the past quarter century has been almost as fast as America’s, and better than Western Europe’s. Yet, Japan is still caught in an economic trap. Persistent deflation has created a society in which people hoard cash, making it hard for policy to respond when bad things happen, which is why the businesspeople I’ve been talking to here are terrified about the possible spillover from China’s troubles. Deflation has also created worrisome “debt dynamics”: Japan, unlike, say, the United States after World War II, can’t count on growing incomes to make past borrowing irrelevant. So Japan needs to make a decisive break with its deflationary past. You might think this would be easy. But it isn’t: Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, has been making a real effort, but he has yet to achieve decisive success. And the main reason, I’d argue, is the great difficulty policymakers have in breaking with conventional notions of responsibility. Respectability, it turns out, can be an economykiller, and Japan isn’t the only place where this happens. As I said, you might think that ending deflation is easy. Can’t you just print money? But the question is what do you do with the newly printed money (or, more usually, the bank reserves you’ve just conjured into existence, but let’s call that money-printing for convenience). And that’s where respectability becomes such a problem. When central banks like the Federal Reserve or the Bank of Japan print money, they generally use it to buy government debt. In normal times this starts a chain reaction in the financial system: The sellers of that government debt don’t want to sit on idle cash, so they lend it out, stimulating spending and boosting the real economy. And as the economy heats up, wages and prices should eventually start to rise, solving the problem of deflation. These days, however, interest rates are very low in most major economies, reflecting the weakness of investment demand. What this means is that there’s no real penalty for sitting on cash, and that’s what people and institutions do.

PAUL KRUGMAN

The Fed has bought more than $3 trillion in assets since 2008; most of the cash it has pumped out there has ended up just sitting in bank reserves. How, then, can policy fight deflation? Well, the answer currently being tried in much of the world is so-called quantitative easing. This involves printing a very large amount of money and using it to buy slightly risky assets, in the hope of doing two things: pushing up asset prices and persuading both investors and consumers that inflation is coming, so they’d better put idle cash to work. But is this sufficient? Doubtful. America is recovering, but it has taken a long time to get there. Europe’s monetary efforts have fallen well short of expectations. And so far the same is true of “Abenomics,” the bold — but not bold enough — effort to turn Japan around. What’s remarkable about this record of dubious achievement is that there actually is a surefire way to fight deflation: When you print money, don’t use it to buy assets; use it to buy stuff. That is, run budget deficits paid for with the printing press. Deficit finance can be laundered, if you like, by issuing new debt while the central bank buys up old debt; in economic terms it makes no difference. But nobody is doing the obvious thing. Instead, all around the advanced world governments are engaged in fiscal austerity, dragging their economies down, even as their central banks are trying to pump them up. Abe has been less conventional than most, but even he set his program back with an ill-advised tax increase. Why? Part of the answer is that demands for austerity serve a political agenda, with panic over the alleged risks of deficits providing an excuse for cuts in social spending. But the biggest reason it’s so hard to fight deflation, I contend, is the curse of conventionality. After all, printing money to pay for stuff sounds irresponsible, because in normal times it is. And no matter how many times some of us try to explain that these are not normal times, that in a depressed, deflationary economy conventional fiscal prudence is dangerous folly, very few policymakers are willing to stick their necks out and break with convention. The result is that seven years after the financial crisis, policy is still crippled by caution. Respectability is killing the world economy.

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 name-calling 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.

WORST WEEK IN WASHINGTON

It appears that Hillary has shot herself in the foot By CHRIS CILLIZZA THE WASHINGTON POST

“I’m sorry.” It took Hillary Clinton the better part of six months to say those two little words about her decision to set up a private email server after she was nominated to be secretary of state in late 2008. After a series of “I’m sorry if people were offended” non-apologies, Clinton finally delivered the no-frills version in an interview with ABC’s David Muir this past week. “In retrospect, as I look back at it now, even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts,” she acknowledged. “One for personal, one for work-related emails. That was a mistake. I’m sorry about

Polls this past week in Iowa and New Hampshire showed Clinton running even with or behind Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vt., in the Democratic presidential race; perhaps more ominous is that 3 in 10 Iowa Democrats said that the words “honest” and “trustworthy” don’t apply to her. that. I take responsibility.” So, that’s a start! Except that the damage to Clinton’s campaign caused by persistent questions about why she had the server in the first place, and why she didn’t initially give it to the Justice Department, remains. Polls this past week in Iowa and New Hampshire showed Clinton running even with or behind Sen.

Bernie Sanders, Vt., in the Democratic presidential race; perhaps more ominous is that 3 in 10Iowa Democrats said that the words “honest” and “trustworthy” don’t apply to her. On top of it all is the looming figure of Vice President Biden, who continues to ponder entering the 2016 race as each day brings more bad news for Clinton. The problem for Clinton

is that this email brouhaha is a self-inflicted wound. She never needed to use a private server. And once it was revealed that she had, she could have come out far earlier with an apology and deflected much of the damage. Hillary Clinton, for making “sorry” the hardest word to say, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something.

COLUMN

Church’s flag and pole show up at a local high school ABILENE — I won’t keep you long today, just long enough for a couple of updates. I’m happy to report that almost four weeks after the folks at the Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church in Cedar Park installed their fifth rainbow flag on their sign it’s still there. The previous four had been stolen. The flag symbolizes the church’s support for the gay and transgender community. And, in an unexpected development, the first of the four missing flags no longer is missing. Church member Carolyn Dower says it showed up recently after a local TV station did a story about the church’s flag

KEN HERMAN

problem. Dower passed along this update from the church administrator, who reported that a Cedar Park High School security official showed up at the church with the original flag and pole. “He is an Cedar Park police officer that is assigned to Cedar Park High School,” the administrator reported. “He said last school year, the flag showed up in front of the school. Someone set it up in a traffic cone. The school just put it away in-

side. The officer saw the story on the news and said ‘I know where that is!’” Today’s next update is just to let you know that the Aug. 30 dedication ceremony for the historic B’nai Abraham synagogue was a big success. The oldest Jewish house of worship in Texas is now the newest one in Austin. It was moved from Brenham, where it had been since 1893 but had been out of use for decades, to Austin’s Dell Jewish Community Campus in Northwest Austin earlier this year. The restored building — it looks great — will house Congregation Tiferet Israel, an Orthodox

congregation, and be used for various events and activities. The first wedding has been scheduled. And Tiferet Israel congregants will gather in the historic building Sunday evening and Monday and Tuesday for the Rosh Hashana services marking the Jewish new year. Happy 5776. The dedication event included remarks by Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Council Member Sheri Gallo. Leon Toubin, the Brenhamite responsible for the move, watched with joy as Tiferet Israel congregants gleefully carried B’nai Abraham’s Torahs into the building. (Ken Herman’s email: kherman@statesman.com.)

CLASSIC DOONESBURY (1985) | GARRY TRUDEAU


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A


PÁGINA 6A

Zfrontera

Ribereña en Breve CLASES DE INGLÉS ROMA — Se ofrecen clases de inglés, gratuitas, para principiantes y avanzados. El espacio es limitado. Pida informes en el (956) 984-6270.

SOCIEDAD GENEALÓGICA La Sociedad Genealógica Nuevo Santander realizará su reunión mensual regular el sábado 12 de septiembre a las 2 p.m. en el Zapata County Museum, 805 N Main St/ US Hwy 83. La conferencista invitada es Dora Villarreal.

CONCIERTO EN EL QUIOSCO El sábado 12 de septiembre tendrá lugar un concierto gratuito en el marco de las fiestas patrias mexicanas. El evento tendrá lugar en el Quiosco de avenida Britton y 2nd Street, de 6 p.m. a 10 p.m. El grupo que se presentará es Inkieto & Nuevo Reto. Más información en el (956) 487-0672.

JUNTA PTO Zapata Middle School informa que tendrá su Junta de PTO el martes 15 de septiembre a las 5:30 p.m. Todos los padres de familia están cordialmente invitados.

ACADEMIA DE SOCCER ROMA — Roma FC Soccer Academy tendrá dos días de registro, el 15 y 17 de septiembre, de 6:30 p.m. a 7:30 p.m. en el Parque Comunitario Roma. Se invita a niños de 3 a 12 años de edad. Cuota: 40 dólares. Informes en el (956) 4372700.

SÁBADO 12 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2015

PROGRAMA DE TRATAMIENTO

Misión: veteranos “ POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Los veteranos del Condado de Zapata pueden encontrar una mano amiga en el Programa de Tratamiento de Veteranos que se realiza en una corte de Laredo. Un folleto del programa dice que la misión es romper el ciclo del abuso de sustancias y alcohol tratando ciertas enfermedades mentales (incluyendo desorden de estrés postraumático) a través de intervención de la corte, tratamiento y educación y alentando a los veteranos a vivir un estilo de vida mas positivo. El programa también se enfoca en reducir la tasa de reincidencia del programa, mejorar su salud mental y promover la seguridad publica en la comunidad, de acuerdo con el folleto. Actualmente, las audiencias se realizan en la Corte de Distrito 406 del Condado de Webb. El Juez de la

Ahora, puedo darle la vuelta a la página y seguir con mi vida”. JOSÉ LUIS CASTILLO, JR., VETERANO

Corte del Distrito 406 Oscar J. Hale dijo que quiere que el programa expanda sus servicios a las áreas de los alrededores, incluyendo Zapata.

Graduación En una graduación del jueves se graduaron 8 veteranos y hay 32 veteranos activos en el programa, dijo Hale. A José Luis Castillo Jr., quien prestó sus servicios a la Marina de los EU, se le hizo difícil pasar por el proceso del Programa de Trata-

miento para Veteranos. Seguido de un duro comienzo, se dio cuenta de la cantidad de personas que querían que él tuviera éxito y permitió que el programa le ayudara. “Cada vez que veníamos, siempre había alguien para ayudarnos”, dijo Castillo. Castillo y otros cinco veteranos se graduaron del programa el jueves en la Corte del Distrito 406. Eduardo Mauricio Treviño, un veterano del ejército de los EU que prestó sus servicios en Afganistán, llegó al programa negando que tuviera problemas con el alcohol.

“Ahora, puedo darle la vuelta a la página y seguir con mi vida”, él dijo, “Pude superar mis problemas”. José M. Soto, veterano de la guerra de Vietnam y director ejecutivo de la Coalición de Veteranos, fue el ponente principal en la graduación del programa. Él confesó a los graduados que él también había tenido problemas con la bebida. Estar en este programa es un beneficio, él dijo. “Esto cambiará su vida”, dijo Soto. “Concéntrense. Conviértanse en mejores ciudadanos y cuiden a su familia”. Hale, dijo en la graduación del jueves, el programa ha graduado a 18 veteranos. Hay 32 veteranos activos en el programa, él dijo. Hale quiere que los veteranos del área sepan que el programa está ahí para ayudar. Para mas información llame al 523-4814. (Localice a César G. Rodriguez en 728-2568 o cesar@lmtonline.com)

TAMAULIPAS

Rescatan inmigrantes secuestrados POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Dos operativos policíacos realizados en Nuevo Laredo, México, esta semana, dio como resultado que casi 30 inmigrantes fueran rescatados, tras haber sido privados de su libertad. El domingo, la policía federal mexicana y el Instituto Nacional de Migración anunciaron que habían rescatado a 19 personas que habían permanecido secuestradas en tres diferentes casas en la vecina ciudad, indican reportes. Una llamada anónima llevó a las autoridades hacia los inmigrantes.

Una persona fue arrestada en relación con el caso, pero las autoridades no lo identificaron. Los reportes indican que un grupo criminal había secuestrado a los inmigrantes y demandado dinero a cambio de su liberación. Nueve personas eran de Honduras, siete de Nicaragua, dos de El Salvador y una de Sri Lanka, indican reportes. Autoridades dijeron que los sospechosos embaucaron a los inmigrantes al decirles que los iban a ayudar a cruzar la frontera. Un caso más reciente ocurrió el martes donde se logró el arresto de tres sospechosos. Autoridades de Tamaulipas dije-

ron que tropas mexicanas rescataron a ocho adultos y dos adolescentes de una casa en La Colonia La Sandía al Oeste de Nuevo Laredo. Los militares identificaron a los presuntos secuestradores como Mario Rodríguez López, de 57 años, Edgar Ulises Mata Cortinas, de 37, y una adolescente de 17 años de edad. Reportes indican que los soldados decomisaron una SMG de 9mm y una Mercury Mountaineer a Rodríguez López. Los tres detenidos sostuvieron ser integrantes de un grupo criminal asignado con el secuestro de inmigrantes deseando cruzar hacia

los EU, de acuerdo con reportes. En la mayoría de los casos, los secuestradores engañan a sus víctimas ofreciéndoles llevarlas a la frontera norte del país desde San Luis Potosí, pero en cuanto llegan a Nuevo Laredo lea privan de su libertad y les exigen números telefónicos de sus familiares con el fin de que les envíen dinero para ser liberados, de acuerdo a un reporte de Associated Press. Todos los extranjeros rescatados fueron puestos a disposición del Instituto Nacional de Migración. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)


National

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

Teachers don’t strike on 9/11 By MARTHA BELLISLE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Patrick Breen/The Arizona Republic | AP

A sign displaying the shooter tip line sits above the cars on Interstate 10 on Thursday, in Phoenix.

Police seize man of interest By PAUL DAVENPORT AND JACQUES BILLEAUD ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX — Police swarmed a convenience store near Interstate 10, detained a man and seized his white Chevrolet Tahoe on Friday, raising hopes of a resolution to the freeway shootings rattling Phoenix. A man and woman were taken into custody for questioning, but Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said only the man is currently of interest to investigators. The man has not been arrested, but his questioning could continue for hours, and the SUV is being examined for any evidence that might connect it to 11 confirmed shootings on the city’s freeways in the last two weeks, Graves said. Witnesses said law enforcement officers seemed to be waiting for the man to appear and moved in quickly, surrounding his SUV with unmarked vehicles. The man, who has not been identified, complained that officers had been aggressive with him, aggravating his back injury. Speaking briefly to Fox 10 in Phoenix from the back of a squad car after being apprehended, he said officers surrounded him and his mother, guns drawn, after he bought a pack of cigarettes and a drink. Josie Duarte had thought something was odd when she arrived for work at a nearby dental clinic earlier Friday and noticed 10 unmarked cars along with a marked squad truck parked behind her office. She only realized what was up when she saw the same cars swarm the parking lot of the Chevron station and convenience store. Marco Mansilla watched it unfold while getting coffee at an adjacent McDonald’s. The lot was suddenly teeming with law enforcement, and when he tried to leave, an officer told him to “go back in the store. It’s not safe.” Mansilla said he asked an officer, “What happened? Is that the sniper guy?” He said the officer declined to answer, saying only “enjoy your breakfast.” On his way back to his window-tinting business across the street, Mansilla said he saw the man sitting inside a police car while four officers watched over the woman, who was in handcuffs. “She was in shock,” Mansilla said. Store clerk Sara Kaur said she was the one who sold the man some cigarettes, at about 9:15 a.m., moments before between 15 to 20 cars swarmed in and officers handcuffed him. She described him as being about 30 years old and a regular customer, and said she’s “never had a problem with him.” Graves said officers investigating the shootings will remain on patrol and his agency will keep posting freeway billboard messages urging the public to come forward with any tips.

SEATTLE — Seattle teachers striking over wages put down their picket signs Friday and worked on community service projects like food drives in commemoration of the 9/ 11 terror attacks, while the school district said the strike is costing $100,000 per day with no end in sight. “No new negotiations are scheduled, but that could change, or not, at any time,” Rich Wood, spokesman for the Seattle Education Association, said Friday. “There have been no new proposals since Tuesday, the day before the strike.” The failure to reach an agreement has delayed the start of school for some 53,000 students. Seattle Public Schools spokesman Stacy Howard said Friday that the district has met with mediators, but negotiations have not resumed. “We’ll let families know as soon as possible whether there will be school next week,” she said, adding that the strike is costing the district $100,000 a day in operational costs. “We are trying our best to decrease those costs,” she said. Teachers from the district’s 97 schools did things like park cleanups or food

Photo by Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times | AP

Striking teachers picket in front of their school in West Seattle on Thursday morning. Seattle teachers striking over wages put down their picket signs Friday and worked on community service projects like food drives in commemoration of the 9/11 terror attacks. drives Friday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “We will not be picketing in front of the schools,” said teacher union spokesman Jonathan Knapp. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Friday that if the strike continues into next week, the city’s Parks and Recreation department will offer drop-in activities for up to 3,000 children at its community centers. “This week, we have reached capacity at several centers and recognize the demand is likely to grow

should the strike continue,” Murray said in a statement. “Thousands of families are seeking options for their school-age kids. We’ve brought on additional staff and AmeriCorps volunteers to ease the burden for parents who need to go back to work.” Washington state’s largest school district and the teachers union remain at an impasse over pay raises, teacher evaluations and other issues. The educators, who have not received a cost-ofliving pay raise in six

years, have joined other workers pushing for higher wages that compete with the city’s growing, highly paid tech workers. Olga Addae, a science teacher at Franklin High School, walked the picket line Thursday with other union members who said they will stay out of the classroom until the district offers a fair compensation package and agrees to stop cutting student services. “We’re doing this for the students and for a better school system,” said Addae, a teacher of 21 years. Teachers want to live

close to their schools and be a part of those communities, but rents continue to rise while educators’ salaries have stagnated, Addae said. Seattle Public Schools offered a pay increase of nearly 9 percent over three years. The teachers union countered with a 10.5 percent increase over two years. Teacher salaries range from about $44,000 to more than $86,000 for more experienced educators with advanced degrees, according to the district. In comparison, tech workers can easily draw six figures. Rents have ballooned by more than 37 percent since mid-2010, according to Apartment Insights Washington. The median rental price for homes in Seattle in July was $2,354 a month, Zillow reports, compared with a national average of $1,376. The city is having a housing crisis because more than 40 percent of the new jobs in the region are with Amazon.com Inc. or Boeing Co., and their starting salaries are twice as much as an experienced teacher, Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata said. “That means the people who are educating our children are finding it difficult to live in the city where the children they teach live,” he said.

Family of 5 shot to death in Minnesota By STEVE KARNOWSKI ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS — A family of five, including three children, died of apparent gunshot wounds in what authorities believe was a murder-suicide in an affluent Minneapolis suburb, police said Friday, but added that they still don’t know for sure who did the shooting. Authorities were sent to the lakeside home of Brian and Karen Short in Greenwood on Thursday after the family hadn’t been seen in days and a co-worker of the father asked police to check on them. Officers found five bodies inside — the couple and their three teenage children. The South Lake Minnetonka Police Department said all five family members died of apparent gunshot wounds. Four were found in their bedrooms. The husband, who was the children’s father, was found in the lower-level garage, authorities said. Police said at this point, they cannot say definitively who shot whom. A weapon they believe was used was found at the scene. The children had not been in school since classes resumed Tuesday, interim Police Chief Mike Siitari said Thursday. Calling the deaths “an unspeakable tragedy,” he said it probably would take investigators several days to finish processing “a complex crime scene.” Cole Short, 17, Madison Short, 15, and Brooklyn Short, 14, had at-

Photo by Jim Gehrz/Star Tribune | AP

Flowers rest outside the Short family’s house in Greenwood, Minn., on Friday. Police pushed ahead with their investigation into an apparent murder-suicide in the affluent Minneapolis suburb that left the Short family of five dead, while a high school offered counseling to classmates of the three children. tended Minnetonka High School, where counseling was available Friday for students struggling with the deaths. “This is an incredibly difficult time for our school community,” Principal Jeffrey Erickson said in a letter to parents. Erickson told The Associated Press on Friday the school of 3,100 students is “going through a lot of grief.” “I would certainly say this has impacted everybody in the building,” Erickson said. “It’s just the first day and our goal of day one was simply supporting students.” Greenwood, a village of about 700 people, sits on the south side of

Lake Minnetonka. The Shorts bought the home on St. Alban’s Bay in 2011 for $2 million, Hennepin County property tax records show. Brian Short was the founder of AllNurses.com, a social networking site for nurses. A biography posted there described him as an entrepreneur who built and launched the website when he was a nursing student and couldn’t find nursing-related information online. An administrator of AllNurses.com posted a notice Thursday night saying the family had been killed and calling it “a very tragic loss for the extended families,

friends, co-workers, and this nursing community.” Another statement promised, “Please be assured that we will continue to serve our devoted network of nursing professionals during this difficult time.” A man who answered the phone at AllNurses.com Friday declined to comment. Short told the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal in 2012 that he started AllNurses.com in 1994 to provide a resource to fellow medical professionals. Originally just a hobby, the website — which offers a forum for nurses to chat and a platform to post articles — chipped away at his job as a critical care nurse in Minneapolis until he took on the chief executive role full-time. He told the Star Tribune in 2014 that he ran the operation out of his house until a year earlier. He had four staff people as of a year ago. He said the site was drawing 4 million unique visitors per month, with 150,000 unique users every day. And he said he had turned down 50 buyout offers in the past 10 years. “Nurses are unique — it’s a tough job. They love coming to the site to decompress and get some support,” he said. AllNurses.com was sued for defamation in federal court in New Jersey earlier this year by a nursing test preparation company. East Coast Test Prep alleged that anonymous posters were paid by Short’s website to defame the company. The case was recently ordered transferred to Minnesota.


National

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

Victims’ relatives mark 9/11 anniversary By JONATHAN LEMIRE AND JENNIFER PELTZ ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — During years of going to ground zero every Sept. 11, Tom Acquaviva has seen crowds diminish at the ceremonies commemorating the terror attacks. But his determination to participate hasn’t. “As long as I’m breathing, I’ll be here,” Acquaviva, 81, said Friday as he arrived to pay tribute to his late son, Paul. More than 1,000 victims’ relatives, survivors and recovery workers marked the 14th anniversary at ground zero with grief, gratitude and appeals to keep the toll front of mind as years pass. “It’s a hard day. But it’s an important day. I’ll come every year that I can,” recovery worker Robert Matticola said. But if the private ceremony is smaller than in its early years, the date also has become an occasion for the public to revisit ground zero, where the memorial plaza now opens to everyone on the anniversary. Around the country, the date was marked with what has become a tradition of lowered flags, wreath-laying, bell-tolling and, in New York, reading the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror strikes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. One woman at ground zero collapsed during the ceremony, apparently overcome by grief; bystanders helped her to her feet. Family members praised first responders, thanked the armed forces and prayed for unity and security. They also sent personal messages to their lost loved ones. “You are the reason that I wear this uniform and stand here today,” Air Force Technical Sgt. Sparkle Thompson said of her uncle, Louie Anthony Wil-

Photo by Dave Ellis /The Free Lance-Star | AP

First Sgt. Deuntay Diggs of the Stafford Sheriff’s Department sings the national anthem during a memorial ceremony in observation of the 14th anniversary of 9/11, at Mission BBQ in Stafford, Va. liams. In Washington, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama stepped out of the White House for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., when the first of four hijacked planes hit on Sept. 11, 2001, striking the World Trade Center’s north tower. Later Friday, the president told troops at Fort Meade in Maryland that he hoped Sept. 11 would inspire thoughts of what binds the country together, while Vice President Joe Biden praised New Yorkers’ resilience in remarks to bikers and police officers taking part in a 9/ 11 memorial motorcycle ride. The Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanks-

ville marked the completion of its $26 million visitor center, which opened to the public Thursday. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and other officials joined in remembrances for victims’ relatives and Pentagon employees. Other observances were held around the country. Some Americans honored the anniversary in their own ways. “I don’t go to the memorial. I don’t watch it on TV. But I make sure, every year, I observe a moment of silence at 8:46,” electrician Jeff Doran said as he stood across the street from the trade center, where the signature, 1,776foot One World Trade Center tower has opened since

last Sept. 11. The memorial plaza opened in 2011 but was closed to the public on the anniversary until last year, when an estimated 20,000 people flocked there to pay respects in the evening. Moved by the influx, organizers decided to open it more quickly after the ceremony this year. Some victims’ relatives welcome the openness after years when the site was largely off-limits for construction. “It’s a little more comfortable for people to be here,” said Alexandria Perez, who lost her aunt, Ana Centeno. But to Erick Jimenez, a brother of 9/11 victim

Eliezer Jimenez Jr., “every year, it’s a little less personal,” though he still appreciates being with others who lost loved ones. This year’s anniversary comes as Congress is weighing whether to start providing financing for the memorial plaza and whether to extend programs that promised billions of dollars in compensation and medical care to Sept. 11 responders and survivors. They’re set to expire next year. “People are still dying because of what happened,” both on battlefields and from illnesses that some responders have developed after exposure

to toxic dust, Army Sgt. Edwin Morales said as he arrived at ground zero in remembrance of a cousin, firefighter Ruben “Dave” Correa. Jyothi Shah read names of victims in memory of her husband, Jayesh Shantitlal Shah, then paused with a message for the public. “My kids and I would like to humbly thank everyone who has helped us, through the last 14 years, to be able to gently go through the sorrows, the suffering, the pain,” she said. “Thank you all very much — the city, the nation, the friends, the family.”


International

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Crane fail kills 107 By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI AND ADAM SCHRECK ASSOCIATED PRESS

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A towering construction crane toppled over on Friday during a violent rainstorm in the Saudi city of Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, crashing into the Grand Mosque and killing at least 107 people ahead of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage later this month. Images posted by social media users showed a grisly scene, with police and onlookers attending to numerous bodies lying amid pools of blood on the polished mosque floors. Saudi Arabia’s civil defense authority provided a series of rising casualty numbers on its official Twitter account as ambulances whisked the wounded to area hospitals. As of early Saturday, it said those injured in the disaster numbered 238. A photo released by the authority showed police and workers in hardhats inspecting a pile of collapsed concrete slabs inside a part of the sprawling, ornately decorated mosque. Another showed the base of the toppled red-and-white crane tilted upward at a sharp angle. Images aired on Saudi state television showed the crane’s metal boom smashed through what appeared to be the roof of the mosque. Ahmed bin Mohammed alMansouri, the spokesman for the presidency of the Mecca and Medina mosque affairs, said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency that the accident happened late Friday afternoon during a severe storm carrying strong winds and heavy rain. Authorities did not provide details on the victims’ nationalities, but it was likely that the tragedy will touch several countries. The Grand Mosque and the cube-shaped Kaaba within it draw Muslims of all types from around the world throughout the year, though numbers increase significantly in the run-up to the hajj. The mosque is Islam’s holiest site to which Muslims face in daily prayers and a central site among the hajj rituals. Performing the pilgrimage

Photo by Associated Press

Fourth-grade students from Russia and North Korea study together in a classroom at a school in Khabarovsk, Russia. The class, with seven students from North Korea, is taking part in a program to promote cultural understanding.

Photo by Associated Press

Pilgrims and first responders gather at the site of a crane collapse that killed dozens inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. The accident happened as pilgrims from around the world converged on the city, Islam’s holiest site, for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which takes place this month. once during one’s lifetime is a duty for all able-bodied adult Muslims. This year’s pilgrimage is expected to start around Sept. 22. Al-Mansouri said the crane, which was being used in construction work at the mosque, struck a circular area around the Kaaba and a nearby walkway. Pan-satellite Al-Jazeera Television broadcast footage from inside the mosque compound said to be from the aftermath of the accident, showing the floor strewn with rubble and what appear to be pools of blood. Another video, on a Twitter posting, captured the apparent moment of the red-and-white crane’s collapse during a heavy rainstorm, with a loud boom, screams and confusion. The governor of the Mecca region, Prince Khalid al-Faisal, quickly called for the formation of a committee to investigate the cause of the accident. He directed all appropriate authorities to provide support for all of those injured, according to a statement from Mecca principality public affairs head Sultan al-Dosari that was carried on SPA. Other Saudi officials could not immediately be reached or referred queries to the civil defense statements. Several cranes surround the mosque to support an ongoing expansion and other construction work that has transformed the area around the sanctuary. Steep hills and low-rise traditional buildings that once sur-

rounded the mosque have in recent years given way to shopping malls and luxury hotels — among them the world’s third-tallest building, a giant clock tower that is the centerpiece of the Abraj alBait complex. The construction giant Saudi Binladin Group is leading the mosque expansion and also built the Abraj al-Bait project. The Binladin family has been close to the ruling Al Saud family for decades and oversees major building projects around the country. The Binladen family disowned one of its many members, late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in the 1990s. It was not immediately clear who owned the crane. During the week of the hajj, Muslims converge on Mecca to perform a series of rituals, including the circling of the cubeshaped Kaaba, praying and holding vigil at Mount Arafat and perform the symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles at the three pillars in Mina. Prayers on and around the mount are a climactic emotional and spiritual moment in the hajj. The faithful believe that on that day the gates of heaven are open, prayers are answered and past sins are forgiven. All male pilgrims, regardless of wealth or status, wear seamless terry white cloths to symbolize equality before God during the hajj. Women cover their hair and wear long loose clothing, forgoing makeup and other adornments.

NK kids join a Russian school ASSOCIATED PRESS

KHABAROVSK, Russia — Inside a fourth-grade classroom in Russia’s Far East, there is something unusual among the standard collection of posters, books and backpacks: Portraits of two former North Korean leaders hang side-by-side with a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian school, with seven students from North Korea, is taking part in a new program in the city of Khabarovsk that aims to promote cultural understanding between the neighboring countries. Along with Putin, there are pictures on the classroom wall of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung, the father and grandfather of North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong-un. Underneath the pictures are large placards with information about Russia and North Korea. “The main purpose of this program is friendship” between the students, said Eduard Perepechai, the director of School No. 5. “When the children become older and more difficult situations arise, they will remember their childhood friendships and decide questions via diplomatic discussions and not take up arms.” Korean language study is not included in the curriculum, but the Korean students all can speak Russian.

In July, many of the 20 Russian students in the class went on a trip to a North Korean summer camp along with other students from Tanzania and Vietnam, according to their teacher, Yelena Ovodenko, who accompanied them. Ovodenko said she was impressed with North Korea’s beauty and hospitality. Camp participants organized talent shows and dances to show off their cultures and played soccer and volleyball together. “It was interesting there,” said Yekaterina Davidova, a 10year-old student. “We walked everywhere and there were competitions every day. There was a sea and an aqua park and a pool.” When asked how they made friends with the North Korean students, Davidova said: “You could ask them in English what their names were and where they came from.” Under Putin, Russia has strengthened ties with North Korea and worked to bolster trade and transportation links. Representatives from North Korea approached administrators at School No. 5 last year about opening this program, Perepechai said. It’s the second class in Khabarovsk that has focused on promoting friendship between North Korea and Russia, according to the local news site Gubernia.


International

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

Quiet jurist takes down president By SONIA PEREZ D. ASSOCIATED PRESS

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s newest celebrity is a tall, stoic, 60-year-old jurist with thinning hair and a gray beard, who can’t walk the streets without people approaching to shake his hand or snap a photo with him. His speeches get standing ovations. Reporters chase him at Sunday Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral. Ivan Velasquez isn’t comfortable with the attention. But he understands. As head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, CICIG for its Spanish initials, he has taken the biggest swipe at entrenched corruption in the small Central American country, and landed former President Otto Perez Molina in jail on graft charges. It’s the first time anywhere that a government allowed an independent investigating body into the country, only to see the president brought down. People say it’s harder to get water from a stone than a word from Velasquez. But even he couldn’t help react in astonishment when he first saw the sea of protesters his investigations had unleashed. “I never envisioned this would generate such a movement,” Velasquez said after 50,000 people filled the streets in April, just days after he and Guatemalan prosecutors blew the lid off a customs fraud scheme that reached the highest levels government. It was an impressive show of civic might for a country traditionally cowed by fear and resignation in the face of corruption. “In a society accustomed to justice not working and the privileged being protected by impunity, (now) there is confidence that the institutions will act,” Velasquez told The Associated Press. Arriving in Guatemala in 2013 with a long track record of taking on the powerful in his native Colombia, Velasquez began to scrutinize the country’s networks of corruption. Citizens, politicians, lawyers and journal-

Photo by Moises Castillo | AP

Commissioner of the United Nations International Commission Against Impunity, Ivan Velasquez, is seen in Guatemala City. He has taken a big swipe at entrenched corruption in the Central American country, sending former President Otto Perez Molina to jail. ists passed through his office, both seeking and offering information. He uses international investigators to insulate his team from local pressures, and foreigners also make up his security detail. Velasquez found that smuggling was a big issue, and pulling on the thread of an old CICIG investigation led to the customs ring known as “La Linea,” or “The Line,” in which officials took kickbacks in exchange for lowering import duties. It was the scandal that brought down not only Perez Molina but former Vice President Roxana Baldetti, who is also jailed and facing charges. At least 100 people are under investigation. Since its founding in 2007, CICIG has helped prosecute at least 119 high-profile cases, such as corruption and human rights abuses. Velasquez’s team also issued a campaign financing report estimating that at least 25 percent comes from drug money. To fans, he is incorruptible. “He’s a man of integrity. He’s not a man who likes to play politics, he’s strictly legal and technical,” human rights activist Helen Mack said. To critics, the crusade is all about ego and personal recognition. “They seek prominence,” Perez Molina said of Velasquez and his investigators. “We see them making the rounds in the media, and that’s not the role of a judge

or a prosecutor.” Velasquez first distinguished himself as an attorney in Medellin, Colombia, at a time when several of his colleagues were slain during the bloody reign of cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. Elected president of the local lawyers’ guild, he defended rights activists and opposed a system of using anonymous judges in drug cases. He became public attorney for Antioquia state and later chief prosecutor, just as future nemesis and President Alvaro Uribe was elected state governor and began promoting self-defense groups considered the precursors of murderous farright militias. As chief investigating magistrate for the Supreme Court for six years beginning in 2006, Velasquez helped put more than 50 Uribe-allied lawmakers in prison for colluding with the paramilitaries, mostly for conspiracy but also other crimes including murder. Velasquez became a key target of Colombia’s DAS domestic intelligence agency, which was dismantled in 2011 after it was caught spying on judges, journalists and politicians. Many believe Velasquez’s success and incorruptibility torpedoed his ambitions to become a full judge, and in 2012 he quit the court after being dropped as head of the so-called para-politics investigations. He later said the country lacked the will to tackle corruption as Guatemala has recently.

Brazil police to question former President Silva By STAN LEHMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAO PAULO — Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday said that federal police have asked for its permission to question former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for possible involvement in the kickback scheme that has engulfed state-owned oil company Petrobras. The court’s press office confirmed the request, which was first reported by weekly newsmagazine Epoca on its website on Friday. The court received the request on Wednesday. It has not indicated when it would rule on the police request to question Silva. According to parts of the request published by the magazine, police believe Silva “may have obtained advantages for himself, his party ... and the government while he was president by maintaining a base of political support sustained by illicit business” at Petrobras. Silva is a two-term president who left office in 2011 with an approval rating of 86 percent and who has made it clear he’s willing to run again for the presidency in 2018 for the ruling Workers’ Party, known as the PT, he helped found. If the court permits the questioning, it dramatically ratchets up the investigation that has already seen high-level executives of Petrobras and Brazil’s massive construction and engineering firms jailed. “The fact that they want to question him shows they have something pretty solid

against him up their sleeves,” said David Fleischer, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Brasilia. “This if the first chapter of the end of Lula and by extension the end of Dilma and the considerable weakening of the PT.” Prosecutors allege over $2 billion was paid in bribes by businessmen to obtain Petrobras contracts, projects that then subsequently ballooned in costs. Additionally, more than 50 federal deputies, senators and other top political figures are under investigation or have been charged. As yet, no accusations have been brought against President Dilma Rousseff, Silva’s hand-chosen successor, who served as the chairwoman of the Petrobras board as the scheme played out. She and Silva have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and Rousseff has encouraged investigators to carry out their inquiry aggressively and “hurt whoever must be hurt.” The Federal Police in Brasilia and the Sao Paulobased Lula Institute both said they had no comment on the request. On a trip in neighboring Argentina, Silva told reporters he had not been notified of the police request to question him. Under Brazilian law, all federal politicians and some at other levels can only be investigated if the Supreme Court approves the inquiry, and eventually only be charged by the top court and tried in it. While Silva is no longer a sitting politician, legal ana-

lysts say that such a request would need to go to the Supreme Court if the questioning of the former president is linked to an ongoing investigation into an active politician. Last week, prosecutors filed corruption, racketeering and money laundering charges in the case against Silva’s former chief of staff, Jose Dirceu. “The police request is another major sign that the Dilma government and Lula are increasingly powerless to reverse this situation in their favor,” said Thiago de Aragao, of the Brasiliabased Arko Advice political consulting firm. “There is so much ammunition against them, that every time they make an effort to improve their situation, some of it emerges and it again puts them on the defensive.” Separately from the Petrobras case, in July prosecutors said they had enough evidence for a full probe of Silva’s alleged overseas lobbying for Brazil’s biggest builder, Odebrecht, whose CEO is now in jail because of his alleged involvement in the Petrobras case. Prosecutors are looking into allegations of influence peddling and that Silva’s efforts helped Odebrecht obtain contracts to build infrastructure projects in Panama and Venezuela, as well as to obtain contracts in several other countries, crimes under Brazilian law. They are trying to determine if Silva swayed foreign leaders to award inflated billion-dollar contracts to Odebrecht.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

4 countries zap plan By GEORGE JAHN AND KAREL JANICEK ASSOCIATED PRESS

VIENNA — At least four countries Friday firmly rejected a European Union plan to impose refugee quotas to ease a worsening migrant crisis that Germany’s foreign minister said was “probably the biggest challenge” in the history of the 28-nation bloc. Hungary, which along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland said it would not support the proposal, threatened instead to crack down on the thousands of people streaming across its borders daily as they flee war and persecution. The stance by those Central European countries reflected a hardening front against distributing at least some of the refugees among them and was a stinging rebuff to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who traveled to Prague to try to persuade them to reconsider. While the Czechs, Slovaks and Poles have been relatively unaffected by the influx, Hungary has faced growing criticism about its stance toward the asylum seekers. Other EU leaders and human rights groups accuse the government of gross mismanagement or serious negligence in housing, feeding and processing the migrants traveling from the Balkans and through Hungary to Western Europe. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch asserted Hungary was keeping migrants and refugees “in pens like animals, out in the sun without food and water.” A video that the rights group said was from inside a holding facility at the border town of Roszke showed metal fences surrounding clusters of tents and dividing migrants into groups. Guards were depicted throwing food into the air for desperate people to grab. Erno Simon, a spokesman in Hungary for the U.N. refugee agency, said the housing situation in Roszke with nighttime temperatures falling to

Photo by Gregorio Borgia | AP

Migrants rescued off the Libyan coast peer out a gate of the Siem Pilot Norwegian ship as it sails towards Italy, on Thursday. near freezing “is really very, very alarming.” Unfazed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened an even harder line, saying his country intended to catch, convict and imprison people who continue to penetrate its new border barriers as part of get-tough border security measures scheduled to begin Tuesday. “If they don’t cross into Hungary territory legally, we will consider it a crime,” Orban said, saying the “illegal immigrants” had no one to blame but themselves for any hardships suffered. “They don’t cooperate. They are not willing to go to the places where they receive provisions: food, water, shelter, health care. They have risen up against Hungary’s legal order,” he told a Budapest news conference. Hungarian police already are overwhelmed with the influx and are unlikely to be able to mount an effective effort to jail those deemed to be entering illegally. Still, Orban’s comments were likely to feed the trepidation some of the migrants already were expressing Friday even while still hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from Hungary, “We heard they are hitting people,” said 31-yearold Amer Zein, from the Syrian city of Aleppo, who crossed into Macedonia on Friday. Still, he was deter-

mined to push on to Germany with his wife, brother and a friend, despite what he had heard was happening in Hungary. “We will sit and do whatever the police tell us. We are afraid, but we must get through,” he said. A Hungarian camerawoman who was caught on video kicking and tripping migrants near the Serbian border offered a qualified apology Friday. In a letter in the Magyar Nemzet newspaper, Petra Laszlo said she was “sincerely sorry for what happened,” but added: “I was scared as they streamed toward me, and then something snapped inside me.” The 40-year-old was fired by the right-wing N1TV online channel after video of her taken by other journalists went viral. Police released Laszlo without charges after questioning her on suspicion of disorderly conduct. An investigation is continuing, they said. Bottlenecks have developed at the borders during the crisis as thousands of people, many from wartorn Syria, travel across the eastern flank of Europe. Reflecting those tensions at the main crossing into Austria, a trickle of migrants marching toward Vienna quickly swelled into a torrent early Friday toward a major Austrian highway.


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

US oil production expected to drop sharply next year ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Seth Wenig | AP file

In this Aug. 24 file photo, pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets mostly drifted lower, Friday, despite a tail wind from Wall Street as investors braced for the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates next week.

After wobble, stocks gain By MATTHEW CRAFT ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Major stock indexes shook off an early stumble to finish with slight gains on Friday as traders turned their attention to a key meeting of the Federal Reserve next week. It was a quiet end to another turbulent week. Thanks largely to a big jump on Tuesday, the market finished with a 2 percent gain for the week, recouping a portion of the steep losses from the week before. The major indexes headed lower at the opening of trading on Friday, as falling oil prices pulled oil and gas companies down. The economic news wasn’t encouraging, either. A reading on consumer confidence this month sank to its lowest level since September of last year. “It seems people are focused on the market’s volatility and the potential impact of a slowing China,” said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors in New York, the money-management firm. “I understand why folks are nervous. I think eventually things will settle down.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 8.76 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 1,961.05. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 102.69 points, or 0.6 percent, to 16,433.09, while the Nasdaq composite rose 26.09, or 0.5 percent, to 4,822.34. News about China’s slowing economy, a looming rate increase from the Fed and a host of other concerns have combined to knock the market down 6 percent over the past month. It has been a staggered fall, with sharp drops one week followed by slight gains the next. Wall Street is divided over whether the Fed will raise its benchmark lending rate next week for the first time in nine years. The Fed slashed its key rate to near zero during the

financial crisis, supporting the stock market’s sevenyear run. Uncertainty over the Fed’s timing has kept investors on edge. Major markets in Europe ended with losses on Friday. Germany’s DAX dropped 0.9 percent, while France’s CAC-40 sank 1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.6 percent. In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2 percent. Before traders return to their desks on Monday, a large batch of Chinese economic news will come out over the weekend. Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG in London, said that could lead to a turbulent start to trading next week. “The weekend release of Chinese retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment numbers means that Monday is likely to start with a bang,” Mahony said. Back in the U.S., Kroger gained 5 percent after reporting earnings that beat analysts’ estimates. The grocery store chain’s stock rose $1.89 to $37.29. Prices for U.S. government bonds rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note down to 2.19 percent from 2.23 percent late Thursday. In the commodity markets, precious and industrial metals finished mostly lower. Gold dropped $6 to settle at $1,103.30 an ounce, and silver sank 14 cents to $14.50 an ounce. Copper settled unchanged from the day before at $2.45 a pound. The price of oil fell on concerns that the current glut of oil would persist well into next year. Goldman Sachs cut its forecast for oil prices next year to $45 a barrel from $57, saying supplies were far higher than previous estimates. U.S. crude fell $1.29 to close at $44.63 a barrel in New York. Brent Crude, a benchmark for international oil, fell 75 cents to close at $48.14 in London.

PARIS — Oil supply from the United States, Russia and other countries outside of OPEC is expected to drop sharply next year — possibly the steepest decline since the Soviet Union collapsed — because of low prices, the International Energy Agency forecast Friday. In its latest monthly report, the IEA says nonOPEC production is expected to drop nearly half a million barrels to 57.7 million barrels a day in 2016. But a prominent investment firm questions whether even a cut that steep will shrink the glut of oil on the market enough to boost the price. Amid booming U.S. production and high OPEC output, the benchmark price of oil plunged from over $100 last year to about $45 this week. Global oil demand has grown, but at a slower pace, and analysts have said big production cuts are needed to balance the market. Producers in the U.S., who need a higher price per barrel than OPEC countries to break even, have started to cut back. The U.S. Energy Department estimated this week that production fell by 140,000 per day in August. The decline is expected to widen in the coming months, and production should average 400,000 barrels a day less in 2016 than in 2015. Russian and North Sea supply is also forecast to shrink in 2016, according

Photo by Charlie Riedel | AP

In this April 24 photo, pumpjacks work in a field near Lovington, N.M. Oil supply from the United States, Russia and other countries outside of OPEC is expected to drop sharply next year, possibly the steepest decline since the Soviet Union collapsed because of low prices, the International Energy Agency forecast Friday. to the IEA. Overall, nonOPEC production should drop the most since 1992, when non-OPEC output shrank 1 million barrels after the USSR fell apart. Low oil prices are also sparking an increase in demand, IEA said. With pump prices well below $3 a gallon in most states, gasoline demand in the U.S. is at an eight-year high. The agency said demand in China is still growing, despite signs of economic weakness, as growing use of transportation fuels offsets lower industrial demand for crude oil. The agency forecast

global oil demand would rise 1.7 million barrels a day this year, the highest in five years, and grow by another 1.4 million next year. The IEA does not provide a forecast for oil prices. In its report earlier this week, the U.S. Energy Department said it expects U.S. oil to average $49 per barrel this year and $54 per barrel in 2016, about $5 below the estimated average for Brent crude, the benchmark for many international types of crude. Goldman Sachs, however, said Friday that the glut in oil is greater than

previously thought, and slashed its forecasts for the U.S. benchmark price of oil for next year to $45 a barrel from $57 a barrel previously. Goldman analysts now believe it will take a dramatic drop in production — far greater than the decline forecast by IEA — to get supply back in line with demand and spur higher prices. “The oil market is even more oversupplied than we had expected and we now forecast this surplus to persist in 2016,” the analysts wrote in a note to clients.

Microsoft names new president By MARLEY JAY ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Microsoft has given longtime executive Brad Smith the title of president, as the company continues its transition to a new generation of leadership. Smith’s full title will be president and chief legal officer. He has been Microsoft’s general counsel since 2002 and became a senior vice president in 2011. CEO Satya Nadella announced the appointment in an email Friday to employees. Nadella said he wants Smith to play a bigger role in strengthening Microsoft’s relationships and representing the company publicly. Smith will help lead the company on issues like

privacy, security and accessibility, he said. Smith joined Microsoft in 1993 and has held several other titles, including company secretary. Smith is a familiar face for investors because he has been a regular presence on the company’s investor conference calls for almost a decade, said industry analyst Katherine Egbert of Piper Jaffray. “It is interesting that they would put him as president of the company because he doesn’t come from the operational side,” she said. “I think it’s a promotion of someone who’s been a solid executive for them for a long time.” Nadella replaced cofounder Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft Corp.

in February 2014, and cofounder Bill Gates stepped down as chairman at the same time. Ballmer retired from Microsoft a few months later. Gates remains an adviser to the company and John Thompson is now the independent chairman of Microsoft. Microsoft’s stock climbed steadily after Nadella became CEO, but in the last few months the shares have struggled because the PC industry is in a slump. In July the Redmond, Washingtonbased company reported another decline in profit and revenue from its Windows software for PCs. Under Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft has been investing in new services and redesigning its most

popular programs for smartphones and other mobile devices. The company has also announced the elimination of some 26,000 jobs as Nadella retreats from Ballmer’s strategy of having Microsoft make its own smartphones and tablets. In July the company wrote down the value of Nokia’s phone business, which it bought just a year earlier, by $8.4 billion. Microsoft also recently launched Windows 10, a free upgrade that it says will be the last version of Windows before it moves to a fee-for-service model at some point in the future. Shares of Microsoft Corp. rose 19 cents to $43.48 on Friday. The stock is down 7.5 percent over the last year.


12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

Study eyes high blood pressure treatment By LAURAN NEERGAARD ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Aiming lower saves more lives when it comes to controlling high blood pressure, says a major new study that could spur doctors to more aggressively treat patients over 50. Patients who got their blood pressure well below today’s usually recommended level significantly cut their risk of heart disease and death, the National Institutes of Health announced Friday. The benefit was strong enough that NIH stopped the study about a year early. “This study provides potentially life-saving information,” declared Dr. Gary Gibbons, director of NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Doctors have long debated how low blood-pressure patients need to go, especially as they get older. Friday’s results are preliminary, and researchers stressed that they shouldn’t alter patient care just yet. But if the full results pan out,

they eventually could influence treatment guidelines. “This study certainly supports that lower is better,” said Dr. Mark Creager, president of the American Heart Association, who wasn’t involved with the new study. He called the research a possible roadmap to treatment strategies “that will save a significant amount of lives.” About 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. has high blood pressure, raising the risk of heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure and other health problems. Normal blood pressure is less than a measurement of 120 over 80. High blood pressure is diagnosed once that measurement reaches, or passes, 140 over 90. Only about half of diagnosed patients have their blood pressure under control. Today’s treatment guidelines are mixed but generally recommend getting that top number — called the systolic pressure — down to about 140 in generally healthy adults and to 130 in pa-

tients who also have kidney disease or diabetes. The institute sponsored a nationwide study to test if that’s the best goal, or if aiming lower would either help or harm. Starting in 2010, more than 9,300 high blood pressure patients were enrolled in the SPRINT study, the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial. Half received an average of about two medications with the goal of lowering their systolic pressure below 140. The other half received an average of three medications with the goal of getting below 120. The more aggressively treated patients saw their risk of death drop by almost 25 percent compared to the less controlled patients, researchers said. And rates of cardiovascular problems dropped by almost 30 percent in the better-controlled group. Researchers wouldn’t give precise numbers, or information about side effects, data that’s expected when the full study is published in a scientific journal by year’s end.

But preliminary results suggest treatment was “extremely well tolerated,” said SPRINT investigator Dr. Jackson Wright of Case Western Reserve University. One question is whether older patients need to get their blood pressure as low as middle-aged patients do, or if doing so increases the seniors’ risk of side effects including falls. Last year, an expert panel sparked debate by recommending that the treatment target for patients over 60 be a systolic pressure of 150. The average age of SPRINT participants was 68, and a quarter of them were over 75. The heart association’s Creager said doctors will examine closely how those older patients fared. Researchers also will continue tracking SPRINT participants to see if kidney disease, brain function and dementia were affected by more aggressive care. Meanwhile, what’s the advice for patients now struggling to control their blood pressure? “The important public health

message is to speak with their health care providers,” said NHLBI heart specialist Dr. George Mensah. Everyone should know their blood pressure, added Creager, director of the Heart and Vascular Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Risks for heart disease begin gradually rising as blood pressure gets above 120, even if people never cross the line into full-blown hypertension. Good diets, physical activity and keeping a healthy weight help avoid high blood pressure, and can help to lower it before medications are required or along with them. But once high blood pressure is diagnosed, getting treatment is more important than the debate over how low to go, Creager said. That’s an individual decision based on the person’s overall health, and many people aren’t reaching today’s recommended levels. “The worst thing people with high blood pressure can do is ignore it,” he said.

PERRY Continued from Page 1A nounced raising about $1 million during the first month of his campaign. That wasn’t enough to keep the small staffs he had assembled in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as well as at his headquarters in Texas, on the payroll. While some members of Perry’s team pledged to work as volunteers, and he resumed paying some late last month, he ultimately couldn’t recover from the lack of campaign cash. “It’d be easy just to keep going, be easy to go do the debate next week, be easy to keep going to Iowa and South Carolina and other states and everything and taking your money and dragging it out,” said Dallas businessman and longtime Perry donor Roy Bailey. But, Bailey said, Perry “could see it was pretty obvious to him he wasn’t going to be the next presidential nominee from the

Republican Party.” Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who took the stage at the Eagle Forum conference in St. Louis immediately after Perry announced his exit, called on the crowd to pray for Perry’s future success. “The only thing harder than to get into a race for something like president, is to make the decision to get out of the race,” said Huckabee, the runner-up for the GOP nomination in 2008. “And I hope that all of you will recognize that it was a very difficult decision. I’ve been there before.” Perry spent four years after his failed bid in 2012, which ended after disappointing finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, trying to rebuild his image and convince America he’d lived down “Oops.” He swapped his cowboy boots for eyeglasses, traveled extensively touting his state’s job-creating

HELP Continued from Page 1A participants, improve their mental health and promote public safety in the community, according to the brochure. Currently, the hearings are held in the 406th District Court in Webb County. 406th District Court Judge Oscar J. Hale Jr., who presides over the specialty court, said he wants to expand services to surrounding areas, including Zapata. Hale said he wants area veterans to know that the program is there to help. For more information, call 523-4814.

Graduation On Thursday, six veterans graduated from the program. Currently, there are 32 veterans enrolled, Hale said. Jose Luis Castillo Jr., who served in the U.S. Navy, found it hard to go through the program. After a rough start, he realized the amount of people who wanted him to succeed, and he allowed the program to work on him. “Every time we would come here, there was always somebody to help us out,” Castillo said. Castillo was not alone in the journey to recovery. Eduardo Mauricio Treviño, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, first walked into the program denying he had an issue with alcohol abuse. “Now, I can turn the chapter and move on with my life,” he said. “I overcame my issues.” Jose M. Soto, a Vietnam veteran and executive director for the Veteran’s Coalition, served as the keynote speaker during the graduation ceremony. He confessed to graduates that he too had problems with drinking. “This will change your life,” Soto said of the program. “Stay focused. Become a better citizen and raise a family.” (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtline.com)

prowess and huddled with policy experts and top donors, insisting he’d be humbler and better-prepared for the national spotlight when running again in 2016. He staked his strategy this time around on Iowa, visiting the first-to-vote state repeatedly over the past three months, showing off strong one-on-one campaigning skills and country charm honed after decades in Texas politics. But it wasn’t enough to push him into the top 10 of the GOP’s unwieldy field of candidates, which meant he wasn’t on stage last month at the first prime-time debate of the campaign. While delivered a stronger performance at the pre-debate forum than he did during the debates four years ago, few noticed in a 2016 GOP campaign dominated to date by billionaire Donald Trump — who stole away Perry’s Iowa campaign chairman after Perry

was forced to suspend paying members of his staff. While the ultimate accuracy of polls taken months before voters cast their ballots is notoriously poor, they are nonetheless being used in this campaign to pick who can take part in the GOP debates. Hovering around 1 percent, Perry was again set to miss out on the main event at next week’s debate at the Reagan Library outside Los Angeles. On Thursday night, Perry called Bailey to say he was out. “He was very matter of fact, he was confident in his decision,” Bailey said. “He hated it, because he’s such a competitive person, that that’s what it came down to. He’ll take a breather and jump back into life out of politics.” Amid Perry’s money problems, a group of super PACs largely funded by three big Perry backers had kept Perry afloat by raising $17 million and hiring their

own Iowa staff and producing television and digital ads and mailers. His decision Friday came as a surprise to those groups, which are barred from communicating directly with the campaign. A pro-Perry super PAC emailed its supporters Friday morning saying it was back on television in Iowa to promote his candidacy. A Twitter message from the group sent later in the morning further emphasized, “In It For the Long Haul.” “The decisions of a candidate to get into, or out of, a campaign of this magnitude are intensely personal, family decisions,” said Ray Sullivan, the co-chair of one of the pro-Perry super PACs. “The campaign’s cash position matters, your poll numbers matter, but those things are surmountable if the candidate and his family are willing to stick it out even against seemingly long odds.”

CUBANS Continued from Page 1A dency status, known as a green card, after one year. Unlike the Central Americans smuggled illegally through Mexico, the Cubans can travel freely through the country as they migrate northward. “We’re seeing a surge that started with the announcement of normalized relations last year and there is a longer-term trend of people coming to Mexico rather than risking the sea voyage because [Mexico] is a more reliable way to go,” Rosenblum added. Though the number of Central American minors is down from last summer’s massive wave when more than 46,000 came to Texas through the Rio Grande Valley, the political firestorm that surge created still rages. Before taking office as Texas governor, Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit while attorney general to halt President Obama’s immigration policy that would have shielded millions of undocumented Texans from deportation. That policy is still on hold and Abbott cited last summer’s crisis as one reason he filed the lawsuit, claiming Texas witnessed firsthand the ill effects of Obama’s policies that included 2012’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Texas Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have also cited Obama’s immigration policies as a magnet that lures more undocumented immigrants toward Texas and blasted the president during last summer’s surge. Cornyn filed legislation last summer that, if passed, would have allowed for the immediate deportations of Central Americans and Cruz has promised to scale back Obama’s immigration policies if elected president. Neither Abbott nor Cornyn responded to a request for comment. Cruz, whose own father fled Cuba and settled in Texas, also declined to comment. The current policy toward Cubans is an amended version of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which applied to most immigrants from the island nation who sought entry to the United States. Under a revision agreed upon during the Clinton Administration, called the Wet Foot/ Dry Foot policy, Cubans who reach the United States can apply for entry while Cubans found at sea are sent back home or to a third country. Rick Pauza, a spokesman for CBP in Laredo, said the current negotiations between the United States and Cu-

ba have not affected long-standing policy regarding Cubans seeking entry to the country. “Normally, if a Cuban national arriving at a Customs & Border Protection (CBP) port of entry or between ports expresses fear of return to Cuba or their country of last residence, he or she is inspected and may qualify for parole into the U.S.,” he said in an email. “CBP Officers and Agents will first verify the individuals’ citizenship, identity, and whether they have prior criminal or U.S. immigration history. After one year in the U.S., the Cuban national may be eligible under the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act of 1966 to apply for lawful permanent residence.” Immigrant rights’ groups have been critical of what they say is a double standard in U.S. immigration policy. They argue that instead of being detained or deported, a Central American or Mexican escaping persecution should be paroled in to the country like a Cuban is. Rosenblum said that’s a valid argument. “It’s hard to make the case that Cuba has uniquely difficult conditions that would justify the total unique status that Cubans arriving in the United States re-

ceive,” he said. “There are Cubans who are persecuted and who don’t have political freedoms but the situation there is certainly comparable to Central America or Mexico or a dozen other countries you can name around the world.” In 2013, the estimated 18,000 Cubans who arrived at U.S. land ports were paroled into the country and subsequently awarded green cards, Rosenblum said. Though Cuba and the United States have started a dialogue, Rosenblum said he didn’t see immediate change on the forefront. “I think for sweeping change you would want to see legislation and that’s unlikely because this is a hard issue for Congress to take up, particularly as we enter an election season,” he said. But the administration could roll back current provisions that allow DHS to issue Cubans green cards. That notion could even garner some GOP support he added as some Republicans have already expressed concerns that some of the Cubans arriving in the United States could be considered criminals in their country. Rosenblum said that according MPI data, about 90 Cubans have been deported every year since 2009. Most of them had criminal records, he said.


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

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Sports&Outdoors NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS LONGHORNS

Bouncing back Photo by George Bridges | AP

Texas A&M quarterback Kyle Allen and the Aggies face Ball State in the second week of the season after pulling off an upset against Arizona State.

Allen, A&M face Ball St. Aggies look to start 2-0 in 2015 By KRISTIE RIEKEN ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Nam Y. Huh | AP

Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith sacks Texas quarterback Jerrod Heard during the Irish’s 38-3 victory over the Longhorns last week. Texas will face Rice on Saturday looking for its first win.

‘Horns trying to recover from rout at Notre Dame By JIM VERTUNO ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN — Charlie Strong had to do something. After one game — the third straight humiliating loss dating back to last season — Texas ranked dead last nationally in total offense and tied for last in scoring. So Strong reshuffled his offensive staff, stripping lead play-calling from assistant head coach Shawn Watson and whatever was left from offensive line coach Joe Wickline. He turned the unit over to wide

receivers coach Jay Norvell in search of some inspiration Saturday night when the Longhorns (0-1) face Rice (1-0). Doing so meant Strong rejected two of his biggest staff hires at Texas to lean on a first-year assistant who hasn’t called plays in almost 10 years. It also showed Strong is desperate to avoid a second-consecutive losing season. Strong is two seasons into a five-year, $25-million guaranteed contract, but losing to Rice would turn up the heat to levels few thought possible so soon. “We have to get this program on track. ... We expect more, want more and the

fans deserve more,” Strong said. “It was a tough decision. Shawn and Joe and I have been friends for a long time.” Texas’ pro-style offense simply wasn’t working. Strong acknowledged as much after a 6-7 finish in 2014 with a promise the Longhorns would incorporate a spread attack. But eight months later, Texas reverted back to its old form and managed just 163 total yards in a 38-3 loss. Texas fans certainly want more and expect to see improvement soon. By mid-

See TEXAS PAGE 2B

COLLEGE STATION — Kyle Allen had an up-and-down game in No. 16 Texas A&M’s seasonopening win over Arizona State last week. Along with bouncing back from some inconsistency, he also had to handle coach Kevin Sumlin inserting Kyler Murray in at quarterback for a few drives after he’d beaten the freshman for the starting job. Allen responded well after his time on the bench, accounting for two scores in the fourth quarter and impressing coaches with his poise along the way. Allen will start again this week when Texas A&M hosts Ball State, but Sumlin hasn’t ruled out Murray seeing some work again. “I was very pleased with how Kyle handled it and the maturity that he had throughout that whole process,” offensive coor-

See A&M PAGE 2B

NCAA FOOTBALL: TCU HORNED FROGS

NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS

Texas Tech hosts UTEP By BETSY BLANEY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Paul Battaglia | AP

Falling from No. 2 to 3 in the AP poll after a road victory at Minnesota, TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin and the Horned Frogs will host Stephen F. Austin Saturday.

TCU returns home for SF Austin ASSOCIATED PRESS

FORT WORTH — TCU has come a long way since Gary Patterson’s first home game as head coach 14 years ago, a loss to a lower-division team. Going into Saturday’s home opener against FCS team Stephen F. Austin, the thirdranked Horned Frogs are now a major conference champion and playoff contender. But one thing hasn’t changed in all those years. Patterson is only concerned with winning games and not

style points. “The bottom line is this week we’re going to try to beat Stephen F. Austin by one point,” Patterson said. “I would hope we’d do a better job than that.” The defending Big 12 cochampion Frogs (1-0) are led on offense by Heisman Trophy-hopeful quarterback Trevone Boykin and plenty of other returning starters in their up-tempo scheme they debuted last year with record-breaking

See TCU PAGE 2B

LUBBOCK — UTEP coach Sean Kugler is expecting a team that operates like a luxury sports car Saturday when his Miners take on Texas Tech. The Red Raiders’ fast-strike offense will be different than what UTEP faced in a 48-13 loss to Arkansas last week, showing his Miners a Ferrari as opposed to a tank they faced against the Razorbacks. “Going from Arkansas to Texas Tech is like going from a tank to a Ferrari,” Kugler said. "They are totally opposite teams. (The Red Raiders) use the pass to set up the run, it’s opposite.” Texas Tech quarterback Pat Mahomes was set to start his sixth game after earning Big 12 offensive honors for his four TD passes and 425 yards in the a 5945 win over Sam Houston State. He had one interception. Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, while glad for the win, was disappointed by his receivers’ performances. The Red Raiders could have had an additional 173 yards passing. “Could have had huge numbers had we not dropped eight passes, but I thought (Mahomes) protected the ball well,” he said. “Would still like to have some back, some decisions he’d like to have back. But for the most part, like I said, I thought he was pretty sharp.”

Photo by Mark Rogers | AP

Texas Tech’s Devin Lauderdale and the Red Raiders will host UTEP on Saturday. Kingsbury also was chagrined by an offense that didn’t put the Bearkats away. After holding them scoreless in the third quarter, the Red Raiders gave up two scores in the fourth. Last year Texas Tech (1-0) got out of El Paso with a close win — 30-26 — and had to come from behind to do it. The Miners (0-1) face a different quarterback this time. Here are some things to watch for when Texas Tech hosts UTEP: MINERS’ SECONDARY The Miners’ pass defense, which includes a freshman and

two true freshmen, gave up four passing TDs and 308 yards to the Razorbacks. UTEP gave up five receptions of 20-plus yards preceding TDs. “We gave up too many chunk plays in the passing game,” Kugler said. “Those are lessons to be learned and learned quickly as we move on from the first game to the second.” TIME OF POSSESSION Though not as highly ranked this year in time of possession (tied for 53rd with 30:41) the Miners finished last year at No. 2 in the nation (34:57). The

See TECH PAGE 2B


PAGE 2B

Zsports

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

Serena upset by Vinci ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — For Serena Williams’ first 26 matches at major tournaments in 2015, no deficit was too daunting, no opponent too troublesome, no victory too far from reach. She was unbeaten and, seemingly, unbeatable, nearing the first Grand Slam in more than a quarter-century. All Williams needed was two more wins to pull off that rare feat. And yet, against an unseeded and unheralded opponent in the U.S. Open semifinals, she faltered. Her pursuit of history ended, oh so close. In one of the most significant upsets in the history of tennis, Williams finally found a hole too big to climb out of, losing 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 Friday at Flushing Meadows to 43rdranked Roberta Vinci of Italy. "I don’t want to talk about how disappointing it is for me," Williams said at the start of a briefer-thanusual news conference. "If you have any other questions, I’m open for that." Vinci had never before played in a Grand Slam semifinal; Williams owns 21 major titles. In four previous matchups, Vinci had never taken a set off Williams. "Every so often," Vinci said, "a miracle happens." How little faith did even she have? Vinci said she booked a flight home for Saturday, the day of the final. But Vinci’s unusual style, full of slices and net rushes, kept Williams off-balance enough to cause problems and prevent the 33-year-old American from becoming the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year. As Williams quickly left the scene, hopping in a waiting black SUV and taking off, her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, was explaining to reporters what he called "a bad day, clearly." He said he could tell before the match that something was off. "She was very slow. There was no movement with her lower body, so she was in bad positions to be aggressive and play her attacking game," Mouratoglou said. "She couldn’t find it today. You don’t wake up the same way every day. Some days you feel good, other days you don’t feel good. That’s life. Usually she finds a way, and today she did not." Williams had been pushed to the limit before - this was her 12th three-setter in a major this season but had managed to win titles at the Australian Open on hard courts in January, the French Open on clay courts in June, and Wimbledon on grass courts in July. And she had won five matches on the U.S. Open’s hard courts over the past two weeks. This time, for once, the No. 1ranked Williams could not pull it out, undone by 40 unforced errors, twice as many as Vinci. That negated the impact of Williams’ 16 aces, including one at 126 mph. "I thought she played the best ten-

Photo by Bill Kostroun | AP

Roberta Vinci ended Serena Williams’ bid for a Grand Slam ousting her in the semifinal from the U.S. Open tournament on Friday.

nis in her career," Williams said about Vinci. "She played, literally, out of her mind." Vinci next faces another Italian making her Grand Slam final debut: 26th-seeded Flavia Pennetta, who eliminated No. 2 Simona Halep 6-1, 6-3 in another, if less-unbelievable, surprise. Pennetta, 33, and Vinci, 32, have known each other since there were kids, growing up in towns about 40 miles (65 kilometers) apart on opposite coasts of Puglia, a region in the southeastern heel of Italy’s bootshaped peninsula. They used to meet in local tournaments in their early teens, then paired up to win a French Open junior doubles in their late teens. Now, all these years later, they will face each other in a stadium in New York with a Grand Slam trophy on the line. "We’ll be as tight as violin strings, both of us," Vinci said. She gave a thumb’s up while noting in English that "an Italian wins, for sure," then pointed to her chest and whispered in Italian, "Me, let’s hope." An intriguing story line, to be sure, but nothing compared to what Williams was chasing: a perfect Grand Slam season. After all, not only was she 26-0 at those tournaments this year, but her winning streak at majors was 33 matches, because she won last year’s U.S. Open. If she had managed to win a fifth consecutive major title, Williams would have raised her total to 22, equaling Graf for the most in the Open era, which began in 1968, and second-most in history behind Margaret Court’s 24. "I never felt that pressure to win here," Williams insisted. "I said that from the beginning." Her older sister Venus - who

pushed her to three sets in the quarterfinals - was in her guest box, and rapper Drake, a pal, was in Arthur Ashe Stadium, too, Friday. Williams grabbed six games in a row to take the first set and go ahead 1-0 in the second. Suddenly, though, Vinci broke to go up 3-2 in the second. When Vinci served out that set, Williams headed to the sideline, cracked her racket against the ground and flung it behind her chair, drawing a code violation warning from the chair umpire. Vinci noticed. "I saw she was nervous," Vinci said, "and that helped me." As the third set wore on, Williams became more and more demonstrative, leaning forward, shaking her fists and screaming, "Come on!" after four points in a row during one stretch. Vinci showed emotion later, closing a spectacular 18-stroke exchange with a volley winner, then cupping her ear with a hand, before pointing to her chest and waving both arms at the spectators, encouraging them to yell for her, too. That point ended with Williams on a full sprint, stumbling a bit as her momentum carried her to the sideline, where she bent over, chest heaving. The crowd responded to it all with a standing ovation. Williams never was able to get back in front. She let a 2-0 lead in the third set slip away, in part by double-faulting on break point to make it 2-1. Williams double-faulted again a few games later, when Vinci broke for 4-3, a lead she did not relinquish. "I mean, I made a couple of tight shots, to be honest," Williams acknowledged, "but maybe just about two." If that’s truly all it was, that’s all it took.

TEXAS Continued from Page 1B week, the school had more than 15,000 unsold tickets for Saturday. Norvell spent the past seven seasons at Oklahoma, including four as offensive coordinator, before he was fired last year. But the title didn’t include play-calling, something he hasn’t done since UCLA in 2007. He wasn’t made available to reporters this week, but Strong said Norvell is familiar with a spread offense. For Rice, that means having to make a surprise adjustment if the Owls hope to get their first win since 1994 in a historically lopsided series. Rice dominated FCS opponent Wagner 56-16 in the season-opener. “When a team struggles

like that, they are more determined the next week,” Rice coach David Bailiff said of Texas. “What would have been best for us was for them to beat Notre Dame.” Other things to watch when Texas plays Rice: TEXAS QUARTERBACK JERROD HEARD Whether Heard gets his first career start or is back on the bench will indicate the direction Texas wants to go on offense the rest of the season. Heard couldn’t beat out Tyrone Swoopes in Watson’s prostyle offense. But he’s a gifted runner who won two Texas state high championships running the spread. LONGHORNS LINES The Texas offensive and

defensive lines were dominated by Notre Dame. On offense, the Longhorns started two freshmen who played like youngsters and Swoopes was constantly on the run. A weak defensive line was more of a surprise. The big guys up front are supposed to be the strength of the team. If they get pushed around by Rice, it could be a longer season than anyone thought. OWLS QUARTERBACK DRIPHUS JACKSON Dual-threat quarterbacks have given Texas fits and Jackson could be the latest to do it. The senior passed for 143 yards and a touchdown and ran for 79 yards and a score against Wagner. HISTORY

The series with Rice is so lopsided for Texas (7121-1) that even President John Kennedy joked about it in a 1962 speech, comparing Rice playing Texas to being ambitious enough to send a man to the moon. Rice will wear “Froggy” helmet decals to honor Froggy Williams, who kicked the game-winning field goal against Texas as time-expired in 1949 MALIK JEFFERSON If any Texas player stood out against Notre Dame, it was the freshman middle linebacker who had nine tackles. The Longhorns are leaning on him to shore up a defense that gave up more than 500 yards in the first game.

TECH Continued from Page 1B more they can keep the ball out of Texas Tech’s hands, the better UTEP’s chances. “They’re going to hold the ball and they’re going to pound you,” Kingsbury said. “They like to run the rock and do a good job at it. Lot of the things scare you.” SPECIAL TEAMS Texas Tech’s Jakeem Grant, the 5-6, 169-pounder who earned Big 12

honors as special teams player of the week, returned a kickoff 94 yards for a score against Sam Houston State. He got 136 yards on three kickoff returns. “He was all over the place,” Kugler said. “He made that touchdown on his own.” PENALTIES Penalties plagued the Red Raiders last year, and if the first game is any indication, things haven’t

changed too much yet. The Red Raiders had 10 penalties for 69 yards. On two big gains on offense, penalties sent the Red Raiders backward. “That’s inexcusable,” offensive coordinator Eric Morris said. “It’s stupid, and we’ve got to get that fixed immediately.” RED RAIDERS DEFENSE In the opener for new defensive coordinator David Gibbs, Texas Tech got

four turnovers — two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. The bad news was that the Red Raiders gave up 671 total yards to sit at the bottom of the Big 12. “You are what you put on tape on Saturday afternoons,” Gibbs said. UTEP junior RB Aaron Jones will prove challenging. He had 70 yards rushing on 15 carries and caught six passes for 83 yards.

A&M Continued from Page 1B dinator Jake Spavital said. “Because that could go two different ways.” Allen said that Spavital talked with him when Murray entered the game, reminding him that he’d have another chance. “(He said): ’Don’t go over and pout,”’ Allen said. “So it was just keeping focused, keeping my mind right because I knew I was going to go back in.” Allen is only 19, but enrolled at A&M when he was 17 and started the last five games in 2014 after Kenny Hill was benched. That experience was important to him in handling everything that happened in the opener. “I’m a much more confident player this year than I was last year and I understand that I can do stuff with my feet in the SEC and in college football now,” Allen said. Murray has drawn comparisons to 2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel for his size and scrambling ability after leading his high school to a 43-0 record and three straight state titles. Sumlin thought he showed promise in his debut and said that the experience will be important as the season progresses. He joked about how hard he was breathing when he came out after his first series. “I looked over at him and started smiling,” Sumlin said. “He said: ’I can’t breathe and those guys out there are fast.’ First time it hit him (that) maybe he’s not the fastest guy on the field all the time.” It will be the first meeting between these teams and the Aggies look to improve to 16-0 in non-conference games under Sumlin. Here are some things to know about the Ball State-Texas A&M game: GETTING A MAKEOVER Saturday will be the first game since Kyle Field underwent a $485

million redevelopment. The project has increased the capacity of the stadium to 102,733, which leaves it as the biggest stadium in the Southeastern Conference and the fourth largest in the country. ALL-PURPOSE GREEN The Cardinals are led by running back Darian Green, who does many different things for Ball State. He tied a school record in Ball State’s win over VMI last week by scoring four touchdowns, including three rushing and one receiving. “Darian brought a lot of diversity to the offense,” Ball State coach Pete Lembo said. “He practices hard. He practices with detail. We need him to continue to do good things for us.” WRECKING CREW RETURNS? Texas A&M’s defense was known as the Wrecking Crew in the 1990s for its ability to take over games. The unit hasn’t been nearly as feared in recent years, but hopes to change that under new defensive coordinator John Chavis, who came to A&M from LSU in the offseason. The Aggies showcased a suffocating pass rush against Arizona State, when they piled up nine sacks. It was their most sacks since 10 against Texas Tech in 1995. The defense is led by defensive ends Daeshon Hall and Myles Garrett, who accounted for six of the team’s sacks. WHAT A DEBUT Freshman Christian Kirk starred in his debut against the Sun Devils. He had 106 yards receiving with a touchdown to become the first freshman in school history to reach 100 yards receiving in his debut. He also had a 79yard punt return for a score. Sumlin was impressed by his performance and maturity in the opener and is looking for him to build on it this week. “Let’s see what he can do for an encore,” Sumlin said.

TCU Continued from Page 1B results. But the defensivefocused Patterson is dealing on that side with a young group already facing changes. “Offensively, we’ve got to go back and do what we do and get back in sync and I expect them to do that,” Patterson said. “I think we’ll be a work in progress defensively all year just because of the youth and everything.” Boykin had 338 total yards (246 passing and 92 rushing) in TCU’s 23-17 season-opening victory at Big Ten team Minnesota. But the Frogs will already have two new starting linebackers in their 42-5 scheme after junior Sammy Douglas sustained an undisclosed season-ending injury against the Golden Gophers. Then true freshman Mike Freeze, who had seven tackles while starting his first career game, left the team this week for an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons. Two other freshmen could fill in as starting linebackers. TCU is also missing two veteran linemen, end James McFarland (broken toe) and tackle Davion Pierson (undisclosed injury). The timing of their returns is uncertain. The Frogs lost in overtime to Northwestern State in Patterson’s home debut in 2001. TCU has played Stephen F. Austin (0-1) only once before, a 67-7 win in Fort Worth in 2008. Patterson doesn’t buy into the perceived notion by many that the Frogs have to win like that again against SFA before playoff decisions that won’t be made until early December. “Right now, with this football team, because everything that’s going on

here, you’ve got to worry about every Saturday and winning it. You can’t worry about all that,” he said. “You can worry about style points when you think you have a better football team.” A few other things to know when the Horned Frogs try to win their 14th consecutive home opener: DOUBLE CONQUE SFA junior quarterback Zach Conque is the son of Lumberjacks head coach Clint Conque. The younger Conque completed 28 of 38 passes for 297 yards and ran for 68 more yards in the opener. He threw for 2,733 yards and 15 touchdowns last season when he was the Southland Conference’s top newcomer. WINNING AT HOME Even with Patterson’s dubious start, the Frogs are 68-14 at home during his 15 seasons as head coach. SHUT DOWN BY BIG 12 Stephen F. Austin is 0-8 against Big 12 teams, and none of those games have been close. The Lumberjacks have been outscored 441-39 in those games, the closest being a 30-0 loss to Baylor in 1928. Since its 2008 trip to TCU, then still in Mountain West, The Jacks have lost 48-0 to Baylor, 61-13 to Texas Tech and 55-16 to Kansas State. FRESHMAN RETURNS KaVontae Turpin is adding kickoff returns to his duties in the second game. Patterson liked the way Turpin handled punt returns in the opener, so wants to see him on kickoffs. “A freshman with people right in his face all night long, and to fair catch and make decisions,” Patterson said when asked what he thought of Turpin’s performance on punts.


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

Dear Readers: Do you and your family have a FIRE ESCAPE PLAN? Whether you live in a home, a condo, an apartment or a manufactured home, you should ask yourself right now: How would I get out if a fire happened? What if the main entrance/ exit is blocked? How do you tell the fire department exactly where you are? The following are some simple steps to take that may save a life, or your home: Make sure the house number is easily readable from the street so the fire department can find you. Faded house numbers are a hazard. Ensure that everyone, even kids, knows how to use the 911 telephone system. If you call from a cellphone, give them a callback number right off. Most 911 systems CANNOT identify a location from a cellphone call. Tell the operator the address, what kind of fire, who is in the home, etc. Use smoke alarms –– one in every bedroom, and

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

HELOISE

one on each level of the home is the MINIMUM. Test the batteries twice per year. Hold a fire drill a couple of times a year, going out of your home different ways, if possible. –– Heloise SPECIAL SEATS Dear Heloise: I really wish restaurants had booster seats for older women who have gotten shorter as they get older. I took a booster cushion and put it in a pretty tote bag and carry it with me. Now we can sit in a booth, which my husband prefers, and I can sit on my tote bag! –– Suzie in New Braunfels, Texas Pretty smart, I’d say. One size chair or table does not fit all. I end up sitting on a leg to “gain a little height” at some dinner tables.


4B THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015


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