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FEDERAL COURT
FEDERAL COURT
Striking back
Convicted dealer gets 60 months
Zeta leader’s kin plead to laundering charges By JASON BUCH AND GUILLERMO CONTRERAS SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS
AUSTIN — Two women related to the feared leader of the Zetas drug cartel pleaded guilty to money laundering charges Friday in a federal courtroom here, part of a case that has made public allegations of the cartel’s brutal-
Zulema Treviño gave up her rights to the hundreds of horses. ity, its strong presence in U.S. horse racing circles and its ability to corrupt politicians in Mexico. Zulema Treviño pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering con-
spiracy, admitting that from 2008 to 2012 she helped her husband, José Treviño Morales, launder millions of dollars of the gang’s money through a quarter horse breeding
and racing operation. Her daughter Alexandra Garcia Treviño pleaded guilty to one count of misprision of a felony, admitting that she knew about the money laundering scheme and didn’t alert authorities. Prosecutors recommended both women re-
See ZETAS PAGE 11A
Jose Daniel Mercado also assessed fine By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
LAREDO — A person who federal officials labeled the “biggest cocaine dealer” in the Zapata area was sentenced to prison.
U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña sentenced Jose Daniel Mercado to 60 months in prison, to be followed by a three-year supervised release. Merca-
See COURT PAGE 11A
EASTER
COLORFUL EGGS SIGNAL EASTER
Photo by Danny Zaragoza | The Zapata Times
Bags full of Easter eggs sit on the ground near a vendor’s stand full of Easter baskets, at the intersection of McPherson Avenue and Jacaman Road in Laredo on Friday afternoon.
COST OF LIVING
Food prices on rise Quarterly food basket increases to $46.40, according to TFB’s Grocery Price Watch survey, an increase of 5.5% SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
WACO — Predictions last year that drought in Texas and the Midwest would eventually force food prices higher became reality in the first quarter of 2013, according to the latest Texas Farm Bureau Grocery Price Watch survey. “Food prices finally caught up with the drought’s devastation,” said
TFB President Kenneth Dierschke. “It’s been a tough go for Texas farmers and ranchers, and consumers now are feeling the pinch.” The total cost of the 16item basket surveyed was $46.40, an increase of nearly 5.5 percent from results reported in November 2012. The largest increases were in beef, as the price of lean ground beef rose more than 10 percent from last quarter
to $3.58 per pound and sirloin steak was up nearly 19 percent at $6.12 per pound. “Ranchers in Texas and across the U.S. have struggled to maintain their herds in the wake of this record drought,” Dierschke said. “Without rain, pastures did not grow and there was not enough grass to feed the cattle. Many ranchers had to
See FOOD PAGE 11A
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
SATURDAY, MARCH 30
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Texas A&M International University Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium will show “Earth, Moon, and Sun” at 3 p.m. and “Lamps of Atlantis” at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Matinee show is $4. General admission is $4 for children and $5 adults. Premium shows are $1 more. Call 956-326-3663.
Today is Saturday, March 30, the 89th day of 2013. There are 276 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan escaped an attempt on his life outside a Washington D.C. hotel, where he was shot and seriously wounded by John W. Hinckley Jr. Also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty. On this date: In 1135, the Jewish philosopher Maimonides was born in Cordoba in present-day Spain. In 1822, Florida became a United States territory. In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million. In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited denying citizens the right to vote and hold office on the basis of race, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. Texas was readmitted to the Union. In 1909, the Queensboro Bridge, linking the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, opened. In 1923, the Cunard liner RMS Laconia became the first passenger ship to circle the globe as it arrived in New York. In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Austria during World War II. In 1959, a narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Bartkus v. Illinois, ruled that a conviction in state court following an acquittal in federal court for the same crime did not constitute double jeopardy. In 1963, singer Lesley Gore, age 16, recorded her hit “It’s My Party” for Mercury Records in New York. In 1972, North Vietnamese forces launched their threepronged Easter Offensive against South Vietnam; the fighting lasted until the following October. In 1986, actor James Cagney died at his farm in Stanfordville, N.Y., at age 86. In 2002, Britain’s Queen Mother Elizabeth died at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101 years old. Ten years ago: A Palestinian suicide bomber wounded some 30 people outside a packed cafe in northern Israel, an attack the Islamic Jihad called “Palestine’s gift to the heroic people of Iraq.” Today’s Birthdays: Game show host Peter Marshall is 87. Actor Richard Dysart is 84. Actor John Astin is 83. Entertainer Rolf Harris is 83. Actordirector Warren Beatty is 76. Rock musician Graeme Edge (The Moody Blues) is 72. Rock musician Eric Clapton is 68. Actor Justin Deas is 65. Actor Robbie Coltrane is 63. Actor Paul Reiser is 56. Rap artist MC Hammer is 50. Singer Tracy Chapman is 49. Actor Ian Ziering is 49. Singer Celine Dion is 45. Actor Mark Consuelos is 42. Actress Bahar Soomekh is 38. Actress Jessica Cauffiel is 37. Singer Norah Jones is 34. Actress Fiona Gubelmann is 33. Actress Katy Mixon is 32. Actor Jason Dohring is 31. Country singer Justin Moore is 29. Thought for Today: “Prophecy, however honest, is generally a poor substitute for experience.” — Benjamin N. Cardozo, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1870-1938).
TUESDAY, APRIL 2 The Alzheimer’s support group will be at 7 p.m. in meeting room 2, Building B at Laredo Medical Center. The support group is for family members and caregivers of those who have Alzheimer’s. The Les Amis Social Club will host its month meeting at the Holiday Inn Civic Center at 11:30. This month’s honoree is Leonor (Noni) Daves. This month’s hostesses are Olga Laurel, Dora Rocha and Maria Olivia Salinas. Photo by Paul Iverson/Corpus Christi Caller-Times | AP
THURSDAY, APRIL 4 Divine Mercy Catholic Church will host a conference entitled “The Healing Power of God’s Mercy,” starting today until April 6. The sessions for this conference will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on April 4 and 5. On April 6, an all-day session will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Donations are $10 for adults and $5 for youth. Call 956-726-0210.
FRIDAY, APRIL 5 The Texas A&M International University Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium will show "Seven Wonders" at 6 p.m. and "Lamps of Atlantis" at 7 p.m. General admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Premium shows are $1 more. Call 956-326-3663.
SATURDAY, APRIL 6 The Texas A&M International University Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium will show: "The Little Star That Could" at 3 p.m.; "Ancient Skies, Ancient Mysteries" at 4 p.m.; and "Lamps of Atlantis" at 5 p.m. Matinee show is $4. General admission for is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Premium shows are $1 more. Call 956-326-3663. The community is invited to attend the St. John Neumann Catholic Church’s Spring Jamaica from 4-210 p.m. The festival will have cake, plants and food booths, as well as music, a country store and children’s games. Bingo will be from 3-6 p.m. A silent auction will begin at the jamaica and will extend until April 14, taking place after each weekend Mass. For more information, contact Sanjuanita MartinezHunter at 722-3497. First United Methodist Church in Laredo will hold a used book sale, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 1220 McClelland Ave. Hardback books are $1, paperback books 50 cents, and magazines and children’s books 25 cents.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 The International Bank of Commerce 2012-2013 Keynote Speaker Series featuring Dr. Peter Dorfman is from 7:30-9 p.m. at the TAMIU Student Center Ballroom. Dorfman is the president of the board for the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Foundation for Research and Education in Las Cruces, N.M. He will present “Executive leadership from the GLOBE worldwide perspective: What do outstanding CEOs have in common in comparison to less than stellar CEOs?” This event is free. Call 326-2820.
In this 2001 photo, Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez looks at one of the signs that District Judge Manuel Banales ordered 21 registered sex offenders to place in their yards in Corpus Christi. Business interests are now asking that employer information be purged from the Texas sex offender registry.
Sex offenders may win By PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Four convicted sex offenders huddled in a busy hallway at the Texas Capitol, congratulating each other for testifying against a bill that would plaster their criminal past on their Facebook profiles. As expected, not everyone was moved by their objections. “I don’t feel bad for the guys that came in here whining,” Republican state Rep. Steve Toth said after the men had left the room at a recent House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting. In the Texas Legislature and statehouses nationwide, bills aimed at curbing how and where sex offenders can live and work are routine. But for the 72,000 registered sex offenders in Texas this year, there is optimism. A legislative victory is in sight, and it’s not
for sinking a fresh round of get-tougher proposals — but scaling back one in place. Pushing forward what advocates say would mark a minor softening of the state’s sex offender laws, the Senate has passed a bill to remove employer information from Texas’ online sex offender registry. “I’ve been on that registry for 15 years and going on for a lifetime,” said Hwi-Kee Wong, 34, who works in information technology and said he was arrested at 18 for copying illegal images. “I’ve never re-offended.” It’s not a change of heart swaying lawmakers but frustrated business leaders — they complain their bottom line suffers when the public discovers who’s on the payroll. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which backs business-friendly bills, argues the registry comes between the private relationship between employer and employee.
Businessman sentenced for biodiesel scam
Recordings to help relocate birds from park
Police: Man admits to damaging cars
LUBBOCK — A West Texas businessman was sentenced Friday to more than 15 years in prison for a biodiesel scam that generated nearly $42 million in revenue. Jeffrey David Gunselman, 30, was ordered by a federal judge to pay nearly $55 million in restitution. Gunselman had pleaded guilty in December to 51 counts of wire fraud and 24 counts of money laundering.
ROCKPORT — Beckoning sounds at a city park could entice some feathered guests to move to a safer spot away from vehicles. Black skimmers have laid claim to a patch in a Rockport Beach Park traffic circle. A recording of a black skimmer mating call will be played on a loop. The goal is to lure the birds to a safer nesting spot a few yards away.
AUSTIN — A 23-year-old man has been arrested after admitting to being the driver of a car that barreled into a dealership, damaging at least 18 vehicles. Hipolito Rebollar was arrested Wednesday and charged with reckless driving. Police say Rebollar lost control of his Nissan Altima along an Interstate 35 access road in Austin. The car struck a line of vehicles parked at a Hyundai dealership.
State unemployment rate ticks upward
Canton officer faces federal drug counts
3 men allegedly tried to sell stolen ambulance
AUSTIN — The Texas unemployment rate rose slightly in February to 6.4 percent, but leading industries continue to add jobs and show strength, the Texas Workforce Commission announced Friday. The commission said the state still added 80,600 jobs in February, bringing the total over the last year to 359,800.
TYLER — An East Texas police officer has been charged with using his position to acquire hydrocodone by fraud. Federal prosecutors say Canton police Officer James Melvin Bradshaw faces six counts of acquiring a controlled substance by misrepresentation. Bradshaw was arrested Thursday.
CONROE — Three Houston men have been charged with stealing an ambulance and trying to sell the emergency vehicle for scrap metal recycling. Montgomery County Jail records show Peter Burks, Oscar Comeaux III and James West were being held Friday on felony theft charges. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION
FRIDAY, APRIL 12 The Texas A&M International University Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium will show "Earth, Moon and Sun" at 6 p.m. and "Lamps of Atlantis" at 7 p.m. Matinee show is $4. General admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Premium shows are $1 more. Call 956-326-3663.
SATURDAY, APRIL 13 The Texas A&M International University Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium will show: "One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure" at 3 p.m.; "Lamps of Atlantis" at 4 p.m.; and "Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon" at 5 p.m. Matinee show is $4. General admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Premium shows are $1 more. Call 956-326-3663.
SATURDAY, JUNE 1 The Bass Champs South Region Fishing Tournament is set for 7 a.m. through 4 p.m. at the Zapata County Public Boat Ramp.
NWS expands severe weather warnings ST. PAUL, Minn. — In an effort to get people to safety quickly, the National Weather Service said Friday that it will expand its retooled severe weather warning system in Kansas, Missouri and 12 more Midwestern states. Starting Monday, it will provide media and emergency services with more detail about the strength of a brewing tornado or thunderstorm, what it may hit and when. The system will also detail possible hazards and impacts of any potential tornado based on radar data.
NY judge tosses lawsuit over Sept. 11 steel cross NEW YORK — A judge on Friday tossed out a lawsuit that sought to stop the display of a cross-shaped steel beam found among the World Trade Center’s rubble, saying the artifact could
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In this 2012 photo, Jackson Hambree cleans up debris after a tornado struck in Marysville, Ind. The National Weather Service is expanding its system to provide severe weather warnings. help tell the story of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts rejected the arguments of American Atheists, which had sued the National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s operators in 2011 on constitutional
grounds. Batts wrote that the cross and its accompanying panels of text “helps demonstrate how those at ground zero coped with the devastation they witnessed during the rescue and recovery effort.” — Compiled from AP reports
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500. The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net
Local
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
THE BLOTTER ASSAULT Juan Carlos Solis Jr., 25, was arrested and charged with assault at about 1:30 a.m. March 23 at Sixth Street and Texas 16 after sheriff’s deputies responded to a fight in progress. Solis is out on bail.
BURGLARY A burglary of a vehicle was reported at 9:56 p.m. March 23 in the 1500 block of Jackson Street. A 27year-old man stated that someone broke into his 1987 Ford Mustang and stole two 10-inch speakers and an amplifier. The items had an estimated value of $1,020.
DWI Saul Z. Trejo, 26, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated at about 2:45 a.m. March 20 at 13th Street and Bravo Avenue. Trejo is out on personal recognizance bond. Gloria E. Eugenia Alaniz, 38, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated at about 6 p.m. March 23 at FM 496 and Oak Street. She is out on a personal recognizance bond.
THEFT Zulema Rodriguez, 46, was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and theft at about 8:45 p.m. March 20 in the 300 block of Gonzalez Street. She’s out on bail. A 30-year-old woman reported at 2:24 p.m. March 24 in the 200 block of Martinez in San Ygnacio that someone stole a child’s pink wheelchair. A cell phone was reported stolen at 5:08 p.m. March 24 at Dr. Ike’s, on 430 FM 496. A 28-year-old woman reported at 7:35 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Elizabeth Lane in San Ygnacio that someone stole an iPad mini and its carrying case. The stolen property had an estimated value of $417.
RECKLESS DRIVING Raymond Moya, 17, was arrested and charged with reckless driving at about 7:32 p.m. March 21 in the 1000 block of Zapata Avenue. He’s out on a personal recognizance bond.
Assault charges filed By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
An apparent hit-andrun collision turned out to be an assault with a motor vehicle on March 24 in Zapata, county authorities said. Heberto Terrazas Jr., 26, was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Both counts are seconddegree felonies that could result in two to 20
TERRAZAS
years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Deputies additionally charged Terrazas with resist-
ing arrest. At 3:23 a.m. Sunday, deputies responded to a hit-and-run accident reported along FM 496. Preliminary reports show a Ford F-150 driven by Terrazas collided
with a parked Dodge Charger. Sgt. Mario Elizondo said Terrazas fled the scene on foot but was eventually detained. Terrazas refused to cooperate with deputies and resisted arrest, Elizondo added. Justice of the Peace Fernando Muñoz set an $85,000 bond. Terrazas bailed out Monday. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 7282568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
Man faces DWI charge By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Deputies arrested a drunk driver who had a child as a passenger during the early morning hours of March 24 at County Road and U.S. 83, a Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman said Thursday. Deputies charged Orlando Homero Villarreal, 46, with driving while intoxicated with a child younger than 15 years old, a state jail felony punishable by 180 days to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine. Preliminary reports do not specify the relationship between Villarreal and the child. In addition, the child’s age was not immediately available. Villarreal is out on bail, according to custody records. At 1:11 a.m. March 24, deputies spotted a sport utility vehicle disregarding a stop sign on County Road. Sgt. Mario Elizondo said when depu-
ties approached the vehicle they noticed a passenger younger than 15 years old. Driving while intoxicated with a child as a passenger bumps up the crime from a VILLARREAL Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony. Officials said people driving while intoxicated disregard the safety of the child. A serious accident might occur and could seriously hurt the child, Elizondo said. “When in doubt, just get a designated driver,” Elizondo added. On occasions, deputies have to call the child’s next of kin. If unsuccessful in reaching family members, the next step is to turn the child to Child Protective Services. CPS would open its own investigation in that case. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
TAMIU has FASFA aid SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Texas A&M International University’s Office of Student Financial Aid will host a FAFSA Day for students and parents needing assistance with the financial aid application process. The day is free and open to the public and are held at the Zaffirini Success Center, Suite 201. Those attending can get help filling out and submitting their financial aid
applications, ask questions of counselors about financial aid and turn in their pending financial aid documents. The next FAFSA Day is Wednesday, April 10, from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. For more information, contact Laura Elizondo, director of Financial Aid at, 326.2225, e-mail financialaid@tamiu.edu or visit offices in the Zaffirini Student Success Center, suite 213.
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Man accused of smuggling 11 By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
A Mexican citizen faces human smuggling charges after agents busted him March 21 in Zapata with 13 illegal immigrants, according to court records released this week. Antonio Castro-Rangel, 47, was charged with bringing in and harboring illegal immigrants. Castro-Rangel, of Dolores, Hidalgo, Mexico, remained in federal custody as of Friday afternoon. On March 21, U.S. Border Patrol agents detained 14 people in the Twin Lakes area. A criminal complaint stated that the group was spotted traveling east. “(Agents) followed the foot signs and encountered the group of undocumented (people) lying under high brush,” the com-
plaint states. All the people were determined to be illegally in the country. Agents transported them to the Zapata Border Patrol station. During processing, several individuals identified Castro-Rangel as the foot guide, court records state. He admitted to bringing 13 people across the Rio Grande from Mexico to the United States in exchange for $200 per person, court records allege. “(Castro-Rangel) stated he was to guide the group to Encinal, where they would be picked up by an unknown male,” court documents state. Two people held as material witnesses identified Castro-Rangel as the man who decided when the group would stop and rest, according to court records. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
Wanted man found on ranch By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Federal agents encountered a man wanted out in Travis County on a Zapata ranch early Monday, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman said Thursday. Agents identified the suspect as Avimael Mendoza Caballero, 27, a Mexican citizen previously deported. Mendoza had two outstanding warrants for a possession of marijuana and unlawful carrying of a weapon, according to federal officials. He’d failed to appear in court for those charges. Once the warrants were confirmed, agents turned Mendoza over to
Zapata County sheriff ’s deputies. Mendoza remained at the Zapata Regional Jail on a $15,000 bond as of Friday, according to custody records. Mendoza is expected to be extradited. Agent Efrain Perez, Border Patrol spokesman, said agents encountered a group of undocumented people around 6:28 a.m. Monday on a Zapata ranch. Six other people detained along with Mendoza were determined to be illegal immigrants from Mexico. Those six people were processed for removal, Perez said. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
University will still be Texas State By KEN HERMAN COX NEWSPAPERS
AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers — again — are working on renaming the big state university in San Marcos. This is happening because the university — again — wants its name changed. Under Dripping Springs Rep. Jason Isaac’s House Bill 2238, the new name would be Outlet Mall State University. Wait, can that be right? No, my mistake. The new name actually would be Texas State University. “Hey Herman, you dork,” I hear you saying disrespectfully, “the big state university in San Marcos already is named Texas State University.” That’s what you think, and that’s what the Tshirts say. But there actually is no Texas State University, other than the fictional home of the Fightin’ Armadillos in the forgettable 1991 film “Necessary Roughness.” The San Marcos university’s official name, approved in 2003 in a legislative upgrade from Southwest Texas State University, is Texas State University-San Marcos. Now, school officials — who, save for legal documents, already refer to it as Texas State University — want to knock off the “San Marcos” part. Brian McCall, chancellor of the Texas State University System of which Texas State is a member, said the name change is needed because of confusion caused by the fact that the school now has a Round Rock campus. Isaac told a House committee that means there is a campus named Texas State University-San Marcos Round Rock. (San Marcos Round Rock? That outlet mall name is sounding better. It could be a natural progression for students who attend the new Austin Community College at Highland Mall.) The San Marcos school was authorized by the Legislature in 1899 as Southwest Texas State Normal School. This was to contrast it from Texas State Abnormal School, whose name later was changed to A&M to make it easier for Aggies to spell. (Little-known fact: When it was Texas State Abnormal School, its students were called Abbies.) Texas State University-San Marcos offers this review of its name changes: ”Over the years, the Legislature broadened the institution’s scope and changed its name, in succession, to Normal College,
“
Hey Herman, you dork, the big state university in San Marcos already is named Texas State University.” KEN HERMAN, NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST
Teachers College, College, University and in 2003 to Texas State University-San Marcos.” The changes tracked the school’s evolution. Now, with more 34,000 students, it’s Texas’ fifthlargest state university. The biggest name change came in 2003 when lawmakers knocked ”Southwest” from the title and ended the stigma of having a direction (two directions, actually) in the name. Directional schools get less respect and low March Madness seedings. There also was the fact that Southwest Texas State University was not in Southwest Texas, which made it one of many schools not where they’re supposed to be. The University of Miami is not in Miami. The University of South Florida is not in South Florida. The University of Dallas is not in Dallas. And the University of Texas at Dallas is not at Dallas. Isaac’s bill, now pending in committee, mandates that the name change in San Marcos be done ”with as little unnecessary cost as possible” and directs the school ”to the maximum extent practicable, use all stationery and other consumable supplies that are printed with the institution’s former name.” The bill’s fiscal note says ”the university does not plan on replacing any signage and instead would remove the letters ’San Marcos’ if applicable.” As with many solutions, this one could lead to another problem. As Texas State University, the school will be an institution without an acronym. I doubt it will start using TSU, an acronym long used by and associated with Texas Southern University. (Ken Herman is a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman. Email: kherman@statesman.com.)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure
our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No namecalling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
WORST WEEK IN WASHINGTON
Word hurts he who said it By CHRIS CILLIZZA THE WASHINGTON POST
Message to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska: “Wetback” is not the preferred nomenclature, dude. Young used that slur for Mexican Americans during an interview with a local radio station when trying to make a point about how technology has shrunk the number of jobs in the country. “My father had a ranch,” Young told KRBD in Ketchikan. “We used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to
pick tomatoes. It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.” Within hours of the quote making its way to the national press — the KRBD website put it in the 12th paragraph of a story titled “Don Young talks economy, Arctic development” — Young issued an apology. “I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California,” he said. “I know that this term is not used in the
same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.” For a Republican Party that badly needs to improve its image in the Hispanic community — Mitt Romney won just 27 percent of Latino votes in the 2012 presidential race, for Pete’s sake — Young’s comments did not go over well. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, released a statement Friday saying that “Congressman Young’s remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds.”
The last thing Young needs is more negative media attention. The House Ethics Committee announced this month that it would investigate whether Young failed to properly report gifts. Of the investigation, Young told KRBD: “We’ll see who’s right and who’s wrong.” Yes, we will. But Young was way wrong on “wetbacks.” Don Young, for channeling Archie Bunker, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something.
COLUMN
Celebrating Easter is joyful Let there be Light! (Gen 1:1) And once again there is Light. Let us rejoice as we celebrate on Easter Sunday the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! The season of Lent has concluded and with it comes the beginning of the glorious season of Easter. As we celebrate Easter, we are witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ. With the dawn of Easter Sunday, Jesus passes over from death to life to give us the sure hope that one day we can share in His triumph over mortality and sin. And how do we achieve this eternal reward? We follow Jesus by listening to His word, by celebrating His mysteries and by loving our neighbor as He loves us. And whenever you begin to think that life is too difficult to follow in His steps or to obey the Ten Commandments or succumbing to
“
JAMES TAMAYO
temptation remember this: Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name (Phil 2:8-9). Meditate on how God in times past saved His people and how He has sent His Son as our Redeemer for our salvation. Throughout the Lenten season we have heard about reconciliation and conversion. In my previous column from two weeks ago, I spoke of The Light Is On for You campaign, which encouraged all Catholics — those close to the Church but especially those who have been away — to seek the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the first step to conversion and reconcilia-
tion with God. The first step out of darkness and onto the path following the Light of the World. And the journey we call conversion does not conclude with the end of the Lenten season. Instead it has only begun. Conversion is a life-long journey in seeking that eternal reward we call Heaven. Our faith formation and our love for God should never cease growing. We continue on this road by attending Mass, at the very least, every Sunday and on Holy Days of Obligation. The conversion continues by making time for daily prayer and for reading the Bible and other Catholic literature. Living a Catholic retreat is a great way to detach from all the distractions of the modern world. The serenity provided by a retreat allows us to listen clearly to
DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
God’s will for us. These are just a few examples of how to follow Jesus. As we gather on Easter Sunday to break bread at tables throughout the Diocese of Laredo to celebrate this festive occasion, I ask that you take time to remember and reflect that Christ is our paschal lamb that was sacrificed. And on Easter Sunday we feast in joy with the Resurrected Lord. We commemorate this holiest of days by understanding and embracing that the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone of our universal Church and our salvation. Go forth and declare the saving works of the Lord! Shout to the world that His mercy endures forever! And above all, give thanks to God that the light of Christ’s resurrection shines bright in our life, impelling us to live — Todo Con Amor.
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
Conviction gets man 121 months in prison By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
A Laredoan who authorities said transported marijuana from Zapata to Laredo was sent to federal prison Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced this week. U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced Jesus Alberto Rodriguez, 36, to 121 months in federal prison. Rodriguez had pleaded guilty in October to possessing with intent to distribute 939 pounds of marijuana. The contraband had an estimated street value of $187,800. Once completing his sentence, Rodriguez will have five years of supervised release. In June 2010, federal officials alleged Rodriguez talked about moving a large amount of marijuana with a Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source. Rodriguez’s plea documents state discussions concerned Rodriguez obtaining transportation for marijuana coming from the vicinity of Zapata and heading to Laredo. Rodriguez and the source also talked about acquiring a driver and transportation to move the marijuana from Laredo to Dallas, according to court records. “As results of these discussions, Rodriguez arranged with the (source) to deliver marijuana, which was going to be approximately 700 to 800 pounds, to the parking lot of Toys‘R’Us on San Bernardo Avenue in Laredo in two separate trucks,” court documents states. Federal officials said Rodriguez admitted he had made telephone calls arranging for the delivery of the marijuana. On Tuesday, Marmolejo Garcia determined Rodriguez was a manager or supervisor of the July 2010 load, federal officials said. He was also held accountable for three other loads of marijuana totaling more than 5,500 kilograms, according to federal officials. Rodriguez will surrender himself to the Bureau of Prisons in the near future. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
Confederate flag comes down By MICHAEL BIESECKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
RALEIGH, N.C. — A Confederate battle flag hung inside the old North Carolina State Capitol last week to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War is being taken down after civil rights leaders raised concerns. The decision was announced Friday evening, hours after the Associated Press published a story about the flag, which officials said was part of an historical display intended to replicate how the antebellum building appeared in 1863. The flag had Photo by Michael Biesecker | AP been planned to hang in the House chamber until April 2015, A Confederate flag is seen at the old Capitol, which houses the governor’s ofthe 150th anniversary of the ar- fice and still hosts numerous government events, in Raleigh, N.C. rival of federal troops in RaThe decision was a quick someone might object to or have leigh. “This is a temporary exhibit about-face for the McCrery ad- a concern with in the exhibit, in an historic site, but I’ve ministration, which initially de- then you are basically censoring learned the governor’s adminis- fended the display. Many people history.” North Carolina NAACP presitration is going to use the old see the flag as a potent remindHouse chamber as working er of racial discrimination and dent Rev. William Barber was shocked Friday when he was space,” Cultural Resources Sec- bigotry. State Historic Sites Director shown a photo of the flag by the retary Susan Klutz said Friday night. “Given that information, Keith Hardison had said Thurs- AP. “He is right that it has a histhis display will end this week- day the flag should be viewed in what he called the proper histor- torical context,” Barber said. end rather than April of 2015.” “But what is that history? The Kim Gerardo, the spokeswo- ical context. “Our goal is not to create is- history of racism. The history of man for Gov. Pat McCrery, said the exhibit that includes the sues,” said Hardison, a Civil lynching. The history of death. Confederate battle flag will be War re-enactor and history buff. The history of slavery. If you say relocated, possibly across the “Our goal is to help people un- that shouldn’t be offensive, then street to the N.C. Museum of derstand issues of the past. ... If either you don’t know the histoyou refuse to put something that ry, or you are denying the histoHistory.
ry.” Barber couldn’t immediately be reached Friday night, after the decision to take down the flag. Sessions of the General Assembly moved to a newer building a half-century ago, but the old Capitol building is still routinely used as a venue for official state government events. McCrery’s office is on the first floor, as are the offices of his chief of staff and communications staff. The Republican governor was in the House chamber where the Confederate flag hangs as recently as Thursday, when he presided over the swearing-in ceremony of his new Highway Patrol commander. The presentation of the Confederate battle flag at state government buildings has long been an issue of debate throughout the South. For more than a decade, the NAACP has urged its members to boycott South Carolina because of that state’s display of the flag on the State House grounds. Prior to taking his current job in North Carolina in 2006, Hardison worked as director at the Mississippi home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, which is operated as a museum and library owned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
File farm claims by May 1 SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the extension of the voluntary claims process for Hispanic and women farmers and ranchers who allege discrimination by the USDA in past decades. All claims must now be filed by May 1. “Hispanic and women farmers who believe they have faced discriminatory practices in the past from the USDA have additional time to file a claim in order to have a chance to receive a cash payment or loan forgive-
ness,” Vilsack said. “USDA urges potential claimants to contact the claims administrator for information and to file their claim packages on or before May 1.” The process offers a voluntary alternative to litigation for each Hispanic or female farmer and rancher who can prove that USDA denied his or her application for loan or loan servicing assistance for discriminatory reasons for certain time periods between 1981 and 2000. As announced in February 2011, the voluntary claims process will make available at least
$1.33 billion for cash awards and tax relief payments, plus up to $160 million in farm debt relief, to eligible Hispanic and women farmers and ranchers. There are no filing fees to participate in the program. Call center representatives can be reached at 1-888-508-4429. Claimants may register for a claims package by calling the number or visiting the website or may download the forms from the website. For more information about the claims process and claims packages, visit the website at any time, or call the call center
telephone number Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Zapata time. Claim packages and other documentation may be mailed to Hispanic and Women Farmers and Ranchers Claims Administrator, PO Box 4540, Portland, OR 97208-4540. Claim packages and other documentation may also be emailed to claims@hwfr.org. Claimants may also fax claims packages and other documentation to 855626-8343. Completed forms and documentation must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. PDT on May 1.
State
6A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
DPS: Cartels threaten state Stats: more lack work By NOMAAN MERCHANT ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — Mexican drug cartels that have expanded trafficking operations and violence into Texas pose the single greatest organized crime threat to the state, according to a review by the Texas Department of Public Safety. The department this week announced results from its first published Public Safety Threat Overview. The review ranks Mexican cartels at the top of its organized crime threats, followed by prison gangs — many of which now work with cartels. DPS believes six cartels use Texas as a base for moving illegal drugs, people, cash and weapons. Cartels have operated in
the United States for decades, but in recent years, they have ramped up other criminal activities and become more willing to engage in violence with law enforcement, DPS Director Steve McCraw said in an interview. “In the old days, they pulled over and gave up,” McCraw said in an interview. He added, “Now, by threat of death to them and others, they are commanded to confront law enforcement.” Police have made more than 300 arrests of cartel members and associates since 2007, the review said, which acknowledges the majority of crimes committed in Texas by cartels and gangs are not reported. Texas also faces threats from international terrorism, natural disasters and
motor vehicle crashes, according to the review. More than 3,300 people died in vehicle crashes last year, according to the report. DPS must also contend with unpredictable storms and hurricanes, along with the threat of infectious viruses such as West Nile virus, which has killed 95 people in Texas since 2010, the report said. While DPS routinely evaluates threats to the state, this report gives the public and law enforcement a chance to compare the varying risks Texas faces, McCraw said. “In this process that we utilize, it’s hard to compare wildfires with organized crime, with H1N1 or West Nile diseases, or an industrial accident,” he said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — The Texas unemployment rate rose slightly in February to 6.4 percent, but leading industries continue to add jobs and show strength, the Texas Workforce Commission announced Friday. However, the McAllen-EdinburgMission area still had the highest rate in the state at 11 percent. The Midland area recorded the lowest unemployment rate in February at 3.2 percent. Odessa came in second at 3.8 percent and Amarillo third at 4.6 percent. Elsewhere along the Rio Grande, the Brownsville-Harlingen area had a 10.4 percent unemployment rate, El Paso had a 9.1 rate and Laredo, a 6.9 percent rate. The rate increased from 6.3 percent in January and 6.1 percent in December. The commission said the state still added 80,600 jobs in February, bringing the total seasonally ad-
justed, nonfarm jobs added over the last year to 359,800. The state unemployment rate remains well below the 7.1 percent recorded in February 2012. Nationally, the unemployment rate slid to a four-year low of 7.7 percent in February, down from 7.9 percent in January. Since November, employers across the country have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month, nearly double the average from last spring. “The Texas economy continues to expand, and the addition of 80,600 jobs in February is good news for job seekers,” commission Chairman Andres Alcantar said, adding that 11 leading industries expanded over the last year. Texas industries that produce goods, such as construction and manufacturing, added 1,200 jobs in February. Employment in professional and business services rose by 25,400 jobs.
Dought conditions worsen By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — More than 98 percent of Texas is in some level of abnormal dryness as spring arrives, conditions that could set drought records and lead to severe water restrictions in some regions of the state. The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., registered an increase for Texas in each of the five levels of drought. Only 1.4 percent of the state is not in drought, compared to 3.6 percent a week ago. Nearly 11 percent of Texas is in “exceptional” drought, the most severe level, up from 9.9 percent a
week ago. Three months ago, 95.4 percent of the state was in drought. Conditions statewide are now only slightly better than they were six months into the 2011 drought, the worst one-year dry spell in Texas’ history, said state climatologist John NielsenGammon. The issues have steadily worsened because five of the past six months have had lower than average rainfall, he said. Soil moisture is low statewide, and reservoirs and aquifers have not fully recharged since 2011, Nielsen-Gammon added. “Depending on how much rain we get in the spring or summer, we may be facing more water restrictions in some parts of the state, maybe some that haven’t been used before,”
he said. The Edwards Aquifer, the primary water source for San Antonio, is one of several basins impacted by the drought. The aquifer is nearing historically low levels, and Nielsen-Gammon said authorities fear they will have to place the most severe restrictions ever on residents in the city, one of the nation’s 10 largest metropolitan areas. Several lakes, rivers and streams also remain unusually dry. A central Texas water authority recently cut off irrigation waters from rice farmers for the second year in a row after several Central Texas reservoirs failed to refill. Some parts of the state could break drought records set over a seven-year stretch in the 1950s — a
dry spell so severe all water planning in Texas is based on those conditions. “Officially, we’re still in the same drought since 2011,” Nielsen-Gammon said. “There’s never been a time when even half the state has been out of drought so this is the third year of drought, and if it lasts through the summer, it will be the second worst drought on record.” Based on current forecasts, that is a real possibility. Meteorologists, including Nielsen-Gammon, say outlooks show below normal rainfall during the spring — generally the rainy season for chunks of the state — and warm temperatures through the summer.
RE-ENACTING THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
Photo by Michael Conroy/file | AP
Austin Johnson, 8, and his mother pick pumpkins in Greenfield, Ind., in 2012. More than 98 percent of Texas is in some level of abnormal dryness as spring arrives.
‘Parent-trigger’ school measure moves forward By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News
Jesus, played by John Austin, is crucified during the annual re-enactment of the Passion of the Christ in front of San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio on Friday.
Prosecutor seeks to stay woman’s execution By JUAN A. LOZANO ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — A woman condemned for killing a retired college professor in North Texas has an unusual ally in her efforts to delay next week’s scheduled execution: Dallas County’s top prosecutor. District Attorney Craig Watkins asked a judge in Dallas on Friday to postpone Kimberly McCarthy’s execution while lawmakers consider legislation that would improve the fairness of the death penalty. McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist, was convicted of the 1997 killing of 71-year-old Dorothy Booth at the retired psychology professor’s home in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster. Her execution is scheduled for Wednesday. The slaying was among three linked to McCarthy, who had become addicted to crack cocaine. State District Judge Larry Mitchell indicated he was willing to change the execution date to June 26, but was not going to issue a ruling until the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals takes action on two motions
MCCARTHY
about the execution date, said Maurie Levin, a University of Texas law professor who represents McCarthy. The expectation was that no action would be taken in the case until Monday at
the earliest. Levin asked Mitchell last week to halt McCarthy’s execution, contending that prospective jurors and the subsequent jury at McCarthy’s trial in Dallas County were predominantly white and might have been unfairly selected on the basis of race. McCarthy is black. Watkins said Friday he believes McCarthy is guilty but added it is “prudent for us to stand aside” until lawmakers consider the bills. “I want the public to trust that the inmate who was sentenced to death by a jury received a fair trial. The proposed legislation being reviewed at the Texas capitol can impact that,” Watkins said in statement issued Thursday. There are at least four bills in the current Texas legislative session that
deal directly with the death penalty, including one in the House and its counterpart in the Senate that asks to prohibit seeking or imposing the death penalty on the basis of a person’s race. All these bills remain in committee and have not had a public hearing. Without such a hearing, the measures cannot move forward. Levin said she thinks that Watkins’ request to delay the execution “reflects a commitment to fairness and justice.” “Ms. McCarthy’s case raises claims of discrimination in the selection of her jury ... that fall squarely in the legislation being proposed,” she said. “If the legislation passes, she would have a forum to litigate it.” McCarthy, 51, already was in a small holding cell a few steps from the Texas death chamber in Huntsville on Jan. 29 and within hours of her scheduled execution when Mitchell, acting on a filing from Levin, withdrew the execution warrant and reset it for April 3. If McCarthy’s punishment is carried out, she would be the first woman executed in the U.S. since 2010.
AUSTIN — A measure making it easier for parents to urge their school boards to close failing schools or convert them into charters was sent Thursday to the full Texas Senate for consideration, but with modifications adding an extra year to the process and seeking to ensure such efforts aren’t led by outside groups. The proposal sponsored by Republican Sen. Larry Taylor of Friendswood is meant to shorten the time it takes before “parent triggers” — provisions whereby parents can have officials initiate action against poorly performing schools — can be enacted. Currently, schools rated “Academically Unacceptable” for two straight years are subject to state intervention. If things don’t improve for three additional years, a majority of parents can petition a school board for closure, staff changes or conversion to a charter.
Taylor’s proposal would now allow parents to seek school board action just one year after state intervention. He originally wanted to let parents step in after the first two years of unacceptable ratings, but altered the measure to allow the process to begin after three years. He noted that still would allow for state intervention while giving communities time to see if things improve thereafter. “This is another year to see if that works,” Taylor said of state intervention. He also endorsed an amendment by Democratic Sen. Eddie Lucio of Brownsville that added language preventing charter school operators from pressuring parents into urging the closure or conversion of struggling schools. Lucio said the change will “ensure that parents’ campaigns to remake their schools are actually grassroots, enacted and managed by parents alone without undo outside influence.”
SÁBADO 30 DE MARZO DE 2013
Agenda en Breve LAREDO 03/30— Planetario Lamar Bruni Vergara de TAMIU presenta: a las 3 p.m., ‘Earth, Moon, and Sun’; a las 4 p.m., ‘Lamps of Atlantis’; a las 5 p.m. ‘Lamps of Atlantis’. Costo varían de 4 y 5 dólares. 03/31— Obra de Resurrección 2013 “Después de la Cruz” a las 10 a.m. en Iglesia Cristiana Misericordia, 4519 E. Del Mar Blvd. Entrada gratis. 04/02— Equipo de béisbol de TAMIU recibe a Texas A&M University-Kingsville, a las 6 p.m. en el Estadio Unitrade. 04/03— Equipo de softball de TAMIU recibe a University of the Incarnate Word, a la 1 p.m. y 3:30 p.m. en el Jorge Haynes Field. 04/03— Obra de Resurrección 2013 “Después de la Cruz” a las 7 p.m. en Iglesia Cristiana Misericordia, 4519 E. Del Mar Blvd. Entrada gratis. 04/04— Divine Mercy Catholic Church invita a la conferencia “The Healing Power of God’s Mercy” de 7 p.m. a 9 p.m. Donaciones de 10 dólares para adultos, y 5 dólares para jóvenes. Llame al (956) 726-0210 para más información. 04/05— El equipo de béisbol de TAMIU recibe a University of Arkansas Fort Smith, a las 12 p.m. y 2:30 p.m. en el Estadio Unitrade. 04/05— El equipo de softball de TAMIU recibe a St. Mary’s University, a la 1 p.m. y 3:30 p.m. en el Jorge Haynes Field. 04/05— Concierto de Banda de Primavera inicia a las 7:30 p.m. en el Recital Hall del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts de TAMIU. Será el debut del Grupo de Percusiones de TAMIU, y un espectáculo de la facultad. Entrada gratuita. 04/05— Divine Mercy Catholic Church invita a la conferencia “The Healing Power of God’s Mercy” de 7 p.m. a 9 p.m. Donaciones de 10 dólares para adultos, y 5 dólares para jóvenes. Llame al (956) 726-0210 para más información. 04/06— First United Methodist Church invita a la venta de libros usados, de 8:30 a.m. a 1 p.m. en 1220 McClelland Ave. Libros de pasta dura a 1 dólares; pasta blanda, a .50 centavos; revistas y libros infantiles, a .25 centavos. 04/06— Quinta Caminata/Carrera de 5K anual Contra el Crimen, con el registro a las 7 a.m. y la carrera iniciando a las 8 a.m. El evento será en la entrada del Parque Estatal Lago Casa Blanca. Costo: 20 dólares. Las ganancias beneficiarán a Alto al Crimen de Laredo. Informes en (956) 724-1876. 04/06— Divine Mercy Catholic Church invita a la conferencia “The Healing Power of God’s Mercy” en sesiones durante todo el día, desde las 9 a.m. hasta las 8 p.m. Donaciones de 10 dólares para adultos, y 5 dólares para jóvenes. Llame al (956) 726-0210 para más información.
Zfrontera
PÁGINA 7A
CONDADO DE ZAPATA
Posponen demanda POR ZACH BROOKE TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
El Juez Magistrado Guillermo García emitió una nueva orden de programación la semana pasada, retrasando el litigio de una demanda en curso entre un oficial del Alguacil del Condado de Zapata y un hombre que él arrestó. Santiago Ramírez III está demandando tanto al Condado de Zapata y al Oficial del Alguacil Marshall Davidson, alegando que sus derechos constitucionales fueron violados cuando fue arrestado y su domicilio registrado en abril de 2010. De acuerdo con el reporte del incidente por parte del alguacil, Ramírez, de 46 años de edad, fue arrestado alrededor de las 3 a.m. del 4 de abril de 2010, después de que la policía recibiera un llamado para acudir a su residencia en la cuadra 1700 de Second Street, tras un reporte de disparos realizados. Los
oficiales recuperaron un arma de fuego y un cartucho vacío. Ramírez finalmente aceptó un acuerdo para participar en un programa de rehabilitación previo al juicio. Mientras que Ramírez afirma que los cargos en su contra fueron desestimados, los abogados del Condado de Zapata reclaman que Ramírez violó los términos del programa cuando dio positivo por cocaína. En algún momento, Ramírez estuvo detenido entre dos y tres meses en la Cárcel del Condado de Zapata. Según la petición de la demanda, Ramírez afirma que fue detenido tras negarse a dejar que Davidson registrara su casa. Ramírez alega que su casa ya había sido registrada por parte de otro oficial cuando bloqueó el paso a Davidson. En ese momento fue detenido y un segundo registro de su casa fue llevado a cabo. Ramírez alega que el segundo re-
gistro violó su protección constitucional contra registros e incautaciones irracionales bajo la Cuarta Enmienda. Ramírez también afirma que Davidson utilizó la fuerza excesiva contra varios individuos en el lugar. Entre los daños, Ramírez está buscando compensación por angustia mental, deterioro físico y daño a la reputación. También está buscando el reembolso por los honorarios del abogado. Los abogados de los acusados afirman que Davidson estaba actuando dentro de sus derechos y obligaciones cuando arrestó a Ramírez. Además, alegan que la demanda fue presentada después de que el estatuto de limitaciones para la búsqueda de daños y perjuicios ya había pasado. En la reciente audiencia, el abogado de Ramírez, George Altgelt, pidió a García más tiempo para designar a los peritos.
Phillip McKinney, quien representa tanto a Davidson como al Condado de Zapata, dudó sobre la necesidad de designar a los expertos, pero dio su consentimiento a la prórroga. “Francamente, no sé un experto será llamado, pero no me opongo”. García dijo que si iba a prolongar la fase de designación de expertos, entonces también iba a retroceder todas las otras fases. Davidson también ha solicitado inmunidad limitada en el caso, forzando una audiencia para determinar lo que se le requiere responder cuando haga sus declaraciones durante la fase de descubrimiento. La nueva orden de programación establece el plazo para la designación de perito el 13 de mayo, y para completar el descubrimiento el 17 de junio. (Zach Brooke puede ser localizado en 728-2538 o en línea zbrooke@lmtonline.com)
RELIGIÓN
CORTE
LLEVA SU CRUZ
Dictan sentencia contra Mercado POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Foto por Gregorio Borgia | Associated Press
El Papa Francisco carga el Crucifijo durante la Misa por la Pasión de Cristo dentro de la Basílica de San Pedro, en el Vaticano, el viernes. El Papa Francisco inició el servicio del Viernes Santo en el Vaticano con la Misa de la Pasión de Cristo y posteriormente se dirigió al antiguo Coliseo en Roma para la tradicional procesión del Camino de la Cruz.
GOBIERNO
Una persona a quienes oficiales federales etiquetaron como el “mayor contrabandista de cocaína” en el área de Zapata fue sentenciado a prisión el martes, en Laredo. La Juez de Distrito de EU, Diana Saldaña, sentenció a José Daniel Mercado a 60 meses en prisión, seguido por tres años de libertad supervisada. Mercado fue multado con 10.000 dólares y se le permitió pagar en un periodo de 30-meses, una vez que se encuentre en libertad supervisada. Mientras se encuentre en el Buró de Prisiones, Mercado participará en un programa de tratamiento para droga/ alcohol. La corte le permitió una autoentrega, cuando se designe. Además, Saldaña permitió una orden de incautación para 55.14 acres y 10 acres de una zona de tierra que pertenecía a Mercado. Mercado se declaró culpable el 4 de enero a una conspiración para poseer con intención de distribuir 500 gramos o más de cocaína, un cargo listado en una acusación formal sustituta presentada en septiembre. Archivos del acuerdo de culpabilidad de Mercado en la corte, indican que “era conocido como el más grande contrabandista de cocaína en el área y que había estado vendiendo ininterrumpidamente un kilogramo de cocaína por semana en cantidad pequeña para uso personal durante varios años”. Agentes del Buró Federal de Investigaciones empezaron a investigar a Mercado en 2010. De acuerdo a archivos de la corte, autoridades realizaron 13 compras de droga controlada a Mercado entre el 23 de septiembre del 2010, y el 4 de marzo del 2011. Él hizo entre 100 dólares y 2.000 dólares, dependiendo de los gramos vendidos. Documentos de la corte identificaron a Ángel Javier Cuellar, Martín Emilio Pacheco, Lucia Guadalupe Hinojosa y Magda Ramos como los corredores de cocaína trabajando bajo las órdenes de Mercado.
EDIFICIOS MÁGICOS
NUEVO LAREDO, MX 03/31— A las 12 p.m. se presenta la obra infantil “El duende metalillo” de Alicia Auzcanga Lavalle, en el Teatro del IMSS, Reynosa y Belden. Costo: 20 pesos. 04/02— Taller de creación literaria para jóvenes en Estación Palabra Gabriel García Márquez, con Selene Ortiz de 4 p.m. a 7 p.m. Entrada libre. 04/02— Colectivo Moviendo Conciencia presenta la exposición artística “Esencia de nostalgia” de 6 p.m. a 9 p.m. en el lobby del teatro del IMSS.
USDA lanza ‘StrikeForce’ como ayuda a pobreza extrema ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
COLLEGE STATION — El Departamento de Agricultura de EU (USDA) lanzará la iniciativa “StrikeForce” en 10 estados adicionales, incluyendo Texas. StrikeForce tiene por objetivo es aumentar alianzas con las comunidades rurales y optimizar los recursos de la comunidad
en las zonas seleccionadas de pobreza persistente. El Secretario de Agricultura Tom Vilsack anunció que de esta forma USDA hará más para formar alianzas y colaborar con los gobiernos locales y estatales y organizaciones comunitarias en proyectos que promuevan el desarrollo económico y la creación de empleos. “(StrikeForce) aumenta
los esfuerzos de extensión y la asistencia técnica en las comunidades (y) podemos servir mejor de aliados y ayudar a estas comunidades a aprovechar mejor los recursos”, dijo Vilsack. Vilsack señaló que el USDA ha trabajado en asociación con más de 400 organizaciones comunitarias locales para promover proyectos de desarrollo.
Foto de cortesía | La del Miernes
La imagen muestra una panorámica de la Presidencia Municipal en Ciudad Mier, México, “Pueblo Mágico” y la Iglesia de la Purísima Concepción.
National
8A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
Maine Zumba teacher pleads guilty By DAVID SHARP ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND, Maine — A dance instructor accused of using her Zumba fitness studio as a front for prostitution pleaded guilty Friday to 20 counts in a scandal that captivated a quiet seaside town. The agreement that followed a second day of plea negotiations on Friday spares Alexis Wright from the prospect of a high-profile trial featuring sex videos, exhibitionism and pornography. Prosecutors will recommend a jail sentence of 10 months when she’s sentenced on May 31. Wright quietly answered “guilty” 20 times when the judge read the counts, which include engaging in prostitution, promotion of prostitution, conspiracy, tax evasion and theft by deception. “We’re very satisfied with it. It’s an appropriate outcome, given the gravity of her actions,” Assistant Attorney General Darcy Mitchell said after the brief court hearing.
The 30-year-old Wright was accused of conspiring with insurance agent Mark Strong Sr. to run a prostitution business in which she kept detailed records indicating she made $150,000 over an 18-month period. She was also accused of using a hidden camera to record sex acts without her clients’ knowledge. She was originally charged with 106 counts. All the counts in the agreement were misdemeanors, including three counts relating to welfare and tax fraud that were reduced from felonies. Strong, 57, of Thomaston, was convicted this Photo by John Ewing/pool | AP month of 13 counts related to promotion of prostitu- Alexis Wright appears with her attorney, Sarah Churchill, in Cumbertion and sentenced to 20 land County Court, in Portland, Maine. days in jail. He was originally charged with 59 tains’ homes than for and Wright represented an crime. Attorneys who have unusual pairing. counts. Wright had attended colThe scandal became a seen the client list say it insensation following reports cluded some prominent lege classes and ran dance that Wright had at least 150 names. Those who have classes for the local parks clients, leading to a guess- been charged so far include and recreation program being game of who might be a former mayor, a high fore opening her studio in named publicly in the school hockey coach, a Kennebunk. But she was coastal town of Kennebunk, minister, a lawyer and a also engaging in paid sex acts in the studio, in her a community better known firefighter. Working together, Strong apartment and in her offor its beaches and sea cap-
fice, law enforcement officials said. Overseeing the operation and watching the sex acts live on his office computer 100 miles up the coast was Strong, a married father of two who ran a successful insurance agency in Thomaston. It came as no surprise that Wright would seek a plea agreement because evidence presented in Strong’s trial was so overwhelming. A video played for jurors showed Wright engaging in sex acts with a man who then inquired about her rate before leaving $250 cash on her massage table. After the man left, the video showed Wright pocketing the money. There was plenty of electronic evidence because the two kept in touch via text and email and because Wright videotaped the clients and Strong watched live via Skype. Videos showed them speaking openly of ledgers, payments and scheduling. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will seek
restitution of $57,250 from Wright after she’s released from jail. Defense lawyer Sarah Churchill said Wright is married and employable, and she expects Wright will be able to enter into a payment plan. Churchill left the courtroom without talking to reporters. Residents of Kennebunk were frustrated by the media coverage of the scandal. Names of purported clients trickled out as they were charged, leading to speculation about who else might be on the list. But residents soon grew weary of the media’s attention, especially after it became clear that only a few of the clients were locals. So far, 66 people have been charged as clients, York County Deputy District Attorney Justin McGettigan said. The state will continue to pursue charges against additional people identified on Wright’s ledger if the evidence is strong enough to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt, she said.
Scandal nets 3 dozen By KATE BRUMBACK ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Michael Conroy/file | AP
A flag flies over the gym at a Henryville, Ind., school, on March 3, 2012. Unlike snowstorms or hurricanes, tornadoes challenge school officials in deciding whether to hold students or send them home.
Warning system expands By KYLE POTTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Residents of Sumner County, Kansas, received a dire warning last year as a tornado barreled through toward Wichita: Get underground or into a shelter — or else. “Mass devastation is highly likely, making the area unrecognizable to survivors,” the National Weather Service cautioned last April. In an effort to get people to safety quickly, the National Weather Service said Friday that it will expand its retooled severe weather warning system in Kansas, Missouri and 12 more Midwestern states. Starting Monday, it will provide media outlets and emergency services with more detail about the strength of a brewing tornado or thunderstorm, what it may hit and when. The system will also detail possible hazards and im-
pacts of any potential tornado based on radar data, and more information on less severe but still “considerable” storms. Mike Hudson, an NWS meteorologist in Kansas City, Mo., said alerts with words such as “catastrophic” and “destruction” will likely be rare — once a year in Kansas and twice a decade in northern states like Minnesota. The words will be reserved for “those types of tornadoes that ultimately take lives, so we want to ring the bell a little bit louder,” he said. “When we use them, you ought to pay attention,” he said. The weather service started its expanded warning pilot in Kansas and Missouri last year after researchers found that Joplin, Mo., residents didn’t get a strong enough warning about the May 2011 tornado. It killed 161 people, injured hundreds more and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings.
“Nothing in that warning really stood out that said ‘this is a lot higher risk’ than a typical warning might be,” Hudson said. Just a handful of alerts were issued in the two-state region last year, Hudson said, but follow-up surveys found the heightened warnings improved response time, so the weather service decided to expand to the rest of the Midwest. With that expansion, they will start including more information about when a tornado is expected to arrive. In Minnesota, tornadoes are less frequent and generally less severe, so the updated system may be used more often for one or more severe thunderstorms.
ATLANTA — A grand jury indicted about three dozen educators Friday in one of the nation’s largest cheating scandals that rocked Atlanta’s public schools. The indictment named the former Superintendent Beverly Hall as well as several high-level administrators, principals and teachers. Hall faces charges including racketeering, false statements and theft. She retired just days before the 2011 probe was released, and has previously denied the allegations. A state investigation in 2011 found cheating by nearly 180 educators in 44 Atlanta schools. Educators gave answers to students or changed answers on tests after they were turned in, investigators said. Teachers who tried to report it faced retaliation, creating a culture of “fear and intimidation” in the district. The cheating came to light after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some scores
were statistically improbable. The criminal investigation lasted 21 months and the allegations dated back to 2005. Most of the 178 educators named in a special investigators’ report resigned, retired, did not have their contracts renewed or appealed their dismissals and lost. Twenty-one educators have been reinstated and three await hearings to appeal their dismissals, said Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Stephen Alford. The tests were the key measure the state used to determine whether it met the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools with
good test scores get extra federal dollars to spend in the classroom or on teacher bonuses. Georgia last year was granted a waiver from the federal law, which allowed schools to count a host of measures in addition to standardized tests. State schools Superintendent John Barge said last year he believes the state’s new accountability system will remove the pressure to cheat on standardized tests because it won’t be the sole way the state determines student growth. The pressure was part of what some educators in Atlanta Public Schools blamed for their cheating.
International
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
Pope’s foot-washing act devastates some By NICOLE WINFIELD ASSOCIATED PRESS
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world’s poorest, but has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy. Francis’ decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls — a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic — during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict’s papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church. One of the most-read traditionalist blogs, “Rorate Caeli,” reacted to the footwashing ceremony by declaring the death of Benedict’s eight-year project to correct what he considered the botched interpretations of the Second Vatican Council’s modernizing reforms. “The official end of the reform of the reform — by example,” “Rorate Caeli” lamented in its report on Francis’ Holy Thursday ritual. A like-minded commentator in Francis’ native Argentina, Marcelo Gonzalez at International Catholic Panorama, reacted to Francis’ election with this phrase: “The Horror.” Gonzalez’s beef ? While serving as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis’ efforts to revive the old Latin Mass so dear to traditionalists were “non-existent.”
Phtoo by Domenico Stinellis | AP
Faithful attend the Way of the Cross torchlight procession presided over by Pope Francis in front of the Colosseum on Good Friday in Rome, on Friday. The night he was chosen pope, March 13, Francis emerged from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica without the erminerimmed red velvet cape used by popes past for official duties, wearing instead the white cassock of the papacy. He also received the cardinals’ pledges of obedience after his election not from a chair on a pedestal as popes normally do but rather standing, on their same level. In the days since, he has called for “intensified” dialogue with Islam — a gesture that rankles some traditionalists because
Vigilantes seize town, arrest police By BERTHA RAMOS ASSOCIATED PRESS
ACAPULCO, Mexico — Hundreds of armed vigilantes have taken control of a town on a major highway in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, arresting local police officers and searching homes after a vigilante leader was killed. Several opened fire on a car of Mexican tourists headed to the beach for Easter week. Members of the area’s self-described “community police” say more than 1,500 members of the force were stopping traffic Wednesday at improvised checkpoints in the town of Tierra Colorado, which sits on the highway connecting Mexico City to Acapulco. They arrested 12 police and the former director of public security in the town after a leader of the state’s vigilante movement was slain on Monday.
A tourist heading to the beach with relatives was slightly wounded Tuesday after they refused to stop at a roadblock and vigilantes fired shots at their car, officials said. The vigilantes accuse the ex-security director of participating in the killing of vigilante leader Guadalupe Quiñones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of local organized crime groups on Monday. They reported seizing several high-powered rifles from his car, and vigilantes were seen toting a number of sophisticated assault rifles on Wednesday, although it was not clear if all had been taken from the ex-security director’s car. “We have besieged the municipality because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities. We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows
who killed our commander,” said Bruno Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the vigilante group. Placido said vigilantes had searched homes in the town and seized drugs from some. They turned over the ex-security director and police officers to state prosecutors, who agreed to investigate their alleged ties to organized crime. The growing movement of “self-defense” vigilante groups has seen masked townspeople throw up checkpoints in parts of southern and western Mexico, stopping motorists to search for weapons or people whose names are on hand-written lists of “suspects” wanted for crimes like theft and extortion. The vigilantes have opened fire before on motorists who refused to stop, slightly wounding a pair of tourists from Mexico City visiting a beach in early February.
Sparks flying in short Venezuelan campaign By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARACAS, Venezuela — It’s Holy Week in Venezuela, a time when millions traditionally take a welcome pause from work and politics to go on vacation. Yet that hasn’t stopped Venezuela’s time-pressed presidential candidates from sprinting through the holidays toward an April 14 election to replace the late Hugo Chavez, as they try to define both themselves and each other within weeks. Both Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s chosen successor, and opposition Gov. Henrique Capriles face the challenge of spelling out a vision for a future without Chavez, who dominated this 28 million-person country like few other leaders have during his 14 years in power. That’s produced a race sometimes jarring in its aggressiveness and exhausting in its tempo. Both candidates have led multiple rallies each day and used deeply personal language against each other. Maduro has even threatened to have Capriles imprisoned for questioning whether Chavez really died on March 5, as the government had announced. Shannon O’Neil, a Latin American studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said emotion over Chavez’s
death will dominate this election. Maduro has used the government’s enormous bureaucracy and its media to tie himself closely to Chavez, with the late president’s image often hung on podiums in front of the candidate or serving as a backdrop. Maduro also has the support of the socialist party’s governors in 20 of Venezuela’s 23 states, O’Neil noted. “They are going to use a full court press to ensure that Maduro is elected,” she said. Maduro’s challenge has been keeping that public sympathy for Chavez alive, a task he’s tackled through sheer repetition and unending eulogy. He pays homage to the late president day in and day out, while warning that Chavez’s populist programs benefiting Venezuela’s poor majority are at risk. One website has even been counting the times Maduro mentions Chavez’s name: nearly 5,000 instances from March 5 to 27. “Maduro is not Chavez,” said Andres Izarra, a former Chavez information minister who’s on Maduro’s campaign team. “Maduro is his son. Maduro is the one that Chavez said will carry his flag, carry on his legacy. ... That’s how he’ll win.” The 50-year-old Maduro has also adopted Chavez’s confrontational language,
echoing the attacks on what Chavez used to call his “historical enemies” — the “imperialists” in the U.S. government and the “oligarchs” of Venezuela’s opposition. Critics said Chavez used the rhetoric to keep the country polarized and his supporters agitated while diverting attention from problems at home. “I alert all the people about the oligarchy and its obsession to destroy the Bolivarian revolution that our comandante Chavez built, to destroy democracy,” Maduro told a March 16 rally. “They have already begun with dollars financed by the imperialist elites.” Working in Maduro’s advantage also is the date of the vote, just three days after the anniversary of a 2002 coup that briefly dislodged Chavez from power. “That event is sort of Chavismo’s most important, most symbolic moment because it shows them as heroic and shows the opposition as anti-democratic,” said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank who has closely studied Venezuela. “The symbolism is really perfect.” Capriles, for his part, has barely had time to rest after losing a hard-fought race to Chavez in October, when he received 45 percent of the vote.
they view interfaith dialogue as a sign of religious relativism. This year’s Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum, which re-enacts Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, was dedicated to Mideast Christians, with prayers calling for an end to “violent fundamentalism.” Francis chose to stress Christians’ positive relations with Muslims in remarks the end of the ceremony. He recalled Benedict’s 2012 visit to Lebanon when “we saw the beauty and the strong bond of communion joining Christians together in that
land and the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters and so many others.” Francis also raised traditional eyebrows when he refused the golden pectoral cross offered to him right after his election by Monsignor Guido Marini, the Vatican’s liturgy guru who under Benedict became the symbol of Benedict’s effort to restore the Gregorian chant and heavy silk brocaded vestments of the pre-Vatican II liturgy to papal Masses. Marini has stayed by Francis’ side as the new pope puts his own stamp on Vatican Masses with no-nonsense vestments and easy off-the-cuff homilies. But there is widespread expectation that Francis will soon name a new master of liturgical ceremonies more in line with his priorities of bringing the church and its message of love and service to ordinary people. There were certainly none of those trappings on display Thursday at the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention facility in Rome, where the 76-year-old Francis got down on his knees to wash the feet of 12 inmates, two of them women. The rite reenacts Jesus’ washing of the feet of his 12 apostles during the Last Supper before his crucifixion, a sign of his love and service to them. The church’s liturgical law holds that only men can participate, given that Jesus’ apostles were all male. Priests and bishops have routinely petitioned for exemptions to include women, but the law is clear. Francis, however, is the church’s chief lawmaker, so in theory he can do whatever he wants.
Audit: Monument costly By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — Construction of a monument that Mexico City residents say resembles a giant cream-filled wafer was soured by overspending, inflated prices and building code violations, an audit has found. Formally known as the Pillar of Light, the 343-foot high structure on the capital’s emblematic Reforma Avenue was supposed to cost around $35 million; instead taxpayers shelled out $100 million, according to the report released Wednesday by the audit unit of Congress. The audit found that Mexico’s anti-corruption agency failed to oversee spending and ignored costly errors during its construction. Previous comments by federal officials and contractors had revealed that the monument’s construction was plagued with wrongdoings and overspending. But the audit also found that the Public Administration Department, the anti-corruption watchdog, ignored violations of construction codes and full compliance with spending regulations. The monument, which is made of a series of columns sandwiched by panels of quartz backlit by LED lights, was built to commemorate the bicentennial of Mexican independence. It was meant as a gleaming symbol of hope and inspiration in a country beset by drug violence. But its construction became a topic of debate in Mexico and it is now commonly known as “suavicrema,” a cream-filled cookie with a gridded surface. The tower has also earned nick-
Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills/file | AP
The “Pillar of Light” monument is seen in Mexico City. An audit found Mexico’s anti-corruption agency failed to oversee spending and ignored costly errors. names like “the Monument of Shame” and “the Monument of Mexican Dependence.” It was scheduled to be inaugurated on Sept. 15, 2010, but was finished a year-and-a-half late and was not well-received by many Mexicans who saw little of Mexico in it. The construction company brought stainless-steel columns from Italy, quartz panels from Brazil and a specialized lighting system made by a German-owned company. The audit concluded that the construction company inflated steel prices and overspent on the quartz and it lied about the actual weight of the tower to justify more expenses. “They made decisions without the proper coordination and full compliance with regulations,” the re-
port said. The audit also found the committee that oversaw the work signed a contract for an incomplete project that contained errors, including having to dig deeper than it had been established in the beginning. The management company Triple I Services could not be reached by The Associated Press Wednesday. A spokesman for the Public Administration Department said it would not comment on the report because it referred to faults by the previous administration of President Felipe Calderón, who left office on Dec. 1. “Those audits belong to the past six-year term. Right now, the department has nothing to say about it,” said spokesman Emilio Estrada.
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
Notice of Public Auction Sale – Seized Property Under the authority in Internal Revenue Code section 6331, the property described below has been seized for nonpayment of Internal Revenue taxes due from American Legion 486 Arnoldo Gonzalez. The property will be sold at public auction as provided by Internal Revenue Code section 6335 and related regulations. Date: April 18, 2013 Time: 10:00 a.m. Bidder registration begins at 09:30 a.m. Place: Zapata County Courthouse, 200 E 7th Ave, Zapata TX 78076. Property may be inspected as drive by only. Only the right, title, and interest of American Legion 486 Arnoldo Gonzalez in and to the property will be offered for sale. If requested, the Internal Revenue Service will furnish information about possible encumbrances, which may be useful in determining the value of the interest being sold. Property offered is described as - TRACT A - THE SURFACE ONLY of Lot Number Three (3), Four (4), Eleven (11), Twelve (12), Thirteen (13) and Fourteen (14), (SAVE AND EXCEPT the NE ½ of Lot 13 and NE ½ of Lot 14 conveyed to Arnoldo Gonzalez Post No. 486, American Legion Department of Texas, Inc., recorded in Vol. 271, Pages 673), in Block Number One Hundred Fifty-Three (153) TOWNSITE OF NEW ZAPATA, Zapata County, Texas the Plat which is recorded in Volume 2, Page 133, Map Records of Zapata County, Texas, with all improvements thereon. AND TRACT B - The Surface Only to all of Lots Numbers One (1) and Two (2) in Block Number One Hundred Fifty-Three (153) situated in the New Townsite of Zapata, Zapata County, Texas, the plat of which is recorded in Volume 2, page 133, Map Records of Zapata County, Texas. The structure is a commercial building and is located at 2213 US Hwy 83, Zapata, TX 78076. Minimum bid $57,000.00 The Terms of Payment: Full payment required within 1 hour of acceptance of highest bid. All payments must be by cash, certified check, cashiers or treasurer’s check or by a United States postal, bank, express, or telegraph money order. Make check or money order payable to the United States Treasury. The Government reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to withdraw the property from the sale. If you want additional information about the property and proposed sale, please contact Patty Hall; Property Appraisal & Liquidation Specialist at 214-422-7386 or visit www.irsauctions.gov.
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
PAUL D. MEYER Paul D. Meyer, 73, passed away Saturday, March 23, 2013, at Doctors Hospital in Laredo. Mr. Meyer is preceded in death by his parents, Carl and Thelma Meyer; brother, Leonard Meyer; and a sister, Phylis Meyer. Mr. Meyer is survived by his wife, Kay Meyer; sons, Paul D. Jr. (Mindi) Meyer and Carl Meyer; two grandsons; step-children, John (Shauna) Weeks and Tamara (Carl) De Koninck; three step-grandchildren; and by numerous other family members. Mr. Meyer was a Vietnam War veteran, a life member of V.F.W., American Legion, National AARP, Michigan Nut Association and V.F.W. National Home of Eaton Rapids, Mich. Mr. Meyer retired from General Motors after 30 years of service in Lansing, Mich. He was also a member of Union Local #652. Visitation hours were Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. with a wake at 7
Longtime New York City newsman Bob Teague dies By DOUGLAS MARTIN NEW YORK TIMES
Bob Teague, who joined WNBCTV in New York in 1963 as one of the city’s first black television journalists and went on to work as a reporter, anchorman and producer for more than three decades, died Thursday in New Brunswick, N.J. He was 84. The cause was T-cell lymphoma, his wife, Jan, said. Teague, who lived in Monmouth Junction, N.J., established a reputation for finding smart, topical stories and delivering them in a sophisticated manner. Though he later criticized TV news as superficial and too focused on the appearance of reporters and anchors, his own good looks and modulated voice were believed to have helped his longevity. Mal Goode became the first black network TV reporter in 1962. He was assigned to the ABC News U.N. bu-
p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Shrine Children’s HospitalHouston, 6977 Main St., Houston, TX 77030. Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. 83, Zapata, TX.
FOOD Continued from Page 1A decide whether or not to sell their herds and get out of ranching altogether. Today, the nation’s cattle herd is the smallest since the 1950s.” As ranchers sold their cattle last year, more beef came into the market and the price of beef remained low. Now that cattle supplies are low, retail prices are increasing at the grocery store. Other factors like continued drought in the Midwest and higher gas prices have led to an increase in the overall cost of the food basket from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013. Of the 16 items surveyed, 13 increased in price from the last quarter:
reau because network executives feared his presence in the main studio would be too disruptive, TV Guide reported. WNBC, the NBC-owned station in New York, hired Teague, a seasoned newspaper reporter, the next year. As racial tensions mounted in the 1960s, he was often sent into minority neighborhoods. In July 1963, he was a principal correspondent for “Harlem: Test for the North,” an hourlong network program prepared after riots broke out in the neighborhood. “They felt black reporters would be invulnerable in a riot,” Teague said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1981. They were not, but he and others proved themselves to be good reporters. He won praise in September 1963 for his first-person report about protesting racial injustice on a picket line. Just two years after being hired, Teague was given his own weekly program, “Sunday Afternoon Re-
port.” He also became a frequent replacement on NBC network news and sports programs. Yet even as he carved a niche at NBC, including service as anchor, he grew disillusioned with many aspects of the TV news business. In his 1982 book, “Live and Off-Color: News Biz,” he complained that executives’ lust for ratings led them to prefer spectacle over serious news. “A newscast is not supposed to be just another vehicle for peddling underarm deodorants,” he wrote. “The public needs to know.” He criticized the major stations’ practice of all scheduling their news programs at the same time of day, saying this meant they all provided the same information. He suggested that each channel present the news in a separate time slot. The slots could then by rotated so all would get access to the most popular times. Teague was born in Milwaukee on Jan. 2, 1929, to a mechanic and a maid.
COURT Continued from Page 1A
lettuce, fresh tomatoes, corn flakes, rice, dried pinto beans, cake mix, milk, sliced turkey, cheddar cheese, ground beef, chicken breasts, sirloin steak and pork chops. Only three items — grapefruit, white bread and vanilla ice cream — decreased in price from the last quarterly survey. The TFB Grocery Price Watch is conducted quarterly by volunteer shoppers at grocery stores across the state of Texas. The current survey data was collected by 40 shoppers from March 7-14. TFB has monitored Texas food prices through its Grocery Price Watch survey since March 2009.
do was fined $10,000 and allowed to pay in a 30month period once he’s on supervised release. While at the Bureau of Prisons, Mercado will participate in a drug/alcohol treatment program. He was allowed by the court to self-surrender when designated. In addition, Saldaña granted an order of forfeiture for 55.14 acres and 10 acres of tract of land that belonged to Mercado. Mercado pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, a charge
listed in a superseding indictment filed in September. Mercado’s plea agreement court records state he “was known to be the biggest cocaine dealer in the area and had been steadily selling up to one kilogram of cocaine per week in small personaluse amounts for several years.” Federal Bureau of Investigation agents began investigating Mercado in 2010. According to court records, authorities conducted 13 controlled drug buys from Mercado between Sept. 23, 2010, and
March 4, 2011. He’d make between $100 and $2,000, depending on the grams sold. Court documents identified Angel Javier Cuellar, Martin Emilio Pacheco, Lucia Guadalupe Hinojosa and Magda Ramos as the cocaine runners working under Mercado. All pleaded guilty last year to possession with intent to distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine, a charge listed in the superseding indictment. Last week, all four people were sentenced. Cuellar and Pacheco received
three-year probated sentences. Cuellar and Pacheco are to complete 100 and 75 hours of community service respectively. Saldaña sentenced Hinojosa and Ramos to one year probation. Both women were ordered to complete 75 hours of community service within 10 months. On Nov. 27, prosecutors dropped charges against Leonardo Cortez and Javier Molina after a superseding indictment did not charge them. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 7282568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
ZETAS Continued from Page 1A ceive probation. In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Gardner stressed that neither had agreed to cooperate with the government. Afterward, neither woman would comment. “It’s a very difficult situation to be born into the family,” said Frank Ivy, Alexandra Treviño’s lawyer. “She’s doing the best she can.” José Treviño is the brother of Zetas leader Miguel Treviño Morales, known in Mexico and along the South Texas border by his radio call sign, “El 40.” The four Treviños are among 19 charged in what prosecutors said was a multimillion-dollar scheme by El 40 and his brothers to launder the proceeds of their drug trafficking and extortion. José Treviño is accused of being the front man, laundering El 40’s and another brother’s drug proceeds in quarter horses
they trained and raced across the American Southwest. Since José and Zulema Treviño and more than a dozen others were arrested in a multi-state sweep in July, prosecutors have introduced through court filings and witness testimony evidence related to the gang’s other alleged activities. Members of the Zetas used drug money to pay off the gatekeepers at the 2010 All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico, a premier quarter horse racing event with a $1 million purse, an Internal Revenue Service agent testified in July. José Treviño’s horse, Mr. Piloto, overcame 22-1 odds for a long-shot victory. A spokesman for the race track rejected the allegations. “Our position is we’ve extensively reviewed the start of that race and stand
by the legitimacy of the start of that race,” said Ty Wyant, a spokesman for Ruidoso Downs. Another Treviño brother, Omar, known by his call sign “El 42” and like El 40, a fugitive in Mexico, would kill opponents who beat him in horse races and cock fights, according to a search warrant affidavit. One co-defendant, Francisco Colorado Cessa, a businessman in the Mexican oil industry from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, acted as an intermediary between that state’s former governor and one of the founding members of the Zetas, a group that has gone from a hit squad of former Mexican special forces soldiers to one of the country’s largest organized crime syndicates with a strong presence beyond its borders. The campaign of Fidel Herrera, who was governor of Veracruz from 2004
to 2010, was funded by founding Zetas member Efraín “Z 14” Torres, FBI Agent Scott Lawson testified in a July 25 hearing. “We have a confidential informant who can place Mr. Cessa as intermediary between Mr. Fidel Herrera and Zeta 14,” Lawson testified. Herrera, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party that last year retook the Mexican presidency, called the allegations “absolutely false.” “At no time was any contribution made to my campaign or to my party,” he wrote in an email. “It’s equally false that a supposed ‘meeting’ with members of this band of criminals was recorded in the governor’s public activity log.” Colorado Cessa and José Treviño have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Colorado Cessa’s attorney denied his
client had broken any laws. “He’s a very successful and extremely well-respected businessman in Mexico,” said Houston lawyer Mike DeGeurin. Torres, who was one of the original special forces soldiers who helped form the Zetas as an assassin squad for the Gulf Cartel in the late 1990s, was killed at a horse race in Veracruz in 2007. After his death, the Treviño brothers hired Torres’s horse trainer. In a 2009 online chat with her then-boyfriend that were entered into the court record, Alexandra Garcia Treviño spoke excitedly of her family’s prospects. “I know my family isn’t perfect,” she wrote. “But we are hard workers.” Prosecutors alleged that after winning one race, she and her brother posed for a picture holding up hand signs showing their uncles’
radio call signs. As part of the plea deal, Zulema Treviño gave up her rights to the hundreds of horses she and her husband’s companies owned, many of which were auctioned off last year, and ranch properties they own in Oklahoma. She will be able to keep the modest home they own in the Balch Springs suburb of Dallas, prosecutors said during Friday’s court proceedings. The allegations against José Treviño shook the quarter horse racing world. He has not shied away from the spotlight, giving interviews after his horses won. Julianna Holt, who along with her husband Peter are majority owners of the San Antonio Spurs, had sold Treviño one of her horses. She bought it back at the government auction last year for $1 million. (jbuch@express-news.net)
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
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Sports&Outdoors MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: OPENING WEEKEND
Batter up! Photo by David J. Phillip | AP
Houston Astros infielder Jose Altuve waits for the start of the baseball season. The Astros host the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
Optimistic Astros set to play New coach, league opens ’Stros era By KRISTIE RIEKEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Chris Carlson | AP
The Los Angeles Angels and newly acquired left fielder Josh Hamilton have their sights set on an American League pennant, and World Series title.
HOUSTON — The Houston Astros and their staff think they’ll be much better than they were last season. They’re about the only ones with that opinion. Prognosticators and
pundits across the country don’t see any way the Astros can avoid finishing last in the majors for the third straight year. The odds are stacked against a Houston team that has just five players
See ASTROS
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AL breaks banks to bolster teams By HOWIE RUMBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
Josh Hamilton joined forces with Albert Pujols and Mike Trout in Los Angeles, primed to pry the American League pennant from Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Victor Martinez in Detroit. Not so fast, big boys. The Toronto Blue Jays want in, too.
One thing is certain: A bunch of swaggering bats are ready to give the Houston Astros a rude welcome to the American League. East TAMPA BAY RAYS The spendthrift Rays opened their checkbook to keep Evan Longoria for six more seasons and $100 million. Now, he must stay healthy if light-hitting Tampa Bay is going to make a run in this hefty division.
Longoria missed 74 games last season because of a partially torn left hamstring and the Rays went 41-44 without him. TORONTO BLUE JAYS GM Alex Anthopoulos went on a trading spree that would make fantasy owners jealous, unloading spare parts and prospects for R.A. Dickey, the NL Cy Young Award
See AMERICAN LEAGUE PAGE 2B
CHASING THE GIANTS By JAY COHEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
Once Sergio Romo struck out Miguel Cabrera to end the World Series, the chase was on. The Upton brothers were reunited in Atlanta. Zack Greinke signed a big free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Washington and Cincinnati each traded for a leadoff hitter. Romo and the San Francisco Giants begin the year on top, but there is no shortage of potential challengers in the leaner National League.
East WASHINGTON NATIONALS With Strasburg and NL Rookie of the Year Bryce Harper slated for a full season for the first time, there’s a lot to love about the loaded Nationals. Strasburg went 15-6 with a 3.16 ERA in 2012 before he was shut down. Harper also gets a full year after he began last season in the minors. ATLANTA BRAVES Even with the Uptons in the fold, the key to Atlanta’s season could be the return of catcher Brian McCann following surgery
to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES Ace right-hander Roy Halladay was hampered by lower back and shoulder problems last year. New right fielder Delmon Young will begin the season on the DL Michael Young should provide a steady presence at third base and speedy center fielder Ben Revere came over in a trade with Minnesota. NEW YORK METS All-Star third baseman David Wright committed to New York by agreeing to
an eight-year, $138 million deal over the winter. He may have to wait a while to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. MIAMI MARLINS Shortstop Jose Reyes and pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle were dealt to Toronto, and manager Ozzie Guillen was fired. Mike Redmond takes over on the bench, and there is little to work with for his first managerial job. Central CINCINNATI REDS Todd Frazier gets third
See NATIONAL LEAGUE PAGE 2B
Photo by Charlie Riedel | AP
The Texas Rangers are eyeing an American League West title after losing out on several free agents in the offseason.
Rangers see potential Pitchers hope to lead back to glory By STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARLINGTON — For the Texas Rangers, the focus is on who stayed in town, rather than who left. At least, that’s the ap-
proach they’re trying to take. There have been some big changes in the Texas lineup since not winning a game last October, particularly the departure of
See RANGERS PAGE 2B
NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL: BRACKETRACKET
Sweet 16 gets spiced up with Shockers, Orange By JOHN MARSHALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Welcome to BracketRacket, your one-stop shopping place for all things NCAA. For our Sweet 16 edition, we’ve got a geography quiz by Shockers and Explorers, a coach in rarified air, a former Ohio attorney general rooting for Michigan State and Jim Larranaga’s
NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT thought for the day. All that and some Bracket Bits that include all of Dunk City’s postseason dunks and, in honor of Easter, Peeps.
Geography quiz
Who says academics go by the wayside during the NCAA tournament? La Salle and Wichita State took a geography quiz at the West Regional in Los Angeles, and the Shockers passed. Belying their name, the Explorers need to brush up a little. Here’s an excerpt of how it went from AP Sports Writer Beth Harris: QUESTION: Where is La
Salle located? ANSWER: “Philly, right? I believe it’s Philly,” Shockers guard Malcolm Armstead said. Correct. QUESTION: Where is Wichita State located? ANSWER: “What state is it in?” asked La Salle guard Ramon Galloway. And it went downhill
See BRACKET PAGE 2B
Photo by Jae C. Hong | AP
Wichita State celebrate as their team closes out a 72-58 win over La Salle in the NCAA tournament on Thursday in Los Angeles.
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Zscores
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
Donovan still eyes Red, White and Blue By SAM BORDEN NEW YORK TIMES
Lest anyone think that Landon Donovan’s recent sabbatical from soccer diminished his desire to play for the United States, Donovan said Thursday that he would even be willing to change positions if it meant being called in by coach Jurgen Klinsmann. “If I can go back in with the national team and they ask me to play goalie, then I’ll play goalie,” Donovan deadpanned during a conference call with reporters. He added, more seriously: “My job now is to make it so that he wants me back. He has not said anything — he hasn’t said he doesn’t want me to be part of it. He has said the door
is open and once I’m playing again, he’ll evaluate me like any other player, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.” After leading the Los Angeles Galaxy to the Major League Soccer championship last year, Donovan, 31, stepped away from the game in a decision that drew a wide variety of opinions. Donovan returned to the Galaxy this week and said he could envision playing — though perhaps not significant minutes — during the Galaxy’s Concacaf Champions League semifinal series with Monterrey, which begins Wednesday. Donovan’s role with the United States is more difficult to determine. The
United States plays three World Cup qualifying matches in June and also has the Gold Cup and several other exhibition matches scheduled during the spring and summer. Donovan, the career leader in goals for the United States, made it clear that he hoped to return to the national team but admitted that he could not predict how his teammates would receive him. “That’s not in my control,” he said. “I can imagine that, just like in any walk of life, some people agree with the decision and some people don’t agree with it. You have to earn your way back in. This is no different. That will be my challenge.” While the United States
ASTROS Continued from Page 1B on the 40-man roster with more than two years of major league experience and the league’s lowest payroll. Add to that the move from the NL Central to the powerful AL West and things look even more daunting. It will be tough, most figure, for this team to avoid becoming the first to lose at least 106 games in three straight seasons since the expansion Mets did it from 1962-65. First-year manager Bo Porter, the former Nationals third base coach, has worked to instill a winning attitude in the Astros all spring, and has implored them not to listen to the critics. “Ignore the noise,” he said he tells the players. “It doesn’t matter what anybody has to say — at the end of the day, on March 31, it’s the Houston Astros vs. the Texas Rangers. It’s us against the other team. All the predictions and other things go out the window.” Still, it’s difficult to envision this team being competitive with a payroll of $25.9 million, and that figure includes the $4.5 million Houston will pay Pittsburgh as part of the deal that sent pitcher Wandy Rodriguez there last season. Without that $4.5 million, the entire team will make about $6.5 million less than Alex Rodriguez alone will earn this season. Opening day starter Bud Norris is the
highest-paid player on the team with a salary of $3 million. He’ll try to bounce back from a tough 2012 season where he went 7-13 with a 4.65 ERA. Following him in the rotation will be Lucas Harrell, who was Houston’s most successful starter last season with an 11-11 record and 3.76 ERA. The Astros added Philip Humber, who threw a perfect game last season with the White Sox, to pitch third in the rotation. The perfecto was the highlight of a disappointing season overall where he went 5-5 with a 6.44 ERA. Erik Bedard will be the fifth starter and Alex White and Brad Peacock are battling to round out the rotation. Houston’s biggest offseason acquisition was slugger Carlos Pena, who will likely be the team’s first-ever designated hitter. The 34-year-old is coming off a season where he hit just .197 with a career-high 182 strikeouts. Another new addition to Houston’s lineup is left fielder Chris Carter. Carter came to Houston just before spring training in a trade that sent veteran shortstop Jed Lowrie to Oakland. The Astros like the potential for power of the 26-year-old, who hit 16 homers in 67 games last season for the A’s. He and third baseman Brett Wallace could also see time at DH.
seems to be in decent shape in its qualifying group after beating Costa Rica last week and then earning a draw against Mexico on Tuesday, a fullstrength Donovan would probably help an attack that has produced only two goals in three qualifying games. Donovan said he was pleased to see how quickly his cardiovascular fitness had returned and likened rediscovering his soccer skills to “riding a bike.” He said that the June qualifiers were his target for a potential return to the national team and that he would focus on playing so well with the Galaxy that Klinsmann had no choice but to include him on the American roster.
Photo by Chris O’Meara | AP
U.S. forward Landon Donovan (10) Thursday that he would even be willing to change positions if it meant being called to return for the USA.
RANGERS Continued from Page 1B five-time All-Star and former AL MVP Josh Hamilton, now with the AL West rival Los Angeles Angels. Also gone are Michael Young, the franchise’s career hits leader who had been the longesttenured Ranger, and slugging catcher Mike Napoli. And questions still linger about Hall of Fame pitcher and CEO Nolan Ryan’s future with the team. The Rangers do seem set with their rotation, for this season and beyond, even after their failed offseason pursuit of top free agent Zack Greinke. Japanese ace Yu Darvish, 18-game winner Matt Harrison and Derek Holland are all 26 or 27 years old and are signed for at least four more seasons. Alexi Ogando, back in the rotation after last season in the bullpen, is under club control at least that long. After a dominating seven seasons in Japan, Darvish won 16 games and was an All-Star as a major league
rookie last year. The righthander finished strong, going 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA, 67 strikeouts and 15 walks his last eight starts of the regular season. And he has looked strong this spring. “He’s commanding the ball a lot better,” manager Ron Washington said. Darvish will start the second game this season for the Rangers, after they held him until the fourth last April. Harrison will be the starter for the very first game of the major league season, when Texas plays March 31 at new AL West team Houston. Holland, the lefty who pitched for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, is 2812 the last two seasons and had four shutouts in 2011. Ogando was an All-Star and 13-game winner starting in his first full major league season two years ago. Veteran right-hander Colby Lewis will miss the start of the season while coming back from elbow surgery.
But he could be back in the rotation sooner than expected, maybe early May. Joe Nathan had 37 saves in his first season as the Rangers’ closer. Left-hander Robbie Ross, the surprise out of camp last spring and potentially a starter, was 6-0 with a 2.22 ERA in 58 relief appearances as a rookie and will stay in the bullpen for now. Even with Hamilton, Young and Napoli gone, the Rangers still have plenty of hitters, including newcomers Lance Berkman and catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus will still top the batting order, with switch-hitting Berkman expected to take over the No. 3 spot while coming off an injuryplagued season and only 32 games for St. Louis. Adrian Beltre, the Gold Glove-winning third baseman going into the third season of his five-year deal with Texas, hit .321 with 36 homers and 102 RBIs last season.
that consistently competes year in and year out. That’s a big challenge for us.”
reaching the Final Four — Cordray went with Michigan State. “I always go with my heart,” Cordray told AP Business Writer Christina Rexrode. Cordray’s roommate at Michigan State had a few classes with Magic and he saw firsthand the impact the oversized and gregarious point guard had on the school. “It was really exciting and fun to watch,” Cordray said. “Of course he left after two years and went on to fame and fortune. The rest of us toiled for four years finding ourselves. He’s a great personality, he just glows and picks everybody up around him.”
BRACKET Continued from Page 1B from there. “I saw a store down here called Which Wich,” Explorers guard Tyrone Garland offered, not-so-helpfully naming a national sandwich chain. Guard Tyreek Duren pitched in: “Steve Zack said we passed the Wichita exit when we were going to the airport. He pointed it out and said, ‘That’s who we play.”’ Informed of their opponent’s confusion, Shockers forward Cleanthony Early, of Middletown, N.Y., admitted he was initially stumped, too. “I didn’t know where Wichita was either before I went there,” he said. “I had to do my research. When I first heard of it, I couldn’t
even pronounce it correctly.” After losing to the Shockers in the Sweet 16, the Explorers probably know a little bit more about Wichita as well.
One is not like the others Forgive Dana Altman and the Oregon Ducks if they have a bit of an inferiority complex this weekend. And no, this isn’t a gripe about the selection committee’s seeding. The Ducks, being covered at the Sweet 16 by AP National Writer Nancy Armour, are in the Midwest Regional semifinals with a
veritable Who’s Who of college hoops. Their opponent, Louisville, is a two-time national champion and was in the Final Four last year. Cardinals coach Rick Pitino is a surefire Hall of Famer, with two NCAA titles, 660 wins — and counting — and a 49-18 record in March alone. There’s also Duke, which won its fourth national title three years ago and whose coach, Mike Krzyzewski, has more wins than anyone else in Division I. (Coach K has a side gig, too, leading the U.S. men to gold medals at the last two Olympics.) And don’t forget Michigan State, which may as well include the Final Four on its schedule for as many
AMERICAN LEAGUE Continued from Page 1B winner, Jose Reyes, AllStar game MVP Melky Cabrera and former aces Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle. NEW YORK YANKEES The aging Yankees came into camp in poor health and things quickly got worse. They’ll start the season with Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Phil Hughes on the disabled list. But a top pitching staff led by CC Sabathia and closer Rivera could help this club to their 18th trip to the postseason in 19 years. BOSTON RED SOX The Red Sox brought in Ryan Dempster. They need Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz to return to form, and John Lackey to be effective after missing all last season because elbow surgery. BALTIMORE ORIOLES The Orioles under vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter made a stunning turn-
around last season, going from a team that lost 93 games to winning a wildcard spot with a 93-69 record — Baltimore’s first winning season in 15 years. The luck could run out, though, in the rugged East. The Orioles hit just .240 last year and they were 11th in runs scored in the AL. CENTRAL DETROIT TIGERS The Tigers feel they have some unfinished business to take care of after being so handily swept by the San Francisco Giants, and the only thing that could keep them from a return trip to the World Series is their bullpen. Improving a lineup anchored by Triple Crown winner Cabrera and Fielder sounds difficult, but Detroit did it. WHITE SOX The White Sox made a surprising run under firstyear manager Robin Ventura, leading the division into September before fading. They’ve locked up Chris Sale with a five-year, $32.5
million contract, re-signed a rejuvenated Jake Peavy and brought in Jeff Keppinger to help boost a league-worst .221 average in the No. 2 hole. KANSAS CITY ROYALS Trading away their top prospect, outfielder Wil Myers, for pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis was a big gamble for the Royals to make. But along with Ervin Santana, the three are being counted on to turn around the Royals biggest problem area: starting pitching. CLEVELAND INDIANS No matter how many runs Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn, Drew Stubbs and Mark Reynolds produce for new manager Terry Francona, the starting rotation is still a glaring problem. TWINS Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau appear to be at full health, but the Twins appear headed for a third straight last-place finish in the Central because their rotation is such a question.
times as Tom Izzo and the Spartans wind up there. “Fortunately, it’s our team going out there,” Altman said. Altman is no slouch, either. Oregon is the third school he’s taken to the NCAA tournament, and the Ducks have had 20-win seasons in each of his three years as head coach. But Oregon is not exactly a tournament mainstay; this is the Ducks’ first appearance since 2008, and their first trip to the regional semifinals since 2007. “All three of those programs, because of their coaches, have great records, great traditions,” Altman said. “We’re trying to build a tradition. We’re trying to build something
Forced to choose Richard Cordray is the former Ohio attorney general and lives in Columbus, so he roots for Ohio State football. He also went to Michigan State at the same time as Magic Johnson, so he pulls for Spartans basketball. That left the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with a dilemma while filling out his NCAA tournament bracket. But it came down to picking a team — he has the Buckeyes and Spartans
NATIONAL LEAGUE Continued from Page 1B base all to himself after hitting .273 with 19 homers, and shortstop Zack Cozart looks to improve on his .246 average from his rookie season. The growth of the pair of young infielders could help the Reds play deep into October this year. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS Sluggers Matt Holliday, Allen Craig and Carlos Beltran remain a part of a dangerous lineup, and bright young arms Trevor Rosenthal, Shelby Miller and Joe Kelly could have an impact in the rotation and bullpen. PITTSBURGH PIRATES Andrew McCutchen is coming off a breakthrough performance, and the pressure is on to come up with an appropriate sequel in 2013. MILWAUKEE BREWERS Milwaukee got off to a terrible start last year, then closed with a 27-13 push that nearly got the team back into the playoffs. While there are several questions about the rotation, the Brewers are hoping the end of last season is more representative of the club than the beginning of last year. CHICAGO CUBS The Cubs are encouraged by the progress of prospects Albert Almora, Jorge Soler and Javier Baez. And that’s going to have to be enough for now, because the rebuilding project under Theo Epstein is still at least a year away. West SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
Romo was one of the breakout stars in San Francisco’s title run last year. The animated right-hander was 1-0 with a sparkling 0.84 ERA in 10 playoff games, collecting four saves in four opportunities. Steady second baseman Marco Scutaro and outfielder Hunter Pence each came over in trades during San Francisco’s run to the division title, and they’re hoping for a repeat performance. LOS ANGELES DODGERS The Dodgers’ feel-good spring was stymied by a double dose of bad news. First, Greinke was diagnosed with inflammation in the back of his right elbow. Then Hanley Ramirez hurt his right thumb in the World Baseball Classic and was expected to be sidelined for eight weeks. ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS One of the most uplifting scenes this spring was Brandon McCarthy back on the mound for the first time since he was struck by a liner up the middle last September. He joins a strong rotation fronted by 15game winner Ian Kennedy and righthander Trevor Cahill. COLORADO ROCKIES Walt Weiss became the manager in November, replacing Jim Tracy. He served as the Rockies’ shortstop from 1994-97 before wrapping up his 14-year big league career with three years in Atlanta. He inherits a club coming off a franchise-worst 64-98 season and a last-place finish in the West.
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B
HINTS | BY HELOISE Knickknacks Might Get Whacked Dear Heloise: I would like to add a comment to the suggestion on WASHING KNICKKNACKS in the dishwasher that I read in The Washington Post. Please be careful that there is no gold or silver trim on them and that they can withstand the heat in the dishwasher. There are only two of us in our household, and we also frequently run out of dishes before we can fill up the dishwasher. Our best set of dishes has silver on the edges and cannot be washed in the dishwasher. (Heloise here: Older and delicate items should be hand-washed, but modern pieces usually can be put in the dishwasher safely.) I also have learned that many pots and pans cannot be placed in the dishwasher (if they have wooden knobs or handles — Heloise) because the heat will crack or splinter them and the handles. So, we some-
“
HELOISE
times run the appliance at less than full. Or we take back out the few dishes that we need and rewash them by hand. — Pauline Lee, Bowie, Md. Thanks for sharing your hints. Many times it’s the high-heat water temperature or hot drying cycle that can cause damage. When the subject of washing knickknacks in the dishwasher comes up, we chuckle in Heloise Central. One of my assistants put carved doves in the dishwasher (she was newly married), and when she opened the dishwasher, they were gone! They had dissolved with the hot water. So, always think before putting items (especially wooden or other specialty pieces) in the dishwasher. — Heloise PET PAL
DENNIS THE MENACE
FAMILY CIRCUS
PEANUTS
GARFIELD
DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES — Here’s how to work it:
DILBERT
4B THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013