The Zapata Times 4/28/2012

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ELECTION 2012

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT

Primary ready

Organization teaching work skills

Democratic Party hopefuls prepare for vote

By JJ VELASQUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

Outgoing Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez held his post for 18 years before deciding to retire this year and not pursue another term.

Three candidates with law enforcement experience in the county are vying to replace Gonzalez.

The race will come to a head May 29, when the Zapata County Democratic Party primary election will be held.

Alonso Lopez, who serves as an administrator in the sheriff ’s office; Joaquin Solis, a veteran in Zapata County law enforcement who retired late last year; and Raymond Moya III, an investigator in the

county attorney’s office, will look to win the party nomination. The race will be uncontested in the general election.

Lopez, who serves as captain of administration under Gonzalez, started his law enforcement career as a dispatcher and jailer in 1982.

Lopez feels his administrative experience quali-

fies him to be sheriff. He said his knowledge of the budget and rapport with the treasurer’s office give him an upper hand.

The 54-year-old Lopeño resident said he would talk to the Commissioners Court about improving salaries of dispatchers if he is elected. He also hopes to

See PRIMARIES PAGE 9A

RANCH LIFE

LIFE AS A COWBOY CHEF IN TEXAS

By JJ VELASQUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

Zapata County Independent School District is partnering with Junior Achievement to prepare its students for life after school.

The international nonprofit organization works with schools, businesses and organizations. In collaboration with these institutions, it provides hands-on instruction to students — kindergarteners to seniors in high

George Ranch chef Nick “Cookie” Castelberg looks at a chuck wagon lunch for a group of foreign journalists Thursday, in Richmond. Castelberg is head chef — the only chef — at Richmond’s George Ranch Historical Park.

Briton cooks up chow, memories of Old West

By ALLAN TURNER HOUSTON CHRONICLE

RICHMOND — Nick Castelberg was a jolly English lad, trailing his granny to her garden patch in rural Kent, then perching in the fragrant

farmhouse kitchen, snapping beans and studying the old woman as she stirred the pots. On spring days, he trekked the greening woods with his granddad, looking to tap the perfect birch, one whose clear, sweet sap

would make the grandest wine.

Castelberg’s mind drifts back to those boyhood days sometimes. He’s 45 now, and everybody knows him as “Cookie,” a regular feller with dinged-up boots, a born-again cow-

boy with callouses on his hands and cookin’ in his heart.

Castelberg is head chef — the only chef — at Richmond’s George Ranch Historical Park. King of the

See COWBOY PAGE 9A

See PROGRAM PAGE 9A

THE BORDER

No charges in BP shooting ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle | AP

school — to improve financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship.

The organization, which has a satellite office in Laredo, began a pilot program this school year at the district.

Select classes in elementary, middle and high schools have been receiving instruction from the organization’s volunteers, which include 14 IBC Bank employees.

EL PASO — Federal prosecutors said Friday there was insufficient evidence to pursue charges against a U.S. Border Patrol agent in the shooting death of a 15-year-old Mexican national in 2010.

The agent didn’t act inconsistently with Border Patrol policy or training regarding the use of force in the death of Sergio Hernandez-Guereca, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement announcing the decision, which was quickly denounced by the Mexican government.

U.S. authorities have said the agent shot Hernandez while trying to arrest illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande on June 7, 2010. Some witnesses said people on the Mexican side of the river, including Hernandez, were throwing rocks at the agent. Border agents are allowed to use lethal force against rock throwers.

The shooting occurred under one of the border bridges in El Paso, and it was recorded by an eyewitness with a cellphone.

The Mexican government issued a statement saying it “profoundly regrets and expresses its strong opposition to the decision” and was considering its next step. Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan had a similar reaction to the decision, tweeting: “Mexico

strongly rejects it.”

The U.S. Justice Department also concluded that no federal civil rights charges could be pursued, saying that “accident, mistake, misperception, negligence and bad judgment were not sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation.”

The department said it conducted a thorough investigation, including interviews with more than 25 civilian and law-enforcement witnesses.

“This review took into account evidence indicating that the agent’s actions constituted a reasonable use of force or would constitute an act of self-defense in response to the threat created by a group of smugglers hurling rocks at the agent and his detainee,” the department’s statement said.

Last year, a judge in West Texas threw out a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government over the fatal shooting. But the judge allowed a civil case against the agent to move forward.

Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso dismissed the lawsuit because the teen was on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande when he was shot. U.S. law gives the government immunity when such claims arise in a foreign country, Briones noted, and the “harm that the Plaintiffs allege ... was felt in Mexico.”

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, APRIL 28

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The National Drug Take Back event is today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at United Middle School, 700 Del Mar Blvd.; Ryan Elementary, 2401 Clark Blvd.; and Texas A&M International University at the Student Center, 5201 University Blvd. The DEA, Webb County Community Coalition of SCAN and other partner organizations will accept unused, unwanted or expired prescription drugs and over-the-counter medication for safe disposal, no questions asked. For more information, call Melissa Belmares-Cavazos or Veronica Jimenez at 956-724-3177.

Kaplan College Laredo’s Spring Into Success Open House is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the college, 6410 McPherson Road. The event is open to the public and will offer health screenings. Community members are invited to bring their computers for diagnostic testing and observe and participate in a crime scene scenario sponsored by the school criminal justice department. Refreshments and snacks will be served.

There will be face painting and games for the entire family. Children must be accompanied by adults. To reserve a spot, call 956-717-5909.

Today is Saturday, April 28, the 119th day of 2012. There are 247 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On April 28, 1789, there was a mutiny on the Bounty as rebelling crew members of the British ship led by Fletcher Christian set Capt. William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

(Bligh and most of the men with him managed to reach Timor in 47 days.)

On this date: In 1758, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, was born in Westmoreland County, Va. In 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1817, the United States and Britain signed the RushBagot Treaty, which limited the number of naval vessels allowed in the Great Lakes.

In 1918, Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the archduke’s wife, Sophie, died in prison of tuberculosis.

In 1937, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was born in the village of al-Oja near the desert town of Tikrit (he was executed in Dec. 2006).

In 1942, pollster George Gallup said most Americans preferred to call the current global conflict “World War II” or “The Second World War” (other suggestions included “Survival War” or “War of World Freedom”).

In 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

In 1952, war with Japan officially ended as a treaty signed in San Francisco the year before took effect. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Supreme Allied commander in Europe; he was succeeded by Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway.

In 1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army, the same day General William C. Westmoreland told Congress the U.S. “would prevail in Vietnam.”

In 1987, Contra rebels in Nicaragua killed Benjamin Ernest Linder, an American engineer working on a hydroelectric project for the Sandinista government.

In 1988, a flight attendant was killed and more than 60 persons injured when part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 tore off during a flight from Hilo (HEE’-loh) to Honolulu.

In 1992, the Agriculture Department unveiled its pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart that had cost nearly $1 million to develop. (A new approach, “MyPlate,” replaced the pyramid concept in 2011.)

Ten years ago: Alexander Lebed, the gruff former general who’d helped defeat the 1991 hard-line Soviet coup, was killed in a helicopter crash near the Russian town of Abakan; he was 52.

Today’s Birthdays: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee is 86. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is 82. Actress-singer Ann-Margret is 71. Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is 62. Rock musician Chuck Leavell is 60. Actress Mary McDonnell is 59. Actress Simbi Khali is 41. Actress Penelope Cruz is 38. AcActress Jessica Alba is 31.

Thought for Today: “We have two lives... the one we learn with and the life we live with after that.” — Bernard Malamud, American author (1914-1986).

MONDAY, APRIL 30 Journalism/online media students of the Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications and Fine Arts have their 16th annual Photography Exhibition from April 20 to May 26 in the Laredo Center for the Arts’ Community Gallery, 500 San Agustin Ave.

TUESDAY, MAY 1 Tejano Monument sculptor Armando Hinojosa will be the guest speaker at the Villa de San Agustin Genealogical Society’s Cinco de Mayo Merienda today from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Falcon International Bank, 7718 McPherson Road. A $5 donation for the scholarship fund will be paid at the door. Reservations by May 1 can be made by contacting 635-7172 or 723-8419.

The Alzheimer’s Support Group will meet at 7 p.m. in meeting room 2 of Building B at the Laredo Medical Center. The support group is for family members and caregivers of someone who has Alzheimer’s.

SATURDAY, MAY 5 The Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event and Tire Round Up is today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at El Metro Park & Ride, 1800 E. Hillside Road. People are encouraged to bring in hazardous materials for proper disposal free of charge. A limit of eight tires per household will be accepted; 50 cents per tire will be paid. No tires from businesses will be accepted. For more information, call the City of Laredo Environmental Services Department at 794-1650.

A Cinco de Mayo ceremony is from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. today in front of La Posada Hotel, 1000 Zaragoza St. The event is free and open to the public.

A Cinco de Mayo celebration sponsored by Las Damas de la Cultura de Oro is today at the Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustin Ave. It includes a display of traditional dresses from Mexico. For more information, call the LCA at 725-1715.

Fourth- to eighth-grade girls and their mothers/caretakers will meet and interact with female professional engineers for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, from noon to 4 p.m. today at the UTHSCSA-Laredo campus, 1937 E. Bustamante St. Register online at www.wowsciencelaredo.org.

MONDAY, MAY 14 The Zapata County Commissioners Court will meet at 9 a.m. at the Zapata County Courthouse.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 16 The LCC Economic Development Center is partnering with Skillpath to present the “Excelling as a Manager or Supervisor” workshop today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in room 101 of the De La Garza Building at LCC’s Fort McIntosh Campus. For more information or to register for the workshop, contact the EDC at 721-5110 or visit www.laredo.edu/edc.

SATURDAY, MAY 19 The Bass Champs tournament takes place from 7 a.m. through 6 p.m.

To submit an item for the calendar, send the name of the event, the date, time, location and contact phone number to editorial@lmtonline.com.

Photo by Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times | AP

In this April 24 photo, Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank Boxing, announces a forced venue change for the June 16 boxing match between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Andy Lee at the Sun Bowl stadium in El Paso. UT Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa has reversed the decision and will allow the fight, pending security measures.

U.T. OKs boxing match

By JIM VERTUNO AND JUAN CARLOS LLORCA ASSOCIATED PRESS

EL PASO — The University of Texas System chancellor announced Friday he will allow a high-profile boxing match to be held on the school’s El Paso campus if law enforcement can ensure a safe environment, reversing a 3-day-old ban.

Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa had earlier canceled the June 16 fight between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Andy Lee at the Sun Bowl, citing only a “higher than normal” security risk. A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Friday that a federal risk assessment had warned that leaders of warring Mexican drug cartels would attend.

Cigarroa set several conditions for the fight to go forward: State, local and federal law enforcement must promise they can han-

dle any security measures, the contract with the promoter and the security plan must be approved by system officials in advance, and no alcohol can be served.

The chancellor said he met by teleconference with local and federal law enforcement and city leaders and they assured him they can provide proper security.

“One of the most important responsibilities I have in my role as chancellor of the University of Texas System is the safety of our students, faculty, staff and campus visitors,” Cigarroa said.

Fight promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank said he was surprised by Cigarroa’s restrictions. Arum said he’ll have to get assurances from the University of Texas at El Paso and local police by early next week that they can be met. If not, Arum said he’ll move the fight to Houston.

2 men to be exonerated in Dallas sex assault case

Texan held on $1 million bond in child’s death

Pilot hurt in helicopter crash landing in Amarillo

DALLAS — Dallas County is set to exonerate two men convicted nearly 30 years ago in an aggravated sexual assault case where they were falsely identified by the victim.

James Curtis Williams and Raymond Jackson were convicted of the November 1983 assault of a woman outside a Dallas bar.

Both were sentenced to life in prison. Williams was released on parole last year. Jackson was paroled two years ago.

SAN ANGELO — A West Texas man accused of killing a 1year-old girl left in his care is being held on $1 million bond.

Atreyo Arzak Carter III was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Andrea Hernandez. He remained jailed Friday, two days after his arrest.

AMARILLO — Officials say a helicopter crash during a landing attempt at an airport in the Texas Panhandle has left the pilot slightly hurt.

A spokesman for Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport said Friday that the cause of the crash has not been determined.

13 injured in Texas crash involving school bus SEGUIN — Nine students were among 13 hospitalized after a fiery four-vehicle crash that left a charred school bus on its roof in south central Texas.

A school official said none of the students sustained life-threatening injuries in Friday’s crash near Seguin, about 35 miles northeast of San Antonio.

Company makes 1st nuke waste disposal ANDREWS — The Dallasbased company operating a lowlevel radioactive waste dump has disposed of the first material at the West Texas site near the New Mexico state line.

Waste Control Specialists LLC spokesman Chuck McDonald said Friday a small amount of medical waste from Texas was placed inside the disposal pit earlier in the day.

On Wednesday, state regulators gave approval to begin disposing of waste.

New East Texas fish hatchery dedicated JASPER — Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials say a new fish hatchery opening in East Texas will significantly boost the number of fish produced by the 80-year-old hatchery it’s replacing.

Dedication ceremonies were held Thursday for the John D. Parker East Texas State Fish Hatchery.

The facility is below the Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Dow regains ground it lost in April; Amazon surges NEW YORK — It took a while, but the Dow Jones industrial average finally gained back all its losses for the month.

On a day of conflicting signals, as investors weighed disappointing economic news against reports of higher profits at big companies, stocks inched higher.

All three major indexes were up Friday, though barely.

The Dow climbed 24.69 points to 13,228.31. The Standard & Poor’s 500 edged up 3.38 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,403.36. Amazon jumped 16 percent after the online retailer reported a big increase in shipments

Lampreys from U.S. destined for queen’s pie DETROIT — A few unwanted, invasive sea lampreys from the Great Lakes have been shipped to England for use in a tradition-

CONTACT US

Photo by Danny Johnston | AP

In this April 24 photo, Attorney General Eric Holder speaks in Little Rock, Ark. A House committee is preparing a contempt citation against Holder in a dispute over access to documents from a flawed gun tracking operation. al pie for Queen Elizabeth II. The Detroit Free Press reports the City of Gloucester, which has given the pie as a gift to the monarch since the Middle Ages, requested the eel-like creatures from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission because they’re a

protected species in England.

The pie is for June’s Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of the queen’s ascent to the throne.

Commission spokesman Marc Gaden shipped 2 pounds of frozen lamprey from Lake Huron.

— Compiled from AP reports

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SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

New ramp to aid lawmen SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

HIDALGO — While the federal government continues to suggest the Texas/Mexico border is safer than ever, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples on Friday joined state, federal and local officials for the opening of a new law enforcement-use boat ramp dedicated to fallen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata.

In February 2011, Zapata was ambushed and killed in the line of duty

by Mexican drug cartel members. His parents were present at the dedication ceremony.

“The dedication of this facility honoring the memory of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata is a solemn reminder of the sacrifices made every day by our law enforcement personnel who heroically protect our lives, property and sovereignty,” Staples said. “The men and women who have taken the oath to protect and serve us are the heroes who stand between the violent cartel members and our peaceful homes and precious families. This boat ramp not only will serve as a launch point for our law enforcement agents to defend us, but also will send a message to the Mexican drug cartels that we mean business when it comes to protecting our citizens, our soil and our water supply.”

Construction of the boat ramp began 10 months ago after employees of the adjacent Hidalgo County Water Improvement District Number 3 pumping station were fired on from across the border. Located on the Rio

“

The only message we should be sending is this: We will meet any opposing force with greater force and we will not cede one inch of Texas soil.”

AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER TODD STAPLES

Grande River, the pumping station construction site was more recently raided by invading thieves, causing continuing fear and concern for employee safety.

Joining Staples at the boat ramp opening were Sen. Eddie Lucio, officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol officials and members of Hidalgo law enforcement. Following the ramp’s official opening, DPS and Border Patrol boats were launched into the Rio Grande River.

Tuesday, Staples testified before the Texas House Homeland Security and Border Affairs Joint Committee Hearing in Copperas Cove. Earlier this month, he testified before the Texas Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security regarding the need for increased federal resources to secure the Texas border.

“Saying ‘our border is safer than ever’ sends a dangerous message that we are satisfied with the status quo and that we will not run these narcoterrorists out of business,” Staples

said. “The only message we should be sending is this: We will meet any opposing force with greater force and we will not cede one inch of Texas soil.”

Last September, Staples commissioned a strategic assessment of the Texas/Mexico border titled “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment.” The report, which chronicles the impact of violent drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations, was co-authored by retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey and retired two-star Army Major-Gen. Robert Scales, who offered a military perspective on the porous southern border and its implications as a national security threat.

“This is not just a Texas problem, but rather a national security breach,” Staples said. “Law enforcement in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston have confirmed that cartels have gangs operating in these cities. I, for one, have no tolerance for these criminals trespassing on the soil, the sovereignty and the rights of the United States of America.”

Farm Bureau hails labor rule SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

WACO – A nationwide grassroots movement — including efforts from Texas farm families — resulted in the Department of Labor withdrawing a proposal that would have restricted youth activities on farms.

“Texas Farm Bureau member families played a huge role in that effort,” said Kenneth Dierschke, president of Texas Farm Bureau. “In fact, just a week before the ruling, 175 Texas Farm Bureau members visited their congressmen in Washington.

This was a top concern brought up in

every meeting.”

Dierschke said the participants in Texas Farm Bureau’s Leadership Development programs, AgLead and FarmLead, worked the issue on Capitol Hill as well, along with the grassroots efforts of thousands of farm families across Texas and the nation.

“We are encouraged to see the administration listen to the voices of farm and ranch families,” Dierschke said. “This victory belongs to those who stood up and made their concerns heard and serves as another example of what we can accomplish together.”

The Labor Department withdrew its proposal in response to an outpouring of thousands of comments from concerned citizens. The ruling would have limited the ability of youth to operate farm equipment, and be employed by non-family members.

“Texas Farm Bureau understands safety is an issue, and a responsibility,” Dierschke said. “But working in agriculture gives youth the opportunity to learn responsibility and the value of hard work. It also assures a future generation of farmers and ranchers to grow food and fiber for America.”

Live talk part of monthly help series SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Videoconference attendees gathered at Zapata County Technical & Advanced Education Center on Thursday to watch a live grants videoconference and ask questions of representatives from federal departments and agencies.

More than 60 people heard about funding available through the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency for certain kinds of environmental projects.

Monthly series The environmental workshop is part of a monthly series of grants videoconferences to be held throughout the year to inform area residents about the federal funding application process and program opportunities and ensure that South Texas residents are aware of all federal funding and resources available to them.

At Thursday’s grants videoconference, the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Director of Legislative, Urban and Regulatory Affairs Kerry Duggan presented on investments in clean energy technologies that strengthen and protect the environment while also reducing dependence on foreign oil.

Bruce Binder, senior associate director at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Grants

and Debarment, discussed active funding opportunities along with helpful tips on proposal writing. The Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture- Institute of Bioenergy, Climate and Environment’s Division Director for Sustainable Bioenergy Mark Poth discussed grants that aim to advance knowledge of agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being by supporting research, education and extension programs.

Other locations The grants videoconference was also broadcast in San Antonio at The University of Texas in San Antonio, in Pleasanton, at Coastal Bend College, in Edinburg at The University of Texas – Pan American and in Laredo at Laredo Community College and Texas A&M International University.

The videoconference was sponsored by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

“The federal government has already set aside funding for businesses and researchers who are doing their part to support the environment, and I want to make sure that South Texans are aware of these resources,” he said.

“This videoconference was an opportunity to bridge the gap between South Texans who are tackling environmental problems through their research and business ventures and the federal programs that are available to help support their work.”

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

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

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Drug war needs new approach

By BILL KING HOUSTON CHRONICLE

In everything I have read about U.S. drug policy over the last several months, with the exception of a few people who make a living from the “War on Drugs,” virtually no one thinks that what we are currently doing is working. Polling consistently shows that about 70 percent of Americans agree.

It seems that it is only a matter of time before we try a different approach.

A detailed plan is far beyond the scope of this column or your columnist’s expertise. However, if we are to have a more effective drug policy, there would appear to be a few fundamental principles upon which a new policy should be based.

The goal of the policy should be to reduce drug abuse and addiction. Make no mistake, drug abuse and addiction (including alcohol and tobacco abuse) are a bane of mankind. If we could wave a magic wand and make every recreational drug disappear, we would all be better off.

But recreational drug use goes back as far as we have recorded history. It is not going to magically disappear.

However, we should never allow that inevitability to lead us to the conclusion that we should just throw up our hands and give in to unrestricted drug use and distribution.

First and foremost, our policy should always be focused on mitigating the monstrous cost that abuse and addiction inflict on our species.

Children must be prevented from starting drug use. The research clearly shows that most addiction begins at a young age, when our brains are still developing critical decision-making skills. Young people, for the most part, simply are not prepared to weigh the risks of the potentially life-altering decision about whether to use drugs. And again by drugs, I am including alcohol and tobacco. While it appears that the criminal enforcement of drug laws has been largely ineffective and in some ways counterproductive, the one exception I would make is for any adult providing drugs to an adolescent. Anyone who does should be subject to swift, sure and severe punishment.

All drugs are not the same. Different drugs have very different effects on us.

Therefore, we need a nuanced policy that reflects these differences. As a general proposition, we should

impose greater restrictions on the more dangerous drugs. As simple as that proposition may sound, our current policy is far from it. For example, tobacco and alcohol are responsible for 20 times more deaths than all illegal drugs combined. Yet we impose minimal restrictions on tobacco and alcohol.

The most glaring example of this disparity, however, is the treatment of marijuana. Some estimate that 80 percent of the War on Drugs is devoted to stopping marijuana trafficking. But the deleterious effects of marijuana pale by comparison to tobacco or alcohol. There has yet to be a single recorded death from an overdose of marijuana. Marijuana is also much less frequently involved in incidental criminal behavior than alcohol because it induces passivity in the user, while alcohol reduces inhibition and encourages risky behaviors.

The hypocrisy implicit when we base our drug policies on societal biases rather than an objective scientific assessment of the risks undermines the moral authority of society to regulate drug use at all.

Invest in research. If there is ever to be a final solution to the drug problem, it will come from medical breakthroughs on how we treat addiction. Already, there are medicines that block the effects of alcohol and cocaine, but must be taken daily, which an addict is unlikely to do.

But there has also been some promising research on drug vaccines that permanently negate the effect of drugs. A cocaine vaccine has been tested on mice with promising results.

Whether it is the development of vaccines that prevent addiction or some other discovery about brain chemistry and addiction, this type of medical research is the most promising hope for a real, permanent solution. Given the enormous cost of drug abuse and addiction, almost any investment one can imagine in research in this area could be justified on a cost-benefits analysis.

In this country, politicians rarely even question the war on drugs for fear that their opponents will charge that they are soft on drugs, notwithstanding that 70 percent of the American people have figured out that what we are doing is not working. Unfortunately, as in so many other cases, most of our elected officials continue to lead from the rear.

Secret Service has a bad week

By CHRIS CILLIZZA THE WASHINGTON POST

What they did was neither secret nor service.

"They," of course, are the 12 Secret Service agents who were removed from their assignment as part of an advance team for a presidential trip to Cartagena, Colombia, after it came to light that they, along with some U.S. military personnel, had been in the company of upwards of 20 prostitutes in a local hotel.

No matter how it ends, it’s clear that no one will look at the Secret Service the same way for a long time. An institution whose official motto is "Worthy of Trust and Confidence" will now be better known for the phrase "wheels up, rings off."

The Secret Service, for squandering our trust and confidence, you had the worst week in Washington.

Congrats, or something.

COLUMN

Not paying brings on curse

By ROBERTO LOIEDERMAN SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST

What happened in Cartagena, Colombia, with the Secret Service seems unsavory to me, but not for the reasons you might think.

I make no judgments about men spending a night with escorts. As far as I’m concerned, those who take a holier — than — thou attitude about this are like Inspector Renault in “Casablanca” when he says he’s “shocked, shocked” to discover there is gambling at Rick’s Cafe . . . just before someone hands him his winnings.

No, what the Secret Service agents apparently did seems unsavory because of my own experiences.

More than 40 years ago, I was a merchant seaman.

Whenever our ship would get to port — any port — we’d hurry to an area near the docks filled with bars and women. Valparaiso or Santos, Pusan or Saigon, Djibouti or Cartagena — the only changes, from port to port, were the local women’s ethnicity and language.

As a seaman, what other options do you have? You’re in a strange city for a few days. You’re with other hardworking, hard-playing guys. And you’ve got cash in your pocket. So you go to a bar, drink more than you

should, smile at the women buzzing around, maybe dance with one and then — for a pre-arranged fee — take her to a hotel room.

I imagine the Secret Service agents in the scandal du jour went through similar steps. Of course, the current situation is different from what I remember. The women involved in the Secret Service scandal are “escorts,” not the type of ladies who hang out with seamen, as a Colombian woman in question made clear to The New York Times. The bar where the U.S. personnel met these women is an upscale discotheque, not some mosquito-ridden dive. Like us, the Secret Service men drank far too much, but it was expensive vodka, not cheap whiskey.

There’s another major difference: One of the Secret Service agents did something no self-respecting seaman would have done.

When I worked on ships, seamen were a superstitious lot. When there was a bad storm, while the ship pitched and rolled, the crew, unable to eat or sleep, would gather in the messroom and grumble. Anyone who remembers Coleridge’s ancient mariner knows that seamen don’t blame the wind and tides for bad weather and rough seas.

Rather, they blame a fel-

low member of the crew — someone who has, say, killed an albatross. During storms, they’d mumble darkly that a crew member had “Jonah’d” the ship — done something wicked, while ashore, that caused the seas to rise up and take revenge.

Inevitably, someone would point out that the likely cause of the foul weather was that one of our crew had committed the worst sin of all: not paying a whore. All would nod gravely.

In my day, seamen were convinced that this was such a serious infraction it could threaten a ship’s survival. More than once I saw fellow crew members, who’d come back to the ship so drunk they couldn’t remember where they’d been, make superhuman efforts to send money to a woman ashore in a desperate attempt to avoid the curse of the unpaid prostitute.

I thought about this while reading about the scandal in Cartagena. It appears that getting drunk and going back to the hotel with the women wasn’t, in itself, what got the Secret Service personnel into trouble. What got them busted was that someone in their group refused to pay an escort the pre-arranged price.

One of the escorts wanted $800. She said that a Secret Service agent offered her $30. (To put that figure in perspective, it’s more or less what seamen used to pay in Cartagena 45 years ago for all-night companionship.)

The stereotype of “spending like a drunken sailor” is true. We prided ourselves on spending our money foolishly. Working on a ship headed to Latin America was known as a “romance run” because it would often end up costing us more than we made. But we didn’t care. We’d give a woman whatever she asked for. If the requested price was steep — like, say, $800 — we’d keep enough for the taxi back to the ship and give her whatever we had.

I don’t want to romanticize the seedy life of merchant seamen, but if the Secret Service personnel involved in this scandal had played by the same rules and followed the same ethical standards as the drunken sailors I used to work with, there would have been no confrontation, and they might still have their jobs.

(Roberto Loiederman, a merchant seaman from 1966 to 1974, is a writer in California. He co — authored “The Eagle Mutiny,” an account of the 1970 mutiny on a U.S. vessel.)

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State

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

GETTING SOME FACE TIME ON TV

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

New iPad app shows wildfire locations

By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Jason DeCrow | AP

Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill is interviewed before the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, in New York.

2 exonerated in 1983 case

By NOMAAN MERCHANT ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS — Two men convicted of raping a woman outside a Dallas bar almost 30 years ago will be declared innocent after DNA testing implicated two other men in the attack, authorities said Friday.

James Curtis Williams and Raymond Jackson received life sentences for the November 1983 assault but were recently released on parole.

They will be formally declared innocent in Dallas County court Monday morning. The two other men, Frederick Anderson and Marion Doll Sayles, will be charged with attempted capital murder, authorities said.

Dallas County has now exonerated 32 people since 2001, most during the tenure of District Attorney

Craig Watkins. Almost all of those exonerations have involved faulty eyewitness identifications.

Authorities say the woman was forced into a vehicle at gunpoint and later sexually assaulted by two men. She was then shot and left for dead in a field.

Williams and Jackson had been implicated in another sexual assault case and were placed in a photo lineup for this one, said Russell Wilson, the prosecutor in charge of Dallas County’s conviction integrity unit. The Associated Press does not name victims of sexual assault.

DNA collected from the woman’s clothing and a rape kit exam was preserved and later tested.

Tests linked the DNA to Anderson and Sayles.

After they were convicted, Williams and Jackson pleaded guilty in the other

sexual assault case and received shorter sentences that have since expired, authorities said. The men didn’t challenge their convictions in that case and will still have to register as sex offenders because of that crime, said an attorney in the Dallas County public defender’s office.

“They’re extremely happy to finally be cleared of this crime,” she said.

Williams, now 54, will no longer be on parole after Monday. Jackson, 67, will for a robbery committed in 1970, Doucet said.

The charges to be brought against Anderson, 52, and Sayles, 55, are rare.

AUSTIN — Wildfire-ravaged Texas is getting a new Internet tool designed to help anyone spot the fire risk where they live, and offer guidance on how best to respond.

The Texas Forest Service on Friday unveiled the new app, the Texas Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal, or TxWRAP, on the steps of the state Capitol. Built in conjunction with the Texas A&M University System, it uses mapping technology to allow homeowners and the general public — not just emergency response officials — to scrutinize areas up to within a 2-mile radius of where they live to spot places where wildfires might erupt.

Its projections are based on factors including drought, wind, humidity and other climate conditions, as well as an area’s topology and even things such as shrubs near homes and other buildings that could feed the flames.

Some 26,000 fires across Texas since December 2010 have burned more than 3.9 million acres. The worst was in the town and surrounding county of Bastrop, near Austin, where blazes in September killed two people, destroyed more than 1,650 homes and charred 33,000 acres.

Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said the app, “was a first and only of its kind in the world and will save a lot of lives and save a lot of property.”

Sharp said university researchers, state forest service officials and national experts have “discovered a weather pattern that, when it happens in conjunction with a certain amount of humidity, a certain amount of wind and things like that, you can predict almost with certainty where wildfires are going to be.”

As an example, Sharp pointed to the day before the Bastrop fires broke out, saying researchers were able to give local first-responders a map that had a red circle where the fire risk was most acute, helping to speed evacuations.

Business

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

Dow gains back all its loses

By BERNARD CONDON ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — It took a while, but the Dow Jones industrial average finally gained back all its losses for the month.

On a day of conflicting signals, as investors weighed disappointing economic news against reports of higher profits at big companies, stocks inched higher. All three major indexes were up Friday, though barely.

The Dow climbed 23.69 points to 13,228.31, a tiny 0.2 percent gain. That was enough to push the index into the black for April. It’s now 16 points higher than where it began the month.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 edged up 3.38 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,403.36. The Nasdaq composite rose 18.59 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,069.20.

Amazon jumped 16 percent after the online retailer reported a big increase in shipments. Online travel agency Expedia Inc. surged 24 percent on higher profits from its hotel-booking business.

Companies in the S&P 500 are now on track to report a 6 percent rise in earnings for the first three months of 2012 compared with a year ago, according to FactSet, a financial data provider. Last month, Wall Street analysts had expected earnings this quarter to be flat.

The stock gains Friday came despite a government report earlier in the day that the U.S. economy grew at annual rate of 2.2 percent, below the 2.5 percent that economists had expected. It grew at a faster rate, 3 percent, in the final three months of 2011.

David Rosenberg, econo-

Junior Achievement of Laredo 2012 Laredo Business Hall of Fame

Photo by Richard Drew | AP

Robert Arciero, right, works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The major indexes were up Friday. mist at money manager Gluskin Sheff, said investors may have bid up stocks on the weaker report because they now think the Federal Reserve is more likely to embark on another round of buying to stimulate the economy. “(Fed Chairman) Ben

Bernanke has created the impression that if the economy stumbles, he’ll be there to hold your hand,” he said.

European stock markets also rose as investors shrugged off a second downgrade this year by S&P of Spain’s debt.

Warm weather may aid growth

By PAUL WISEMAN AND CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first three months of this year. Governments spent less, and businesses cut back on investment. But consumers spent at the fastest pace in more than a year.

The result suggests that the economy will continue to expand, slowly but steadily.

The Commerce Department estimated Friday that the economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the January-March quarter, compared with a 3 percent rate in the final quarter of 2011. But growth is expected to rebound to around 3 percent for all of 2012 as stronger job growth spurs more consumer spending.

Consumer spending accelerated to an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the first quarter. The strength came from a second quarter of growth in auto purchases.

Here’s what The Associated Press’ reporters are finding:

Spending warms up ...

A warm winter probably pulled some consumer spending into the JanuaryMarch quarter that would normally have occurred this quarter. Auto sales, for example, accounted for nearly 30 percent of growth last quarter. Many car buyers probably came out earlier than usual.

Without autos, growth would have been about 1.5 percent.

“The second quarter won’t have the advantage of

unseasonably warm weather that likely goosed auto sales,” says Beata Caranci, deputy chief economist at TD Economics.

... On the other hand The warmer weather also sapped strength from the economy: Americans spent less on utilities from January through March for a second straight quarter.

That reduced growth.

Perhaps a hot summer will add to growth later as Americans crank up their air conditioners.

Weak growth, hiring How weak was the economy’s 2.2 percent growth rate from January through March? It depends.

A growth rate of 2.5 per-

cent or higher is good when the economy is healthy. But not at a time of high unemployment.

With 12.7 million people unemployed, today’s economy needs much faster growth to boost hiring.

Growth would have to be roughly 4 percent for a full year to lower the unemployment rate, now 8.2 percent, by 1 percentage point.

U.S. economy still tops Even when growth is tepid, as it was last quarter, the dollar figure for the U.S. economy exceeds that of any other country’s.

Adjusted for inflation and seasonal factors, firstquarter output weighed in at $13.5 trillion.

At its lowest point during the Great Recession, the figure was $12.6 trillion.

Junior Achievement is proud to announce the 2012 laureates.

Renato Ramirez, IBC Zapata and David Killam, Killam Companies.

Renato Ramirez and David Killam will be inducted into the Laredo Business Hall of Fame on Thursday May 3, 2012 at the Laredo Country Club.

Junior Achievement of Laredo thanks all of the 2012 Hall of Fame sponsors for their generosity and continued support.

Title Sponsor International Bank of Commerce/ Commerce Bank Platinum Sponsor Avalon Advisors ¥ Fernando A. Salinas Charitable Trust ¥ HEB San Isidro Development Company ¥ Texas Community Bank Killam Companies Gold Sponsor B.P. Newman ¥ Diamond G. Oilfield Equipment Energy Pumping Specialties ¥ Falcon International Bank Laredo Energy ¥ Pioneer Wireline Services Southern Wealth Management Silver Sponsor Arguindegui Oil Company ¥ Bruni Mineral Trust Cuellar, Saldana, Cuellar, Morales & Co. ¥ FAK Distribution Hollywood Garden, Inc. ¥ IBC Zapata ¥ La Posada Hotel Howland Engineering and Surveying Company North Town Professional Plaza ¥ Sames Motor Company Southern Distributing ¥ Zeus Construction Bronze Sponsor Armadillo Homes ¥ BBVA Compass Bank ¥ Carranco & Lawson Complete Energy ¥ Critter Care Veterinary Clinic Danlin Industries Corp. ¥ E. G. Professionals H & K Well Service, LLC ¥ Kasper Pro Vac ¥ La Quinta Inn & Suites Laredo Morning Times ¥ Mark Brown Insurance Neel Title Corporation ¥ Padre Tubular, Inc ¥ United Day School Pyramid Tubular Products, LLP ¥ Sanchez Oil & Gas Corporation

Zfrontera

DE 2012

Agenda en Breve

PÁGINA 7A

Reporte oficial

LAREDO 04/28 — Celebre el Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros, de 9:30 a.m. a 3 p.m. en la Biblioteca Pública de Laredo. Incluirá una serie de actividades y eventos para celebrar la cultura mexicana a través de los ojos de un niños, en libros.

04/28 — Hombres Metodistas Unidos presentan su comida ‘todo lo que pueda comer’ de spaghetti, de 12 p.m. a 1:30 p.m. en First United Methodist Church, 1220 avenida McClelland.

Evento gratuito (aunque se aceptan donaciones). Las ganancias se destinan a actividades para la misión de la iglesia.

04/28 — El Club de Maestros de Texas A&M International University tendrá ‘Saturday Story Hour’ de 2 p.m. a 3 p.m. para niños en la Biblioteca Pública de Laredo. Evento gratuito.

04/28 — Se espera a presencia de 300 estudiantes en la 17ma Premiación Anual de Vida Estudiantil a las 6:30 p.m. en el aula 203 del Student Center Ballroom de TAMIU. Evento abierto a integrantes de organizaciones estudiantiles del campus.

04/28 — El concierto de danza Ballet Folklórico Primavera Mexicana 2012 será de 7 p.m. a 9 p.m. en el Teatro del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts de TAMIU. Costo: 5 dólares.

05/01 — Concierto de Coro de Primavera a las 8 p.m. en la Sala de Recitales del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts. El programa incluirá trabajos tales como “Beatus Vir” de Monteverdi, “Come Fly with Me” y “Route 66”. Entrada gratuita.

05/04 — Hoy es el concierto que ofrecerá el grupo “Gipsy Kings” en Laredo Energy Arena a las 8 p.m.

Los costos varían de 27, 47, 62 y 72 dólares (sin incluir la cuota de las instalaciones). Adquiera su boleto en la taquilla de LEA o en Ticketmaster.

POR PETE YOST ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — El origen de unas 68.000 armas decomisadas por las autoridades mexicanas en los últimos cinco años fue rastreado a Estados Unidos, dijo el jueves el gobierno estadounidense.

El flujo de decenas de miles de armas acentúa las quejas de México de que Estados Unidos es responsable de armar a los cárteles de drogas que fastidian a su vecino del sur. Seis años de violencia entre cárteles adversarios han costado más de 47.000 vidas en México.

La Oficina para el Control de Bebidas Alcohólicas, Tabaco, Armas de Fuego y Explosivos (ATF por sus iniciales en inglés) publicó sus cifras más recientes, que cubren de 2007 a 2011.

Según la ATF, muchas de las armas decomisadas en México y entregadas a la agencia para determinar su procedencia fueron recuperadas en escenarios de tiroteos de narcotraficantes y otras fueron confiscadas en redadas a almacenes de armas ile-

gales. Se sospecha que todas las armas recuperadas fueron utilizadas en delitos en México.

El 2 de abril, durante una reunión de mandatarios de las tres naciones norteamericanas en Washington, el presidente mexicano Felipe Calderón dijo que el gobierno estadounidense no ha hecho lo suficiente para detener el flujo de armas de asalto y otras armas de Estados Unidos a México.

Calderón atribuyó al presidente Barack Obama el mérito de haber realizado un esfuerzo para reducir el tráfico de armas, pero afirmó que el mandatario estadounidense enfrenta “problemas internos... desde un punto de vista político”.

Existe oposición republicana en el Congreso y una amplia oposición de republicanos y defensores de los derechos de portación de armas en otros sitios hacia un nuevo intento de prohibición contra las armas de asalto u otros controles sobre la venta de armas.

El gobierno de Obama dice que está trabajando para fortalecer las inspecciones en los

puntos de revisión fronterizos ante la falta de una prohibición a los fusiles de asalto que expiró antes de que Obama tomara el cargo.

Durante más de un año, la ATF se ha estado recuperando de acusaciones de que algunos de sus agentes en Arizona recibieron órdenes de sus superiores para permitir en lugar de interceptar montones de armas con destino a México.

El inspector general del Departamento de Justicia y el Congreso han estado examinando la investigación sobre el caso de tráfico de armas de Arizona: la Operación Rápido y Furioso.

El tema de una legislación de control de armas no ha sido parte de la investigación Rápido y Furioso del comité congresional encargado, encabezado por los republicanos.

La cifra de armas de fuego de todos los tipos rastreadas por la ATF que fueron fabricadas en Estados Unidos o importadas a Estados Unidos y después recuperadas en México aumentó de 11.842 en 2007 a 14.504 en 2011, según la ATF.

CUIDANDO A TEXAS

MIRANDO CITY 04/30 — Celebración del Día de los Niños con agencias participando en actividades y juegos, de 9 a.m. a 2:30 p.m. en el Centro Comunitario Ernesto J. Salinas.

Toda la Escuela Primaria Oilton estará participando.

Calderón habla con migrantes en Houston POR JOSÉ CASTILLO ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — El presidente de México dijo el miércoles que respeta las leyes de Estados Unidos que controlan la inmigración ilegal, pero destacó que está en contra de estatutos como la controvertida ley de Arizona, que él considera está en contra, injustamente, de los inmigrantes.

Felipe Calderón habló el miércoles por la noche ante más de 200 inmigrantes mexicanos en un centro comunitario de Houston. El presidente CALDERÓN destacó el sacrificio que han realizado como trabajadores inmigrantes en beneficio de la economía de Estados Unidos.

“Porque no se entiende y nada puede explicar la fortaleza económica de los Estados Unidos sin la mano de obra, sin la fuerza trabajadora, generosa, responsable de las mexicanas y mexicanos que viven aquí”señaló Calderón.

“Hoy más que nunca es necesario que los líderes comunitarios se multipliquen porque sólo así vamos a ponerle un alto a la preocupante proliferación no sólo anti inmigrante sino también de corte aparentemente racial como es el caso de la SB1070 de Arizona”, apuntó Calderón acerca de la ley que permite a las autoridades a que verifiquen el estatus migratorio de ciertas personas.

Calderón advirtió que desde que asumió el poder se encargó de velar para que se derogue la ley que castigaba penalmente a la migración indocumentada en territorio mexicano.

“Migrar es nunca más un delito en nuestro querido país”, dijo.

Guían para ahorrar

NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO 04/28 — Estación Palabra invita al “Bazar de Arte” a las 12 p.m.; Lecturas Antes de Abordar a la 1 p.m.; Festival Infantil a las 2 p.m.; Celebración del Día del Niño de 3 p.m. a 5 p.m.; Taller de Creación Literaria con Jacobo Mina a las 3 p.m. Todos los eventos son gratuitos.

04/28 — Presentación de las minirevistas “Egoteca” (del Colectivo Poético Cien Años de Soledad) a las 3 p.m. en Estación Palabra. Se presentarán “Egotecas” de Osvaldo Vela, Andrés Ramos, Felix Fernández, Arturo López y Mario Moisés.

04/28 — Museo para Niños “Leonardo Da Vinci, vida y obra” a las 4 p.m. en la Sala de Servicios Educativos del Centro Cultural. Entrada libre.

04/28 — Segunda edición del “Guateque Norteño”, hoy en la Plaza Cívica de la Independencia, junto a la Plaza Hidalgo, a partir de las 5 p.m.

04/28 — Celebración del Día Internacional de la Danza, con dancistas de grupos, escuelas e instituciones, a las 5 p.m. en Plaza Juárez.

Evento gratuito.

04/29 — Celebración del Día Internacional de la Danza, con dancistas de grupos, escuelas e instituciones, a las 5 p.m. en el Centro Cultural. Evento gratuito.

México respeta leyes de EU

Foto de cortesía | IBC Bank-Zapata

Jocelin Reséndez, Jensine García y Leslie Lozano, empleadas de IBC Bank-Zapata, participaron el 14 de abril en el evento ‘Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off’. Cada abril, voluntarios por todo el estado recogen basura al lado de carreteras, parques, colonias y canales. Empleados de IBC recogieron basura a lo largo de dos millas sobre FM 796. El tramo fue adoptado por IBC por un periodo de dos años, a partir del 11 de noviembre del 2011. El programa “Don’t Mess with Texas” fue creado hace 25 años por el Departamento de Transportación de Texas para educar sobre el verdadero costo de tirar basura.

Informe asegura se detuvo flujo migratorio México-EU POR LUIS ALONSO LUGO ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — El flujo migratorio sin precedentes que trajo a Estados Unidos 12 millones de mexicanos durante cuatro décadas se detuvo y tal vez se ha revertido, según el centro de estudios Pew Hispanic Center.

Jeffrey Passel, D’Vera Cohn y Ana González-Barrera fueron los autores de un reporte basado en estadísticas proporcionadas por las oficinas del Censo de ambas naciones divulgado el lunes, en el cual atribuyeron la tendencia a una combinación de factores como la alicaída economía estadounidense, el incremento de las deportaciones, los riesgos relacionados con los ingresos ilegales al territorio estadounidense, la mayor vigilancia en la frontera binacional y el declive a largo plazo de la tasa de natalidad en México.

Durante el quinquenio 20052010, un total de 1,4 millones de mexicanos emigraron a Estados Unidos —menos de la mitad de

“

Hasta hace poco había escasa evidencia de que el flujo de regreso a México haya aumentado”.

REPORTE DEL CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS PEW HISPANIC CENTER

los 3 millones que emigraron entre 1995-2000— mientras que 1,4 millones de mexicanos retornaron desde Estados Unidos a México, casi el doble de la cifra registrada durante un quinquenio de la década previa. El documento señaló que la mayoría de los retornos ocurrieron de manera voluntaria.

“Ha estado claro durante varios años que el flujo migratorio de México a Estados Unidos ha disminuido desde 2006, pero hasta hace poco había escasa evidencia de que el flujo de regreso a México haya aumentado”, señaló el reporte.

Pese a la interrupción en el

flujo migratorio procedente de México, el Pew Center indicó que la población estadounidense-mexicana, que agrupa a extranjeros y a estadounidenses por nacimiento con ancestros mexicanos, continúa creciendo y alcanzó 33 millones en 2010, debido principalmente a que los nacimientos superaron a la inmigración durante el periodo 2000-2010.

Pew Center señaló que 6,1 millones de inmigrantes mexicanos sin documentos residían en Estados Unidos en 2011, un descenso respecto a los casi 7 millones registrados en 2007.

(Siga a Luis Alonso Lugo Twitter/luisalonsolugo)

POR YVIAND SERBONES ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Promover la educación financiera en sus comunidades, es el objetivo del programa “Money Buzz” creado por IBC Bank el año 2007.

Por quinto año consecutivo, empleados de IBC Bank en Zapata, utilizaron su experiencia profesional para acudir a escuelas locales y llevar su conocimiento a la juventud.

Clases de Money Buzz fueron programadas durante el mes de abril, acudiendo los empleados a las escuelas primarias Villarreal, Ringgold, y FMC, en el marco del Mes de Alfabetización Financiera y del programa “Teach Children To Save Day” de la Asociación de Banqueros Americanos.

En Zapata, más de 450 estudiantes participaron en las sesiones realizadas en abril. A nivel corporativo, más de 6,200 estudiantes en 50 escuelas alrededor de Texas y Oklahoma fueron asesorados de marzo a mayo.

“Empleados de IBC apoyan con la alfabetización financiera a estudiantes desde kindergarten hasta el octavo grado”, dijo el Ceo de IBC Bank-Zapata, Renato Ramírez. “Money Buzz fue creado para ayudar a establecer y mantener hábitos financieros saludables a una edad apropiada y mejorar la salud económica de la comunidad”.

Entre los conceptos financieros que maneja Money Buzz se encuentran registro de cheques, adecuando un estado de cuenta de banco y calcular interés compuesto.

Nation

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

Cow was lame, lying down

By TRACIE CONE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRESNO, Calif. — The California dairy cow found to have mad cow disease was very old for a milk producer and had been euthanized after it became lame and started lying down, federal officials revealed in their latest update on the discovery.

The 10-year-old dairy cow, only the fourth with the sickness ever discovered in the United States, was found as part of an Agriculture Department program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the fatal brain disease. It was unable to stand before it was killed and sent to a rendering plant’s Hanford, Calif. transfer station.

It was one of dozens that underwent random testing at the transfer site, and the positive results have set off a federal investigation into the source of the disease.

U.S. health officials say there is no risk to the food supply. The California cow was never destined for the meat market, and it developed “atypical” BSE from a random mutation, something that scientists know happens occasionally.

Somehow, a protein the body normally harbors folds into an abnormal

shape called a prion, setting off a chain reaction of misfolds that eventually kills brain cells.

A USDA spokesman says they do not yet know what causes this strain of the disease. Agriculture officials are investigating whether feed sources might have played a role in the animal contracting the fatal illness.

The strain of bovine spongiform encephalopathy that appeared in the UK in the 1990s and set off a worldwide beef scare was a form caused by cattle eating rendered protein supplements derived from slaughtered cattle, including brains and spinal columns, where the disease is harbored. Scientists know less about the “atypical” strain.

It “may or may not be related to feed or forage type,” said Larry Hawkins, spokesman for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in California.

The dairy in question is one of 381 in Tulare County, the No. 1 dairy county in the nation. Most mega-dairies have computerized records which would allow investigators to easily track any offspring the cow had in order to keep up her milk production.

However, USDA spokesman Matt Herrick said investigators are laboring through paper records.

That fact, combined with the fact that the cow was more than twice as old as most milk cows in the system, could indicate one of the region’s smaller dairies is the target of the probe.

The World Organization for Animal Health has established protocol for investigations into cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy that includes finding other cows that the Holstein in question was raised with, tracking down all progeny and determining what she ate.

After the UK crisis, federal regulations changed to keep brains and spinal columns in cattle over 30 months from being rendered into protein products for human consumption. In addition, bovine protein is not supposed to be fed to other bovines.

However, bovine protein is routinely fed to egg-laying chickens, and the “litter” from those chickens — chicken excrement and the feed that spills onto the floor — is collected and rendered back into cattle feed. Neurodegenerative researchers such as UC San Francisco’s Dr. Stanley Prusiner, who received the

1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering prions — the protein associated with BSE — has warned that the US should ban poultry waste in cattle feed.

Most dairy cows typically experience declining milk production by age 5 and are sent to slaughterhouses to be ground into hamburger. The FDA tests 40,000 of the nation’s 35 million slaughtered dairy and beef cattle annually for BSE, targeting animals older than 30 months, when the disease is more likely to appear. However, there are cases of BSE that have been detected in cattle as young as 20 months.

“We are testing .12 percent of the cattle slaughtered,” said Michael Hansen, senior scientist at the Consumers Union and a longtime critic of the US policy regarding mad cow disease.

“In Japan they test all cattle over 20 months, in Europe it’s all cattle over 24 or 30 months, depending on the country. They’ve been able to find sick animals that look healthy but could have ended up in the food supply.”

A move by a Kansas beef packer in 2006 to voluntarily test all of its beef so it could label the packages “BSE free” was thwarted by the USDA, which argued

Photo by Lee Jin-man | AP

South Koreans shout slogans during a press conference against the import of U.S. beef in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday. Officials there stepped up inspections of U.S. beef following the discovery of mad cow disease in a U.S. dairy cow. One company later reversed that decision. The message: “Stop importing U.S. Mad Cow Beef.” that it would create instability in the market.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef had challenged the USDA’s position that it held legal authority to control access to the test kits.

In the current case, the USDA didn’t elaborate on the cow’s symptoms other than to say it was “hu-

manely euthanized after it developed lameness and became recumbent.” Outward symptoms of the disease can include unsteadiness and incoordination.

The unidentified Tulare County dairy where the cow died was not under obligation to report its suspicious behavior.

US: Core al-Qaida ‘essentially gone’

By KIMBERLY DOZIER ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Gene J. Puskar/file | AP

Rocker and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent speaks in Pittsburgh in 2011. Nugent said Friday he was insulted by the cancellation of his planned concert at an Army post over his comments about President Obama. He said he had received messages of support from troops.

Nugent: I’m insulted by concert cancellation

By RYAN PEARSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Ted Nugent said he was insulted by the cancellation of his planned concert at an Army post over his comments about President Obama.

Commanders at the Fort Knox, Ky., post nixed Nugent’s segment of a June concert after the rocker and conservative activist said at a recent National Rifle Association meeting that he would be “dead or in jail by this time next year” if Obama is re-elected.

Nugent told The Associated Press this week that his words were not intended as a threat against the president.

“To think that there’s a bureaucrat in the United States Army that would consider the use or abuse of First Amendment rights in determining who is going to

perform at an Army base is an insult and defiles the sacrifices of those heroes who fought for the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights,” Nugent said.

Nugent said he had received messages of support from troops and noted that the Secret Service had met with him and closed its case about the remarks.

“There is nothing in my spoken word or written word that could be even wildly considered by any stretch of the imagination to be a threat to anyone,” Nugent said.

Asked to clarify the remarks at the NRA convention, Nugent said: “A whole bunch of us ... believe ... we are in danger of being improperly and criminally jailed — I mean criminally on the part of the government.”

Earlier in the week, Nugent pleaded guilty to trans-

porting a black bear he illegally killed in Alaska, saying he was sorry for unwittingly violating the law.

He told the AP that he advises fellow hunters, “even when you are aghast at a maniac, inexplicable, illogical law, please abide by those laws at all costs.”

Nugent said the prosecution in U.S. District Court was the result of a “witch hunt” by federal officials over his activism.

“We the people are turning up the heat,” he said.

“And that’s why I’m being singled out by certain fish and game agencies and certain U.S. attorneys.”

An email sent to Karen Loeffler, the U.S. attorney for Alaska, and Jack Schmidt, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Nugent this week in Ketchikan, Alaska, was not immediately returned.

WASHINGTON — A year after the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks is essentially gone but its affiliates remain a threat, U.S. intelligence officials say.

Core al-Qaida’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, still aspires to attack the U.S., but his Pakistan-based group is scrambling to survive, under fire from CIA drone strikes and laying low for fear of another U.S. raid. That has lessened the threat of another complex attack like a nuclear dirty bomb or a biological weapon, intelligence officials say.

Al-Qaida’s loyal offshoots are still dangerous, especially Yemen’s al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. While not yet able to carry out complex attacks inside the U.S., such groups are capable of hitting Western targets overseas and are building armies and expertise while plotting violence, according to senior U.S. counterterrorism officials who briefed reporters Friday.

“Each will seek opportunities to strike Western interests in its operating area, but each group will have different intent and ability to execute those plans,” said Robert Cardillo, a deputy director at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The other officials were authorized to speak only on condition of anonymity.

The shift from a single, deadly group to a more amorphous threat may not seem much of an improvement. But the U.S. believes the bin Laden raid and continued U.S. counterterrorist action have reduced the chance of a sophisticated, multipronged attack on the U.S. like the attacks of Sept. 11 or the bombings in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005.

An attack with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by any al-Qaidarelated terror group also seems less likely in the coming year, Cardillo said.

Al-Qaida’s Zawahri has not managed to harness multiple groups into a cohesive force focused on a single,

catastrophic attack, officials said.

Al-Qaida’s key affiliates in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and North Africa have pledged allegiance to Zawahri but, unimpressed with his leadership, “have not offered the deference they gave bin Laden,” Cardillo said. Zawahri has a reputation as an abrasive manager and a less than charismatic speaker.

That loss of a single, charismatic voice likely means “multiple voices will provide inspiration for the movement,” leading to a bout of soulsearching as to what the splinter groups want to target and why, Cardillo said.

“There will be a vigorous debate about local versus global jihad within and among terror organizations,” he said.

Another potentially positive sign is al-Qaida’s failure to hijack the Arab Spring revolt in Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. On the negative side, the officials said, al-Qaida is working hard to coopt rebels in Syria.

If the political wrangling in any of the post-revolt nations fails to produce stable, responsive governments, al-Qaida and its ilk may be able to seize the void, the officials said.

That’s what has occurred in Yemen, where AQAP has taken full advantage of the local government’s preoccupation fighting multiple political opponents. AQAP has grown in size and territory covered despite constant and expanded targeting by Yemeni and U.S. counterterrorist forces, the officials said.

Another threat cited by the officials: Homegrown extremists, either lone actors or small groups inspired by al-Qaida, who remain intent on committing violence.

The officials also noted that every time U.S. counterterrorist forces strike, they must take care to avoid everything from civilian casualties to hitting the wrong target, lest the blowback produce more enemies.

“The key challenge will be balancing aggressive counterterrorism operations, with the risk of exacerbating the anti-Western global agenda” of alQaida and its affiliates, Cardillo said.

Secret Service issues rules on alcohol, bar visits

By LAURIE KELLMAN AND ALICIA A. CALDWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Seeking to shake the disgrace of a prostitution scandal, the Secret Service late Friday tightened conduct rules for its agents to prohibit them from drinking excessively, visiting disreputable establishments while traveling or bringing foreigners to their hotel rooms.

The new behavior policies apply to Secret Service agents even when they are off duty while traveling, barring them from drinking alcohol within 10 hours of working, according to a

memorandum describing the changes obtained by The Associated Press. In some cases under the new rules, chaperones will accompany agents on trips.

The embattled Secret Service director, Mark Sullivan, urged agents and other employees to “consider your conduct through the lens of the past several weeks.”

The Secret Service said it would conduct a training session on ethics next week.

Sullivan said the rules “cannot address every situation that our employees will face as we execute our dual-missions throughout

the world.” He added: “The absence of a specific, published standard of conduct covering an act or behavior does not mean that the act is condoned, is permissible, or will not call for — and result in — corrective or disciplinary action.”

“All employees have a continuing obligation to confront expected abuses or perceived misconduct,” Sullivan said.

The agency-wide changes were intended to staunch the embarrassing disclosures since April 13, when a prostitution scandal erupted in Colombia involving 12 Secret Service agents, officers and super-

visors and 12 more enlisted military personnel who were there ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit.

But the new policies announced Friday raised questions about claims that the behavior discovered in Cartagena was an isolated incident: Why would the Secret Service formally issue new regulations covering thousands of employees if such activities were a one-time occurrence?

“It’s too bad common sense policy has to be dictated in this manner,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“New conduct rules are necessary to preventing more shenanigans from happening in the future, and whether these are the best, and most cost effective, rules to stop misconduct remains to be seen.”

The new rules did not mention prostitutes or strip clubs, but they prohibit employees from allowing foreigners — except hotel staff or foreign law enforcement colleagues — into their hotel rooms.

They also ban visits to “non-reputable” establishments, which were not defined. The State Department was expected to brief Secret Service employees

on trips about areas and businesses considered offlimits to them.

During trips in which the presidential limousine and other bulletproof vehicles are transported by plane, senior-level chaperones will accompany agents and enforce conduct rules, including one from the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

In a Wonderland moment, the operator of the “Lips” strip club in San Salvador, Dan Ertel, organized a news conference late Friday and said he didn’t know whether any Secret Service employees were among his customers.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

EFRAIN CAVAZOS Efrain Cavazos, passed away Thursday, April 26, 2012, at Doctor’s Hospital in Laredo.

Mr. Cavazos is preceded in death by his sisters Felipa G. Morin and Elda G. Villarreal.

Mr. Cavazos is survived by his father, Sergio Cavazos; mother, Margarita De Los Santos Cavazos; brothers: Jesus Garza, Sergio Cavazos Jr. and Martin (Norma) Cavazos; sisters Zulema G. Gutierrez, Sylvia Garza, Ramona G. Benavides, Maribel (David Jr.) Cortez and Irasema (Carlos) Gutierrez; and by numerous nephews, nieces, cousins and many friends.

Visitation hours will be Sunday, April 29, 2012, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Gar-

den Funeral Home.

The funeral procession will depart Monday, April 30, 2012, at 9:45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Committal services will follow at Zapata County Cemetery.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.rosegardenfuneralhome.com.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 U.S. 83, Zapata.

PROGRAM Continued from Page 1A “We wanted to see if we could make an impact in the community,” said Oralia Bernal, district director for Junior Achievement. “Our first goal was for them to accept our services, and they sure did.”

Talking to children Ana Mariela Martinez, Villarreal Elementary principal, said the organization has sent business professionals to her campus to deliver lessons to students in kindergarten and first grade.

Junior Achievement’s program, she said, creates an awareness in the elementary school’s students about college and career

COWBOY Continued from Page 1A chuck wagon, Castelberg can whip up pinto beans 150 different ways, roast a raccoon and brew coffee so bracing that it’ll strip paint off a barn door.

He drops Spanish phrases into his conversation as naturally as some people spit, says “Ya’ll” so nicely it would near to break your heart and eruditely discourses on the cookpot philosophy of the old grand master of French cuisine, Auguste Escoffier.

To ranch visitors, Castelberg is an ambassador for a way of Texas life that faded more than 100 years ago.

“He has the ability to converse in a way that makes visitors use their senses,” says Matt Driggers, the ranch’s head of interpretation. “He’ll ask people to close their eyes as he explains things. It’s all so visual that when they open their eyes, it’s as if they were in that time and place.”

Castelberg has been top cook at the ranch, which traces its history to the state’s earliest Anglo settlement, for 11 years. The son of a geophysicist, he spent much of his youth traveling the world. As a grade-schooler in Singapore, he was entranced by the odor of frying ginger, garlic and onion.

“That was the spark that fired me up,” he says. “It was uplifting.

Even then I recognized the profound effect food could have on one’s emotional state. That’s probably the time I realized what I was here for.”

As a boy, Castelberg was reared on a television diet of “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke.” Arriving in Houston with his newly divorced father in 1974, he expected to find an Indian warrior behind every cactus. When the jet door opened, though, “Everything felt, tasted

and smelled just like Singapore. It was lush, subtropical, very humid,” he says. “I felt a little at home at the get-go.”

In Houston, Castelberg’s life passed in a rush. He finished school, married, joined the Navy, then returned to take a job in security. Along the way, he developed a reputation as a kitchen whiz.

Friends urged him to make cooking his career and, though initially resistant, he enrolled in culinary school.

Assuming the duties of fatherhood and still working full-time in security, the aspiring chef labored past midnight mastering the mysteries of sauces, stocks and eggs.

Three and a half semesters through a four-semester program, he dropped out.

Castelberg might have spent his life in security, but Providence, he says, showed him another path: a classified ad for a cook’s job at George Ranch.

“I’m your man,” he told the ranch’s recruiter.

“I don’t care what it pays.”

Drawing on his academic training and skills honed as a Boy Scout leader, Castelberg set about recreating foodways of the Texas cattle drives — a phenomenon that peaked 130 years ago. The first camp meal was offered visitors in spring 2001, and within six months “we had about 120 people coming, bringing their aunts and uncles. It was amazing,” he says.

Today, Castelberg’s Saturday ranch meals are prepared in a modern commercial kitchen before being transferred to campfires for serving.

The chuck wagon, though, remains the soul of the operation.

On a recent afternoon, he regaled Taiwanese

travel writers with tales of the Old West as they chowed on chili, beef stew, beans and peach cobbler. As he told how Panhandle cattleman Charles Goodnight invented the chuck wagon to appease disgruntled, hungry cowhands, the writers nodded appreciatively and snapped pictures.

Old-time trail cooks were doctors, counselors and enforcers, he told them, sliding into a fulltilt Texas drawl, pausing every two minutes for 45 seconds of translation.

Castelberg cooks with a pair of .45-caliber pistols cinched to his waist — old-time trail cooks were fierce defenders of the code of the camp.

Once, he interrupted a spiel to pretend to take a potshot at “a big yellow bird,” chuckling at his young audience’s alarm as the crop duster precipitously plunged over a cotton field.

Early Texas cattle drives, Castelberg said, easily lasted four months, taking the participants far from sources of staple foodstuffs. Chuck wagons were packed with rice, lard, flour, cornmeal, dried fruit and meat, coffee and a few canned goods. With those limited fixings, a cook’s creativity was key to harmony.

“There are so many ways to build up flavor profiles,” Castelberg says.

“You can take a head of garlic and roast it over the fire and add it to the beans. That adds a little something extra. ... Or play around with sweet little things — a little vinegar, mustard, fatback, a little coffee. Once you have that foundation, you have a pretty good idea of what you can put together and get decent results.

“I call it ‘del mero corazon’ — cooking from the heart.”

preparedness.

“We’re exposing them to real-life situations and real-life skills,” she said.

The program’s curriculum falls in line with state standards as set by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, otherwise known as TEKS.

Half-hour lessons The organization’s volunteers teach five 30-minute lessons, she said.

The kindergarteners’ curriculum is entitled “Ourselves,” and the first graders learn “Our Families,” a set of lessons which teaches about society’s dependence on the economy and people work-

ing together. The volunteers use flash cards and pictures to illustrate their points.

“Our children really have enjoyed this,” Martinez said. “It has been a great opportunity for them.”

Among the real-life situations the program aims to prepare students for are running a business, supervising, managing, voting and banking.

Bernal said the pilot program in Zapata County was funded by the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Foundation.

Volunteers from both the Laredo and Zapata communities teach 26 classes at campuses across the district. She said each

school has two to three volunteers.

Funds, volunteers Bernal and Junior Achievement hope to continue the program in Zapata County but are seeking funds to move it beyond its pilot program status. She also hopes to corral more volunteers.

“We don’t want it to be just a trial program,” she said. “And we cannot continue unless we have more financial support.”

To volunteer or contribute, call Bernal at 725-3464 or email obernal@jast.org.

(JJ Velasquez may be reached at 728-2567 or jjvelasquez@lmtonline.com)

PRIMARIES Continued from Page 1A improve the lines of communication between the department and elected officials as well as other agencies.

One of his challengers, Joaquin Solis, is running for the sheriff ’s office after 32 years of law enforcement experience.

Solis has worked in the both the sheriff ’s office and the county attorney’s office, in which he was a chief investigator.

In 2008, he returned to the sheriff ’s office and worked there until September, when he retired to focus on his bid for election.

The San Ygnacio native has lived in Zapata since he began his career.

Solis, 63, said he would look to improve neighborhood security in Zapata.

He said he would mostly keep things the way they are if he found everything in the office was running smoothly.

Moya, a 43-year-old county attorney’s office investigator, is originally from Kingsville. Moya moved to Zapata in 1993, when he married a local and began working in the sheriff ’s office.

He began his law enforcement career five years prior to that in Kleberg County, where he was a communications officer and where he obtained his peace officer license at Del Mar College.

Moya has worked for the Alice Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Laredo office and a Laredo multi-agency task force in addition to his experience in Zapata County.

He said his experience with different agencies gives him an advantage in the race.

If elected, Moya said he would focus on Falcon Lake. With the oil and gas industry declining locally, he said the lake has served as an anchor to the local economy. Therefore, he said the need has arisen to

Zapata County Democratic Party Chair Doroteo Noe Garza

County Attorney Said Alfonso “Poncho” Figueroa

Sheriff Alonso Lopez Raymond Moya III Joaquin Solis Jr.

Tax Assessor/Collector Luis Lauro Gonzalez

County Commissioner Pct. 1 Jose Emilio Vela (incumbent) Jose Luis “Tata” Flores

County Commissioner Pct. 3 Belinda R. Bravo Eddie Martinez (incumbent)

Constable Pct. 1 Gabriel Villarreal III Adalberto “Beto” Mejia Jr. (incumbent) Obed “O.B.” Luera

Constable Pct. 2 Julian J. “Jay” Gutierrez

Constable Pct. 3 Erica Maria Benavides-Moore Randall L. Ivey Eloy “Jay” Martinez (incumbent)

Constable Pct. 4 Manuel M. Flores Jr. establish a lake patrol.

“I feel that is something we are lacking,” he said.

“We have no presence at all at the lake.”

He said he would work closely with the school districts as sheriff as well as crack down on street-level narcotics.

“I want to knock out all these little crack houses

that are really putting a dent on our kids,” Moya said.

In addition to the sheriff ’s race, four other races are contested — the constables and county commissioners for precincts 1 and 3.

(JJ Velasquez may be reached at 728-2567 or jjvelasquez@lmtonline.com)

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

Principal can tell his own bullying story

By JEFFREY WEISS THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

DALLAS — The ballyhooed documentary “Bully” opened recently in Dallas. A few weeks earlier, a less elaborate film on the same topic premiered in every third-period classroom at Richardson High School.

The school video tells a secret kept for 20 years — about a desperately unhappy teen and one night with a pistol. It’s a secret that has inspired some students to reach outside themselves in ways they might have never considered.

While experts say any one event is just a drop in the bucket in the effort to mold a school’s culture, there’s some evidence that this kind of video may be a larger drop.

The film lasts a little over three minutes. The camera is focused on a shadow on a wall, of a man wearing a cap. His voice is unrecognizable, distorted by filters. He explains how he was bullied as a kid.

How life seemed unbearable.

“I remember I was a junior in high school, 17, and I, I was sitting in a room by myself. And my dad worked private security and he had, you know, he had several guns. He had a shotgun and he had a .357 Magnum and he had a .44.

So I can remember being up one, one night and just thinking: Y’know, maybe this is it. It’s not going to get any better. This isn’t going away .

“So I can remember I had the gun. In my hand.

In my room. My mom didn’t know. My dad didn’t know — or care. But I can remember thinking there’s just, it’ll all go away. And if I had done that, y’know, I would have missed out on the best years of my life.”

Only in the last few seconds does the camera pan over to the man. The distortion vanishes. And he is revealed as someone famil-

iar: assistant principal Michael Westfall. A man with an aura of confidence and a sure physical presence. A man no student would have suspected of harboring the memory of such a dark night.

In fact, nobody who knows Westfall suspected.

It’s a story that he had never told anybody before recording the video.

“I had to tell my mom last night,” he said recently.

And that was only because he’d agreed to an interview

by The Dallas Morning News.

These days, Westfall is 37 years old and a solid 6feet-2 and 200 pounds. But he was a full foot shorter at the end of his freshman year at Richardson ISD’s Berkner High School. And he was all of 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds when he graduated.

So sometimes he was a target for bigger kids, he said last week. His lack of size blocked his ambitions to become a basketball player. And his home life was what he now calls, simply, “dysfunctional.”

Parts of Westfall’s history are not so different from the lives of some of the students in Beth Brown’s third-period AVID class.

Advancement Via Individual Determination is a national program aimed at atrisk students who are identified by teachers as having college potential. Most would be the first in their families to attend college.

The program gives the students extra tutoring and mentoring and encourages the students to bond with and support each other.

Richardson ISD is one of the top AVID districts in the country.

Brown watched the video with her kids.

“Goosebumps” she said of the moment when Westfall looked directly in the camera. “Complete and utter goosebumps.”

The next day, she issued a challenge to her class of

Photo by Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News | AP

In this April 19 photo, senior Michael Lett relays the details of a bullying incident that he intervened in at a nearby junior high school, during Beth Brown’s senior AVID class at Richardson High School in Richardson. seniors: How could they take Westfall’s message and make a difference? Reach out to a loner. Let someone know that bullying and aggression are not tolerated.

Even, carefully, try to intervene.

A few days later, the students came back with stories.

Richardson High is like pretty much every school in America, with an official policy against bullying.

Many schools and many districts have turned to anti-bullying programs like R Time, Olweus Bullying Prevention, Steps to Respect, Tribes.

Does any of it work? It’s really hard to tell, said Shelley Hymel, an education professor at the University of British Columbia and co-developer of the Bullying Research Network, an effort to pool the best available research on the topic.

“We especially don’t know what we’re doing

with bullying at the secondary level,” Hymel said.

But it’s clear that many students are reluctant to talk to adults about their problems. They don’t think the adults could possibly understand. Westfall’s video was an attempt to break down that wall.

“This guy basically put himself out there and told kids ‘it happened to me, too. You can talk to me,”’ she said.

And that, she said, can have an impact.

That terrible night wasn’t really about bullying, Westfall said last week.

It was one thing atop another atop another. He knew where his dad kept the guns. And that they were always loaded. He came back with the .357 Magnum.

“It was bigger than my hand,” he said.

While sitting with the gun, he called an older brother. He didn’t tell him

about the gun, but they did hash over the unhappiness of the day enough to blow off some steam. Westfall sneaked the gun back to where his father kept it. He wasn’t caught and never, ever talked about it.

In 1993, he graduated and headed off to Texas A&M. Eventually got married. Became a dad. And a teacher and then an assistant principal.

This is his first year at the high school, where he is one of seven assistant principals in charge of 2,600 students. He volunteered for an anti-bullying committee made up of staffers and students.

The committee talked about finding students willing to talk on camera about their experiences, but decided that would be hard to do and risky for the kids.

How about a staffer?

Westfall volunteered, without offering details.

Luis Velasquez, 17, is on

the committee and is a student in the communications magnet. He got the assignment of producing the video.

“I wanted a serious tone to it,” he said. “No music under it, so they pay attention to what he is saying.

Black and white, which is more serious.”

The video was broadcast during the school’s daily announcements a couple of weeks later.

As Hymel suggests, what got to many of the kids was less about the details of the story than that their own Mr. Westfall was telling it.

“Never in a million years, from his personality, would I have expected him to go through something big like that,” said Irene Granados, 19, a student in Brown’s AVID class.

So Brown issued her challenge and waited a couple of days. The stories came back. Some small, others more dramatic.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL

Zapata stays strong

Understanding senior sentiments

W

hile most people plot where to go on vacation for the summer, the senior athletes are beginning to realize that their time representing the school they love, Zapata, is coming to an end in less than a month.

Many recall when they were freshmen, the lowest position on the totem pole, as far as athletics are concerned.

A lot of the athletes started on the freshmen team and some were even on the junior varsity team in their first year of high school. No athlete could wait to be part of the varsity; some saw that dream come true as sophomores.

As sophomores, the athletes want to dominate and show the upperclassmen that they belong with the best team.

A few earn starting positions and work hard to let everyone know they belong with the varsity, while others are sent back to the junior varsity and were not prepared for the demands of varsity sports.

By the time junior year comes around, most athletes flourish in sports, picking up awards thanks to experience the lack of pressures that comes along

“

CLARA SANDOVAL OVAL

with being seniors.

When senior year rolls around, everything takes more meaning — from attending pep rallies to football games.

Senior athletes want to go out with a bang and every practice has new meaning. They finally understand what the coaches have been telling them for the past three years.

There is something about becoming a senior and the new perspective on sports that comes as each day passes and the realiztion sinks in that your senior season is starting to wind down.

Everyone wants to go out with a district title and a deep run in the playoffs, but a few achieve those goals.

Seniors realize the long road that took them from seventh grade volleyball, cross-country, football, basketball or track has ended.

As seventh graders, the teams were full of kiddos that wanted to try sports but realized they weren’t for them, and as the years

See SANDOVAL PAGE 2B

HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

Zapata Lady Hawks senior Estella Molina pitched a strong outing in Laredo against United South at the beginning of the week. It was the Lady Hawks’ last warm up before the playoffs.

Warm-up game vs. United South shows promise

By CLARA SANDOVAL THE ZAPATA TIMES

L

AREDO — The Zapata Lady Hawks traveled to Laredo to played a warm up game against United South before starting the playoffs.

United South proved to be too much for Zapata, dropping a 3-0 decision at the SAC. “We were able to play really good defense against

a good 5A school,” Zapata coach Jaime Garcia said.

“The girls played well, but we could not find our offense.”

Senior Estella Molina went the distance on the mound and neutralized the Lady Panthers’ big bats, only allowing four hits in the game.

Molina made United South work its way on to base and forced the Lady Panthers to ground out into routine plays.

United South was first on the board when Ale Cerda scored (one stolen base).

Zapata did not have a hit in the game, and United South’s Selina Rubio did not allow the Lady Hawks to reach second base through seven innings.

United South’s hits were sporadic and when it was able to get one of Molina’s pitches, the Lady Hawk defense was there to back

her up 100 percent.

United South scored runs in the first, second and fourth innings, after that point Molina shut down the Lady Panther offense.

Zapata faced West Oso last night in their bi-district match up in San Diego.

“We are just going to go out there and stick to our game plan that has been working for us all season long,” Garcia said.

2012 NFL DRAFT

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

Zapata coaches and residents Veronica and Mario Arce balance the challenges of raising a family, working and coaching high school sports with widespread success.

Arces effect more than just family, sports

By CLARA SANDOVAL

Cowboys introduce Claiborne

By STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS

IRVING — The Dallas Cowboys obviously have high expectations for firstround pick Morris Claiborne.

First, the Cowboys traded up eight spots and lost their second-round draft pick to get Claiborne sixth overall.

Owner Jerry Jones then immediately talked about Claiborne being a difference-maker. He called the All-American from LSU the best cornerback prospect team scouts have graded since Deion Sanders, the Hall of Famer who was a key part of their

Photo by LM Otero | AP

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, right, holds a jersey with firstround draft pick Morris Claiborne at Valley Ranch in Irving. last Super Bowl championship 16 years ago.

“That’s awesome. Anytime you can hear your name in the same sen-

tence as Deion, you’ve got to be doing something right,” Claiborne said Friday. “Deion is a great player and he left a mark here

with the Dallas Cowboys and he’s moved on. I’m one of the players coming up now and I’m going to try to leave my mark.”

Claiborne said he is motivated by and welcomes such expectations.

During his introduction at the team’s Valley Ranch facility, Claiborne was presented with jersey No. 24.

Among former Cowboys who wore that number were cornerbacks Everson Walls and Larry Brown, the MVP in their last Super Bowl victory after two second-half interceptions.

“It still feels like it isn’t real, but I know it’s real,”

See COWBOYS PAGE 2B

THE ZAPATA TIMES

LAREDO — Mario and Veronica Arce have been a fixture in Zapata athletics and coached for the Hawks for many years in football, softball and powerlifting.

The couple also has put their marriage and children before their coaching duties.

The Acre’s have been married 25 years and have brought up three children in the world of sports.

“We have been working together for 22 years, and work is work and when we go home we are parents, at school we are coaches,” Mario said.

Mario is the head football coach and the athletic director while Veronica dabbles in softball and is the girls’ powerlifting

coach.

The Arce’s are very successful at what they do. Mario has taken the Hawks to numerous district titles and playoff berths while Veronica has been a constant fixture at the state powerlifting with her girls’ team.

While they are proud of all the accolades that they have received in the coaching world, the people that bring the most joy to their lives is their three children, Monique (22 years old), Michelle (18)and Franco (12).

Since their children grew up around sports and attending two-a-days with their dad, they all naturally gravitated towards athletics.

Ever since they could walk, the little Arces were out on the football field helping dad with anything

See ARCE PAGE 2B

PAGE 2B

Zscores

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

Familiar foes tipoff: Dallas visits OKC

By JEFF LATZKE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City’s penalty for scuffling down the stretch and getting passed for the top seed in the Western Conference is a first-round playoff showdown with an all-too-familiar foe toting championship credentials.

When the Dallas Mavericks arrive for Game 1 on Saturday night, it’ll be a rematch of last season’s West finals dominated by Dirk Nowitzki on his way to his first NBA title.

Nowitzki averaged 32.2 points against Oklahoma City in last year’s playoffs to outduel Kevin Durant, who just became the seventh player in NBA history to win three straight league scoring titles. The Mavericks won that series 4-1, winning both games in Oklahoma City.

“It’s all we’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” Durant said Friday.

“It’s going to be a tough, tough series for us playing against the reigning champions. They cause so many problems on the offensive end and defensive end for us.”

The biggest one is Nowitzki, the 7-foot German who took over games in the fourth quarter — averaging 11.8 points — and handled every defender the Thunder tried on him. He also shot 61 free throws in the series, making all but two.

“He’s an amazing player

but we have to defend him without fouling him,” Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. “He averages only six free throws per game, and that’s just way too many.

“He’s a tough guard. He’s a tough guy to cover. He does so many things well.

He extends the defense with his amazing 3-point shooting, his post-up game, his drive game, his free throws.”

While the Thunder are largely the same squad — substitute veteran Derek Fisher for injured backup point guard Eric Maynor — many of the faces have changed on the Dallas sideline. Gone are Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, DeShawn Stevenson and Peja Stojakovic from the supporting cast that helped Nowitzki win it all.

“There are a number of guys that did great things for them last year that just aren’t there. At the same time, they’re still a veteran team and a smart team,” said Fisher, who won five NBA titles with a Los Angeles Lakers team that got swept by the Mavs last season.

“Any team that has won a championship in recent years — you still have Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion — they’re still very capable.”

The underdog role is unusual for an NBA champion, particularly with so much of its star power

Manchester derby decides top EPL spot

By MARK WALSH ASSOCIATED PRESS

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has paid Roberto Mancini a rare compliment ahead of the crucial derby against Manchester City on Monday.

Ferguson, who is famous for playing mind games with his title rivals, said City had reached a new level under Mancini’s guidance.

The Italian was appointed City manager in December 2009 and has established the club as a serious title contender with the help of multi-millionpound investment by its Abu Dhabi-based owners.

Many believe Mancini’s job will come under threat if City fail to win the title after leading the standings for most of the season, but Ferguson said City was moving in the right direction.

“He (Mancini) is second-top of the league at the moment, with the league decider on Monday,” Ferguson said.

“That’s progress, it’s a step forward for them.

That’s the only way you can measure it.”

City can move ahead of

United on goal difference with two rounds left by winning Monday.

Ferguson also drew attention to the fact that City’s likely points total would probably have been enough to win the league in most years.

“You look at the points total that both teams probably will amass and it’s championship form from both teams,” he said.

“This is the derby game of all derby games. It’s our city rivals and it makes everybody step up a notch in terms of anticipation.”

The last time United and City fought it out for the title was in 1968 — also the last time City won the league — but this year is extra-special because the derby comes so close to the end of the season.

“It’s a shootout, isn’t it?” Ferguson said. “Going into work next Tuesday morning will be the most important day of their lives for both sets of supporters.

People are brought up through their grandfathers, their greatgrandfathers and grandmothers to what they are.

“You can’t change a family’s traits. It’s steeped in the blood of these supporters.”

back. With Vince Carter, Ian Mahinmi and Delonte West filling support roles and a failed experiment with Lamar Odom coming over from the Lakers, the Mavs went 22-22 over the final two-thirds of the season and had to hold on to get into the playoffs as the seventh seed.

“It’s a different year,” coach Rick Carlisle said.

“We’ve had a challenging year, a lot of difficult things here and there.”

The Thunder won three of the four meetings this season, needing Durant’s 3pointer at the buzzer to claim one of the victories in Oklahoma City.

“We just know that we have a lot of respect for what they do and what they accomplished last season,” Brooks said. “They’ve got a lot of veteran guys who went through a lot of playoff battles to get what they got to last year, winning the championship.”

To a degree, that’s what Oklahoma City is trying to accomplish. The franchise, still in Seattle at the time, started from scratch when it picked Durant No. 2 in 2007 and has since built through the draft with AllStar point guard Russell Westbrook, top-scoring reserve James Harden and NBA blocks leader Serge Ibaka.

The Thunder were eliminated in the first round two years ago, made it to the conference finals a year ago and want to keep climbing.

Photo by Sue Ogrocki | AP

This May 23, 2011 file photo shows Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) dunking in the first half of Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks, in Oklahoma City.

“Nothing’s guaranteed.

Just because we made it last year doesn’t mean we’re going to make it again,” Durant said.

Oklahoma City went 7-7 down the stretch, losing the top seed in the West to the San Antonio Spurs in the process.

“That’s the bad thing about having success too early with a young team. It can be hard to focus, knowing that you’ve not really accomplished what you need to accomplish,” said center Kendrick Perkins, who previously won a championship with Boston.

“When guys pretty much

your best and I don’t think we’re going to be at our best in Game 1,” Fisher said. “We just have to continue to push and continue to believe in what you’re doing, the things that got you there, the things that earned you 47 out of 66 wins and the No. 2 spot in the West.”

NOTES: Harden didn’t want to weigh in on whether Metta World Peace’s seven-game suspension was an appropriate punishment for elbowing him in the back of the head and causing a concussion. “That’s the NBA’s job. I’m a basketball player,” Harden said.

Barca coach steps down

By JOSEPH WILSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

BARCELONA, Spain — In front of some of the players he has molded into one of the greatest football teams of all time, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola stepped down on Friday, bringing to a close a four-year reign of unprecedented success.

Guardiola announced he will leave the club at the end of the season, explaining at a news conference held at the Camp Nou that the demands of the job were too high and his energy levels too low to continue.

Already Barcelona’s most successful manager, Guardiola can add a 14th trophy when his team plays the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao on May 25 in his last game.

His assistant Tito Vilanova will then take over the team.

“Four years are long and they wear you down,” Guardiola said. “I think that sincerely that the next person will have things to bring that I can’t.

“Every day during four years, the demands are very high, the pressure, the necessary energy to

Photo by Emilio Morenatti | AP

Barcelona’s coach Josep Guardiola pauses during a press conference after announcing his resignation in Barcelona, Spain, on Friday. Assistant coach Tito Vilanova will take over. push the players and enjoy it. I need to rest and move away.”

His announcement ended a difficult week for the team that saw it exit the

Champions League semifinals to Chelsea following a loss to Real Madrid which will likely cost it a fourth straight Spanish title.

COWBOYS Continued from Page 1B Claiborne said. “I’m just so excited to get in, to get to work, to get around my teammates.”

Though the Cowboys went into the second day of the draft without a second-round pick, they felt Claiborne was well worth it. The only player they had rated higher on their draft board was Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, who as expected was taken first overall

by Indianapolis.

“He plays a premium position we think he’s an outstanding athlete, an elite athlete and an outstanding person,” coach Jason Garrett said. “Corner is a premium position. ... It gives you a lot of freedom to do things on defense if you have a guy who can shut somebody down or take a receiver out of a game.”

It will still be some time before the Cowboys will actually get to see Claiborne on the field.

Claiborne still has a cast on his left wrist from surgery after the NFL combine to repair some ligament damage. He said he will have to wear that cast for two more weeks, then will get the pins out and have to wear a soft cast after that.

That means Claiborne won’t be able to participate in the Cowboys’ rookie minicamp next week, and his availability for other offseason workouts is very questionable. He is expected to be fully ready for the start

ARCE Continued from Page 1B they could.

Mario was more into steering his children into sports, unlike Veronica who just wanted them to be happy in whatever they choose — even if it included band.

“When you grow up around a coaches, I would like my children to be in sports. I just gave them no choice,” Mario said with a laugh.

Added Veronica, “I just wanted them to know that they could be in anything they wanted. The girls were in band in middle school, but when they got to the high school they decided on their own that they wanted to just play sports.”

As the Arce kids grew up, Mario and Veronica made sure that they understood why they were hard on

figured that we couldn’t get the No. 1 spot, you could tell the focus wasn’t there. But that’s not an excuse for the way we ended this season. I just know that we do have another level.”

The Thunder tried to get back that focus with a film session Thursday night and a longer-than-planned practice on Friday. Perhaps most lacking was defense.

Even with the starters continuing to play, Oklahoma City gave up 40 and 36 points in the first quarter in its last two games — the worst defensive performances of the season.

“It takes time to be at

them as coaches.

“As far as coaches’ kids goes, it seems like you have to be harder on your own kids because you do not want any excuses,” Mario said.

“You don’t want anyone to see that we take it easy on them because they are our kids.”

The Arces also wanted to make sure their children carried themselves with great respect in their everyday lives.

“We are very critical in how they carried themselves,” Mario said.

“We expect for all our athletes to carry themselves a certain way and we are extremely picky with our own kids.”

Veronica added,” Sometimes we are that much harder on them but

of training camp in late July.

Asked again Friday about his low score on the Wonderlic test, which Claiborne admitted after he was drafted that he blew off since it wasn’t about football, he said he wasn’t embarrassed. But he acknowledged that knowing the reaction now he might have been more serious about the test designed to gauge the intelligence, problem-solving ability and cognitive skills of prospects.

“If I knew it would’ve been this much heat about it,” he said.

Claiborne led LSU with six interceptions last season and won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back. He had 11 picks in 26 games the last two seasons. He was also LSU’s top kickoff returner, averaging 25 yards per return including a 99-yard touchdown at West Virginia.

The Cowboys never really expected the chance to get Claiborne, even though they knew St. Louis seemed willing to deal that No. 6 overall pick.

“Obviously it was a unique opportunity and everything had to fall in place,” said Stephen Jones, the team’s director of player personnel. “He was the only guy in the draft we’d go up for, and then had to slide to sixth.”

SANDOVAL Continued from Page 1B when we get home we have to look at it from the parent part.”

Their children have been successful in sports — the oldest plays on the college level.

“Monique was very successful at the high school level, and when she was able to get a scholarship to play at the college level was one of those moments that we, as parents, cherish,” Mario said.

Michelle is an outstanding softball player and a powerlifter that earned a second place medal at the state meet.

“Michelle is one of the most decorated athletes in her own right and I am very proud of all our kids,” Mario said. “What I am more proud of is they are good people.”

went by, a few more dropped for a variety reasons. By the time that they reach their senior year, only a handfull are left.

Last year, a boys’ basketball team decided to stick together from middle school all the way to high school — sending coach Juan Villarreal to graduate his biggest class: 14 players.

As coaches, there is lump in your throat when the seniors play their last game because they have spent years with you and to a certain extent, you grow attached to them.

Coaches want the seniors

to head off to college and become productive members of society. A coach gets great satisfaction when the athletes come back and visit and they say that the coach had a great influence on them.

Those are the things that make coaching worth it — not the titles and not the playoffs — productive members of society. As a coach you know you did something right.

When those seniors take off their uniform for the last time, they take it off a lot slower than before because this is the last time they represent Zapata.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

HINTS | BY HELOISE Dear Heloise: I have a helpful hint that everyone will appreciate: WASH ALL SOCKS inside out.

— Hazel in Richmond, Va. Hazel, you’ve made a good point. After your foot spends all day in a sock, the sock can be sweaty and collect dead skin cells and odors.

Yuck!

A major manufacturer of footwear and a major detergent company said that it’s a matter of personal preference.

The detergent company says you’ll get adequate cleaning regardless of the how the sock goes in the washer. The sock company concurs with the detergent maker. Whichever one you choose is fine.

One time-tested Heloise Hint is to use a safety pin to hold your socks together so they don’t get separated in the wash! — Heloise SAFE TRAVELS FOR DOGS Dear Heloise: We recently had a dog trainer scold us because our poodles were not secured in our car. We have found a pop-up dog crate, which comes in several sizes.

It has a wire frame, and it just pops up into a rectangular shape, with mesh sides and a zippered door. It has straps on it that you run your seat belt through to secure it.

Every dog owner needs to realize that if your dog is loose in the car and you have an accident, your dog becomes a projectile and can be easily killed or thrown from the car into traffic. Also, if a dog is in your lap or lying on the seat next to you, it can be killed by the air bag. We really like these crates, and so do our

“

HELOISE

dogs. — James E. Reveley, DDS, via email PET PAL Dear Readers: Maggie in Indiana sent a picture of her dog, Hannah, who looks a bit like a rat terrier, “pushing” a cart of flowers! Hannah certainly is ready for spring. To see Hannah and our other Pet Pals, visit www.Heloise.com and click on “Pets.” — Heloise COFFEE MIXER Dear Heloise: Here is a hint for those who enjoy powdered coffee drinks.

The directions always say to stir with a spoon, which doesn’t always mix all the powder into the hot water. Next time, try a mini whisk. I find it works perfectly and quickly. — L.G., Sturgis, S.D. Love it, and try a fork, also! It is pretty easy to make different powdered coffee mixes, and they all are so delicious. I have compiled a pamphlet that has several different mixes of coffee that you can try, such as mocha, cinnamon and a delicious spiced coffee. To receive the pamphlet, just send $3 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (65 cents) envelope to: Heloise/Coffee and Tea, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 782795001. Also in the pamphlet? A classic cold-water iced-tea recipe: Fill a quart-sized pitcher with cold tap water and eight to 10 tea bags. Let stand for six hours, then remove the tea bags and pour into ice-filled glasses. Sweeten as you would like. — Heloise

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Rockets’ swoon falls short of postseason

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

Sizzling Spurs set for big playoff push

By KRISTIE RIEKEN

By PAUL J. WEBER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — A little more than two weeks ago it appeared the Houston Rockets were headed to the playoffs in Kevin McHale’s first season as coach.

Instead a late-season swoon dropped the Rockets out of the postseason for the third straight year and left them to ponder what happened during a six-game losing streak that doomed their season.

“We had one goal, to make the playoffs,” McHale said. “We didn’t do it. We fell short, that’s the bottom line. We didn’t have a successful season and now everybody’s got to figure out what we can all do to get better.”

McHale, who returned to coaching after two seasons as a television analyst, has had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach since the collapse and hasn’t been able to watch games when he’s home at night like he usually does.

“There’s no way we shouldn’t be playing in the playoffs this weekend,” he said.

The Rockets were in sixth place in the Western Conference after a win over Portland on April 9 which completed a four-game road sweep. Then the trouble began, with Houston dropping a season-high six straight games from April 11-19 that left it nearly impossible to reach the postseason.

Falling out of contention late was even more disappointing because of the obstacles this team overcame to be in line for the postseason entering April. The Rockets made their surge with starters Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry out with injuries.

Martin, averaged 17.1 points this season, but

SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs finished the regular season on a 10-game winning streak and tied for the best record in the NBA. Showing that age wasn’t slowing them down, the Spurs lost only five times this season when stars Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili all played.

Coach Gregg Popovich surrounded them with a deep supporting cast and the Spurs locked up another No. 1 seed.

“You know what? It was a lot of uncertainty,” Spurs forward Matt Bonner said to Toronto radio station The Fan 590 this week. “I wasn’t really sure how we would fare if it was one week of training camp, one or two preseason games and then right into the season. We got off to a little bit of a slow start — we were 12-9 at one point — but since then we left for our rodeo monthlong road trip and we’ve been rolling ever since.”

Since going on an 8-1 road trip in February, the Spurs (50-16) have won 23 of 26 to grab the top seed in the Western Conference from Oklahoma City.

The Spurs tied Chicago for the NBA’s best record, but the Bulls hold the tiebreaker for home-court advantage if they meet in the NBA finals.

The Spurs open the playoffs Sunday against Utah (36-30).

Similar to last season, the Spurs are the top seed again in the Western Conference. But unlike a year ago, they’re healthy.

Not only were the Spurs the NBA’s only team this season to string to-

Photo by Wilfredo Lee | AP

Houston Rockets head coach Kevin McHale, left, talks to players during the first half of a game against the Miami Heat on Sunday in Miami. didn’t play after March 11 because of a shoulder injury.

McHale thinks his team may have not been ready for the intensity of competition late in the season with so much on the line.

“It’s a learning experience,” he said. “The guys I’ve talked to I’ve said: ‘You’re going to play in meaningful games there’s going to be a lot of heat, they’re going to be coming for you and there’s just a level you’ve got to understand and you’ve got to come out with that level.”

The Rockets were eliminated from contention with a loss at Miami two days after their six-game losing streak ended.

“It’s tough,” point guard Goran Dragic said. “Every-

body was sad and frustrated that we didn’t make the playoffs. We were in a really good spot, but unfortunately we didn’t play right and we didn’t play good at the right moment and that cost us the playoffs.”

A bright spot for the Rockets was the emergence of Dragic while Lowry was out for 18 games beginning March 10 with a bacterial infection. Dragic averaged more than 18 points from March 10 until the end of the season.

Dragic, a third-year pro, is an unrestricted free agent who could land elsewhere next season. He would like to stay in Houston, but he also wants to be a full-time starter, which might not happen with the Rockets.

Photo by Ben Margot | AP

Golden State Warriors’ Chris Wright (33) looks to pass away from San Antonio Spurs’ Matt Bonner (15) during the second half of a game on Thursday in Oakland, Calif. gether a double-digit winning streak, they did it three times. The latest came Thursday in a win at Golden State, extending their run to 10 games entering the playoffs.

“We weren’t playing well at the end of last year.

Manu getting injured, that hurt us, too,” Duncan said. “We’re playing well right now. We’re getting a rhythm. To end the way as solid as we have, it’s been good. It’ll be great for us going in.”

The winning streak kept going despite Popovich keeping his three stars in San Antonio while the bench finished off the regular season out West.

Duncan has held up in the compressed schedule in this lockout-shortened season. Parker averaged

18.3 points and a careerhigh 7.7 assists.

Then there’s Ginobili.

He missed nearly half the season and is having his worst offensive season since his second year (12.9 points), but his diminished production has been offset by the emergence of Danny Green in the starting lineup and 7-footer Tiago Splitter improving in his second year.

Duncan calls this Popovich’s best coaching job in 15 years, a span that includes four championships and the highest winning percentage (.702) in any of the four major professional sports.

“Pop’s been unbelievable this year. Not only the coaching job he’s done, the rotation he’s given us — he’s kept us fresh,” Duncan said.