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COUNTY
One step closer to clinic Commissioners prepare for Monday vote on kidney dialysis center By JJ VELASQUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
A decision Monday could be the clincher that brings the county a kidney dialysis center. County commissioners are set to vote on the construction of a clinic they hope could generate medical tourism as well as relieve the county’s 30 to 40 patients on dialysis from the burden of traveling
twice or three times a week for treatment. The county has been in talks with DaVita, a kidney dialysis corporation that operates clinics across the country, to build a 6,500-square-foot facility. The county could opt to build a smaller and cheaper clinic that would have fewer dialysis stations. The company has told the county that it needs at least 60 patients to make the
clinic viable, so it has asked the commissioners for an incentive to set up shop here. In exchange for providing service, staff and equipment in a community whose demand doesn’t meet the company’s minimum requirements for viability, the county will foot the bill to construct the building that will house the clinic. Exact figures will be discussed at the
9 a.m. meeting in the County Courthouse, but Commissioner Jose E. Vela expects construction to cost upwards of $65,000. The final figure all depends on the size the county decides to go with. Vela was appointed by the court to contact companies about setting up shop here. Vela said he, other county officials
COMMUNITY
See CLINIC PAGE 10A
MEXICO
Ex-gov. denies ties to cartels ASSOCIATED PRESS
spondent for CNN has made him a witness to the upheaval in Iraq after the U.S. invasion and the pro-Democracy Arab Spring that swept the region last year. Duran was returning from reporting on
MEXICO CITY — The former governor of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas on Friday denied that he took money from drug cartels and channeled it through front men to buy properties in Texas, calling the allegations part of an effort to influence the July 1 presidential elections. Former governor Tomas Yarrington told MVS radio station that President Felipe Calderon’s administration was using the allegations to help the candidate of his conservative National Action Party, or PAN, which has sought to portray Yarrington’s Institutional Revolutionary Party as corrupt and soft on drug trafficking. "What is happening here is a malicious use of law enforcement instruments to influence an election once again," Yarrington told the radio station. "It is very clear that they are trying to make the investigations coincide with the campaign ads and political speeches of the PAN candidate." U.S. authorities have filed civil suits to try to confiscate a condominium in South Padre Island and a 46-acre (18.6-hectare) property in San Antonio allegedly owned or controlled by Yarrington. He has denied owning the properties. No criminal charges have been filed against Yarrington, who was Tamaulipas governor
See TRAVELING PAGE 10A
See TIES PAGE 10A
Photo by Cuate Santos | Laredo Morning Times
CNN cameraman/producer Joe Duran stands on a balcony at La Posada Hotel and Suites overlooking Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, his birthplace, during a recent visit to Laredo.
A TRAVELING MAN Former Laredoan’s CNN job takes him across world By ANDREW KREIGHBAUM ZAPATA TIMES
For the last decade, CNN producer and cameraman Joe Duran, a Laredo native, has traveled constantly throughout North Africa and the Middle East.
Since January, his work brought him twice each to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, as well as trips to Iran, Bosnia and Spain. “We’ve traveled so much, I couldn’t tell you what I’ve done last year,” he said. “I never know where I am.” Duran’s job as an international corre-