The Zapata Times 9/28/2016 by The Zapata Times

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2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

LAREDO

As Clinton cheers, Donald Trump digs in after debate Danny Zaragoza / The Zapata Times

Members of the Webb County Democratic Party cheer as they watch the 2016 presidential debate candidates come out on stage, Monday night at AmeriK Suites during a presidential debate watch party.

Area officials attend debate watch party David Goldman / AP

Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton shake hands during the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday.

Zapata Democratic Party chair offers reaction By Julia Wallace THE ZAPATA TIME S

Trump spreads blame for performance By Lisa Lerer and Steve Peoples A S SOCI AT E D PRE SS

ALEIGH, N.C. — A defensive Donald Trump gave Hillary Clinton plenty of fresh materi-

al for the next phase of her presidential campaign on Tuesday, choosing to publicly reopen and relitigate some her most damaging attacks. The day after his first general election debate, Trump blamed the moderator, a bad

microphone and anyone but himself for his performance. Next time, he threatened, he might get more personal and make a bigger political issue of former President Bill Clinton’s marital infidelities. Debate continues on A11

AREDO — At a watch party held Monday night by the Webb County Democratic Party, a jam-packed room of about 60 people, young and old, cheered as Hillary Clinton quipped a retort to Donald Trump, and booed anytime the latter finished a thought.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO

Did the pope’s visit help the border? TH E TEXAS T RI BUNE

By César G. Rodriguez THE ZAPATA TIME S

traveling in tandem with a green Dodge pickup along Texas 16. Authorities would later identify the Dodge as a scout vehicle. Its driver was not arrested, according to a criminal complaint filed Aug. 4.

Three people accused of transporting 10 illegal immigrants through Zapata County recently pleaded not guilty to the allegations, according to court documents. The suspects — Marilyn Padilla, Kimberly Denise Herrera and Deanni Margarita Ramos — were charged via indictment with conspiracy to transport and attempt to transport undocumented immigrants for money. The trio has a final pretrial conference Oct. 5. Homeland Security investigations special agents said they received a request for investigative assistance from agents from the Zapata Border Patrol Station. Agents in the area of Tejon Ranch in Zapata alleged they saw several people getting into a couple of vehicles that were parked along U.S. 83. Authorities identified the vehicles as a silver Lincoln Town Car and a black Chrysler PT Cruiser. Agents pulled over the cruiser. The driver was identified as Padilla and a passenger as a juvenile. A criminal complaint filed Aug. 15 states they were transporting five

Women continues on A11

Ranch continues on A11

L'Osservatore Romano / AP

Pope Francis salutes the faithful during his meeting with workers and advocacy groups in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Feb. 17.

FEDERAL COURT

Two women plead not guilty to transporting immigrants to Houston court, records show. Megan Antoinette Fernandez and Jessica Ann Casias entered a plea of not guilty Two women from San earlier this month. Both have a Antonio accused of transfinal pretrial conference Oct. porting illegal immigrants 5. from Zapata to Houston A federal grand jury pleaded not guilty in a recent charged Fernandez and Casias hearing in a Laredo federal By César G. Rodriguez TH E ZAPATA T IME S

Three plead not guilty to conspiracy Caught in Tejon Ranch

By Julián Aguilar

Pope continues on A11

Officials continues on A11

ZAPATA COUNTY

SEVEN MONTHS LATER

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Seven months after Pope Francis made history by visiting this city once considered the deadliest in the Americas, pedestrians can still see a billboard celebrating his visit looming right across the border over downtown El Paso. It’s a reminder that

Maria Gutierrez, Zapata County Democratic Party chair, was in attendance representing Zapata. “I think (Clinton) did great,” she said. “She was awesome.” Gutierrez has been the Democratic Party chair for Zapata since June after former chair Doroteo Garza passed away in April.

on Aug. 30 with conspiracy to transport and attempt to transport undocumented immigrants within the United States. U.S. Border Patrol arrested the women Aug. 2. Prior to the arrest, an agent spotted a red Ford Explorer

Zin brief A2 | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE WORLD

TODAY IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 28, the 272nd day of 2016. There are 94 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Sept. 28, 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England to claim the English throne.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 1 City of Laredo Comprehensive Plan’s Public Design Workshop (Charrette). Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Road. This event is part of a two-week intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others can collaborate on their vision for the City of Laredo’s comprehensive plan. Drop in anytime from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to get a first-hand look at how a comprehensive plan is constructed and make a suggestion. There will be work group reviews of education at 2 p.m. and technology/ telecommunications at 5 p.m. 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 6–7 p.m. TAMIU LBV Planetarium, 5201 University Blvd. Violent Universe at 6 p.m.; Led Zeppelin at 7 p.m. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information call 326-DOME (3663). 1 Spanish Book Club. 6-8 p.m. Laredo Public Library1120 E. Calton Road. For more information, call Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 1

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 1

Book sale. 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. No admission charge. Everyone is invited. 1 Laredo Northside Market Association Farmers Market. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. North Central Park playground. This market will feature the usual vendors as well as a pumpkin decorating event for children. The pumpkins are artificial and will be good until Halloween. For more information see www.facebook.com/laredonorthsidemarket.

Ramin Rahimian / New York Times file

Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo, speaks in San Francisco, Feb. 18, 2016. Yahoo announced that the account information of least 500 million users was stolen by hackers in 2014.

YAHOO PASSWORD BREACH EFFECT LONDON — As investors and investigators weigh the damage of Yahoo’s massive breach to the internet icon, information security experts worry that the recordbreaking haul of password data could be used to open locks up and down the web. While it’s unknown to what extent the stolen data has been or will be circulating — or how easy it would be to use if it were — giant breaches can send ripples of insecurity across the internet. “Data breaches on the scale of Yahoo are the security equivalent of ecological disasters,” said Matt Blaze, a security research-

Woman burned alive for witchcraft in Peru jungle LIMA, Peru — A woman accused of being a witch was burned alive on a bonfire in an indigenous community in a remote part of the country’s Amazon rainforest, authorities said Tuesday. Prosecutor Hugo Mauricio said members of the Shiringamazu Alto community sentenced 73-year-old Rosa Villar Jarionca to death over claims

er who directs the Distributed Systems Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, in a message posted to Twitter . A big worry is a cybercriminal technique known as “credential stuffing,” which works by throwing leaked username and password combinations at a series of websites in an effort to break in, a bit like a thief finding a ring of keys in an apartment lobby and trying them, one after the other, in every door in the building. Software makes the trial-and-error process practically instantaneous. — Compiled from AP reports

she made people sick through witchcraft. The alleged burning took place Sept. 20, but the area is so remote that word of it did not reach authorities until recently. Mauricio said a cellphone video shot by a witness and given to prosecutors appeared to show Villar with her hands tied amid a pile of dry logs and branches. A man bathes the logs and the woman with gasoline and another man throws a lit match onto the bonfire. Villar can be heard screaming. “The woman was burned

alive because the people accused her of being a witch,” Mauricio said. He added that villagers burned her body on the pyre for three days to leave no traces of the killing but that authorities managed to locate some bones. He said he and 20 police officers visited the scene and returned with evidence they collected. A record of the decision to burn Villar at the stake was written by hand in the community’s log book and seen by authorities, Mauricio said. — Compiled from AP reports

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2 1

City of Laredo Comprehensive Plan’s Public Design Workshop (Charrette). Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Road. This event is part of a two-week intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others can collaborate on their vision for the City of Laredo’s comprehensive plan. Drop in anytime from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to get a first-hand look at how a comprehensive plan is constructed and make a suggestion. An open house will be held at 5 p.m. to show how the public’s ideas are coming to life. 1 7th Annual Blessing of All Animals. 4–5 p.m. St. Peter's Plaza. All animals should be taken in a leash, harness or cage. St. Francis of Assisi medals and T-shirts will be available with a donation. All donations received will go toward projects to protect community cats including a Trap, Neuter, and Return Program for Laredo. For more details, call Birdie at 286-7866. 1 Life Chain. 2 p.m. Sidewalks from Hillside and McPherson roads. The Diocese of Laredo is hosting this pro-life event. The diocese says this will be a peaceful opportunity to pray for respect for the life of every human being. For more information, call 727-2140.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 1

City of Laredo Comprehensive Plan’s Public Design Workshop (Charrette). Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Road. This event is part of a two-week intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others can collaborate on their vision for the City of Laredo’s comprehensive plan. Drop in anytime from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to get a first-hand look at how a comprehensive plan is constructed and make a suggestion. There will be work group reviews of parks and recreation at 10 a.m. and infrastructure/environmental at 4 p.m. A planning and zoning board workshop is set for 5 p.m. 1 Chess Club. 4–6 p.m. Every Monday. Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete in this cherished strategy game played internationally. Free. For all ages and skill levels. Instruction is offered. 1 Ray of Light anxiety and depression support group meeting. 6:30–7:30 p.m. Area Health Education Center, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430. Every first Monday of the month.

AROUND THE NATION Tulsa residents find common ground between police, slain man TULSA, Okla. — Competing rallies over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white Oklahoma police officer could have left residents with the difficult choice of who to support, but some said Tuesday it was possible to back both police and the slain man. Hundreds of people led by the Rev. Al Sharpton attended a rally and march in downtown Tulsa for 40-year-old Terence Crutcher, who was fatally shot Sept. 16 by police officer Betty Jo Shelby after she arrived on a street to find Crutcher’s SUV stopped in the middle of the road. As the Crutcher rally was happening, about a dozen supporters gathered on the courthouse plaza blocks away to voice support for Shelby, who

Sue Ogrocki / AP

The Rev. Al Sharpton, left, stands with Tiffany Crutcher, right, the twin sister of Terence Crutcher, Tuesday in Tulsa.

is charged with first-degree manslaughter in Crutcher’s death and scheduled to be arraigned Friday. The shooting was recorded by a police helicopter and a cruiser camera. It prompted several rallies and protests in the city last week, all of them peaceful. Don Ailsworth, a black Tulsa

resident who attended the Shelby rally and planned to go to another Crutcher event scheduled for later in the day near City Hall, said people shouldn’t have to choose between supporting one over the other. He said the two sides can find common ground. — Compiled from AP reports

AROUND TEXAS Officials: 3rd man arrested in 2015 attack on judge AUSTIN — A third man has been arrested on allegations that he conspired to kill a Texas judge outside her home last year. Marcellus Burgin, who lives in suburban Houston, was taken into custody late Monday in New Orleans. Federal agents spotted Burgin in Houston last week, but he fled in a vehicle

On this date: In 1542, Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived at presentday San Diego. In 1787, the Congress of the Confederation voted to send the justcompleted Constitution of the United States to state legislatures for their approval. In 1850, flogging was abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy. In 1914, the First Battle of the Aisne (AYN) during World War I ended inconclusively. In 1928, Scottish medical researcher Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first effective antibiotic. In 1939, during World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a treaty calling for the partitioning of Poland, which the two countries had invaded. In 1958, voters in the African country of Guinea overwhelmingly favored independence from France. In 1967, Walter E. Washington was sworn in as the first mayor-commissioner of the District of Columbia. In 1976, Muhammad Ali kept his world heavyweight boxing championship with a close 15-round decision over Ken Norton at New York’s Yankee Stadium. In 1989, deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii at age 72. In 1991, jazz great Miles Davis died in Santa Monica, California, at age 65. In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord at the White House ending Israel’s military occupation of West Bank cities and laying the foundation for a Palestinian state. Ten years ago: Al-Qaida in Iraq’s leader, in a chilling audiotape, called for nuclear scientists to join his group’s holy war and urged insurgents to kidnap Westerners so they could be traded for a blind Egyptian sheik serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. Five years ago: The Obama administration formally appealed a federal appeals court ruling striking down a key provision of President Barack Obama’s health care law requiring Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. (The U.S. Supreme Court later upheld the individual mandate.) One year ago: President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, meeting at the United Nations, agreed to discuss a political transition in Syria but remained at odds about what that would mean for Syria leader Bashar Assad’s future. Former prison worker Joyce Mitchell, who’d helped two murderers escape from a maximum-security lockup, said she regretted her “horrible mistake” as she was sentenced in Plattsburgh, New York, to up to seven years behind bars. Trevor Noah debuted as host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Catherine E. Coulson, 71, an actress best known as the quirky Log Lady in the TV series “Twin Peaks,” died in Ashland, Oregon. Frankie Ford, 76, a rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues singer whose 1959 hit “Sea Cruise” brought him international fame at age 19, died in Jefferson Paris, Louisiana. Today’s Birthdays: Actress Brigitte Bardot is 82. Actor Joel Higgins is 73. Singer Helen Shapiro is 70. Movie writer-director-actor John Sayles is 66. Rock musician George Lynch is 62. Zydeco singer-musician C.J. Chenier is 59. Actor Steve Hytner is 57. Actresscomedian Janeane Garofalo (is 52. Country singer Matt King is 50. Actress Mira Sorvino is 49. TV personality/singer Moon Zappa is 49. Actress-model Carre Otis is 48. Actress Naomi Watts is 48. Country singer Karen Fairchild (Little Big Town) is 47. Country musician Chuck Crawford is 43. Country singer Mandy Barnett is 41. Rapper Young Jeezy is 39. World Golf Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak is 39. Actor Peter Cambor is 38. Writerproducer-director-actor Bam Margera is 37. Actress Melissa Claire Egan is 35. Neo-soul musician Luke Mossman (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats ) is 35. Pop-rock singer St. Vincent is 34. Rock musician Daniel Platzman (Imagine Dragons) is 30. Actress Hilary Duff is 29. Thought for Today: “Sometimes I think we Americans are the loneliest people in the world. To be sure, we hunger for the power of affection, the self-acceptance that gives life. It is the oldest and strongest hunger in the world. But hungering is not enough.” — Sherwood Anderson, American author and poet (1876-1941).

CONTACT US and by foot to elude them, according to a statement Tuesday by the U.S. attorney’s office in San Antonio. State District Judge Julie Kocurek was shot Nov. 6 as she sat in a car outside her home. She recovered from her wounds and has since returned to work. Federal prosecutors say various fraudulent financial schemes being run by Burgin, 28-year-old Chimene Onyeri and 24-year-old Rasul Scott was going to be disrupted by Onyeri’s sentencing for a larce-

ny conviction, so the trio went after the judge. In an indictment released last week, federal prosecutors said the trio’s schemes went from 2012 to 2015 in Austin, Houston and various parts of Louisiana. One involved using debit card readers and cameras that allowed them to steal personal banking information, according to the indictment. The three face charges that include wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. — Compiled from AP reports

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 |

LOCAL & STATE

Zapata Fall Festival coming up S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S

Zapata is hosting its first-ever Fall Festival on Halloween, Monday, Oct. 31. The festival will be held at the Zapata County Fairgrounds at 5 p.m. “Bring the kids for a free, safe Halloween event!” a news release

states. There will be a costume contest, face painting, carnival rides, a haunted house, a candy lane, a dunking booth and food and refreshment booths. For more information, contact Zapata County Commissioner Olga Elizondo at 4891064.

Mexican man gets prison for wreck at Texas military installation A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

KINGSVILLE — A Mexican man has been sentenced to nearly four years in a U.S. prison for driving a vehicle that wrecked at a Texas military installation while trying to smuggle immigrants. Mario RodriguezGomez was sentenced Monday by a judge in Corpus Christi. The 25-year-old pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants causing serious bodily injury. Investigators say

Rodriguez-Gomez, while in the U.S. illegally and living in Houston, drove a pickup truck that wrecked May 14 while trying to elude Border Patrol agents. The truck, with Rodriguez-Gomez and 14 passengers, drove through the entry gate of Naval Air Station Kingsville and hit a barrier. Six passengers were hurt. Investigators say all of the occupants — from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — were in the U.S. illegally.

Houston gunman had 2 weapons, thousands of rounds at scene By Juan A. Lozano ASSOCIATED PRE SS

HOUSTON — A disgruntled lawyer wearing military-style apparel with old Nazi emblems had two weapons and more than 2,500 rounds of live ammunition when he randomly shot at drivers in a Houston neighborhood before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said. Nine people were injured during Monday morning’s shootings on the street in front of a condo complex. Six were shot and three had eye injuries from flying glass. One person was in critical condition. Police did not identify the man and did not have information about a motive. A bomb-squad robot examined a Porsche that police said belonged to the gunman. Texas motor vehicle records in a commercially available database showed the car is licensed to Nathan DeSai at an address in the condo complex. The man had two legally purchased guns — a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and a semi-automatic rifle commonly known as a Tommy gun —and an unsheathed knife. Nine officers were involved in a shootout with the man, who was firing randomly at people driving by, police said. Mayor Sylvester Turner told KTRK-TV in Houston that DeSai was a lawyer who was “disgruntled” and was “either fired or had a bad relationship with this law firm.” But DeSai’s former law partner, Kenneth McDaniel, disputed that assertion,

Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle

Jennifer Molleda looks at the blood-specked face of her husband, Alan Wakim, who had two bullets whiz by his face after going through his windshield during a shooting in Houston.

saying they jointly closed their 12-year-old law firm in February due to economic conditions related to Houston’s energy industry downturn. McDaniel also said he hadn’t had contact with DeSai lately and that police called him Monday morning to check on his safety, though they didn’t explain why. “He went his way with his practice and I went with mine,” McDaniel said, adding, “All I can say it’s a horrible situation. I’m sad for everyone involved.” Calls placed to phone numbers connected to DeSai and his father were not immediately answered. DeSai’s father, Prakash DeSai, told KTRK that his son lived in the condo complex and drives a black Porsche. He also said his son, whom he saw Sunday, was upset because “his law practice is not going well” and stays upset “because of his person-

al problems.” Perrye Turner, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Houston Division, said officials don’t believe the incident is tied to terrorism. Jennifer Molleda and her husband live in the same condo complex as Nathan DeSai. Though she heard gunshots about 6:12 a.m. and called 911, her husband left for work. The 45-year-old called not long after and he told her, “I’m hit, I’m hit.” After the shooting stopped, Molleda found her husband, 49-year-old Alan Wakim, several blocks away in the parking lot of a strip mall. His Mustang had two shots that went through the windshield, and he told her that he saw a red laser beam before the shots were fired. He was taken to a hospital to be treated. “He got out of his car, we hugged, we cried,” Molleda said, adding that

after she saw everything, she believes DeSai was “aiming to kill.” Jason Delgado, the property manager of The Oaks at West University condo complex, said DeSai was involved in two recent incidents at the complex. In August, Delgado said, police were called after roofers working in the complex said DeSai pointed an assault-style rifle at them. He said there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward with charges because the man contended he didn’t point the gun at roofers. Molleda mentioned the same incident. Last week, DeSai became upset because of water pressure problems at his home, asked for maintenance help and expressed his displeasure in an email to the management firm that implied he’d “intimidate his way to getting what he was asking for,” Delgado said.

Zopinion A4 | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

OTHER VIEWS

COLUMN

The age of reaction By David Brooks N EW YORK T I ME S

In the normal telling, history is driven by visionaries and revolutionaries. If you studied history in school you probably plowed through book after book about this revolution or that one — the American Revolution or the French, the industrial revolution or the information one. In the normal telling of the past, events are driven by revolutionaries, and the few reactionaries who stand in the way get run over. But really, history is often a volley between revolutionaries (who take control in some periods) and reactionaries (who drive events in others). Today, as the Columbia political theorist Mark Lilla points out in his compelling new book, “The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction,” reactionaries are in the saddle. Reactionaries, whether angry white Trumpians, European nationalists, radical Islamists or leftwing anti-globalists, are loud, self-confident and on the march. Reactionaries come in different stripes but share a similar mentality: There was once a golden age, when people knew their place and lived in harmony. But then that golden age was betrayed by the elites. “The betrayal of elites is the linchpin of every reactionary story,” Lilla writes. Soon, they believe, a false and decadent consciousness descended upon the land. “Only those who have preserved memories of the old ways see what is happening,” Lilla notes. Only the reactionaries have the wisdom to turn things back to the way they used to be, to “Make America Great Again.” “Reactionaries are not conservatives,” Lilla continues. “They are, in their way, just as radical as revolutionaries and just as firmly in the grip of historical imaginings. Millennial expectations of a redemptive new social order and rejuvenated human beings inspire the revolutionary; apocalyptic fears of entering a new dark age haunt the reactionary.” Reactionaries are marked by a militant, apocalyptic mindset, a crisis mentality. They are willing to take extreme, violent action to turn back the clock. In their narcissism, they think they alone understand the crisis and are in a position to reverse the trends. It’s understandable that we would be living in a reactionary moment. The periods after financial crises are always bumpy

politically. Whether it was the 1890s, the 1930s or today, such periods often thrust up ugly, backwardlooking ideologies. Eras after mass immigration tend to be bumpy, too. There tends to be a repulse against the sudden influx of new people. Moreover, for many groups, especially the less educated working class, life genuinely is worse than it was in the mid-60s. It’s no wonder such people buy Donald Trump’s paradise-lost narrative. The more serious problem is today’s pervasive and self-reinforcing pessimism, which feeds the reactionary impulse. The belief systems that used to reinforce a faith in progress have become less influential. First there was moderate religiosity, the belief that God is ultimately in control, that all things are ultimately fashioned toward the good and that the arc of history bends toward justice. This was the mindset that made Martin Luther King Jr. fundamentally optimistic, even in temporarily dark times. Then there was humanism, the belief that people are learning more and more, inventing more and more, and so history is a steady accumulation of good things. As humanism and moderate religion have withered, gloom has pervaded that national mind. It doesn’t matter how much living standards rise or the poverty rate falls, it makes you seem smart and woke to be alarmed and hypercritical. Every dour attentiongrabber wants to claim that the elites are more corrupt than ever. The paranoid style of conspiracy-mongering has become the lingua franca of the internet. Public conversation is dominated by people’s ahistorical insistence that this country is sliding toward decline. As Arthur Herman writes in his book “The Idea of Decline in Western History,” “The sowing of despair and self-doubt has become so pervasive that we accept it as a normal intellectual stance — even when it is directly contradicted by our own reality.” The best weapon against the reactionary is not bubbly, blind optimism. It is, frankly, temperamental conservatism. It is the belief that, thanks to the general spread of market freedom and cultural pluralism, our society is becoming stumblingly but gradually richer, more just and more creative. But economic and technological dynamism needs to be balanced by cultural cohesion.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Kindness found in fishing companies To the editor: I wanted to share a story related to my son and a good deed performed by a corporate entity. My son is 12 years old and has been dealing with ADD since he started school. Despite medical treatment, he still struggles daily to stay on task and complete tasks. We have been able to help him succeed in class while helping him become a well-rounded individual by getting him involved in outdoor activities. He has recently developed a profound love for fishing, and as you may know, fishing

requires patience and focus, life skills that he needs help developing. While traveling to the Rio Grande Valley, he saw a corporate vehicle with a logo for a fishing bait attractant that he knows of through YouTube. The company is called Kickin' Bass. He asked my wife to slow down so he could wave at the drivers of the truck. The drivers were kind and waved at him. They slowed down and took pictures of him waiving. That weekend my wife sent a thank you note to the company via Facebook — that was the start

of an amazing act of kindness. A company representative contacted my son and spoke to him at length about his love for fishing and skill development. He is the owner of a company that makes fishing reel protective gear called Rod Armorz. He offered to send my son some samples of their products and further sent a cap signed by a professional angler. This was so exciting for my son that it encouraged him to focus on class work and work hard to stay focused. The kindness doesn't end there. Once we received the gifts we sent a

letter. Laredo Morning Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. This space allows for public debate of the issues of the day. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Also, letters longer than 500 words will not be accepted. Via email, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.

Sincerely, Juan Neira

EDITORIAL

At the presidential debate, a lot of jabs, but no knockout punch MIAMI HERALD

Hillary Clinton confirmed that she’s a bit imperious. Donald Trump confirmed that the emperor has no clothes. Clinton made clear that she knows her stuff. Trump made clear that even when he’s touching on the truth, he’s unfit to occupy the White House. The task was simple, really. Clinton had to appear trustworthy and honest. Oh, and be likable, a woman’s unending burden, but that continues to be a challenge for her. Trump had to, well, given his strengthening poll numbers, keep on doing what’s worked for him so far: Ignore anything close to a fact, lie, and put on a great show. Surprisingly, for the first 30 minutes or so, Trump was low-key, for him, and appeared to be a capable debater. But then, he became unmoored, rambled, got into the weeds about finances and his support of the Iraq war and

NATO’s role in the world. Trump did a decent job bringing up issues where Clinton is vulnerable — ISIS, emails — but none of that made up for his own weaknesses. Do Americans really believe that we’re “losing on everything?” Moderator Lester Holt had a difficult task Monday night. Unfortunately, he blended into the background, without strongly challenging Trump’s serial mendacity or Clinton’s blithe blowoff of the email scandal or her wrong assertions about Trump’s taxes. The only time he really made a stand was in assuring the backpedaling Trump that he did, indeed, support the Iraq War. Both candidates had to reach out and touch skeptics. But the undecideds still might be scratching their heads. There was no knockout punch, but Clinton won on points. But given the bizarre dynamic of this presidential race, it’s not a matter of who won, it is a

matter of who showed the audience the clearest ability to lead this country forward, push it toward prosperity and peace and do it in a grounded, sober and thoughtful manner. After all, the debate was not a tryout for “The Apprentice,” though that’s pretty much how predebate buzz pitched it. Trump branded his Democratic opponent part and parcel of the political establishment. No argument there. He conceded that she had experience, but labeled it “bad experience.” But given his restrained, but enduring bragadaccio, willful ignorance of the facts, walking back ridiculous statements without any sense of reflection and those simple, declarative sentences that any 3-year-old is beyond — “It’s not a nice thing she’s done” — Clinton clearly looked, and sounded, not just presidential, but also capable and tough. Still, she didn’t build upon her usual aura of competence. But as we said, she

LETTERS POLICY Laredo Morning Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer's first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the

video to show his excitement and to thank the company for the gift. The company representative called and asked if my son was available on Sunday, Sept. 25 for a private fishing guided trip in Zapata. The companies sponsored a fishing trip with a professional fishing guide called Broken Braid Guide service. All this just for saying hello and thanking someone for a nice gesture. This is proof that there are still kind individuals in corporate America.

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

knows her stuff: She knows what NATO’s Article 5 mandates — Trump was clueless; she knows that stop-and-frisk has been judged unconstitutional and that violent crime, despite the plague of Chicago shootings, is down. Trump kept flogging law and order. It plays to the crowd, but is no solution to racial animus; she knows that President George W. Bush set the timetable for our pulling out of Iraq. Trump insisted, wrongly, that it was President Barack Obama’s decision. And don’t get us started on birtherism. Then, at the end we saw vintage Donald, the bully. When Clinton reminded viewers that Trump had a habit of calling women “pigs” and “slobs,” he retorted that he had planned to “say something rough” about Clinton and her family. But he, like the gentleman he is, thought better of it: “I said to myself, ’It’s not nice.’” Like we said, unfit.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 |

NATIONAL

Baby born with DNA from 3 people, first from new technique By Malcolm Ritter A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — Scientists say the first baby has been born from a controversial new technique that combines DNA from three people — the mother, the father and an egg donor. The goal was to prevent the child from inheriting a fatal genetic disease from his mother, who had previously lost two children to the illness. The birth of the boy is revealed in a research summary published by the journal Fertility & Sterility. Scientists are scheduled to present details at a meeting next month in Salt Lake City. The magazine New Scientist, which first reported the birth, said the baby was born five months ago to Jordanian parents, and that they were treated in Mexico by a team led by Dr. John Zhang of the New Hope Fertility Center in New York. It’s not clear where the child was born. The technique is not approved in the United States, but Zhang told the magazine, “To save lives is the ethical thing to do.” A spokesman for the fertility center said Zhang was not available for further comment on Tuesday. Others involved in the research referred questions to Zhang. The mother carries DNA that could have given her child Leigh syndrome, a severe neurological disorder that usually kills within a few

years of birth. Her two previous children died of the disease at 8 months and 6 years, the research summary said. The technique involved removing some of the mother’s DNA from an egg, and leaving the disease-causing DNA behind. The healthy DNA was slipped into a donor’s egg, which was then fertilized. As a result, the baby inherited DNA from both parents and the egg donor. The technique is sometimes said to produce “three-parent babies,” but the DNA contribution from the egg donor is very small. People carry DNA in two places, the nucleus of the cell and in features called mitochondria, which lie outside the nucleus. The technique is designed to transfer only DNA of the nucleus to the donor egg, separating it from the mother’s disease-causing mitochondrial DNA. The research summary identified the mother as a 36-year-old woman and said her pregnancy was uneventful. One of the five eggs the researchers treated was suitable for use. Critics question the technique’s safety, saying children would have to be tracked for decades to make sure they remain healthy. And they say it passes a fundamental scientific boundary by altering the DNA inherited by future generations. Mitochondrial DNA is passed from women to their offspring.

Still, last year, Britain became the first country in the world to allow creation of human embryos with the technique. In the U.S., a panel of government advisers said earlier this year that it’s ethical to test the approach in people if initial experiments follow certain strict safety steps. That report was requested by the Food and Drug Administration, which is currently prevented by Congress from considering applications to approve testing the technique in people. Shroukhrat Mitalipov, who has worked with the approach at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, said that given the panel’s conclusion, “We believe it’s time to move forward with FDA-approved clinical trials in the United States.” Henry Greely, who directs the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University, said Tuesday he sees nothing wrong with using the technique if it is safe and is aimed at diseases clearly caused by faulty mitochondrial DNA. But he called the research leading to the newly reported birth “unethical, unwise, immoral.” He said the approach “hasn’t been sufficiently proven safe enough to try to use to make a baby.” Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, who has done work in the area, was cautious about the implications of the new report.

Police: Man locked woman in shed, sexually assaulted her By Lindsay Whitehurst ASSOCIATED PRE SS

SALT LAKE CITY — A man has been accused of luring an 18-year-old to a remote cabin, locking her in a shed and sexually assaulting her for weeks, prosecutors in eastern Utah said in court documents filed Monday. Jared Stephen Morgan, 37, brought the girl to the cabin starting when she was 17, according to authorities in Duchesne County. The first assault happened after he invited her to come and relax and spend time with his puppies after she broke up with a boyfriend, prosecutors said. When she arrived, she discov-

ered there wasn’t an available bed, forcing her to share his, police wrote in court documents. The Associated Press sought comment from Morgan, but no attorney was immediately listed for him in court records and there was no publicly listed phone number for him. He was arrested after the woman, now 20, reported the allegations to a private investigator who called police last week, authorities said. The AP generally does not identify victims of sexual crimes. After the girl turned 18, Morgan created fake paperwork to make her mother think she’d joined the military, police said in court documents.

He told her she’d have to cut ties with her family to be with him, authorities said. After a fight in June of 2014, he locked her in the shed and forced her to eat rat feces, the documents state. He armed himself with a gun or a Taser and assaulted her before allowing her to eat during the days he kept her confined in the shed, police said. He let her out sometime in July of 2014 after a brutal assault, and threatened to “end” her if she told anyone what happened, police said. Morgan has five felony charges that include kidnapping, rape, sodomy and human trafficking. He is being held on $100,000 cash-only bail.

Zfrontera A6 | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE TORNEO DE CAMPEONATO La Cámara de Comercio del Condado de Zapata está invitando al Torneo de Campeonato de la Asociación Sun Country Bass, a realizarse del 25 al 30 de septiembre, el cual se llevará a cabo en Falcon Lake. FIESTA ROMA La Ciudad de Roma invita a su festival Roma Fest Parade 2016. El Marshal del desfile será Yamil Yunes. El concurso de los carros alegóricos inicia a las 3 p.m. Desfile desde las 5 p.m., el domingo 9 de octubre. FERIAS DE SALUD La Oficina de Servicios Fronterizos de DSHS y el Consejo Binacional de Salud SMAC, invitan al público a acudir a dos ferias de salud. Una se llevará a cabo en Colonias Unidas en Río Grande City el 13 de octubre de 8 a.m. a 11 a.m.; la segunda se realizará el mismo día en el Centro Comunitario Roma de 2 p.m. a 4 p.m. Informes con Lupita Guerrero al 956-729-8600. EXHIBICIÓN DE ÁRBOLES FAMILIARES El Museo de Historia del Condado de Zapata y la Sociedad de Genealogía Nuevo Santander invitan a la exhibición de árboles familiares y cocina en sartenes de hierro fundido el viernes 21 de octubre y sábado 22 de octubre de 10 a.m. a 2 p.m. El evento se llevará a cabo en el Museo de Historia del Condado de Zapata. FIESTA FAMILIAR DE HALLOWEEN La Patrulla Fronteriza y el Departamento de Parques y Vida Silvestre invitan a la fiesta familiar del terror el viernes 29 de octubre en el Parque Municipal de Roma.de 5 a 9 p.m. Habrá concursos de disfraces para todas las edades, juegos, comida y mucho más. MUSEO EN ZAPATA A los interesados en realizar una investigación sobre genealogía de la región, se sugiere visitar el Museo del Condado de Zapata ubicado en 805 N US-Hwy 83. Opera de 10 a.m. a 4 p.m. Existen visitas guiadas. Personal está capacitado y puede orientar acerca de la historia del Sur de Texas y sus fundadores. Pida informes en el 956-765-8983. FIRMA DE LIBROS La Dra. Alma González Pérez dictará una conferencia y estará firmando su nuevo libro de poesía en la reunión mensual de la Sociedad de Genealogía Nuevo Santander el sábado 12 de Noviembre en el Museo de Historia del Condado de Zapata. La cita es a las 2 p.m. LABORATORIO COMPUTACIONAL La Ciudad de Roma pone a disposición de la comunidad el Laboratorio Computacional que abre de lunes a viernes en horario de 1 p.m. a 5 p.m. en Historical Plaza, a un lado del City Hall. Informes en el 956849-1411.

ELECCIONES

Falta precisión a Trump y Clinton Por Jonathan Lemire ASSOCIATED PRE SS

UEVA YORK — Donald Trump dice que la táctica policial de "detener y registrar" hizo que disminuyeran los asesinatos en la ciudad de Nueva York, mientras que Hillary Clinton asegura que es una medida que ha sido declarada inconstitucional. Sin embargo, ninguna de las dos aseveraciones hechas el lunes en la noche en el primer debate entre candidatos presidenciales, es correcta. La táctica que permite a los policías detener a cualquier persona que se les haga sospechosa fue un punto destacado que comentaron los dos candidatos. El republicano pintó una imagen oscura de violencia en las ciudades de Estados Unidos y dijo que la solución debería ser la táctica de detener y registrar, agregando que "funcionó muy bien" en la ciudad más grande del país. "En la ciudad de Nueva York teníamos 2.200 ases-

de Blasio como alcalde —quien en campaña prometió acotar esta táctica— los asesinatos disminuyeron a un récord de 333 en 2014. El año pasado la cifra subió a 352, pero en lo que va de 2016 han disminuido. Hasta el 18 de septiembre habían ocurrido 246 homicidios, comparado con 257 en el mismo periodo de 2015. De Blasio es uno de los que consideran que la táctica de detener y registrar está sesgada hacia negros y latinos. Foto por David Goldman | Associated Press Por su parte, Clinton dijo en el debate del lunes Donald Trump y Hillary Clinton son presentados durante el debate presidencial en Hofstra University el lunes por la noche. que esta práctica ha sido considerada inconstitucional "en parte porque no llegara Giuliani en los años Ese año, las autoridades inatos y esta táctica los era efectiva". realizaron unas 685.000 90, y el número de homredujo a 500", declaró En 2013, la jueza federal icidios bajó a menos de 600 detenciones y hubo 515 Trump, quien elogió la anuales para 2002. Pero la asesinatos y 106.000 delitos Shira Scheindlin determilabor del alcalde Rudy nó que su uso era disgraves en la ciudad. táctica donde se detiene, Giuliani por adoptar esta criminatorio contra las Por otra parte, es una interroga y registra físicaestrategia. El candidato mente a personas fue parte verdad a medias lo que dijo minorías y su implemendijo que "continuó con el tación en Nueva York era de una estrategia usada por Trump de que cuando se alcalde (Michael) Bloominconstitucional porque la berg. Y acabó con el actual el Departamento de Policía limitó esa táctica los asespolicía estaba deteniendo a inatos subieron. alcalde. Pero la detención y de Nueva York en la décapersonas debido a su raza El número de detenda de 1990 y fue hasta la registro ha tenido un ciones bajó casi 97% desde y no por ser sospechosos enorme impacto en la segu- siguiente década que se de un delito. Scheindlin 2011, de acuerdo con estaridad de la ciudad de Nue- volvió una importante ordenó a un monitor feddísticas de la policía neva York. Tremendo, más de herramienta policial. El auge de esta práctica, oyorquina. Pero el número eral supervisar amplias lo que puede creerse". reformas al departamento de asesinatos también con Bloomberg y su comiLos asesinatos han disde policía. Pero la táctica disminuyó. minuido en Nueva York, y sionado de policía, RayEn el primer año de Bill en sí sigue siendo legal. la caída comenzó antes que mond Kelly, llegó en 2011.

CULTURA

Invitan migrantes a participar Por Malena Charur TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

La historia de muchos mexicoamericanos, principalmente del estado de Texas, que viajaban al norte a trabajar en los campos agrícolas como migrantes está a punto de ser contada en un documental que saldrá a la luz el próximo año. Efraín Gutiérrez, cineasta, originario de San Antonio, ha iniciado un proyecto al que ha denominado “Al Norte”, en donde busca retratar la historia de muchos que, como él, fueron migrantes. “Estoy muy orgulloso de haber sido migrante. Ir al norte significaba ir a Washington a la pizca de la manzana, a Idaho a recoger la papa, a Minnesota a recoger el betabel y a otros estados como Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan a recoger la cereza y el tomate”, recordó Gutiérrez. Dijo que cuando inició

Foto de cortesía

Efraín Gutiérrez aparece en extremo derecho de la fotografía, durante uno de los viajes que su familia realizaba para trabajar en los campos.

su primer año de primaria lo hizo en Indiana. “Yo estuve yendo al norte desde 1947, y hasta que completé los 15 años. Iniciábamos en abril en Indiana, luego nos movíamos a Michigan para el betabel, luego a otra ciudad a pizcar la cereza y así hasta agosto cuando empezaba el trabajo principal con el tomate”, relató. En “Al Norte”, Gutiérrez busca entrevistar migrantes para utilizar extractos de las entrevistas para el documental

que tendrá una duración aproximada de 45 minutos. “Quiero contar las historias de sacrificio y discriminación de los migrantes tejanos, porque íbamos buscando oportunidades de trabajo. Muchos que fueron allá se quedaron a buscar una mejor educación”, señaló. “Quiero que los estudiantes (vean) cómo muchos de ellos ahora son dueños de grandes ranchos, o bien, profesionistas destacados, que

(vean) las historias de éxito”. Él está invitando a los migrantes o hijos de migrantes que hayan viajado al norte entre 1946 y 1970 a contactarlo para que cuenten sus historias. “Me gustaría invitar a todas las personas cuyos padres o ellos mismos hayan sido migrantes y que quieran contar sus historias”, explicó Gutiérrez. La información que les será requerida gira en torno a cuestionamientos como de dónde vinieron, en qué ciudades trabajaron, a qué escuelas asistieron, sus historias familiares, y si desean compartir fotografías. “Nadie debe hacer nuestra historia. Nosostros la debemos hacer”, finalizó. Si tiene una historia que contar puede contactar a Gutiérrez a través de su correo electrónico: efraingutierrez_1@ hotmail.com

COLUMNA

Julio A. Mella visita Tamaulipas Por Raúl Sinencio E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Figura en la obra poética de Pablo Neruda, Premio Nobel de Literatura; también en la del reconocido muralista David Alfaro Siqueiros. Teórico fogoso, valiente crítico de la opresión, Julio Antonio Mella gana a pulso estatura latinoamericana. De infatigables andares, y se da tiempo para recorrer caminos tamaulipecos. Originario de Cuba, nace el 25 de marzo de 1903. Gusta del nado y el canotaje, deportes en que cosecha triunfos. “Este muchacho es muy inteligente; …vale mucho”, considera Salvador Díaz Mirón, que le imparte clases en la adolescencia. Más adelante ingresa a la Universidad de la Haba-

Foto de cortesía | Raúl Sinencio

Retrato de Julio Antonio Mella, por David Alfaro Siqueiros.

na, matriculándose en la carrera de Leyes. Sensible ante los abusos de las élites dominantes, Julio Antonio adquiere notorio liderazgo estudiantil y alienta causas populares. Influido por la revolución bolchevique, funda el Partido Comunista de Cuba. En peligro de perder la

vida, Mella llega a México en febrero de 1926. Aquí concluye su carrera universitaria. Incorporado al Partido Comunista Mexicano (PCM), descuella en diversas organizaciones. Concurre al congreso antimperialista de Bruselas y a otro, sindical, en Moscú. Recibe solicitud expresa para visitar suelo tamaulipeco. Procedente acaso de la Ciudad de México, el tren de San Luis Potosí lo transporta hasta Tampico; a bordo del Ferrocarril del Golfo atraviesa por Villa Cecilia –hoy Ciudad Madero—y desciende en la sede de los poderes del estado. Valentín Campa recuerda: “El PCM … organizó, a principios de 1926, una conferencia de Julio Antonio Mella en Ciudad Victoria”, despertándose “gran interés inclusive

entre intelectuales y estudiantes”. Las instalaciones del antiguo Teatro Juárez albergan dicho evento. Aunque costearlo implicaba duro reto, “pronto reunimos una buena cantidad (monetaria) que resolvió el problema … Fue así que (lo) conocí” y “me impresionó … su capacidad intelectual y de exposición”. En compañía de Tina Modotti, célebre fotógrafa, la noche del 10 de enero de 1929 el cubano transita por céntrico sector capitalino. De improviso le disparan por la espalda y muere. Hipótesis pretenden incriminar a Modotti. Sólidos indicios remiten empero a esbirros de Gerardo Machado, enemigo acérrimo de Mella. (Publicado con autorización del autor según se publicó en el blog Puras Historias)

NUEVO LAREDO

Reportan antena ilegal de radio E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

CD. VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — El Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas informó que el sábado 24 de septiembre, en el municipio de Nuevo Laredo, México, integrantes de una Base de Operaciones Mixtas (BOM) integrada por fuerzas federales y estatales, desactivaron una antena de radio frecuencia instalada por un grupo delincuencial, así como la detención de un narcomenudista en posesión de dosis de marihuana y cocaína. En recorrido por la colonia Guerrero de ese municipio, los integrantes de la BOM detectaron en el crucero de las calles Venezuela y Lerdo de Tejada una antena de radio comunicación que fue instalada sobre la estructura de la antena de una compañía telefónica, por lo que se procedió a desactivarla. Se estima que esta antena fue instalada clandestinamente por un grupo delincuencial que opera en Nuevo Laredo, a efecto de monitorear los movimientos de las fuerzas federales y estatales. Posteriormente, en recorrido por calles de la colonia Infonavit Fundadores, los integrantes de la BOM fueron alertados de un punto de venta de drogas en las calles Mutualista y Manuel González Jáuregui, donde detuvieron a un sujeto que se identificó como Cris Jaacob Rousse Encino, de 27 años y originario de la Ciudad de México. El narcomenudista tenía en su poder una bolsa de plástico que contenía 77 dosis de marihuana y cocaína, mismas que fueron puestas a disposición de las autoridades correspondientes, al igual que el detenido.

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 |

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION: SAN ANTONIO SPURS

Heavy defensive burden falls on bigs Gasol, Aldridge without Duncan Spurs have defensive hole to fill in paint By Nick Moyle SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS

Eric Gay / Associated Press file

Coming over from Chicago in the offseason, center Pau Gasol will team up on the Spurs with forward LaMarcus Aldridge as the duo will try to lessen the loss of the retired Tim Duncan.

Keeping the Spurs defense elite won't be as simple as plugging in one future Hall of Fame center for another. General manager R.C. Buford was prudent in luring Pau Gasol to San Antonio to replace the retired Tim Duncan, but he won't fit the Spurs' puzzle quite like Duncan did. Buford, and for that matter coach Gregg Popovich, know they're getting a player far different than the one who regulated everything for 19 seasons. For all of Gasol's talents – and they are plentiful – his perceived defensive deficiencies often overshadow his offensive production. He averaged 11.4 rebounds and two blocks per game in two seasons with the Bulls, and the team was slightly worse defensively with him on the bench, but no one ever confused his impact with Duncan's. He understands that. He also understands the task at

hand. "Defensively [Duncan] was a guy that was always in the right spot at the right time," Gasol said Monday. "He might have not been as athletic as he used to be, but he was always altering shots, communicating comfort and confidence to his teammates. That's kind of what I'm going to try to do, what I've been able to do most of the time in my career. I learned that's an important thing to be an anchor defensively." The Spurs led the league in defensive rating last year and have finished in the top 5 each of the past four seasons. To make it five straight, Gasol will need some help from LaMarcus Aldridge. "I think everybody has to take on that burden, it's not just one player's job," Aldridge said Monday. "No one can be Tim Duncan, so that's going to be everyone's job." Aldridge arrived in San Antonio with a reputation similar to Gasol's – a transcendent offensive talent with a

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

dubious commitment to defense. Last season altered those perceptions. Opponents shot 2.3 percent worse than average when guarded by Aldridge, and 2.7 percent worse from within six feet of the hoop. That growth can be partially attributed to playing in the Spurs system alongside Duncan and two-time Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard, but Aldridge also made strides all his own. Now the challenge for Aldridge and Gasol is to manifest that same stifling defense in the absence of one of the game's greatest defenders. "It's an opportunity. It's a privilege," Gasol said. "But at the same time it's a challenge. I'm a very ambitious guy. I look for challenges like this and this is why I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity. I'm just gonna focus on working and analyzing and getting a feel to see what is the best way to help this team be better." nmoyle@express-news.net Twitter: @NRMoyle

NBA: DALLAS MAVERICKS

COWBOYS OL COLLINS LIKELY OUT 10-12 WEEKS

Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press file

The Mavs have retooled in 2016, signing Harrison Barnes to a maximum contract in the offseason.

Barnes, Bogut are latest round of changes for Mavs By Schuyler Dixon ASSOCIATED PRE SS Roger Steinman / Associated Press

Dallas offensive lineman La'el Collins is expected to miss 10-12 weeks as he will have toe surgery. The team still has former starter Ron Leary on the roster as the replacement for the second-year player.

Collins sidelined, will Dez Bryant be out too? By David Moore TH E DALLAS MORNI NG NEWS

RISCO — The news is in on injured Cowboys left guard La'el Collins, and it's not good for Dallas. Will results be better for receiver Dez Bryant? Collins likely needs surgery on a torn ligament in his right big toe, according to sources, and is expected to be out 10-12 weeks. That could push a possible return into December. The Cowboys are leaning toward placing Collins on injured reserve, according to a source. Bryant was also injured in Sunday night's victory over the Chicago Bears. The status of his right

knee should be clarified soon. The team said following the game that early indications were he suffered a sprain, which he played through. He was expected to undergo an MRI on Monday. Coach Jason Garrett said Monday afternoon that evaluations on both players were ongoing. The Cowboys next travel to play the San Francisco 49ers. Collins said Sunday night that he suffered the toe injury on the team's field goal in the first quarter. The second-year player will be replaced by Ronald Leary, the former starter who missed organized team activities this spring to reinforce his message that he wanted to

be traded to a team where he could be a starter. He'd lost that role to Collins last season. The Cowboys now look wise for holding onto Leary, who has started 35 games for them and filled in during the second half against the Bears. In May, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said of Leary: "we're not in the business of letting go of good football players for little or nothing." Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee suffered a torn ligament in his right big toe in October 2012 that required surgery and would end his season. If the Cowboys place Collins on injured reserve, they would have the op-

tion to bring him back after eight weeks. Each NFL team can bring back one player on the injured reserve list each season. As for Bryant, he played 52 offensive snaps Sunday despite suffering the injury on the second play of the game. He scored on a physical, 17-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. He underwent an X-ray Sunday night. "It looked a little bit to me like he could feel that," Garrett said Monday of Bryant's injured knee. "But Dez is a tough individual. I think we all know that. He was going to fight through it. He played a number of plays. ...But again, we'll see how he feels today."

DALLAS — Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut are in, Chandler Parsons and Zaza Pachulia are out and Dallas coach Rick Carlisle has a retooled roster for the sixth consecutive time since winning a championship. Repeated efforts to land big names in free agency failed, which this year led to the additions of Barnes and Bogut from 2015 champion Golden State after the Warriors lured Kevin Durant from Oklahoma City and had to unload both starters to make cap room for the four-time NBA scoring champion. Barnes headlines the group of newcomers because he’ll be a top option on offense after signing a four-year, $94 million max contract. Over his four seasons with the Warriors, he was always a role player

behind Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Nowitzki, going into his 19th season at age 38, says Deron Williams was the best player on the team at times last season, and the Mavericks missed him in their five-game loss to Oklahoma City. He was limited by a sports hernia injury that required offseason surgery. Parsons signed a max deal with Memphis, and Pachulia went to the Warriors after the trade that landed Dallas the 7-footer Bogut, who should be a much stronger shot-blocking presence than his predecessor. The other notable newcomer is Curry’s younger brother, Seth Curry, who is on his fifth team in his fourth season but finally had a more prominent role last season in Sacramento. Former Baylor standout Quincy Acy is in Dallas after bouncing around for four years.

A8 | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

ENTERTAINMENT Selena Gomez’s Instagram account hits 100M followers A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

LOS ANGELES — Selena Gomez isn’t keeping her Instagram account to herself. The pop star has become the most followed celebrity on the popular photo sharing site. Gomez’s Instagram account became the first to hit the 100-million follower mark this week. The “Hands to Myself ” Gomez and “Same Old Love” signer now tops such fellow celebrity Instagramers as Taylor Swift (91.4 million), Beyonce (85.3 million), Ariana Grande (85 million) and Kim Kardashian West (83.6 million). The last photo she posted was an image of herself on stage six weeks ago. Gomez said in a statement last month that she’s taking a break from the spotlight to deal with anxiety, panic attacks and depression stemming from her battle with lupus. The singer said in a statement to People magazine that she wanted “to be proactive and focus on maintaining my health and happiness and have decided that the best way forward is to take some time off.”

Presidential debate reaches 84 million viewers, toppling 36-year ratings record By David Bauder ASSOCIATED PRE SS

NEW YORK — The showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was the mostwatched presidential debate ever, with 84 million viewers. The Nielsen company said the viewership, over 13 different networks, toppled a record that had stood for 36 years. The previous record for presidential debate viewership was the 80.6 million people who saw the only debate in 1980 between incumbent Democrat

Genna Martin / seattlepi.com

A group of Democrats gather to watch Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face off in Seattle.

Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan. No debate since then had exceeded 70 million

viewers. Social media was humming, too, with Nielsen saying there were some 17.1 million Twitter inter-

actions involving 2.7 million people on Monday. Tivo said that the moment during the debate that caused more people to pause their television and play back what was said came near the end, when Trump said that he will “absolutely support” Clinton if she is elected president. Clinton has some bragging rights at home. When final results are in, the audience for her first presidential debate will more than double what her husband, former President Bill Clinton, received for his last presidential debate in 1996 (36.3 million

viewers). Only the Super Bowl annually commands a television audience of that size. The biggest audience in U.S. television history was the 114.4 million people who watched the 2015 Super Bowl between New England and Seattle. The news was particularly good for NBC. Not only did it have more viewers than any other network showing the debate, but “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt’s reviews as moderator were more positive than Matt Lauer received for his interviews with the candidates this month.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 |

BUSINESS

US probing possible worker abuse by Wells Fargo By Marcy Gordon A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Labor Department is investigating possible abuses of employees by Wells Fargo in connection with the bank’s alleged efforts to open millions of unauthorized accounts to meet sales goals. A group of Democratic senators last week asked the department to investigate whether Wells Fargo tellers, branch managers and customer service reps were harassed and threatened with termination in the aggressive sales push. A complete review of cases and complaints is needed to determine if the second-largest U.S. bank violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the senators said. About 5,300 employees have been

fired since 2011. In a letter Monday, Labor Secretary Tom Perez said the department takes the senators’ concerns seriously and has started a “top-tobottom” review of labor practices at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo. “We take the concerns raised in your letter very seriously,” Perez told the senators, led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “Given the serious nature of the allegations ... and recent media reports, I have directed enforcement agencies within the department to conduct a top-to-bottom review of cases, complaints or violations concerning Wells Fargo over the last several years.” Bank spokeswoman Jennifer Dunn declined to comment on the Labor Department action. The scandal over mil-

Pete Marovich / Bloomberg

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, seen testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Sept. 20, was given $161 million in bonuses and performance awards from 2011-2015 by his company.

lions of deposit and credit card accounts allegedly opened without customers’ permission has widened. The Labor Department review comes atop investigations by congressional committees and federal prosecutors. U.S. and California

regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million earlier this month. In a feverish drive to meet sales targets, bank employees opened the unauthorized accounts, transferred customers’ money into them and signed people up for online banking,

according to the regulators. Debit cards were issued and activated, as well as PINs created, without customers’ knowledge. Senators of both parties heaped criticism on Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf last week as he testified at a hearing by the Senate Banking Committee, accusing the bank of fraud. He apologized for the misconduct and promised to assist affected customers. Senators told Stumpf he was scapegoating legions of lower-level employees while senior executives kept their jobs and received hefty pay packages. In their request to the Labor Department, the Democratic senators noted the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had found at Wells Fargo “a workplace characterized by

stringent sales quotas and aggressive incentives imposed on its employees.” In the drive to meet sales quotas, employees were faced with “threats of termination, mandated hours of unpaid overtime, harassment and other forms of retaliation,” the senators wrote. On Friday, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said Stumpf was resigning his position on the advisory council to the Fed board in Washington. Stumpf made a “personal decision” to give up his position as representative from the Fed’s San Francisco region to focus on his top priority of leading Wells Fargo, the company said. Stumpf is returning to Congress to testify Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee.

Unhappy Target customers send strong message on new pill bottles By Tom Murphy A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

Longtime customers of Target’s pharmacies are finding a change in pill bottle design hard to swallow. After CVS began operating Target’s drugstores earlier this year, distraught customers have been asking — in some cases begging — the drugstore chain to bring back the retailer’s red prescription bottles, which came with color-coded rings, labeling on the top and prescription information that was easier to read. Some customers also took more drastic steps. Vivian Ruth Sawyer went fishing through her trash to rescue the old Target bottles soon after opening her stapled prescription bag to find the dowdy, white-capped amber vials that are common in most medicine cabinets. She has since poured refills of her thyroid medicine into the old Target bottles, even though they don’t have the right expiration dates. It’s worth it, she said, because those bottles make it easier to tell her prescriptions apart when she looks in her drawer for them. “This is really inconvenient and irritating,” the

Louisville, Kentucky, resident said. CVS says it is working on designing a new system for dispensing prescriptions and helping people stay on their medications, but spokeswoman Carolyn Castel declined to share details or say whether that might involve an updated bottle design. Meanwhile, shoppers continue to mourn the loss of a bottle that was considered groundbreaking when it debuted about a decade ago and was once on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Target flipped bottle design on its head in 2005 when it introduced a red container with the opening on the bottom. That allowed the label to wrap around the top so it could be seen from above. It included a flat surface that customers found easier to read than the curve of a typical pill bottle, and it came with color-coded rings for the neck to help family members quickly tell their medicines apart. Deborah Adler devised the new approach as part of her master’s thesis at New York’s School of Visual Arts. She was inspired to try something different after her grandmother mistakenly took

Mel Evans / AP

In this Sept. 18 photo, Shelley Ewalt sits in her home, in Princeton, N.J., near an amber-colored CVS pharmacy prescription bottle, right, and two uniquely designed red ones from Target.

her grandfather’s prescription. Adler now runs her own design business and is working with CVS on its new prescription system. The red bottles were important to Christina Mihalek, of Cincinnati, because she accidentally took her mom’s high blood pressure medicine instead of an antibiotic when she was in high school, and she passed out in the lunch line that day. Mihalek took to Twitter to voice her displeasure, telling CVS in a

post with the hashtag (hash)redbottlesrock that “perfection was at your fingertips.” Shelley Ewalt of Princeton, New Jersey, also tweeted to the drugstore chain, asking if there was any chance they might return to the “vastly superior design” of the Target bottles, which she found easier to open. Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS Health Corp., which runs the nation’s second-largest drugstore chain, started

operating Target pharmacies earlier this year as part of a $1.9 billion deal the companies announced in 2015. CVS’s Castel said the company stopped using Minneapolis-based Target Corp.’s bottles because it’s more efficient to fill prescriptions with the same bottle at all of its 9,600 pharmacies. Customer visits to Target’s in-store pharmacies slipped in the second quarter. Castel said CVS doesn’t see a connection between that and the

change in prescription bottles. But the bottle switch might have influenced a small percentage of customers to shop elsewhere, according to Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with market researcher NPD Group. He said the second quarter was tough for many retailers, but he also noted that regular customers to pharmacies don’t like change. “When you start tinkering with things ... the consumer kind of gets a little testy,” he said. Patients can buy prescription bottle caps that glow or beep when it’s time to take their medicine. But Purdue University pharmacy professor Alan Zillich hasn’t seen much of an evolution in the design of pill containers used by pharmacies because it just isn’t worth it, financially. “Even though drugs cost a lot, pharmacies don’t make much off each individual prescription,” he said. Sawyer still holds out hope that any new system CVS adopts might include features from the old Target bottles to replace the amber bottles, which she describes as a “ghastly” leftover from the 1950s. “Everyone else uses the same stupid bottle,” she said.

A10 | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

INTERNATIONAL

LGBTQ festival Colombia’s road to peace marred by multiple obstacles canceled in Haiti amid threats By Joshua Goodman ASSOCIATED PRE SS

By David McFadden A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Organizers of a cultural festival in Haiti celebrating the Afro-Caribbean LGBTQ community said Tuesday that it has been called off due to numerous threats of violence and a subsequent prohibition by a government commissioner. The four-day Massimadi film, art and performance event was supposed to start Tuesday in the capital, Port-auPrince, but organizers said it had to be postponed as a prominent Haitian cultural institution known as FOKAL and other cohosts were threatened with arson and other attacks. “FOKAL has been receiving threats of outrageous violence,” said Lorraine Mangones, executive director of the nonprofit Knowledge & Freedom Foundation. Jeudy Charlot of the gay rights group Kouraj, the main organizer of the event, said he is determined that the arts festival by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Haitians and their supporters will be held at a later date. “There are very homophobic people who are against it, and the government official who is responsible for the jurisdiction of Port-au-Prince has also taken a decision to prevent the festival for now,” said Charlot. “But we still plan on holding Massimadi in the future.”

Capital Commissioner Jean Danton Leger confirmed that he issued an order to block the festival, telling a local radio station it was in part to protect Haiti’s “moral and social” values. Leger had received a complaint in recent days from Sen. Jean Renel Senatus, who considers the event an affront to traditional families. Haiti’s LGBTQ community has long remained largely underground because of social stigma, although there are no laws criminalizing homosexual relations as there are in a number of English-speaking Caribbean islands. The Massimadi festival was first launched in 2009 in Montreal by a group called African Rainbow. It has also been held without any problems in Belgium. This was the first year it was scheduled to take place in Haiti. “Unfortunately the situation is getting more and more dramatic,” said Anthony Manuel Plagnes Paya, festival spokesman in Montreal. “Kouraj members are threatened (with) death and are scared to go out.” Staff and volunteers at Kouraj’s headquarters in Port-au-Prince said they were determined not to be intimidated and believe tolerance is expanding in Haiti. “More LGBT people are coming out and accepting themselves more these days,” Charlot said. “They walk on the streets very proud.”

CARTAGENA, Colombia — The contrast couldn’t be more dramatic: As Colombia’s president and the head of its largest guerrilla movement were putting their signatures on a historic peace deal, a 6-year-old boy was killed when he chased a soccer ball into a field and stepped on a land mine left behind during the half-century conflict. Even as this nation celebrates the end of hostilities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the harsh reality that fueled the long conflict is settling in. From the security challenges posed by surging coca crops and dangerous criminal gangs to the difficult task of removing land mines and reintegrating guerrillas blamed for numerous atrocities, the work ahead is daunting. The first test is getting sufficient political support to implement the lofty accords, signed Monday in this Caribbean resort city despite widespread distrust of the guerrillas. Polls show that a referendum on the deal is expected to pass Sunday. But the margin of victory is still in play and nobody expects the sort of strong turnout that would put the wartorn country firmly on the path to reconciliation. Most of Colombia’s challenges are in its vast, long-neglected countryside, where the guerrilla group long held sway and criminal activity remains rampant. The challenge is made all the more difficult by stiff opposition to the peace deal from the coun-

Raul Arboleda / Getty

Members of the FARC attend the broadcasting of the signing of the peace at El Diamante rebel camp.

try’s powerful former president, Alvaro Uribe, architect of the U.S.backed military offensive that forced the rebels to the negotiating table, and a collapse in oil prices that has drained government coffers. “The smooth part is going to end pretty abruptly,” said Adam Isacson, a long-time observer of Colombia and analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America. “When you hit the second half of 2017 and you really do kind of fall off the edge of the Earth, it’s going to get very confusing.” The land mine tragedy took place Monday in a plantain field in the town of Algeciras in southern Colombia, one of 700 settlements where land mines have been detected, most planted by the rebels and blamed for more than 11,000 deaths since 1990. Besides killing 6-year-old Yorman Gonzalez, whose body was riddled with shrapnel, the blast injured his friend, who is recovering in a nearby hospital. “This saddens us and obviously tarnishes the happiness we feel over the signing of the accord,”

said Javier Rivera, the town’s mayor. Much of Colombia’s attention has focused on the creation of special peace tribunals to judge the crimes of the rebels and state actors. For many families touched by the violence, the accord’s provision sparing the rebels jail time if they confess to their crimes and surrender their weapons is an insult too far. It’s also unclear to what extent the FARC will cooperate and compensate victims, as called for by the deal, following the poor example given by far-right paramilitary troops that disarmed a decade ago. But if healing the wounds from a conflict that has left 220,000 people dead and almost 8 million homeless isn’t daunting enough, there’s the challenge of preventing the next outbreak of violence. The FARC is the most powerful and best-organized illegal armed group in Colombia but it isn’t the only one. Authorities say there’s already evidence that criminal gangs and a smaller guerrilla group, the National Liberation

Army, are moving into areas being vacated by the FARC. They are drawn by Colombia’s lucrative cocaine trade, which shows no sign of losing steam. The FARC has long demanded hefty payments from coca growers in areas they dominated in exchange for providing protection from U.S.backed forced-eradication efforts. The drug profits strengthened the group even as other leftist insurgencies in Latin America were defeated. As part of the peace deal, FARC leaders have committed to assisting the government in alternative development and eradication. But there’s fear that some rebels, especially mid-level commanders who have no real political future, will resist abandoning the cash cow. And even if they do, others are willing to step in. Getting it right matters beyond Colombia’s borders. The world’s largest supplier of cocaine, the country saw six straight years of declining or steady production reversed when the amount of land under coca cultivation jumped by 39 percent in 2014 and by another 42 percent last year, to 392,000 acres (159,000 hectares), according to U.S. government figures. For those among the FARC’s estimated 7,000 fighters who do disarm, the journey back to gainful employment and acceptance by society is likely to be a long one. The experience following the defeat of insurgencies in neighboring Central America is a cautionary tale: many former rebels ended up joining gangs.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 |

A11

FROM THE COVER

Reason to cringe: Female voters react to Trump By Julie Pace A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. — When Donald Trump challenged Hillary Clinton’s stamina on the debate stage, Pennsylvania voter Patricia Bennett said she heard a “dog whistle” that smacked of unmistakable sexism. “Why doesn’t he just say that she needs more testosterone?” said Bennett, a 69-year-old independent from the Philadelphia suburbs who plans to vote for Clinton in November. Across the country, Lisa Lowe, a Colorado Democrat who was lukewarm about Clinton before Monday’s debate, said Trump behaved like a “negative bully.” Kris Stotler, an undecided Virginia Republican, was disappointed by Trump’s jarring criticism of a for-

RANCH From page A1 immigrants suspected of entering the country illegally. Around the same time,

POPE From page A1 the papal visit to Ciudad Juárez was meant to honor the region’s binational culture and resilience as much as its primary religion. But Pope Francis’ message of faith and hope, which brought international attention and — for a time — local promise, has been complicated by an uptick in recent violence here, a city where memories of an enduring drug war that killed thousands are fresh. In the days leading up to the Feb. 17 papal Mass, which was celebrated in Ciudad Juárez and broadcast to thousands at Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, the Pope’s smiling image was plastered across the city on signs that read “Juárez Es Amor” (Juárez Is Love). Vendors enjoyed a slight surge in business as American tourists, some of whom had abandoned the city years ago, traveled south of the Rio Grande to shop and eat. For 20-year-old Luis Gomez, that seems like ages ago. “They just covered things up during the visit, then everything went back to normal,” he said after attending Mass at Ciudad Juárez’s Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe last week.

DEBATE From page A1 Things are already getting plenty personal. On Monday night, Trump brushed off Clinton’s debate claim that he’d once shamed a former Miss Universe winner for her weight. But then he dug deeper the next day — extending the controversy over what was one of his most negative debate night moments. “She gained a massive amount of weight. It was a real problem. We had a real problem,” Trump told “Fox and Friends” about Alicia Machado, the 1996 winner of the pageant he once owned. The comments were reminiscent of previous times when Trump has attacked private citizens in deeply personal terms. Earlier this month, he was interrupted by the pastor of a traditionally AfricanAmerican church in Flint, Michigan, after breaking

mer beauty queen’s weight, comments Clinton forcefully condemned during the faceoff. “It’s incredibly distasteful, and it doesn’t stop,” Stotler, 48, said of Trump. “Even if you thought that, why would you say that?” Bennett, Lowe and Stotler were among two dozen female voters from battleground states who spoke with The Associated Press on Tuesday. Nearly all expressed concerns with Trump’s critical and often demeaning comments about women, as well as his approach toward Clinton in the debate. The concerns were shared, too, by some women who plan to vote for Trump in November, though his supporters were more forgiving in their assessments. “I think you’ll see a different comeback from

him in the next debate,” said Carole Staats, a 60year-old Republican from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. While Clinton has held a lead in preference polls among female voters throughout her general election contest with Trump, she aims to widen that margin as much as possible to offset her weakness with men. She also needs to urgently energize younger female voters, who have been more skeptical of the first woman nominated for the White House by a major U.S. political party. After Monday’s debate, Clinton’s team believes it has all the ammunition it needs to rally women in the campaign’s closing weeks. That’s due in part to strong execution by Clinton, who arrived at the debate armed with numerous past statements

a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper pulled over the Lincoln for allegedly having an expired license registration. Its driver was identified as Ramos and Herrera as the front passenger.

Five occupants they were transporting were in the country illegally, according to court documents. Herrera, Padilla, Ramos and the 10 immigrants were taken to the Zapata station.

Instead, agents said they followed the Explorer because it appeared to be riding lower

“Things are the same — or worse.” From 2008 to 2011, the Sinaloa cartel, whose infamous escape artist of a leader Joaquin Chapo Guzman is in a Mexican federal prison on the outskirts of the city, contributed to the killings of thousands of people in Ciudad Juárez as it fought the Juárez cartel for control of the drug corridors that extend into Texas and beyond. The violence cooled considerably in recent years; some attribute it to beefed up law enforcement, others to one cartel successfully dethroning another. But in the first nine months of 2016, the city has seen more homicides — 345 — than it did in all of 2015, as mass killings have erupted in parts of the city and authorities have uncovered dead bodies, according to local media reports. It’s still not nearly as bad as it was a few years ago, said Antonio Rivera, a Ciudad Juárez cab driver. But he said his customers have a heightened sense of paranoia that another violent spell is on the horizon, one that the papal visit quelled only briefly. “The beautiful thing was the visit — it was very beautiful,” he said. “But the violence is starting to rise again.” It’s unclear exactly why. Some say Caro

Quintero, who founded a major criminal group years ago that later split into several others — including the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels — wants to regain control of the plaza that extends from Ciudad Juárez north into El Paso. Quintero was connected to the 1985 murder of Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, and congressional lawmakers have said that his 2013 release from a Mexican prison could be troubling for U.S-Mexico relations. But others argue that’s a smokescreenoffered by government officials who don’t have a handle on violence in the region. North of the Rio Grande, however, people are more optimistic about the lasting effects of the papal visit. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said his sister city is vastly improved and that he felt safe being out in public there. “I feel it’s a very secure area,” he said. “When I was there the last time, I got off in downtown Juarez wearing a suit and hat and I walked through the streets and shook a lot of hands and took a lot of pictures.” And Bishop Mark Seitz of the El Paso Catholic Diocese said that donations to the church are up about 2.5 percent since the papal visit.

“The Pope’s visit brought together our region toward a common goal,” Seitz said in an email. “The relationship of the Catholic Church in El Paso with that of the Church in Ciudad Juárez, across the border, and with our neighboring Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico was strengthened.” Seitz believes the effects of Pope Francis’ mass and message won’t fade away soon. “These benefits are difficult to measure, but we who live here are aware that our profound experience is more than just a happy memory,” he said. Some in Ciudad Juárez are holding onto a different kind of faith — for those in elected office. Rivera, the cab driver, said he hopes the city’s incoming mayor, former television personality Armando Cabada, will be a fresh start. Cabada joins a small but growing list of independent candidates elected since Mexico amended its Constitution in 2014 to allow runs for office without official party affiliation. “It’s not the same as before, either the [Institutional Revolutionary Party] or the [National Action Party],” Rivera said. “And we hope that some things will change, something nice in Juárez.”

She believes that Zapata could see a 50-60 percent voter turnout for this election. Alberto Torres, Webb County Democratic Party chair, said he was happy to see so many people turn out for the first presidential debate of the year. “Hillary shares a lot of the visions that we do,” he said. “She cares about immigration, equal pay — everyday issues.” Torres also said Clinton’s debate performance was fantastic. “She’s giving us the answers and she’s being realistic,” he said. Webb County Republican Chair Randy Blair didn’t think that either candidate performed particularly well. “(Clinton) has not said what she would do different,” Blair said over the phone. “(Trump) didn’t have quite the temperament that I would have liked to see him have. He’s not a professional debater — he’s also not a professional politician. That’s what (Clinton) is, and that’s what our country is trying to get away from. “As far as who won the debate, I can tell you who lost it, and that’s the American people.” Blair said he hopes the next debate is more orga-

his agreement not to be political in his remarks. Though Trump abided by her wishes, he went after her the next morning on TV saying she was “a nervous mess” and that he thought “something was up.” In July, Trump assailed the parents of Humayun Khan, a Muslim U.S. solider who was killed in Iraq in 2004, after the young man’s father spoke out against the Republican at the Democratic National Convention. Trump’s latest comments about Machado were striking in that they came just as he was working to broaden his appeal among minority voters and women — key demographic groups he’s struggling to win. Clinton aides on Tuesday that they’d laid a trap for Trump. “He seemed unable to handle that big stage,” said Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. “By the end, with kind of

snorting and the water gulping and leaning on the lectern that he just seemed really out of gas.” Clinton interrupted a discussion of foreign policy in the final moments of the debate to remind viewers that Trump had called Machado “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.” A video featuring Machado, a Clinton supporter, was released less than two hours after the debate finished. Aiming to capitalize on Trump’s renewed focus on a woman’s weight, Clinton’s campaign also dispatched Machado to tell reporters how she spent years struggling with eating disorders after being humiliated publicly by Trump. “I never imagined then, 20 years later I would be in this position, I would be in this moment, like, watching this guy again doing stupid things and stupid comments,” Machado said. “It’s really a bad dream for me.

Both campaigns knew the first debate, watched by some 80 million people, could mark a turning point six weeks before Election Day with Trump and Clinton locked in an exceedingly close race. Clinton moved quickly to capitalize on her performance, launching new attacks on Trump’s failure to release his tax returns and profiting from the subprime mortgage crisis. As Trump courted Hispanic voters in Miami, Clinton hammered on an allegation she’d leveled the night before: that he is refusing to release his returns because he goes years without paying any federal taxes. “That makes me smart,” was Trump’s coy response in the debate, but on Tuesday, Clinton insisted it was nothing to brag about. “If not paying taxes makes him smart what does that make all the rest of us?” Added an incredulous Joe Biden, campaigning

for Clinton in Pennsylvania: “What in the hell he is talking about?” Democrats are also sure to keep focusing on Trump’s false assertions about President Barack Obama’s birthplace, with the president scheduled to make a Wednesday appearance on Steve Harvey’s TV show. Trump’s campaign aides had worked hard in recent weeks to keep him on message — and away from personal attacks — persuading him to use teleprompters and reach out to minority audiences. Their moderate success in scripting Trump came to a halt on Tuesday. Though he insisted he’d done “very well,” Trump accused moderator Lester Holt of going harder on him than Clinton. He insisted he had “no sniffles” and no allergies despite the (hash)snifflegate speculation that had exploded on social media. He suggested he’d been given a microphone with

Jewel Samad / Getty

A woman wearing a U.S. flag temporary tattoo poses before of the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York on Sept. 26.

Trump has made about women. She was particularly assertive in calling him out for once labeling 1996 Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy” after she gained weight. But Trump also did himself few favors. He interrupted Clinton repeatedly during the debate, at times leaning into his microphone to declare “wrong!” as she was talking. And he perplexingly stood by his criticism of Machado the morning after the debate, saying in

an interview on Fox News Channel that Machado was one of the “worst we ever had” in the beauty contest he used to own. “She gained a massive amount of weight,” Trump said. “It was a real problem. We had a real problem.” Clinton’s campaign quickly lined up Machado for a conference call with reporters. The Venezuelan-born Machado, now a U.S. citizen, said she hoped her story would “open eyes” about Trump in the election.

Debby Bower, a 41year-old Democrat who lives in the Denver suburbs, said Trump’s taunting of the former beauty queen was “painful to my soul.” “It hurts my heart when I hear the hateful, spiteful language that Mr. Trump uses,” Bower said. According to a recent Associated Press-GfK poll of registered voters, 64 percent of women have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, while 58 percent of men view the Republican nominee negatively.

WOMEN From page A1

than normal. Agents conducted a vehicle stop. They identified the driver as Fernandez and Casias as the front passenger. Agents also discovered six people suspected of entering

the country illegally. Fernandez and Casias allegedly admitted to smuggling the immigrants for a $1,000 payment each, according to court documents.

OFFICIALS From page A1

nized and better-moderated. El Cenizo Mayor Raul Reyes said he was disappointed to see no elected officials who ran as Democrats at the watch party. “We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and think that Hillary has this thing in the bag,” Reyes said. Mellie Hereford, a Webb County Republican Party member, said she knew who she would be voting for long before the debate started. “It’s because of my religious views,” Hereford said. “Hillary is a proponent of abortion, and I am against abortion. ... Even though both candidates are very flawed, I have to protect the lesser of two evils.” She also said Clinton failed as secretary of state, citing the Benghazi scandal. Both Trump and Clinton won the primary elections in Zapata County. Clinton won 67.8 percent of the Democratic vote, with 1,969 votes cast in her favor. Trump won 39.5 percent of the Republican vote in Zapata County, with 34 votes. Zapata was one of only six counties in Texas that Ted Cruz lost in the March primary. Julia Wallace may be reached at jwallace@lmtonline.com

lower volume than Clinton’s. Her cheerful reaction: “Anybody who complained about the microphone is not having a good night.” The Trump campaign plans to spend $100 million on television advertising before Election Day, spokesman Jason Miller told The Associated Press. Of the $20 million in TV airtime his campaign had already scheduled, a whopping $13 million is aimed at Florida voters, according to Kantar Media’s political ad tracker. Trump did not address his criticism of Machado as he faced Hispanic voters in a small theater blocks from Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. In rather subdued tones, he only briefly addressed his debate performance the night before. “It was an interesting evening certainly. Big league. Definitely big league,” Trump said. “I really enjoyed it.”

A12 | Wednesday, September 28, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES