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SPRING IS IN THE AIREXTENDED PRESEASON HAS BASEBALL REACTING DIFFERENT WAYS, 1B

Federal agents in Zapata arrest-ed an Edinburg man for transport-ing four illegal immigrants to La-redo, a federal criminal complaintfiled Friday states.

Noe Margarito Zuñiga, a U.S. ci-tizen, was charged with bringing

in and harboring illegal immi-grants. He remained in federalcustody.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. BorderPatrol agents manning a tacticalcheckpoint in Zapata conductedan immigration inspection on theoccupants of a white Chevrolet Im-pala. Agents identified the driveras Zuñiga.

Zuñiga told agents he did notknow the citizenship for four peo-ple traveling with him and said hedid not know them.

“During secondary inspectionZuñiga freely admitted to agentsthat he was smuggling the fourpassengers to Laredo,” a com-plaint states. Zuñiga and the fourillegal immigrants were taken into

custody for further investigation.Zuñiga stated he had met a man

at a bar last weekend. The manasked Zuñiga if he wanted tomake “some easy money.” Zuñigastated he was offered $800 to drivethe four illegal immigrants to La-redo.

Court records alleged Zuñigapicked up the immigrants at a

stash house. The location is notmentioned. One illegal immigrantheld as a material witness statedhe paid $3,000 to be smuggled toHouston. A second material wit-ness told agents he paid $6,500 tobe smuggled onto U.S. soil.

(César G. Rodriguez may bereached at 728-2568 or ce-sar@lmtonline.com)

FEDERAL COURT

Agents arrest man in town for smugglingBy CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

WASHINGTON — Gridlockedonce more, President Barack Oba-ma and Republican congressionalleaders refused to budge in theirbudget standoff Friday as $85 bil-lion in across-the-board spendingcuts bore down on individual

Americans and the nation’s still-recovering economy. “None of thisis necessary,” said the presidentafter a sterile White House meet-ing that portended a long stand-off.

Even before Obama formallyordered the cuts required by mid-night, their impact was felt thou-sands of miles away. In Seattle,

the King County Housing Author-ity announced it had stopped issu-ing housing vouchers under a fed-eral program that benefits “elder-ly or disabled households,veterans, and families with chil-dren.”

The president met with top

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

$85 billion cutGridlock: No budging at the deadline

By DAVID ESPOASSOCIATED PRESS

See BUDGET PAGE 11A

Authorities identified themen as Joshua Eli Gonzalez,28, and Juan Luis Quezada, 31.Initially, both men had beenidentified as people of interestin the case. But Sgt. Mario Eli-zondo said the two

SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Men accusedof home thefts

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See SHERIFF PAGE 11A

JOSHUA GONZALEZ:Faces several charg-es including burglaryof a vehicle.

JUAN QUEZADA:Faces misdemeanorand felony charges.

The 41st Annual ZapataCounty Fair kicked off last Sat-urday and Sunday with theYouth Pageant and Queen’sContest and continues todaywith the traditional trail ride.

Judging in all categories beginsThursday.

The Youth Pageant added twonew categories this year, thePre-teen and Teen divisions.

“We have six categories, in-cluding one category for boys,called the Lil’ Cowboy, andwhich is only for boys in kinder

and 1st grade. The girls’ divi-sions include kinder to 8thgrade and are divided into fivecategories, the Lil’ Tiara, theLil’ Miss, the Jr. Miss, the Pre-teen and the Teen,” said pag-eant committee chairperson Ni-

ZAPATA COUNTY FAIR

QUEEN AND COURT

Zapata County Fair Queen Leanna Saenz is seen after winning the 2013 ZapataCounty Fair Queen Pageant at the Zapata High School auditorium.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

Cassandra Peña, Leandra Saenz, Crystal Lozano and Celia Rathmell participate in the Zapata County Fair Queen Pageant atthe Zapata High School auditorium last week.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

Fair continues today with annual rideBy RICARDO R. VILLARREAL

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See FAIR PAGE 11A

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013

SATURDAY, MARCH 2The Zapata County Fair Associ-

ation’s Trail Ride will start at 7 a.m. atthe Bustamante Roping Arena and willend at 5 p.m. at the county fair-grounds. For more information, call Do-ra Martinez at 285-7794.

The Texas A&M InternationalUniversity Lamar Bruni Vergara Plane-tarium will show “Laser Beatles” at 6p.m.; “iPOP” at 7 p.m.; and “PinkFloyd’s Dark Side of the Moon Laser”at 8 p.m. General admission is $5 forchildren/TAMIU Community (with ID)and $6 adults. For more information,call 956-326-3663.

St. Mary’s University School ofLaw will hold a legal clinic from 11a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fernando A. SalinasCommunity Center, 2600 Cedar Ave.Topics covered include Social Security,IRS/tax issues, identify theft, debt col-lection, consumer issues and familylaw. For more information, contact956-722-1458 or rsepulveda@webb-countytx.gov.

The “Understanding Credit andBudgeting” seminar will take place atthe Zapata County Courthouse from9:30 a.m. through 12:30 p.m. Theseminar is free.

MONDAY, MARCH 4The TAKS test will be adminis-

tered at Zapata High School.

TUESDAY, MARCH 5The TAKS test will be adminis-

tered at Zapata High School.The Alzheimer’s support group

meets at 7 p.m. at Laredo MedicalCenter, Building B, Room 2. The sup-port group is for family members andcaregivers taking care of someone whohas Alzheimer’s.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6The TAKS test will be adminis-

tered at Zapata High School.Students and job seekers are in-

vited to explore career opportunitiesduring the Laredo Community CollegeExpo, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at theMaravillo Gym at the Ft. McIntoshcampus. The expo will feature morethan 20 employers from local, stateand federal businesses and agencies,as well as educational institutions. Ad-mission is free to students and thepublic. For more information, call 721-5135.

THURSDAY, MARCH 7The TAKS test will be adminis-

tered at Zapata High School.Today is the first day of the

three-day 41st Annual Zapata CountyFair, which begins at 8 a.m. at the Za-pata County Fairgrounds. A battle ofthe bands will be featured. For moreinformation, contact the Zapata CountyChamber of Commerce or www.zapata-countyfaironline.com.

Students and job seekers are in-vited to explore career opportunitiesduring the Laredo Community CollegeExpo, which continues today from 9a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Maravillo Gym atthe Ft. McIntosh campus. Admission isfree to students and the public. Formore information, call 721-5135.

FRIDAY, MARCH 8Performances by Zamoralez, Sol-

ido and Kevin Fowler highlight Day Twoof the Zapata County Fair.

SATURDAY, MARCH 9The Bass Champs South Region

Fishing Tournament will take placefrom 7 a.m. through 3 p.m.

Performances by the battle ofthe bands winner, Los 5 De Zapata,Siggno and Pesado highlight Day Threeof the Zapata County Fair.

MONDAY, MARCH 11The Zapata County Commission-

ers Court meets at 9 a.m. at the Zapa-ta County Courthouse.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13The I Can Cope class is from 6

p.m. to 8 p.m. at Doctors Hospital’sCancer Treatment Lobby. The programgives participants an opportunity toshare their concerns with others andto design ways to cope with the chal-lenges of a cancer diagnosis. The classis free and open to the public. Formore information, call Diana Juarez at956-319-3100.

THURSDAY, MARCH 21The four-day Bassmaster Elite

Series Tournament – Falcon Slam –begins at 7 a.m. at the Zapata CountyPublic Boat Ramp. For more informa-tion, go to www.zaspatachamber.com.

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, March 2,the 61st day of 2013. There are304 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On March 2, 1943, the three-day Battle of the Bismarck Seabegan in the southwest Pacificduring World War II; U.S. andAustralian warplanes wereable to inflict heavy damageon an Imperial Japanese con-voy.

On this date:In 1793, the first president

of the Republic of Texas, SamHouston, was born near Lex-ington, Va.

In 1836, the Republic of Tex-as formally declared its inde-pendence from Mexico.

In 1861, the state of Texas,having seceded from theUnion, was admitted to theConfederacy.

In 1877, Republican Ruther-ford B. Hayes was declared thewinner of the 1876 presidentialelection over Democrat Sa-muel J. Tilden, even thoughTilden had won the popularvote.

In 1917, Puerto Ricans weregranted U.S. citizenship asPresident Woodrow Wilsonsigned the Jones-Shafroth Act.

In 1933, the motion picture“King Kong” had its worldpremiere at New York’s RadioCity Music Hall and the Roxy.

In 1939, Roman CatholicCardinal Eugenio Pacelli (puh-CHEL’-ee) was elected pope onhis 63rd birthday; he took thename Pius XII.

In 1942, the original StageDoor Canteen, a wartime clubfor U.S. servicemen, officiallyopened its doors in New York’sBroadway theater district.

In 1951, the East beat theWest, 111-94, in the first NBAAll-Star Game, which tookplace at Boston Garden.

In 1962, Wilt Chamberlainscored 100 points for the Phila-delphia Warriors in a gameagainst the New York Knicks,an NBA record that stillstands. (Philadelphia won, 169-147.)

In 1972, the United Stateslaunched the Pioneer 10 spaceprobe, which flew past Jupiterin late 1973, sending back im-ages and scientific data.

In 1989, representativesfrom the 12 European Commu-nity nations agreed to ban allproduction of CFCs (chloroflu-orocarbons) by the end of the20th century.

Ten years ago: Iraqcrushed another six Al Sa-moud II missiles, as orderedby U.N. weapons inspectors.Landlocked Switzerland be-came the first European coun-try to win the America’s Cupas Alinghi swept Team NewZealand in five races.

Today’s Birthdays: ActorJohn Cullum is 83. AuthorTom Wolfe is 83. Former Sovi-et President Mikhail S. Gorba-chev is 82. Actress BarbaraLuna is 74. Author John Irv-ing is 71. Singer Lou Reed is71. Actress Cassie Yates is 62.Actress Laraine Newman is61. Former Sen. Russ Feingold,D-Wis., is 60. Interior Secreta-ry Ken Salazar is 58. SingerJay Osmond is 58. Pop musi-cian John Cowsill (The Cow-sills) is 57. Tennis player Ke-vin Curren is 55. Rock singerJon Bon Jovi is 51. Blues sing-er-musician Alvin YoungbloodHart is 50. Actor Daniel Craigis 45.

Thought for Today: “Justas we are often moved to mer-riment for no other reasonthan that the occasion calls forseriousness, so we are corre-spondingly serious when invit-ed too freely to be amused.” —Agnes Repplier, American es-sayist (1858-1950).

TODAY IN HISTORY

DALLAS — Suburban Dallas residentScott Lindsey is joining a growing group ofhomeowners collaborating with police byproviding home-surveillance footage thatmay help nab criminals prowling theirneighborhoods.

“If criminals understand that the entirecity is wired with surveillance, they may bea little more hesitant,” said Lindsey, who hasseveral cameras at his Richardson home.

The Dallas Morning News reported Fridaythat police departments in the Dallas sub-urbs of Richardson and Sachse last monthlaunched separate efforts in which residentssign up with authorities, submitting infor-mation about their camera systems.

Police then can contact volunteers nearcrime scenes, asking residents to review

their footage to see if the cameras caughtanything.

Alex del Carmen, chair of the Universityof Texas at Arlington’s criminology andcriminal justice department, said such cam-eras are more symbolic than useful, but peo-ple can benefit by feeling safer.

“It allows the resident to be a stakeholder,”del Carmen said. “The community comes to-gether to fight crime.”

But the use of these cameras also raisesquestions about civil rights and privacy, delCarmen said.

“Where do you draw that line between theusage of video cameras to protect us fromcrime and the expectation of privacy that ci-tizens should have?” he said.

But such concerns appear to lag behind aprevailing belief that communities must re-main vigilant against crime.

AROUND TEXAS

In this Feb. 21 photo, Scott Lindsey poses in front of his fence where he has a camera and lighting mounted at his home inRichardson. If any suspicious activity happens in his neighborhood, Scott is willing to volunteer the footage from his videocameras and share it with Richardson police.

Photo by Kye R. Lee/The Dallas Morning News | AP

Video could aid policeASSOCIATED PRESS

Lawsuit: Girl told topledge to Mexico

MCALLEN — The family of ateen who says she was punishedby her school for refusing to re-cite the Mexican pledge of alle-giance has filed a federal lawsuitclaiming her constitutionalrights were violated.

The lawsuit says BrendaBrinsdon was a high schoolsophomore in 2011 when herteacher told students to stand forthe pledge of allegiance and tosing the Mexican national an-them.

Nancy L. Bass, matriarchof prominent family, dies

FORT WORTH — Nancy LeeBass, philanthropist and matriar-ch of Fort Worth’s leading family,has died a week before her 96thbirthday.

The widow of oil billionairePerry R. Bass died at her FortWorth home Thursday night af-ter a brief illness.

7 indicted in counterfeitDVD, CD cases

CORPUS CHRISTI — SevenSouth Texas residents have beenindicted in an investigation ofcounterfeit DVDs and CDs thatled to the seizure of more than58,000 fake items.

Federal prosecutors on Thurs-day announced the arrest of sixpeople from Corpus Christi. Aseventh defendant remains atlarge.

Former housing directorindicted for theft

BASTROP — A grand jury hasindicted the former director of aCentral Texas housing authoritywho’s accused of diverting morethan $200,000 in taxpayer moneyto family members.

State authorities say BrendaD. Schroeder is charged with fe-lony theft by a public servant,submitting fraudulent credit ap-plications and engaging in orga-nized criminal activity.

Water supplier set to cutoff rice farmers

AUSTIN — It appears thedrought will keep most ricefarmers in three counties fromgetting water to flood their fieldsfor a second year.

LCRA officials said that if byFriday the combined storage inlakes Buchanan and Travis wasbelow 850,000 acre-feet, then mostdownstream rice producerswon’t get water.

State adoption agencycleared after boy’s death

AUSTIN — State authoritiessay they found no violations at aFort Worth agency that pro-cessed a family’s adoption of aRussian boy who later died.

A Texas Department of Familyand Protective Services spokes-man said Friday an investigationof the Gladney Center for Adop-tion showed the agency followedstate rules in the adoption of 3-year-old Max Shatto.

— Compiled from AP reports

Obama issues pardons to17 for minor offenses

WASHINGTON — PresidentBarack Obama on Friday issuedpardons for 17 people, largely forminor offenses.

Those receiving pardons camefrom 13 states and had been sen-tenced for crimes that includedfalsely altering a money order,unauthorized acquisition of foodstamps, drug violations, and pos-session of an unregistered fire-arm.

The White House offered nodetails on why these particularpeople were selected by Obama,who has issued relatively fewpardons since taking office.

Police: Video shows 2cars during Vegas attack

LAS VEGAS — A video cam-era on a taxi dashboard captureda Range Rover and a Maseratisports car weaving around eachother during a shooting that left

three people dead in a spectacu-lar crash on the Las Vegas Strip,a police report states.

The report was released afterAmmar Harris, 26, a self-de-scribed pimp, was arrestedThursday in Los Angeles, endinga multi-state manhunt that be-

gan after the Feb. 21 shooting.The police report says video,

audio and witness accounts showthat Harris briefly spoke withKenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. at theAria resort minutes before theshooting.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Fri-day. The rocket is transporting the Dragon capsule containing food, tools, com-puter hardware and science experiments to the International Space Station.

Photo by John Raoux | AP

Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501Business Manager, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 324-1226General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565Managing Editor, Mary Nell Sanchez........... 728-2543Sports Editor, Adam Geigerman..................728-2578Spanish Editor ........................................ 728-2569

SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY(956) 728-2555

The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the LaredoMorning Times and for those who buy the Laredo MorningTimes at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted.

The Zapata Times is free.The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning

Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129,Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500.

The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Ave-nue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mailthezapatatimes.net

CONTACT US

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

ANIMAL CRUELTYDeputies responded to an animal cruelty call at 11:30

a.m. Monday in the 4100 block of South U.S. 83. An incidentreport states animal control reported two malnourished horses.An investigation is underway.

ASSAULTManuel Garcia-Peña, 70, was arrested and charged with

assault at about 8 p.m. . 24 at Salvador and Weslaco lanes.Garcia-Peña allegedly struck a woman related to him in theface, head and neck. He’s out on a personal recognizance bond.

Jose Luis Guerra, 18, was arrested and charged with as-sault of a public servant at about 12:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at 18Bustamante Lane after deputies responded to a fight in pro-gress. An incident report states the deputy had to seek medicalattention. Guerra had a $25,000 bond.

Juan Manuel Salas, 20, was arrested and charged withassault of a public servant and resisting arrest at about 6:45p.m. Feb. 23 at Fifth Street and Mier Avenue. He had a$42,000 bond at the Zapata Regional Jail.

Mario Orlando Garcia, 24, was arrested and charged withassault at about 4:30 a.m. Feb. 23 in the 600 block of LaredoAvenue. He was released from jail for future court appearance.

BURGLARYA 33-year-old man reported at 3:17 p.m. Wednesday in

the 5300 block of Rio Lane that someone stole $1,500 worthof property from his home.

DWIRodolfo Valadez-Sanchez, 31, was arrested and charged

with driving while intoxicated and reckless driving at about2:30 a.m. Feb. 23 at Seventh Street and Villa Avenue. He had a$10,000 bond at the Zapata Regional Jail.

THEFTA representative of Conoco Pump N Shop, 1824 U.S. 83,

reported at 2:53 p.m. Monday that someone drove off withoutpaying for $30.57 worth of gas.

POSSESSIONMartha Veronica Lagos, 40; Jose Guadalupe Lagos-Marti-

nez, 38, and Erik Verver, 23, were arrested at about 11:45 p.m.Tuesday in the 900 block of Medina Avenue. All three suspectswere charged with possession of a controlled substance. An in-cident report states investigators seized 8.7 grams of crack co-caine. Lagos and Verver are out on bail. Lagos-Martinez re-mained on a $25,000 bond at the Zapata Regional Jail.

Rafael Victor Cardenas, 19 and Jesus Genaro Ortiz, 19,were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana atabout 9:45 p.m. Feb. 21 in Lopeño along U.S. 83. Each manhad a $2,500 bond.

Daniel Aguilar-Morales, 55, was arrested and chargedwith possession of a controlled substance at about 9 p.m. Feb.21 at Seventh Street and Roma Avenue. He had a $5,000bond.

Federico Reyes, 58, was arrested and charged with pos-session of a controlled substance at about 8:15 p.m. Feb. 20 atSecond Street and Texas 16. He had a $5,000 bond.

THE BLOTTER

The Texas A&M International UniversityOffice of Career Services Business and Hospi-tality Fair is Thursday, from 1–4 p.m., in theStudent Center Ballroom. It is an opportunityto network with employers and learn aboutpossible internships or employment vacan-cies.

TAMIU students and alumni are encour-aged to participate, but the community is al-so welcome to attend.

Registration is not necessary.“Those attending the fair should come pre-

pared with their résumé and dressed in casu-al business attire. Employers have told ustime and again they are far more impressedwith students when they come prepared for apotential job interview, which means havinga résumé ready to turn in and dressed in ap-propriate business attire,” said Laura Martí-nez, director, employer relations, Office of Ca-reer Services.

“We encourage students and alumni inter-ested in beginning or advancing their careerto stop by the Fair for a chance to meet withpotential employers. We also strongly recom-mend coming by the Office of Career Servic-es for help with résumés and to learn moreabout networking,” Martínez added.

Walk-ins are welcome to visit the Office ofCareer Services on Tuesday from 8 a.m.–5p.m. for assistance in developing or revisingtheir resumes.

There will also be opportunities to polishnetworking skills at the “Network and Eleva-tor Pitch Workshop,” noon–1 p.m. and 5–6p.m. in SC 114, Career Café.

At the fair, participants will have thechance to meet with recruiters from: TAMIUOffice of Graduate Studies; InternationalBank of Commerce; Texas Department ofPublic Safety; TAMIU Office of Human Re-sources; Laredo Independent School District;Association of Laredo Forwarding Agents,Inc.; Entravision; Texas Department of Fam-ily and Protective Services; TAMIU A. R. San-chez, Jr. School of Business; C.H. Robinson;Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.; Wells FargoBank; Sames Motor Company; Rush TruckCenter; R + L Truckload Services; StateFarm Insurance; Verizon Wireless; Del-TexMarketing Group; Doctor’s Hospital; andMcDonald’s.

For more information, contact Martinez at956-326-2264, laura.martinez@tamiu.edu orvisit offices in SC 114D.

Careerfair set atTAMIU

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

READING DR. SEUSS BOOKS

Photo by Sam Craft/The Paris News | AP

Emmalee Michael, center, and classmates try on Dr. Seuss hats at their Paris, Texas,school on Friday, while taking a break from reading Dr. Seuss books.

AUSTIN — Automatic govern-ment spending cuts could see mil-itary operations across Texas loseat least $1.7 billion before the endof the fiscal year, the U.S. DefenseDepartment said late Friday.

In a letter to Gov. Rick Perry ob-tained by The Associated Press,the department said that no dealin Congress to stave off $85 billionin federal budget reductionsmeans $41 billion will evaporatefrom the Defense Department bud-get by Sept. 30.

That means the Army wouldlose $233 million in base oper-ations funding across Texas, in-cluding cuts at Fort Bliss in El Pa-so, Killeen’s Fort Hood and FortSam Houston in San Antonio, thedepartment said. But Army weap-ons depot operations in Red Riverand Corpus Christi may lose asmuch as $1.4 billion.

The cuts may also cost the AirForce $92 million statewide, withreductions hitting facilities at San

Antonio’s Lackland and Randolphbases, as well as Sheppard AirForce Base.

All told, that’s an estimated im-pact of $1.725 billion.

Perry spokesman Josh Havensresponded that “this is the resultof President Obama’s refusal towork with Congress to find waysto responsibly rein in the federalgovernment’s spending habits.”

“Instead of taking the easy wayout by arbitrarily cutting areaslike national defense,” Havenssaid, “there need to be thoughtful,efficient and common sense spend-ing cuts to begin balancing thefederal budget.”

The letter said Navy and Ma-rine Corps. operations in Texaswill also face reductions, thoughno dollar amount as officials arestill assessing the full impact. Theletter was signed by Deputy Secre-tary of Defense Ashton B. Carter.

Not included in the direct fund-ing losses were that the DefenseDepartment’s 52,000 civilian em-ployees would be forced to take 22days of unpaid furloughs.

Cuts could cost stateabout $1.7 billion

By WILL WEISSERTASSOCIATED PRESS

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013

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

AUSTIN — Becausesome of us have behavedand because some of ushave eaten our vegeta-bles, we’ve been reward-ed with a state employeewho eschews the usualparlance of official gov-ernmentdom in favor ofreal-person English.

Please meet MichaelShea, 42, your managerof the State Records Cen-ter, the Texas State Li-brary and Archives Com-mission’s 144,500-square-foot facility that nowholds 388,000 cubic feetof paper records as wellas records in other for-mats.

Shea blogs on The Tex-as Record, an informa-tive publication aboutthe center. See it atwww.tsl.state.tx.us/slrm/blog/.

The headline on a re-cent entry — “The StateRecords Center Ain’tFull” — is all you need torealize this is not yourstandard state agencypublication. And for thatwe should be thankful.

The entry is invitinglylighthearted and impor-tantly informational.The salient point is kindof a strange one. For sixmonths about eight yearsago, for some reason tiedto the then-ongoing statelawsuit against the to-bacco industry, the StateRecords Center tempo-rarily suspended accept-ing records from stateagencies because it hadto temporarily stop de-stroying old records.

And, oddly enough,Shea told me that somestate agencies, to thisday, incorrectly stillthink the State RecordsCenter isn’t accepting re-cords. Because he does itbetter than I could, I’llquote from his blog:

“At some point ... wewere banned from de-stroying any recordswhile the lawyers dukedout something related totobacco. I hear they de-duced it may be, hold onto your hats, bad for youor children or pets?Frankly, my hyperactiveadopted dog could proba-bly use a cigarette towind down after a toughday of being mocked bysquirrels.

“When we were in themidst of that destruction’freeze,’ we had to turnaway state agency re-cords. Unfortunately, Istill encounter agencyemployees who are sur-prised they can storetheir hard copy, micro-film, microfiche and di-saster recovery materialshere today,” Shea wrote.

He also wants stateagency folks to knowthat last December theState Records Center lift-ed a ban on acceptingpermanent paper records(defined as those des-tined for more than 50years of storage), allow-ing the storage of those

records in addition tofilm and fiche. To makeit even easier to do so,the center relaxed its re-quirements on the typeof boxes it would store.

“If you aren’t sure ifyour boxes are accept-able, snap a few picturesand sent them my way,”Shea wrote. ”I’m happyto make a quick rulingfor you before you get in-to un/reboxing.”

He still thinks the for-merly required boxes arebest, “but budgets don’talways allow for more ex-pensive options, or mydrivers would have cou-ture uniforms.”

“The bottom line iswe’re here (with space) ifyou need us,” Shea con-cluded. “However, wewill not store your dog’sdead squirrels.”

His first blog entrycame back in November,several months after hewas promoted into hiscurrent job. He offered aState Records CenterFAQ that included gener-al information. How doesan agency send stuff tothe center? “It works likethe bat signal. We sendyou a special flashlight.Wait, no. How about alink?”

Does the center stillmicrofilm records andisn’t that kind of oldschool?

“Yes, we do still offerfilming services, and yesit is old school,” Sheawrote. “The good news isthe old school was cor-rect in understandingthis was a media thatwill last a very long timewhen stored properly(like in our environmen-tally controlled and fire-proof vaults) which onlyrequires a means of mag-nification to read.

“How long will thathard drive last or thatCD? Well, I bought myfirst CD in 1989 and I cantell you it is no longerwith me. (RIP RichardMarx CD).”

Why, some might ask,should an agency pay tostore records at the cen-ter when it can be storedfor free in its office?Shea answers that ques-tion with questionsabout the perils of ama-teur storage:

“Does a mop keep hit-ting the side of the box?Does Steve keep spillingthings on them? ... Willthe next person in yourposition know what’s inthe boxes and be able tounderstand your methodof indexing them by zo-diac symbols?”

(Ken Herman is a col-umnist for the AustinAmerican-Statesman. E-mail: kherman@states-man.com.)

Bureaucratspeaks likewe speak

“KEN HERMAN

OTHER VIEWS

The Zapata Timesdoes not publish anony-mous letters.

To be published, let-ters must include thewriter’s first and lastnames as well as aphone number to verifyidentity. The phone num-ber IS NOT published; itis used solely to verifyidentity and to clarifycontent, if necessary.Identity of the letterwriter must be verifiedbefore publication.

We want to assure our

readers that a letter iswritten by the personwho signs the letter. TheZapata Times does notallow the use of pseudo-nyms.

Letters are edited forstyle, grammar, lengthand civility. No name-calling or gratuitousabuse is allowed.

Via e-mail, send let-ters to editorial@lmton-line.com or mail them toLetters to the Editor, 111Esperanza Drive, Laredo,TX 78041.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

AUSTIN — It might notsound like it, but that noisecoming from your state Cap-itol is a good noise. It’s thesound of deep thinking aswe approach the first keydeadline of the 83rd bien-nial gathering of Texas’ bestand brightest.

Yes, it seems like theyjust got here (they didn’t,the 140-day session beganJan. 8), and, yes, it seemslike they haven’t passedanything (they haven’t, oth-er than congratulatory andmemorial resolutions, butthat’s because of constitu-tional restrictions on whatcan transpire during thefirst 60 days).

The cause of the deepthinking at the Capitol isthe fact that Friday is thedeadline for turning great,and other, ideas into pro-posed legislation. After nextFriday, bill filing is prettymuch limited to emergencyappropriations and mea-sures carrying the guberna-torial emergency tag.

Because we’re betterthan most states, we haveno current emergencies, orleast none Gov. Rick Perryknows about. So far thissession he has not taggedanything as an emergency.

(Quick, uncalled-for, possi-bly disrespectful joke forwhich I may have to apol-ogize: Perry, looking to up-grade to another lifetimejob, enters the race for pope.All goes well until a debateat which, during a Trinity-related question, he can re-member only the Fatherand the Son.)

So, reviewing here, nextFriday is the last day billscan be filed. It’s a hard, colddeadline, except, of course,when legislators don’t wantit to be.

It’s a fact of legislative lifethat, deadlines be damned,there’s almost always a wayto get things done. The hur-dles get higher, but all kindsof procedures are in place tooverride deadlines. And allkinds of lobbyists are inplace to guarantee legisla-tors know all about all thosekinds of procedures.

With enough votes (four-fifths of legislators presentand voting — and aren’tthose the best kind of legis-

lators?), bills can be filed af-ter next Friday. In fact, thereare procedural workaroundsfor most every rule, law,constitutional mandate andgenerally accepted standardof adult behavior. I don’thave the rulebook in frontof me, but I believe it takesa seven-eighths vote of legis-lators present and notdrinking to suspend thelaws of gravity. That hap-pens only periodically, butit’s great fun when it does.

In addition to rules sus-pension, there’s the amend-ment process that can mi-raculously raise bills fromthe dead by Velcroing themonto living, breathing mea-sures. Praise the Lord, it’ssomething to behold.

Texas legislative sessions,by law, rule and tradition,are back-end heavy. (Doesthis process make our backend look fat?) The real ac-tion comes as the session’send (May 27 this year)draws nigh.

Think of the Texas Legis-lature as a gas. Both filltheir containers.

Through Wednesday, 4,050pieces of legislation, includ-ing 1,034 of the memorial orcongratulatory variety, hadbeen filed. A total of 743 had

won final approval, all ofthe glad-you-did-somethingor sorry-you-died variety.

The House churnedthrough a long list of con-gratulatory and memorialresolutions Thursday. As aresult, the House now offi-cially has honored NotreDame for beating Miami inthe 2010 Sun Bowl and PetraValdez on her retirement af-ter 60 years of owningdowntown Robstown’s IdealBeauty Shop. (”Whereas,”that resolution says, ”for sixdecades Petra Valdez hashelped to keep Robstownbeautiful ... .”)

Overall, it looks likewe’re trending down in billfiling, which peaked in 2009when 12,238 measures (in-cluding 4,629 memorial orcongratulatory resolutions)were submitted and 5,910were approved (including4,442 memorial or congratu-latory resolutions).

So please, for this nextweek, if at all possible, don’tbother your legislators asnext Friday’s bill-filingdeadline approaches. Shhh,they’re thinking.

(Ken Herman is a col-umnist for the Austin Amer-ican-Statesman. E-mail:kherman@statesman.com.)

COLUMN

Just 1 week left for milestone

“KEN HERMAN

COLUMN

First, let’s just stipulatethat CEO Marissa Mayer’sdecision to decree the endof the work-at-home optionfor Yahoo employees as ofJune was, oh, excessivelyabrupt? Insensitive? Rawmeat to a sharklike blo-gosphere? All of theabove?

But there’s somethingrefreshing about identify-ing real value in personalconnections and evenchance interactions thatoccur without the filter ofan electronic device.

Not just social value,

but dollar value to a com-pany.

Back in the 1990s, someSilicon Valley commenta-tors thought by now offic-es would be obsolete andtraffic jams would be his-tory as tech workers toiledfrom home, communicat-ing with colleagues effi-ciently online.

Telecommuting is cer-tainly more common, espe-cially for moms and dads.Some tech companies en-courage it. But how fasci-nating that the industrystars today — Google,Facebook, Apple — do theopposite, lavishing free

meals and massages onemployees to keep them atthe office. And that strug-gling Yahoo now sees thisas a competitive advantageit must somehow match —though the sudden man-date might not have beenthe best strategy.

Not a surpriseThe shift will be no sur-

prise to product managersin valley companies thathave offshored develop-ment work. Chance meet-ings in the hall used to nipproblems in the bud or

raise useful ideas. Now,with communication byprescheduled phone callsor video conferencesacross multiple timezones, the serendipity isgone. Not to mention thegood night’s sleep.

We revel in our 24/7 dig-ital connections. We email,tweet, post our every moveon Facebook, carefully cre-ate our circles on Google+.But friending someoneisn’t the same as being areal friend. That takes ahuman touch. Often, sodoes creativity — which iswhy it turns out to be ofvalue in tech.

EDITORIAL

Yahoo values office workSAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013 THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES State SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013

HOUSTON — A divided feder-al appeals court panel hasthrown out the capital murderconviction of a former FortWorth street gang leader sen-tenced to die for gunning down aDallas father of four during anattempted robbery in 2001.

Nelson Gongora’s constitution-al rights were violated by a Tar-rant County assistant district at-torney who told jurors at Gongo-ra’s 2003 trial that his refusal totestify implied he was guilty, athree-judge panel of the 5th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals said Fri-day in a 2-1 decision.

“The extraordinarily extensivecomments on Gongora’s failureto testify resulted in actual preju-dice,” the judges found.

The U.S. Supreme Court hasheld that a defendant’s silencecan’t be treated as evidence ofguilt. The 5th Circuit majoritypanel called it a “cornerstone ofrights upon which our criminaljustice system rests.”

“Single episodic violations willcreep in, but repeated and directviolations are both inexplicableand inexcusable,” Judges CarlStewart and Patrick Higginboth-am wrote.

In a dissent, Judge PriscillaOwen said the majority opinion“seriously misapprehends whatconstitutes actual harm.”

“At the very least, Gongorawas guilty as a party to capitalmurder,” she wrote.

Gongora was convicted of kill-ing Delfino Sierra, 36, outside aquinceanera party Sierra was at-tending with his family in FortWorth. The appeals court gaveTarrant prosecutors six monthsto retry Gongora, 33, resolve thecase with a plea agreement orsome other action or release himfrom death row, where he’s beenimprisoned since June 2003. Hehas not had an execution dateset.

Tarrant County District Attor-ney’s office spokeswoman MelodyMcDonald said Friday it was tooearly to say how prosecutors

would respond tothe court order.

Attorneys forGongora did not im-mediately respondto messages left byThe AssociatedPress.

Authorities saidGongora was a leader in a FortWorth street gang called PuroLi’l Mafia, or PLM, and was in avan with several friends whenthey saw Sierra, who had left theparty to get some air, and decid-ed to rob him.

According to court records,Gongora, then 21, and one of hisfriends jumped from the van, rantoward Sierra and demanded hismoney. Sierra started runningand was fatally shot in the head.Court records show the assai-lants returned to the van anddrove away with Gongora sayinghe did what he “had to do” andwarning his companions to bequiet about it. Then they went tohis house for a cookout.

An anonymous tip to policeled to the van owner and then toGongora. In a written statementto police, he acknowledged parti-cipating in the attempted robberybut said he didn’t know whofired the shots that killed Sierra.

The Texas Court of CriminalAppeals in 2006 upheld his con-viction and death sentence andthe U.S. Supreme Court later thatyear refused to review the case.A federal district judge deniednew appeals in 2007, which thenwere taken to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit.

Court records show Gongora’strial lawyer objected to prosecu-tion remarks during closing ar-guments of the guilt-innocencephase about Gongora’s failure totestify. The district attorney sub-sequently told jurors he wantedthem to understand that Gongorahad a 5th Amendment right tonot testify.

Gongora’s appeals lawyers ar-gued the damage was done eventhough the trial judge instructedjurors that the fact Gongora hadnot testified could not be consid-ered in their deliberations.

Court reversesconviction

By MICHAEL GRACZYKASSOCIATED PRESS

GONGORA

FORT HOOD — More thanthree years after the deadlyshooting rampage at Fort Hood,an Army psychiatrist may soondescribe details of the terrifyingattack for the first time, if he’sallowed to plead guilty to lessercharges.

Maj. Nidal Hasan would be re-quired to describe his actionsand answer questions about theNov. 5, 2009, attack on the TexasArmy post if the judge allowshim to plead guilty to the lessercharges, as his attorneys havesaid he wants to do.

Any plea, which could happenat the next hearing in March,won’t stop the much-anticipatedcourt-martial set to begin May29. He faces the death penalty orlife in prison without parole ifconvicted of 13 counts of pre-meditated murder.

Under military law, a judgecan’t accept a guilty plea forcharges that carry the deathpenalty. Hasan’s lawyers havesaid he is ready to plead guiltyto charges of unpremeditatedmurder, which don’t carry a pos-sible death sentence, as well asthe 32 attempted premeditatedmurder charges he faces.

If the judge, Col. Tara Osborn,allows him to plead guilty, shewill hold an inquiry in whichHasan must discuss the attack.If he says anything that isn’tconsistent with what happenedor indicates he isn’t truly ac-

knowledging his guilt, the judgewould stop the hearing and notaccept his guilty plea, accordingto military law experts. He isnot required to apologize or saythat he is remorseful.

Some military law experts sayit’s a legal strategy designed togain jurors’ sympathy so thatthey might not sentence him todeath if he’s convicted later.

“The judge has to make surehe’s pleading guilty willinglyand that this isn’t a ploy,” JeffAddicott, director of the Centerfor Terrorism Law at St. Mary’sUniversity in San Antonio, saidFriday.

A Senate report released in2011 said the FBI missed warn-ing signs about Hasan, alleginghe had become an Islamic extre-mist and a “ticking time bomb”before the attack at Fort Hood.Addicott said the judge will beeven more thorough during theinquiry because Hasan is a psy-chiatrist who is “highly intelli-gent and knows how to manip-ulate human thinking.”

Witnesses have said that afterlunch on Nov. 5, 2009, a gunmanwearing an Army combat uni-form shouted “Allahu Akbar!” —“God is great!” in Arabic — andopened fire in a crowded medi-cal building where deployingsoldiers get vaccines and othertests. He fired rapidly, pausingonly to reload, even shooting atsome soldiers as they hid underdesks and fled the building, ac-cording to witnesses.

When it was over, investiga-

tors found 146 shell casings onthe floor, another 68 outside thebuilding and 177 unused roundsof ammunition in the gunman’spockets. Authorities and severalwitnesses identified the gunmanas Hasan, an American-bornMuslim who was to deploy toAfghanistan soon.

Greg Rinckey, a former mili-tary defense attorney not in-volved in Hasan’s case, saidpleading guilty without a dealmay signal to the judge that thegovernment is being unreasona-ble by proceeding with a trial.He also said Hasan’s attorneyshave few, if any, options for a de-fense.

“His attorneys know he’s go-ing to be convicted at trial, sowhy not get some browniepoints?” said Rinckey, a NewYork attorney who specializes inmilitary law. “But once they ad-mit to it, it’s harder to appeal.”

Hasan’s trial is expected tolast through September. Prose-cutors have nearly 300 witness-es, including a terrorism expertwho will testify that Hasan is ahomegrown terrorist. Amongthe mounds of evidence is atranscript of a telephone call be-tween Hasan, while in jail, andAl-Jazeera in which he allegedlyapologized for being part of “anillegal organization” — the U.S.Army. Prosecutors are expectedto show emails that Hasan ex-changed with Anwar al-Awlaki,a radical U.S.-born Islamic clerickilled in Yemen in 2011 by a U.S.drone strike.

Before his murder trial this summer Nidal Hasan may admit to and describe in detail, for the first time, the 2009 shoot-ing rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 dead. His attorneys say he wants to plead guilty.

Photo by Bell County Sheriff’s Department/file | AP

Suspect may plead guiltyBy ANGELA K. BROWN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ZAPATA03/02— Feria del Con-

dado de Zapata presenta suCabalgata anual, con salidaa las 7 a.m. en Arena Busta-mante para concluir en losterrenos de la Feria del Con-dado de Zapata. Evento con-cluye a las 5 p.m.

03/07— Feria del Con-dado de Zapata presenta“Batalla de las Bandas” alas 7 p.m. en los terrenos dela Feria del Condado de Za-pata. Durante el día, de las7 a.m. a 7 p.m., habrá el pe-saje de distintos animales;de 4 p.m. a 5 p.m. habráconcurso de manualidades yfotografía.

03/08— Feria del Con-dado de Zapata presenta delas 8 a.m. a las 5 p.m. exhi-biciones de animales; a par-tir de las 5 p.m. presenta-ciones de grupos escolares yde danza, así como de Za-morales; a las 9 p.m. se pre-senta “Solido”; y, a las10:30 p.m., presentación deKevin Fowler.

03/09— Feria del Con-dado de Zapata presenta elDesfile del ZCFA a las 9:30a.m. iniciando en 3rd. Ave.Posteriormente en los terre-nos de la feria, presentacio-nes artísticas, premiaciones,manualidades, fotografía, su-basta de ganado a las 4p.m.; presentación del Gana-dor de la Batalla de las Ban-das a las 6 p.m.; Concursode Jalapeño a las 7:30 p.m.;“Los 5 de Zapata” a las 8p.m.; “Signno” a las 10 p.m.;y, “Pesado!” a las 11:30 p.m.

NUEVO LAREDO, MX03/02— Segundo En-

cuentro de Escritores en Es-tación Palabra de 12 p.m. a5 p.m.

03/02— Festival Infantilen Estación Palabra, con eltema: “Poesía y la primave-ra”, a las 2 p.m. Entrada Li-bre.

03/02— “Grupo PorAmor al Arte” presenta lite-ratura narrada en cuentos“El baúl de la casa de laabuela” por parte de SeydeGarcía y Julio Silva, en Pa-seo Reforma a las 5 p.m.Entrada gratuita.

03/05— Colectivo Mo-viendo Conciencia presentala exposición artística “Esen-cia de nostalgia” de 6 p.m.a 9 p.m. en el lobby del tea-tro del IMSS, Belden y Rey-nosa. Expositores: MiguelAngel Cedano, Diana Ordaz,Miguel Fernández, Diana Lo-redo, Norma Johnson, Ro-berto Teniente, Danny Sum-mers, Mark García; LisandroBaltazar, Osvaldo Cruz, PedroVelazco y Tony Barraza. En-trada gratuita.

03/05— Proyecto Teatropresenta “Esencia de nostal-gia” de Miguel Angel Ceda-no, a las 7 p.m. en el Teatrodel IMSS, Belden y Reynosa.Costo: 20 pesos.

LAREDO03/02— Planetario La-

mar Bruni Vergara de TAMIUpresenta, “The Little Starthat Could” a las 3 p.m.;“Seven Wonders” a las 4p.m.; “Laser Beatles” a las 5p.m.; “iPOP Laser a las 6p.m.; y, “Pink Floyd Laser” alas 7 p.m. Costo es de 5 dó-lares y 4 dólares.

03/02— El Taller deÓpera de LCC presenta “Vivala Mamma!” (o Las Tradicio-nes del Teatro No Conven-cional) de Gaetano Donizetti,a las 7:30 p.m. en el teatrodel Guadalupe and Lilia Mar-tinez Fine Arts Center delCampus Fort McIntosh. Cos-to: 10 dólares. Ganancias sedestinarán a becas y futurasproducciones. Última presen-tación el 3 de marzo a las 3p.m.

03/02— “Encanto Espa-ñol” se presenta en el Teatrodel Center for the Fine andPerforming Arts de TAMIU, alas 8 p.m. Costo: 15 dólares.Informes llamando a BedeLeyendecker al 326-2625.

Agendaen Breve

Un comando armado liberó a 12convictos estatales de una prisiónen Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Tamau-lipas, frontera con Roma, a prime-ra hora de la madrugada del mar-tes.

La mayoría de los prisionerosrescatados fueron identificados co-mo “halcones” y, al menos dos pur-gaban condena por homicidio, se-gún comunicado de prensa de laSecretaría de Seguridad Pública yla Procuraduría General de Justi-cia del Estado.

Quince hombres armados llega-ron en varias camionetas a la pri-sión y sometieron a los seis custo-dios, informó una fuente del go-bierno federal, a condición deanonimato. Aclaró que no se repor-

taron disparos ni personas lesiona-das.

Los custodios (guardias) estánsiendo investigados por la Procura-duría de Justicia de Tamaulipas,reveló una fuente del gobierno es-tatal.

El Gobierno de Tamaulipas in-formó a través de un comunicadode prensa que a la 1:40 a.m. delmartes, civiles armados ingresa-ron a las instalaciones del Centrode Ejecución de Sanciones (CE-DES) de la ciudad de Miguel Ale-mán y se llevaron a 12 internos.

El documento agrega que laspersonas que escaparon son: Hora-cio Puente Alfaro, Daniel AlbertoSolís Trejo, Enrique de la Peña Sá-enz, Alberto Campos Gordillo, JoséRamírez del Ángel, Jaime Rodrí-guez Hernández, Patricio GerardoÁlvarez Sánchez, Víctor Hugo

Alonso Alvarado, Miguel ÁngelGonzález Malpica, Roberto y/o Ro-dolfo López Cortés, Juan CarlosCoronado Vázquez y Mario Este-ban Urbano Vázquez.

Puente Alfaro y Solís Trejo esta-ban presos por homicidio. Losotros delitos de los prófugos sonhalconeo, abuso sexual y robo devehículo.

TrienioEn casi tres años, 369 convictos

se han escapado de las prisionesen Tamaulipas.

El 26 de marzo del 2010, un gru-po de 40 presos se fugaron del pe-nal de Matamoros (frontera conBrownsville).

El 5 de abril del 2010, un coman-do liberó a 13 prisioneros de la cár-

cel en Reynosa (frontera con Hidal-go/McAllen). En septiembre delmismo año, otros 85 convictos esca-paron de la misma cárcel. En esaocasión fallecieron tres reos.

La madrugada del 17 de diciem-bre del 2010, 153 prisioneros esca-paron del penal de seguridad deNuevo Laredo. Aunque la fuga ocu-rrió a la 1 a.m., el reporte se difun-dió hasta las 9 a.m.

El 14 de julio del 2011 un grupode 66 internos se fugó del penal deNuevo Laredo, después de una apa-rente riña que dejó 7 reos muertos.En ésa fecha se arrestó al personaladministrativo y custodios del pe-nal, donde se fincaron responsabi-lidades por su aparente participa-ción.

La más reciente es la ocurrida elmartes en Miguel Alemán, con lafuga de los 12 reos.

MIGUEL ALEMÁN, MX

Se fugan 12 reosPOR MIGUEL TIMOSHENKOV

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 2 DE MARZO DE 2013

Conocida como la Feria más Grande deun Pueblito en Texas, la Feria del Con-dado de Zapata está lista para su Cabal-

gata este fin de semana, y para el cierre de lafiesta del 7 al 9 de marzo.

Entre los artistas anunciados se encuen-tran Kevin Fowler, Pesado, Solido, Siggno, yZamoralez.

“La cabalgata es una gran tradición y unaparte importante de la feria”, dijo José F. “Pa-co” Mendoza Jr., Presidente de la Feria delCondado de Zapata 2013.

Explicó que la cabalgata inicia en Busta-mante en el ‘Bustamante Roping Arena’ alre-dedor de las 8 a.m. del sábado 2 de marzo, y sedirige a Zapata. La cabalgata es de aproxima-damente 15 millas y concluye en el ZapataCounty Fair Pavilion.

“Unos cuantos de los cabalgantes son loca-les, pero tenemos muchos que vienen de fuerade la ciudad”, dijo Mendoza. “Probablementetendremos entre 100 a 150 personas a caba-llo”.

Pesaje de animales, exhibiciones y concur-sos iniciarán el jueves 7 de marzo en el Zapa-ta County Pavilion. El viernes 8 de marzo, los

eventos y competencias continuarán y la feriaculminará el sábado 9 de marzo, con el grandesfile, subasta y bailes, entre otros eventos.

Mendoza dijo que algo nuevo este año seráel entretenimiento con música country.

“Siempre hemos tenido música Norteña oTejana”, dijo Mendoza, agregando que el can-tante de música country Kevin Fowler será laestrella la noche del viernes 8 de marzo.

Este año la Feria Anual del Condado de Za-pata celebra su 41 aniversario y, a decir deMendoza, promete ser la mejor de todas.

“Les esperamos para un fin de semana lle-no de música, comida y emociones”, dijoMendoza.

Adquiera su boleto por 10 dólares.

ENTRETENIMIENTO

FERIA DE ZAPATA

IZQUIERDA: Niños corren hacia el carro alegórico del Brush Country Home Health durante el Desfile de la Feria del Condado de Zapata. SUPERIOR DERECHA: Leslie Álvarez ob-serva a Alejandro Guzmán y Heryberto Reyes alimentar a un cordero. INFERIOR DERECHA: Hoy sábado la Cabalgata es el principal atractivo de la Feria del Condado de Zapata.

Fotos por Danny Zaragoza | The Zapata Times

Anuncian días de fiesta; cabalgata sale hoy de BustamantePOR RICARDO VILLARREAL

TIEMPO DE ZAPATASábado 2 de marzo

7am — Cabalgata con salida de Bustamante Roping Arena

Jueves 7 de marzo7 a.m. — Pesaje de animales 5 p.m. — Competencia de animales7 p.m. — Batalla de las Bandas

Viernes 8 de marzo8 a.m. — Competencia de animales5 p.m. — Escuelas locales7:30 p.m. — Zamorales9 p.m. — Solido10:30 p.m. — Kevin Fowler

Sábado 9 de marzo9 a.m. — Desfile del Zapata County Fair Association en3rd Ave. 10:30 a.m. — Rodeo4 p.m. — Subasta animales6 p.m. — Ganador Batalla de las Bandas7:30 p.m. — Concurso de Jalapeño8 p.m. — Los 5 De Zapata10 p.m. — Siggno11:30 p.m. — Grupo Pesado

“La cabalgata es una grantradición y una parteimportante de la feria”.JOSÉ F. ‘PACO’ MENDOZA JR., PRESIDENTE DE LAFERIA DEL CONDADO DE ZAPATA 2013

Foto por Cuate Santos | The Zapata Times

El uso del auto-asientoinfantil será obligatorio enTamaulipas, se anunció es-ta semana.

Cada año se presentanmás de 10 muertes de ni-ños entre 0 y 5 años deedad a causa de los acci-dentes de tránsito y sóloen el 2012 fallecieron 14menores en Tamaulipas.

La modificación a laLey General de Salud indi-

ca que el auto asiento in-fantil será obligatorio paraniños de hasta 5-años deedad. La Cámara de Dipu-tados aprobó por unanimi-dad las reformas a la frac-ción II del artículo 163 dela Ley General de Salud.

“La aplicación del de-creto podría prevenirentre un 50 y 90 por cientolas lesiones graves y falle-cimientos ocasionados poraccidentes vehiculares”,dijo el Secretario de Salud

de Tamaulipas, NorbertoTreviño García-Manzo. “Elobjetivo es evitarmuertes”.

Los asientos infantilesproveen protección a losniños no sólo en acci-dentes frontales y post-eriores, sino también envolcaduras e incluso granparte de los modelos cuen-tan con diseños y material-es que protegen de impac-tos laterales.

Treviño sostuvo que el

gobierno de Tamaulipasestá comprometido a dis-minuir la morbilidad ymortalidad por accidentesen todos los grupos deedad, lograr en la pobla-ción una cultura de autocuidado en la prevenciónde accidentes y reforzarlas seis acciones básicasrecomendadas por la Orga-nización Mundial de la Sa-lud (OMS) encaminadas amejorar la seguridad vial.

Entre estas recomenda-

ciones destacan el uso delcinturón de seguridad; uti-lizar los sistemas de reten-ción infantil; el uso delcasco protector de motoci-clistas; respetar los límitesde velocidad; evitar el usode equipo de comunica-ción móvil (celulares, ra-dios, etc.) al manejar, evi-tar el consumo de alcoholy drogas al conducir; dis-minuir la inseguridad pea-tonal, entre otras de igualimportancia.

TAMAULIPAS

Hacen obligatorio uso de asiento infantilTIEMPO DE LAREDO

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES National SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013

WASHINGTON — Whileit may be a curious legalstrategy, an Army private’sdecision to admit in courtthat he sent hundreds ofthousands of classified doc-uments to WikiLeaks hasenergized his supportersaround the world.

Pfc. Bradley Manning,25, has been called by somea whistleblowing hero, apolitical prisoner and asymbol of the misplacedpriorities of the U.S. mili-tary and the Obama admin-istration. Others, particu-larly in the United States,view him as a traitor. Heappears likely to spendmany years in a militaryprison.

At the very least, Man-ning likely ended specula-tion that he leaked the

largest trove of classifiedmaterial in U.S. historywantonly or unknowingly.

At a court hearingThursday, Manning read a35-page statement describ-ing his internal delibera-tions about whether tosend the first batch of hun-dreds of thousands of bat-tlefield reports from Iraqand Afghanistan. He saidhe was trying to expose theAmerican military’s disre-gard for human life andprovoke a public debateabout U.S. military and for-eign policy.

“I felt this sense of reliefby them having it,” Man-ning said Thursday of Wi-kiLeaks. “I felt I had ac-complished something thatallowed me to have a clearconscience.”

Jeff Paterson of the Bra-dley Manning Support Net-work, which has raised

more than$900,000 forManning’s le-gal defense,said thestatementconfirmedwhat sup-porters have

long thought of him.“We’ve been defending

this person as a heroicwhistleblower for 2 1/2years now, and it was in-spiring and it was motiva-ting to finally hear in hisown words why he madethis life-changing and pos-sibly history-changing deci-sion,” Paterson said.

Besides the battlefield re-ports, he sent WikiLeakshundreds of thousands ofState Department diplomat-ic cables, detainee recordsfrom the prison at Guanta-namo Bay and other classi-fied records. He also re-

leased a 2007 combat videoof a U.S. helicopter assaultthat killed 11 men, includ-ing a news photographer.

Manning said he didn’tthink the material wouldharm the United States, al-though the diplomatic ca-bles would be embarrass-ing. The Obama adminis-tration has said itthreatened valuable mili-tary and diplomatic sourc-es and strained relationswith other governments.

Gabriel Schoenfeld, a fel-low at the conservativeHudson Institute and theauthor of “Necessary Se-crets,” said Manning madea brash decision to releasethe State Department ca-bles and should be puni-shed for it.

“He said nothing he putout, he thought was damag-ing to the United States. Iwould beg to differ with

that,” Schoenfeld said. “Hewasn’t in a position to eval-uate the damage.”

But Schoenfeld doesn’tthink Manning was guiltyof his most serious charge,aiding the enemy. “I don’tthink that was his inten-tion,” he said.

Manning’s supporterssay the documents exposedwar crimes. They also cred-it a State Department cableindicating that the U.S.would not back former Tu-nisian president Zine ElAbidine Ben Ali with help-ing spark the pro-democra-cy Arab Spring uprisingsin 2010.

“I think he really de-serves great credit for hiscourage and for doing theright thing,” said DanielEllsberg, who leaked thePentagon Papers revealingthat the U.S. had deceivedthe public about the Viet-

nam War. “I hope peoplewill see these quotes andrealize how well-motivatedhe was.”

Military justice expertssay it’s unclear whetherManning will derive anybenefit from pleadingguilty to offenses that car-ry a maximum 20-year sen-tence. He admitted guiltwithout the benefit of adeal with prosecutors —known in military parlanceas a “naked plea.”

After the judge acceptedthe plea, prosecutors an-nounced that they would goforward with the remain-ing charges. Aiding theenemy, an offense that hasnot been brought to trial indecades, carries a maxi-mum life sentence. Man-ning is also charged withviolating federal espionagelaws and theft counts thatcarry decades in prison.

WikiLeaks admission boosts supportersBy BEN NUCKOLS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MANNING

WASHINGTON — TheState Department on Fri-day raised no major objec-tions to the Keystone XLoil pipeline and said otheroptions to get the oil fromCanada to Gulf Coast refin-eries are worse for climatechange.

But the latest environ-mental review stops shortof recommending whetherthe project should be ap-proved. State Departmentapproval of the 1,700-milepipeline is needed becauseit crosses a U.S. border.

The lengthy report saysCanadian tar sands arelikely to be developed, re-gardless of whether theU.S. approves Keystone XL,which would carry oil fromwestern Canada to refiner-ies in Texas. The pipelinewould also travel throughMontana, South Dakota,Kansas, Nebraska and Ok-lahoma.

The report acknowledgesthat development of tarsands in Alberta would cre-ate greenhouse gases butmakes clear that othermethods to transport theoil — including rail, trucksand barges — also pose arisk to the environment.

The State Departmentanalysis for the first timeevaluated two options us-ing rail: shipping the oil ontrains to existing pipelinesor to oil tankers. The re-port shows that those othermethods would releasemore greenhouse gasesthat contribute to globalwarming than the pipeline.The Keystone XL pipeline,according to the report,would release annually thesame amount of globalwarming pollution as626,000 passenger cars.

A scenario that wouldmove the oil on trains tomostly existing pipelineswould release 8 percentmore greenhouse gases

such as carbon dioxidethan Keystone XL. Thatwould not require State De-partment approval becauseany new pipelines wouldnot cross the U.S border.

Another alternative thatrelies mostly on rail tomove the oil to the Cana-dian west coast, where itwould be loaded onto tank-ers to the U.S. Gulf Coast,would result in 17 percentmore greenhouse gas emis-sions, the report said.

In both alternatives, theoil would be shipped in railcars as bitumen, a thick,tar-like substance, ratherthan as a liquid.

The State Departmentwas required to conduct anew environmental analy-sis after the pipeline’s oper-ator, Calgary-based Tran-sCanada, changed the pro-ject’s route thoughNebraska. The Obama ad-ministration blocked theproject last year because ofconcerns that the originalroute would have jeopar-dized environmentally sen-sitive land in the SandHills region.

The administration laterapproved a southern sec-tion of the pipeline, fromCushing, Okla., to the Tex-as coast, as part of whatPresident Barack Obamahas called an “all of theabove” energy policy thatembraces a wide range ofsources, from oil and gas torenewables such as windand solar.

The pipeline plan has be-come a flashpoint in theU.S. debate over climatechange. Republicans andbusiness and labor groupshave urged the Obama ad-ministration to approve thepipeline as a source ofmuch-needed jobs and astep toward North Ameri-can energy independence.

Environmental groupshave been pressuring thepresident to reject the pipe-line, saying it would carry“dirty oil” that contributesto global warming. They al-

so worry about a spill. Industry groups and Re-

publicans hailed the report,saying the Obama adminis-tration was moving closerto approving Keystone XL,which has been under con-sideration since 2008.

“No matter how manytimes KXL is reviewed, theresult is the same: no sig-nificant environmental im-pact,” said Marty Durbin,executive vice president ofthe American PetroleumInstitute, the largest lobby-ing group for the oil andgas industry.

The report “puts this im-portant, job-creating pro-ject one step closer to real-ity,” Durbin said.

Environmentalists blast-ed the report.

“This analysis fails in itsreview of climate impacts,threats to endangered wild-life like whooping cranesand woodland caribou, andthe concerns of tribal com-munities,” said Jim Lyon,vice president of the Na-tional Wildlife Federation.

If Keystone XL wouldnot speed tar sands devel-opment, “why are oil com-panies pouring millions in-to lobbying and politicalcontributions to build it?”Lyon asked. “By rejectingthe Keystone XL tar sandspipeline, President Obamacan keep billions of tons ofclimate-disrupting carbonpollution locked safely inthe ground.”

The draft report begins a45-day comment period, af-ter which the State Depart-ment will issue a final envi-ronmental report beforeSecretary of State JohnKerry makes a recommen-dation about whether thepipeline is in the nationalinterest.

Kerry has promised a“fair and transparent” re-view of the plan and saidhe hopes to decide on theproject in the “near term.”Most observers do not ex-pect a decision until sum-mer at the earliest.

No major objectionsto Canada pipeline

By MATTHEW DALYAND DINA CAPPIELLO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS — It tookjust nine fateful minutesfor a valet stand dispute toescalate to a deadly LasVegas Strip shooting,crash and fireball.

Nearly every secondwas captured by video, au-dio and witness accountsand detailed in a Las Ve-gas police report madepublic after a weeklongmanhunt led to the arrestof Ammar Harris in LosAngeles on Thursday.

Investigators say Har-ris, a 26-year-old felon andself-described pimp, ex-changed angry words withaspiring rapper KennethWayne Cherry Jr. in a ca-sino valet area.

The shouting continuedas the two men drove inseparate cars along LasVegas Boulevard, withtires squealing and a hornblaring.

Police say it wasn’t longbefore Harris began shoot-ing, Cherry was mortallywounded, and his Masera-ti careened into a taxi thatexploded in a fireball. Inthe end, Cherry and twoother people were dead,and five others were in-jured in a spectacular,multi-vehicle crash at oneof the most famous neon-lit crossroads in Las Ve-gas.

Stunned tourists com-pared the carnage to a

Hollywoodaction film.

The re-port said itwas 4:11a.m. Feb. 21when Harrisstood for amoment in

the valet area of the glossyand glassy Aria resort,talking with Cherry, whowas in the driver’s seat ofthe dark gray Maserati.

“What was said specifi-cally, I can’t say,” Las Ve-gas police Capt. ChrisJones said Friday. “But it’sclear there was an ex-change of words and a dis-pute that led to this sense-less act.”

Police found no gun inthe Maserati and no evi-dence that Cherry had re-turned fire in the attackthat ended just before 4:20a.m. The SUV disappearedalong Las Vegas Boule-vard as cab driver MichaelBoldon, 62, of Las Vegas,and passenger Sandra Sut-ton-Wasmund, 48, of Wash-ington state perished inthe taxi.

A passenger in the Mas-erati, Freddy Walters, 26,was shot in the arm, andfour people in four othervehicles were hurt, noneseriously, in the chain-re-action crashes.

Attempts to reach Wal-ters have not been suc-cessful. Police say he coop-erated with investigators.

Cherry, 27, was buried

Thursday in Oakland, Cal-if., about the same timeHarris was arrested, saidVicki Greco, a Las Vegaslawyer representing Cher-ry’s parents and family.

Boldon and Sutton-Was-mund were mourned byfriends and family mem-bers who were shocked bywhat Boldon’s youngerbrother called the “I don’tgive a care attitude” of thecrime.

Sutton-Wasmund, a two-time breast cancer survi-vor, will be remembered ata funeral Saturday in Ma-ple Valley, Wash., as a tire-less catalyst for causes, ac-tivities and events in herschool and business com-munity, said Sue VanRuff,a friend and executive di-rector of the Greater Ma-ple Valley Black DiamondChamber of Commerce.

“Many people don’tknow Sandi for one thing.They know Sandi for lotsof things,” VanRuff said.“If she didn’t know you,she made it her mission toknow you. To be yourfriend.”

Boldon’s funeral wasWednesday in Las Vegas.

“My brother was affect-ed by a random, senselessact caused by machismo— a pimp or a tough guytrying to prove he wasbrazen and bad enough toshoot someone on the LasVegas Strip,” Tehran Bol-don said. He hailed the ar-rest of Harris. .

Investigators search the apartment in Los Angeles where LAPD and an FBI task force arrested 26-year-old Ammar Harris, who is accused in the Feb. 21 deaths of three people on the Las Vegas Strip.

Photo by Damian Dovarganes | AP

Police detail 9 minutesBy KEN RITTER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HARRIS

DENVER — Attorneysfor the suspect in the dead-ly Colorado theater shoot-ing said for the first timethat they’re considering en-tering a plea of not guiltyby reason of insanity on be-half of their client.

But they said in courtpapers made public Fridaythat they can’t make theirdecision about their de-fense of James Holmes un-til the judge rules on theirmotion challenging theconstitutionality of thestate’s insanity defense law.

The attorneys say thelaw is unfair to defendantswho invoke it because it re-quires the disclosure of po-tentially incriminating in-formation, such as mentalhealth records, while thosewho plainly plead notguilty are not required toturn over any evidence.

Prosecutors have not an-nounced whether they willpursue the death penalty,but they have 60 days fromwhen a defendant enters aplea to do so. Holmes’ hear-ing is March 12.

A legal expert said themaneuvering may be partof a defense strategy tomake sure prosecutors nev-er get their hands on anotebook that was purport-edly sent by Holmes to hispsychiatrist and includeddescriptions of a possibleattack.

The notebook was thesubject of court hearings inthe months after the Julyshooting. Under state law,the notebook was protectedbecause it was part of adoctor-patient relationshipthat Holmes had with thepsychiatrist.

“That’s why there’s a bigissue there, there’s infor-mation that the prosecu-tion may not be entitled to

unless they plead not guiltyby reason of insanity,” saidKaren Steinhauser, a Den-ver defense attorney.

Representatives for theprosecution and the de-fense didn’t immediatelyreturn phone calls Friday.The judge has ordered at-

torneys not to speak pub-licly about the case.

Under state law, defend-ants who plead not guiltyby reason of insanity mustreveal to prosecutors men-tal health records as wellas psychiatric evaluationsthat may include details of

the crime for which they’reaccused.

ChallengeWhile the law has not

been challenged before incases involving the deathpenalty, determiningwhether it violates a de-fendant’s constitutionalright against self-incrimi-nation directly impactstheir decisions aboutHolmes’ defense, his attor-neys argue.

Steinhauser said the de-fense had to file their mo-tion challenging the insan-ity defense law before theplea is entered becausethey could not raise issueswith the statute afterward.They could still, however,raises other trial-related is-sues later.

Steinhauser said thejudge can rule on the mat-ter, which likely will be ap-

pealed to higher courts andpossibly delay Holmes’ ar-raignment.

Holmes’ attorneys havesaid their client is mentallyill and had sought the helpof a psychiatrist at the Uni-versity of Colorado, Denver,where he was a neuros-cience graduate student.

Holmes faces multiplecharges of first-degree mur-der and attempted murderin the shootings at an Aur-ora theater during a mid-night showing of the latestBatman movie, “The DarkKnight Rises.”

Holmes in January wasordered to stand trial fol-lowing 2 1/2 days of testi-mony from police and fed-eral agents who provideddetails about the attack.Holmes had been expectedto enter a plea followingthat hearing, but defenseattorneys requested a delay,saying they would not beready until March.

Shooting suspect may plead insanityBy P. SOLOMON BANDA

ASSOCIATED PRESS

James E. Holmes is seen in a court appearance in Centennial, Colo.,on July 23, 2012.

Photo by RJ Sangosti/Pool/Denver Post/File | AP

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013 State THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

ODESSA — The deathof a 3-year-old adoptedRussian boy has beenruled an accident by WestTexas authorities, but offi-cials said Friday they arestill investigating a casethat has become a flash-point in the debate over in-ternational adoption.

Four doctors reviewedthe autopsy report andagreed that Max Shatto’sdeath on Jan. 21 was notintentional, Ector CountySheriff Mark Donaldsonand District Attorney Bob-by Bland said. Preliminaryautopsy results had indi-cated Max had bruises onseveral parts of his body,but Bland said Friday thatthose bruises appeared tobe self-inflicted. He alsosaid no drugs were foundin Max’s system.

“I had four doctorsagree that this is the resultof an accident,” he said.“We have to take that asfact.”

Alan and Laura Shattoadopted Max, born MaximKuzmin, and his half-brother, 2-year-old Kris-topher, from an orphanagein western Russia last fall.Laura Shatto told author-ities she found Max unre-sponsive outside their Gar-dendale, Texas, homewhile he was playing withhis younger brother. Theboy was pronounced deadat a hospital a short timelater.

Russian authoritieshave blamed the boy’sdeath on his adoptive par-ents and used the case tojustify a recently enactedban on all American adop-tions of Russian children.Russia’s Investigative Com-mittee has said it hasopened its own investiga-tion. It’s unclear whetherthe committee couldcharge the Shatto familyor force their prosecution.

Alexander K. Zakharov,the Russian consul generalin Houston, said he want-ed to see an official reportfrom authorities beforecommenting on Friday’sannouncement.

The investigation intothe boy’s death continues,

Bland said. Once investiga-tors complete their work,Bland will meet with themand decide whether to pur-sue charges such as negli-gent supervision or injuryto a child by omission. Hedid not say when such adecision would be made.

The Shatto family’s at-torney, Michael J. Brown,said that Max’s death be-ing ruled an accident “isnot a surprise to me atall.” Three doctors fromthe Tarrant County Medi-cal Examiner’s Office inFort Worth, which com-pleted the autopsy, and an-other doctor agreed on thefinding.

Brown said Max suf-fered from behavioral is-sues and occasionally but-ted his head on objects orother people, which is howhe got bruised. He alsonoted that Max was takingdoctor-prescribed medica-tion to treat hyperactivitybut that his parents don’tbelieve the medicationplayed a role in the child’sdeath.

Donaldson, the sheriff,has said that Laura Shattotold investigators that shewent inside to use thebathroom, and when shecame back outside, shefound Max near play-ground equipment outsidethe family’s home.

No one answered thephone at the Shatto homeFriday, and a sign hadbeen posted on the drive-way: “No Comment.”

The Russian govern-ment passed its ban on in-ternational adoptions inDecember in retaliationfor a new U.S. law target-ing alleged Russian hu-man-rights violators. Theban also reflects lingeringresentment over the per-ceived mistreatment ofsome of the 60,000 childrenAmericans have adoptedduring the last two dec-ades. At least 20 of thosechildren have died, and re-ports of abuse have gar-nered attention in Russia.

Chuck Johnson, CEO ofthe Virginia-based Nation-al Council for Adoption,said an agreement ratifiedlast year would have pre-vented the conditions thatled to many deaths andabuse cases. One change inparticular would have re-quired all adoptions to gothrough agencies licensedin Russia.

“The deaths were terri-bly tragic, horrible,” John-son said in a Feb. 19 inter-view. “But the frustratingthing has been that thosecases have become the faceof inter-country adoption,and they shouldn’t be.”

The Texas Department

of Family and ProtectiveServices said Friday it foundno violations at the GladneyCenter for Adoption in FortWorth, the agency that pro-cessed the Shattos’ adoption.The state’s Child ProtectiveServices division is proceed-ing with a separate investi-gation into allegations thatMax was subject to physicalabuse and neglect, but hasnot determined whetherthose allegations are true.

Russian state media havefeatured the boys’ biologicalmother, Yulia Kuzmina, wholost custody over negligenceand serious drinking prob-lems. In a tightly choreo-graphed Feb. 21 interview onstate television, Kuzmina in-sisted Russian custody offi-cials seized her children un-fairly and said she wanted tobe reunited with her otherson, born Kirill Kuzmin. Shesaid she had given up drink-ing, found a job and pledgedto fight to get the boy back.

Russian President Vladi-mir Putin’s spokesman,Dmitry Peskov, has said it isnecessary “to temper emo-tions” over the case, and U.S.Ambassador to Russia Mi-chael McFaul has called for“sensational exploitations ofhuman tragedy to end andfor professional work be-tween our two countries togrow, on this issue andmany others.”

Report: Death accidentalBy BETSY BLANEYASSOCIATED PRESS

Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland, center, announces Friday the autopsy results for thedeath of Max Alan Shatto, the 3-year-old adopted-Russian youth who died Jan. 21 in Gardendale.

Photo by Mark Sterkel/Odessa American / AP

EL PASO — Federal pros-ecutors are seeking the for-feiture of $2.5 million incash from a former Carne-gie Mellon University trust-ee accused of money laun-dering.

An indictment filedWednesday in Texas allegesthat El Paso lawyer and phi-lanthropist Marco Delgadodefrauded millions from afirm doing business with aMexican utility and usedthat money to underwrite alavish lifestyle that includeda $250,000 contribution toCarnegie Mellon University.

Delgado could be sen-tenced to up to 20 years inprison if convicted. Author-ities also have requested for-feiture of $2.5 million incash, a house and furniturein El Paso and a New Mex-ico apartment, as well astwo vehicles.

Delgado is charged with15 money laundering andtwo wire fraud counts. Theindictment returned in ElPaso alleges Delgado fraud-ulently instructed a bank inMexico to move $32 milliondollars from his client’sMexican account to an ac-count he controlled in theTurks and Caicos islands.The indictment says the ElPaso lawyer then divertedpart of that money to Texas,New Mexico and Pennsylva-nia.

Delgado faces a separateindictment accusing him ofconspiring to launder more

than $600 million for a Mex-ican drug cartel. He was ar-rested in November andcharged with conspiring tolaunder drug profits fromJuly 2007 through December2008.

Delgado obtained a mas-ter’s degree from CarnegieMellon in 1990 and in 2003donated $250,000 to create ascholarship named afterhim to help Hispanic stu-dents. He was also a mem-ber of several charities anda regular contributor to theEl Paso symphony orches-tra.

The investigation intoDelgado started in Septem-ber 2007 after a $1 millionseizure was made in Atlan-ta. The man carrying themoney told investigatorsthat he, Delgado and othermen had met in Mexico andagreed to transport moneyfor the Milenio Cartel, adrug-trafficking organiza-tion based in the Mexicanstate of Colima.

According to U.S. author-ities, Delgado admitted toU.S. agents that he had beencontacted by people in Mex-ico about slowing down ex-tradition processes of al-leged cartel members andabout moving up to $600million from the U.S. toMexico. He told the agentsthe million dollars seizedwas “a trial run” to see if itwas possible, according tothe U.S. government.

Calls to his attorney wentunreturned Thursday. Del-gado has maintained his in-nocence.

El Paso lawyer and philanthropist Marco Antonio Delgado is escortedout of the El Paso County Jail in El Paso, in 2012.

Photo by Juan Carlos Llorca | AP

US seeks $2.5Min lawyer’s case

By JUAN CARLOS LLORCAASSOCIATED PRESS

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013

CINCINNATI — Maj. ThomasC. “Tom” Griffin, a B-25 bombernavigator in the audacious Doolit-tle’s Raid attack on mainland Ja-pan during World War II, hasdied.

His death at age 96 leaves foursurviving Raiders.

Griffin died Tuesday in a veter-ans nursing home in northernKentucky. He was among the 80original volunteers for the daringApril 18, 1942, mission. When theybegan training, they were told on-ly it would be “extremely hazard-ous,” coming in the aftermath ofJapan’s devastating attack onPearl Harbor and a string of otherJapanese military successes.

“We needed to hit back,” Grif-fin said in an interview a year agoin his suburban Cincinnati home.The attack on Tokyo, with a riskylaunch of 16 land-based bombersat sea from an aircraft carrier,shocked the Japanese and wascredited with providing a majorlift to American morale.

The planes lacked fuel to reachsafe bases after dropping theirbombs. Griffin parachuted overChina after the attack, eluded Ja-panese capture, and returned toaction in bombing runs fromNorth Africa before being shotdown in 1943 and spending nearlytwo years in a German prisoncamp.

Griffin died less than twomonths from what now will be theRaiders’ final annual reunion,April 17-21 in Fort Walton Beach,in the Florida Panhandle wherethe Raiders trained for the attack.

“We kind of expected it, be-cause he had gone downhill prettyquickly the last few weeks, butyou can never really prepare your-self for when one of these guysgoes,” said Tom Casey, manager ofthe Doolittle Raiders Association.

Griffin took part in last year’s70th reunion at the National Mu-seum of the U.S. Air Force nearDayton, which also included survi-vors and relatives of the USS

Hornet carrier and Chinese villag-ers who helped the Raiders eludecapture. Eight Raiders were cap-tured, and three were executed. Afourth died in captivity. Villagerssuspected of hiding the Americansalso were executed.

“We had a lot of near-misses,when they (Japanese soldiers)raided places we had been thenight before,” recalled Griffin,who had parachuted into a treewithout major injury. Three Raid-ers died off China after the raid.

Griffin had joked last year thathe hoped to be one of the last twosurviving Raiders who wouldshare the final toast in a smallgathering, which had been the

plan for decades.“It’s going to be special,” Grif-

fin said before the Dayton re-union. “I can’t help but think it’sgoing to be our last one.”

Instead, it will be Griffin’s turnto be honored at the reunion; agoblet with his name engraved onit will be turned upside down. Theprivate ceremony will include on-ly Raiders, the Raiders’ historian,Casey and two Air Force cadets.There will be a roll call of thenames of all the Raiders. WhenGriffin’s name is called, Lt. Col.Richard Cole, at age 97 the oldestsurvivor, will give a report onGriffin, Casey said.

At the end of the reading of

names, the white-gloved cadetswill pour cognac into the gobletsof the survivors, and they willdrink their special toast: “To thosewho have gone.”

Besides Cole, a Dayton nativewho lives in Comfort, Texas, theother survivors are Lt. Col. RobertHite of Nashville, Tenn.; Lt. Col.Edward Saylor of Puyallup, Wash.,and Master Sgt. David Thatcher ofMissoula, Mont.

Casey said Thursday that theRaiders have decided not to waituntil there are two survivors tohave the final toast. Instead, theyplan to have a special gatheringlater this year to share what willbe their final toast. He said be-

cause of the advancing ages of theremaining survivors, it was decid-ed to allow all those still alive latethis year to take part.

Dates and details will be an-nounced later. For their toast, theywill drink from a bottle of 1896 co-gnac, the year their commanderLt. Col. “Jimmy” Doolittle wasborn.

Griffin was a native of GreenBay, Wis., who settled in the Cin-cinnati area after the war and hadan accounting business. He waspreceded in death by his wife, andis survived by two sons.

Services will be March 9 at theGreen Township Veterans Park,with a B-25 flyover planned.

Doolittle Raider navigator dies at 96By DAN SEWELL

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Maj. Thomas Griffin poses inside his home in Cincinnati on Dec. 1, 2011, next to a Time Magazine cover of Lt. Col. James Doolittle and a painting of a B-25B Mitchellbomber used in Doolittle’s raid on Japan in 1942. Griffin, a navigator on one of the planes used in the raid, died Tuesday in a VA nursing home at the age of 96.

Photo by Al Behrman/file | AP

Bonnie Franklin, thespunky, ginger-haired stageperformer who became bestremembered as the inde-pendent-minded divorceewith two teenage daughterson the long-running sitcom“One Day at a Time,” diedMarch 1 at her home in LosAngeles. She was 69.

Franklin announced inSeptember 2012 that shewas undergoing treatmentfor pancreatic cancer. Fam-ily members confirmed thedeath.

“One Day at a Time,”which was produced byNorman Lear and aired onCBS from 1975 to 1984, res-onated with audiences at atime when divorce rateswere climbing and the stig-ma of divorce was dimin-ishing. The show was acomedy, but it also touchedon the emotion and eco-nomic toll of divorce in anera when women were be-ginning to have greater ca-reer opportunities.

Franklin’s character,Ann Romano, struggles toraise two daughters (playedby Mackenzie Phillips andValerie Bertinelli) whileworking in the advertisingbusiness in Indianapolis.She tries with mixed suc-cess to console her daugh-ters after their panic at-tacks and rash decisions in-volving boys. And she rollsher eyes at the farcicallymacho come-ons suppliedby the seedy building su-perintendent (Pat Harring-ton).

“Even though Ann Ro-mano was not the first di-vorced woman on TV, sheembodied that subject mat-ter in a way that had notbeen done before,” said Sy-racuse University televisionscholar Robert Thompson.

“The show focused on ayoung divorced woman whowas getting by, but also shehad a sense of being flus-tered and exasperated,”Thompson said. “She wasby no means the perfectmother who had all the per-fect answers and did every-thing right.”

Franklin grew up in Cal-ifornia, where her tap-danc-

ing prowess opened thedoor to television and mov-ie appearances by the timeshe was 10. She landed asmall part in the 1956Alfred Hitchcock drama“The Wrong Man,” starringHenry Fonda, and later ap-peared in TV shows such as“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,”“Gidget” and “The Mun-sters.”

She made her deepestearly impression in the 1970Broadway musical “Ap-plause.” The show-businessdrama starred Lauren Ba-call and was adapted fromthe 1950 Bette Davis film“All About Eve.” Franklin,as one of the background“gypsy” dancers who flut-tered from show to show,drew acclaim for her rendi-tion of the title song.

In his “Applause” review,New York Times theatercritic Walter Kerr describedFranklin as a dervish-likescene stealer: “Shaggilyred-headed, with a smilelike the one they sometimes

paint on lollipops, slappingher chaps and tossing herneckerchief to the apparent-ly high winds, she needsonly to be turned loose totake over.”

“Applause” — with mu-sic by Charles Strouse, lyr-ics by Lee Adams and abook by Betty Comden andAdolph Green — ran twoyears on Broadway andwon the Tony Award forbest musical. Franklinearned a Tony nominationfor best featured actress ina musical.

Bonnie Gail Franklinwas born Jan. 6, 1944, inSanta Monica, Calif. Herfirst marriage, to play-wright Ronald Sossi, endedin divorce. Her second hus-band, film and televisionproducer Marvin Minoff,died in 2009 after 29 yearsof marriage.

Survivors include hermother, Claire Franklin;two stepchildren; and twograndchildren.

For the past three dec-

ades, Franklin staged one-woman cabaret shows inNew York but mostlyworked in regional theater.She was a vegetarian andonce told the Kansas CityStar that her greatest fearin performing at dinner

theaters was “that the smellof roast beef will hit my

nose while I’m perform-ing.”

‘One Day’ actressFranklin dies at 69

By ADAM BERNSTEINTHE WASHINGTON POST

Bonnie Franklin, of the 1970’s sitcom “One Day at a Time,” is seen in this Feb. 26, 2008, photo. Frank-lin, whom millions identified with for her role as divorced mom Ann Romano, died Friday.

Photo by Richard Drew/file | AP

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013 THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

Our beautiful little an-gel, Sarah Cristina Conrad,was born Feb. 10, 2013, andpassed in our arms on Feb.23, 2013, at the Albany Med-ical Center in New York.

We had you in our livesfor a few short days, butyou will live in our heartsforever. It was long enoughto hold you, kiss you, andlove you. It was enough toknow that your life was in-deed a gift from God.

Sarah is survived by herparents, Mark and AnaConrad; grandparents, Da-goberto and Ana Ramirez,Mark Conrad, and RebeccaClark and her husband Ga-ry Clark; great-grandpar-ents, Thelma Rippin, Wal-dene Geistle, and JamesConrad; her aunts and un-cles, Jennifer Conrad, Dia-na (Alex Maldonado), JorgeRamirez and Adriana Ra-mirez; and her cousin,Brianna Maldonado.

Visitation hours will beFriday, March 1, 2013, from1 to 3 p.m. with a rosary at2:30 p.m. at Rose Garden

Funeral Home.A graveside service will

be held at 3:30 p.m. at Zapa-ta County Cemetery.

Funeral arrangementsare under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonzalez,funeral director, 2102 N.U.S. 83 Zapata.

SARAH CRISTINA CONRAD

Alvaro Salinas, 70,passed away Feb. 22, 2013.

He is survived by hisloving wife of 50 years, Ju-lia Davila-Salinas; sister,Martha Valdez; children,Alvaro Salinas Jr., NormaAultman and husband Ran-dy and Daniel Salinas andwife Gisela; grandchildrenYvette, Chris, Stephen, Ben,Ashley, Jessica, Andrew,Alex, Patrick, Daniel Jay;and one great-grandchild,Alyssa.

Visitation hours wereThursday, Feb. 28, 2013,from 6 to 9 p.m. with a ros-ary at 7 p.m. at Rose Gar-den Funeral Home.

The funeral processiondeparted Friday, March 1,2013, at 9:30 for a 10 a.m. fu-neral Mass at Our Lady ofLourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services fol-lowed at Zapata CountyCemetery.

Funeral arrangementswere under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonzalez,funeral director, 2102 N.U.S. 83, Zapata.

ALVARO SALINAS

na Gutierrez. “This yearthe Cowboy and Queen aswell as the winners ineach category will be partof our royalty throughoutthe year and at the pa-rade,” she said.

On Sunday, Leanna Ma-rie Saenz was crowned asqueen. Cassandra Mi-chelle Peña was first run-ner-up. Krysta R. Lozanoand Celia Andrea Rath-mell were runners-up.

The winner was chosenby a panel of three judgesand was crowned by out-going queen Sofia Regala-do.

The contestants were

judged based on westernattire, talent, eveningwear and answers to animpromptu question.

Saenz and her courtwill participate in today’strail rid.

“The trail ride is a bigtradition and a huge partof the Zapata CountyFair,” said 2013 ZapataCounty Fair presidentJose F. “Paco” MendozaJr.

He said the trail ridestarts in Bustamante, atthe Bustamante RopingArena, at around 8 a.m.and heads into Zapata.The ride is about 15 miles

long. “Quite a few of the rid-

ers are local riders, butwe do have many of themcoming from out-of-town.We will probably have be-tween 100 to 150 people onhorseback,” Mendozasaid.

Animal weigh-ins, ex-hibits and judging willbegin on Thursday at theZapata County Pavilion.On Friday, events andjudging will continue andthe fair will culminate onSaturday, with the grandparade, auction andstreet dance, among otherevents.

Mendoza said new atthe fair this year will becountry music entertain-ment.

“We’ve always had Nor-teño or Tejano music,”Mendoza said, addingthat Texas country musicstar Kevin Fowler will bethe headliner for Friday.

The Amarillo-bornFowler has released fivestudio albums and has hitthe charts with three sin-gles, so far, including thehit “Pound Sign (#?*!)”

(Ricardo R. Villarrealcan be reached at 728-2528or rvillarreal@lmton-line.com)

FAIR Continued from Page 1A

lawmakers for less than an hour atthe White House, then sought re-peatedly to fix the blame on Repub-licans for the broad spending reduc-tions and any damage that they in-flict.

“They’ve allowed these cuts tohappen because they refuse tobudge on closing a single wastefulloophole to help reduce the deficit,”he said, renewing his demand for acomprehensive deficit-cutting dealthat includes higher taxes.

Republicans said they wanted def-icit cuts, too, but not tax increases.

“The president got his tax hikeson Jan. 1,” House Speaker JohnBoehner told reporters, a referenceto a $600 billion increase on higherwage earners that cleared Congresson the first day of the year. Now, hesaid after the meeting, it is timetake on “the spending problem herein Washington.”

Senate Republican leader MitchMcConnell of Kentucky was equallyemphatic. “ I will not be part of anyback-room deal, and I will absolute-ly not agree to increase taxes,” hevowed in a written statement.

At the same time they clashed,Obama and Republicans appeareddetermined to contain their dis-agreement.

Boehner said the House will passlegislation next week to extend rou-tine funding for government agen-cies beyond the current March 27expiration.

“I’m hopeful that we won’t haveto deal with the threat of a govern-ment shutdown while we’re dealingwith the sequester at the sametime,” he said, referring to the newcuts by their Washington-speakname.

Obama said he, too, wanted tokeep the two issues separate.

White House officials declined tosay precisely when the presidentwould formally order the cuts. Un-der the law, he had until midnight.Barring a quick deal in the nextweek or so to call them off, the im-pact eventually is likely to be felt inall reaches of the country.

The Pentagon will absorb half ofthe $85 billion required to be slicedbetween now and the end of thebudget year on Sept 30, exposing ci-vilian workers to furloughs and de-fense contractors to possible cancel-lations. Said Defense SecretaryChuck Hagel, only a few days on thejob: “We will continue to ensureAmerica’s security” despite thechallenge posed by an “unnecessarybudget crisis.”

The administration also haswarned of long lines at airports assecurity personnel are furloughed,

of teacher layoffs in some class-rooms and adverse impacts onmaintenance at the nation’s parks.

The announcement by the hous-ing agency in Seattle was an earlyindication of what is likely to hit asthe cuts take effect. It said it wastaking the action “to cope with theimpending reduction in federalfunding,” adding that it normallyissues 45 to 50 vouchers per month.

After days of dire warnings by ad-ministration officials, the presidenttold reporters the effects of the cutswould be felt only gradually.

“The longer these cuts remain inplace, the greater the damage to oureconomy — a slow grind that willintensify with each passing day,” hesaid. Much of the budget savingswill come through unpaid furloughsfor government workers, and thosewon’t begin taking effect until nextmonth.

Obama declined to say if he boreany of the responsibility for thecoming cuts, and expressed bemuse-ment at any suggestion he had theability to force Republicans to agreewith him.

“I am not a dictator. I’m the presi-dent,” he said. “So, ultimately, ifMitch McConnell or John Boehnersay we need to go to catch a plane, Ican’t have Secret Service block thedoorway, right?” He also declared hecouldn’t perform a “Jedi mindmeld” to sway opponents, mixingStar Wars and Star Trek as hereached for a science fiction meta-phor.

Neither the president nor Repub-licans claimed to like what wasabout to happen. Obama called thecuts “dumb,” and GOP lawmakershave long said they were his idea inthe first place.

Ironically, they derive from a bud-get dispute they were supposed tohelp resolve back in the fall of 2011.At the time, a congressional Super-committee was charged with identi-fying at least $1.2 trillion in deficitsavings over a decade as part of an

attempt to avoid a first-ever govern-ment default. The president and Re-publicans agreed to create a fall-back of that much in across-the-board cuts, designed to be so unpal-atable that it would virtually assurethe panel struck a deal.

The Supercommittee dissolved indisagreement, though. And whileObama and Republicans agreed to atwo-month delay last January, therewas no bipartisan negotiation in re-cent days to prevent the first install-ment of the cuts from taking effect.

It isn’t clear how long they willlast.

Of particular concern to lawmak-ers in both parties is a lack of flex-ibility in the allocation of cuts dueto take effect over the next fewmonths. That problem will ease be-ginning with the new budget yearon Oct. 1, when Congress and theWhite House will be able to nego-tiate changes in the way the reduc-tions are made.

For his part, Obama suggested hewas content to leave them in placeuntil Republicans change theirminds about raising taxes by clos-ing loopholes.

“If Congress comes to its senses aweek from now, a month from now,three months from now, then there’sa lot of open running room there forus to grow our economy much morequickly and to advance the agendaof the American people dramatical-ly,” he said.

“So this is a temporary stop onwhat I believe is the long-term, out-standing prospect for Americangrowth and greatness.”

But Republicans say they are onsolid political ground. At a retreatin January in Williamsburg, Va.,GOP House members reversedcourse and decided to approve adebt limit increase without demand-ing cuts. They also agreed not toprovoke a government shutdown,another traditional pressure point,as leverage to force Obama andDemocrats to accept savings in ben-efit programs like Medicare, Medi-caid and Social Security.

Obama has said repeatedly he’swilling to include benefit programsin deficit-cutting legislation — aslong as more tax revenue is part ofthe deal.

“I am prepared to do hard thingsand to push my Democratic friendsto do hard things,” he said at theWhite House on Friday.

Republicans speak dismissively ofsuch pledges, saying that in earliernegotiations, the president has nev-er been willing to close a deal withthe type of changes he often says hewill accept.

BUDGET Continued from Page 1A

“I’m hopeful that wewon’t have to dealwith the threat of agovernmentshutdown.” HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER

men being investigatedwere served with arrestwarrants.

On Feb. 22, deputiesserved Gonzalez with sev-eral arrest warrants. Hewas charged with twocounts of burglary of a ve-hicle, Class A misdemean-ors; two counts of burgla-ry of a habitation, second-degree felonies; burglaryof a building, a state jailfelony; and two counts oftheft, Class a misdemean-ors. Gonzalez had a com-bined bond of $115,000. Heremained at the ZapataRegional Jail as of Fridayevening.

Authorities also servedseveral warrants on Que-zada. He’s facing chargesof burglary of a vehicle, aClass A misdemeanor;burglary of a building, astate jail felony; burglary

of a habitation, a second-degree felony; and threecounts of theft, all Class Amisdemeanors. Quezadawas at the Zapata Region-al Jail as of Friday eve-ning. He had an $85,000bond.

“Investigators have con-tacted all victims in thethefts and burglaries thatwere located in the SiestaShores subdivision areaand investigators are stillfollowing leads into therest of the missing items,”Elizondo said.

People who feel theywere victims related tothis case are welcome tocall the sheriff ’s office at765-9960 to check if theirproperty has been reco-vered.

(César G. Rodriguezmay be reached at 728-2568or cesar@lmtonline.com)

SHERIFF Continued from Page 1A

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Jerry Jones knows he’smade plenty of mistakesduring his last two dec-ades as owner and generalmanager of the DallasCowboys, ones that havelanded the franchise inwhat the former oilmancalls a rut.

But Jones also believeshe’s still capable of return-ing the team to the SuperBowl. And when it hap-pens, he would like us allto give him a standing ova-tion.

“I would grant you thedecisions that have beenmade over the years have

See ORSBORN PAGE 2B

NFL: DALLAS COWBOYS

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reacts to fans before a gameagainst the Washington Redskins on Dec. 30 in Landover, Md.

Photo by Richard Lipski | AP

Orsborn:Change must

start at topBy TOM ORSBORN

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

PHOENIX — Snow fell on theValley of the Sun shortly after themajor leaguers arrived in Febru-ary, covering the cacti and turningthe Diamondbacks’ diamondwhite. Hefty hailstones pelted theGiants’ cars in Scottsdale, andfreezing winds howled outside the

Dodgers’ clubhouse in Glendale. Crazy things can happen when

spring training starts beforespring.

With the latest World BaseballClassic taking dozens of playersaway from their teams in March,the majors again supersized theirannual rite of renewal, adding aseventh week to spring training.Teams reported several days earli-

er than usual, and they began ex-hibition play well before the Feb-ruary calendar flipped to March.

All of this extra time in camp isa blessing to some, a monotonousannoyance to others — and there’sstill a month to go.

“I can’t believe we’re alreadyplaying games,” new Dodgers

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: SPRING TRAINING

Spring has sprung

Texas slugger Lance Berkman skipped the first week of spring training games to avoid starting too soon on his injured calf with theextended preseason this year.

Photo by Charlie Riedel | AP

Early start to spring training has effectsBy GREG BEACHAMASSOCIATED PRESS

See SPRING TRAINING PAGE 2B

In the wake of his dop-ing confession, LanceArmstrong is facing an-other two lawsuits, includ-ing one filed by an insur-ance company that paidhim $3 million in bonusesfor his first three Tour deFrance victories.

Acceptance InsuranceCo., based in Nebraska,sued Armstrong and Tail-wind Sports Corp., his for-mer team’s managementcompany, on Thursday,claiming that Armstrongcommitted fraud becausehe hid the fact that hedoped when winning theTour in 1999, 2000 and2001.

The lawsuit, filed inTravis County Court inAustin, said Armstrong’slies voided the policy hehad with the insurancecompany.

Armstrong, the dis-graced former seven-timeTour winner, also was

sued in fed-eral court inLos Angeleson Thursday.That classaction law-suit saidthat Arm-strong and

FRS, which makes nutri-tional supplements forwhich Armstrong servedas a spokesman, engagedin false advertising whenArmstrong said in adver-tisements that FRS wasthe “secret weapon” to hissuccess.

Mark Fabiani, a spokes-man for Armstrong, de-clined to comment on thelawsuits.

The cases add to Arm-strong’s mounting legalwoes after he admitted inJanuary that he usedbanned performance-en-hancing drugs and bloodtransfusions during mostof his cycling career.

Though Armstrong’s es-

CYCLING: LANCE ARMSTRONG

Suits stackup againstArmstrong

Disgraced doper sued for millions fordefrauding former sponsors

By JULIET MACURNEW YORK TIMES

See LANCE PAGE 2B

ARMSTRONG

COLLEGE STATION —Ryan Swope wasn’t thefirst fast Texas A&M re-ceiver from Austin West-lake High, and Swope’seyes lit up Thursday atthe mention of ChadSchroeder, who wrappedup his A&M career threeyears before Swope’s Ag-gieland arrival in 2009.

“One of my goodfriends,” Swope said,

chuckling, of his fellowChaparral. “Now that’s afast white boy, too.”

Much like whenSchroeder was the fastestAggie in these parts sevenyears ago, Swope hasgrown accustomed to thequestion he fielded for thepast four years as an eliteA&M receiver — and isnow receiving from allover the country via in-stantly intrigued NFL

NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS A&M

Texas A&M receiver Ryan Swope runs a drill during the NFL scout-ing combine in Indianapolis on Sunday.

Photo by Dave Martin | AP

Swopesurprises

By BRENT ZWERNEMANSAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

See SWOPE PAGE 2B

SAN ANTONIO — Eversince they hooked up withOscar De La Hoya last sum-mer to promote boxing inSan Antonio, Mike Battahand his partner “Jesse”James Leija have been bu-

sy.They’ve staged numer-

ous small- to mid-level fightcards around town, all withan eye on eventually snar-ing the big prize in theGolden Boy Promotions sta-ble — Mexican sensationSaul “Canelo” Alvarez.

“He’s the guy right now,

the fighter everyone wantsto see,” Battah said. “Jamesand I have been targetinghim all along.”

It’s taken some effort, butthey finally got their man.

Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KOs)will face off against Austin

BOXING: SAUL “CANELO” ALVAREZ (41-0-1, 30 KOS) VS. AUSTIN TROUT (26-0, 14 KOS)

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, right, will face off against Austin Trout (26-0,14 KOs), not shown, in a battle of unbeaten junior middleweightchampions April 20 at the Alamodome.

Photo by Danny Moloshok | AP

TITLE BOUT ATTHE ALAMODOME

WHO: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30KOs) vs. Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KOs)WHEN, WHERE: April 20, AlamodomeWHAT: 12 rounds for WBA and WBC juniormiddleweight titlesTV: Showtime

Two of boxing’s bestALVAREZ: He’s only 22, but already theMexican star has become one of theleading attractions in boxing. Part of thatis because of his red hair, but mostly it’sbecause of his skills and punching pow-er.TROUT: Another of the sport’s top un-der-30 attractions, the Las Cruces, N.M.,southpaw will be making his fifth title de-fense. The 27-year-old dominated MiguelCotto in December.

Unbeatens to fightBy JOHN WHISLER

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

See BOXING PAGE 2B

fans.Say, Ryan, how did you

get ... so fast? It’s one he’sheard plenty after clock-ing an eye-popping 4.34seconds in the 40-yarddash at the recent NFLScouting Combine in In-dianapolis. Swope tied forthe second-fastest time ofany player — behind onlyTexas receiver MarquiseGoodwin’s 4.27 — inboosting his NFL draftstock from the middlerounds to potentially thesecond.

“Race doesn’t matter,”Swope said of his typicalanswer. “You go out thereon the field — black,white or whatever — andyou’re competing withthe guy across the fieldfrom you. Obviouslythere’s some God-giventalent, but a lot of what itcomes down to is howhard you’ve trained toget to that point.

“If I had been in the4.4s at the combine Iwould have left disap-pointed. I wanted to gothere and turn heads.”

He did, and NFL fansquickly will discoverwhat A&M fans did inthe fall of 2009: Swope,who stands 6 feet and

weighs 205 pounds, alsois a load to bring downafter the catch. That sep-arates him from receiv-ers who simply rely ontheir speed to blast pastdefenses.

That’s where his West-lake teeth-cutting alsohelped: He primarilyplayed running back inhigh school, and a fortu-nate NFL team will soondiscover it drafted a com-bination of speed andtoughness.

“It’s good to have run-ning back instincts aftercatching the ball,” saidSwope, tops on A&M’sall-time receiving listwith 252 grabs. “Playingrunning back in highschool just helped me bean overall more funda-mentally sound footballplayer.”

Swope’s name, too, hasbecome familiar in thepast couple of weeks out-side of the combine.Based in part on the Ag-gies’ stunning 11-2 firstswing through the power-ful Southeastern Confer-ence, Swope is a finalist— along with DenardRobinson of Michigan —to grace the cover of theEA Sports NCAA Foot-

ball 14 video game. Vot-ing on the EA SportsFacebook page runs foranother week.

“I actually grew upplaying that video game,so trying to be on thecover is a dream cometrue,” Swope said. “It’sincredible.”

His 40-time, too, mightseem incredible, but thecoach who recruitedSwope to A&M, MikeSherman, once said itbest when asked in 2010what first caught his eyeregarding the youngster.

“Besides his 4.4speed?” responded a grin-ning Sherman, whocoached A&M from 2008-11.

Sherman added thatSwope’s passion for foot-ball also was immediate-ly evident. Now, thesport’s top level is sud-denly quite intriguedwith that passion. Andspeed.

“I have to go back andwatch some more tape ofhim,” NFL Network ana-lyst Mike Mayock said.“That’s what I say whenyou see a guy you don’texpect to run in the mid4.3s. It forces you to goback and watch the tape.”

SWOPE Continued from Page 1B

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013

Trout (26-0, 14 KOs) in a battle of un-beaten junior middleweight championsApril 20 at the Alamodome.

The pair will meet to unify their titlebelts — Alvarez owns the WBC version,Trout the WBA crown — atop a cardthat could also include San Antoniobantamweight Raul Martinez in hisfirst fight since undergoing surgery tohis biceps late last summer.

“This is a megafight,” said Leija, aformer world champion who is teamingwith Battah to promote a fight card Sat-urday at Our Lady of the Lake Universi-ty. “Alvarez is a star, the king of Mexico.This is going to be great for the city. It’sduring Fiesta. It’s exciting.”

The fight will be televised on Show-time.

The matchup was originally sched-uled as the co-main event on the FloydMayweather Jr.-Robert Guerrero pay-per-view card May 4 in Las Vegas.

But Alvarez reportedly wanted a

written guarantee he would get a show-down with Mayweather should bothwin.

When Mayweather declined the re-quest, Alvarez opted to headline hisown date.

Battah said Richard Schaefer, CEO ofDe La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions,began looking for another home for Al-varez-Trout and narrowed his choicesto Los Angeles and San Antonio, beforechoosing the Alamo City.

Nicknamed “Canelo,” Spanish forcinnamon, because of his red hair,freckles and light complexion, Alvarezhas taken the boxing world by storm.

Only 22, the Jalisco native is knownfor his aggressive style and raw punch-ing power.

A native of Las Cruces, N.M., Trout,27, is a slick southpaw who sticks andmoves but also can punch.

Despite the risk, Alvarez reportedlytook the fight to quiet critics who have

questioned his opposition.“This is not a gimme for Canelo by

any means,” said Leija, who has seenAlvarez fight several times and has spo-ken to him often. “It’s going to be agood, tough fight. They’re both worldchampions for a reason.”

Battah said he and Leija are flying toLos Angeles on Monday to finalize de-tails of the fight card and begin prep-aration for what figures to be one of themajor events of the year in boxing.

A four-city tour to promote the showwill include a stop in San Antonio andtwo in Mexico, Battah said.

He said tickets likely will go on salenext week. Prices have not been deter-mined.

“We’re hoping to pack the dome,60,000 fans,” Battah said of a figure thatwould match the turnout for Julio Ce-sar Chavez-Pernell Whitaker in 1993.

“Why not? I’ve already had 50 ticketbrokers calling me for tickets.”

BOXING Continued from Page 1B

timated worth is about$125 million, his for-tune appears to be injeopardy, with potentiallegal payouts in excessof $106 million. Thegreatest threat to hisbank account is a fed-eral whistle-blower law-suit unsealed last weekin Washington.

Last week, the gov-ernment joined FloydLandis, one of Arm-strong’s former team-mates, as a plaintiff inthe case that says Arm-strong defrauded thegovernment because hewas doping while onthe team sponsored bythe U.S. Postal Service.In whistle-blower cases,plaintiffs could be

awarded triple damag-es, which could meanArmstrong could owethe government about$90 million if he loses.Johan Bruyneel, hisformer team manager,and Tailwind Sportsare also defendants.

Armstrong is also in-volved in a lawsuitwith an insurance com-pany which paid him$12.1 million in bonus-es for winning severalTours. Another lawsuitin which he is a de-fendant was filed by aBritish newspaper ask-ing for him to repaythe $1.5 million it gavehim after he sued thepaper for libel yearsago, and won.

LANCE Continued from Page 1B

not produced a Super Bowl, two SuperBowls or three Super Bowls that I wouldlike to have been a part of,” Jones said lastweek at the NFL Scouting Combine. “Andthe only thing I am going to do there iskeep trying and then make sure I get thecredit when we do get that one. You all aregoing to give it to me, aren’t you?”

Jones can keep trying all he wants, butthe credit he craves isn’t likely to come un-til he changes his thinking.

About the offensive line. About Tony Ro-mo. And about himself and how he runsthe club.

Let’s start with the offensive line andquarterback. Even after adding guardsMackenzy Bernadeau and Nate Livings infree agency and moving Tyron Smith fromright to left tackle, the unit still yielded 36sacks and was a major reason the Cow-boys amassed a meager 1,265 yards on theground in 2012, the team’s lowest total fora 16-game season.

Yet there was Jones sitting aboard hisluxury bus in Indianapolis suggesting Dal-las can get by with a lousy line because ofRomo’s elusiveness.

“If you’re going to have a guy that canhandle a porous offensive line, it’s Tony,”Jones said. “Tony has some of the best per-centages operating in pressure situationsof anyone in the NFL. If there was a placetheoretically that you had to have a weak-ness with Tony Romo at quarterback, thatmight be a place to have it. You just can’thave it all.”

Never mind that Romo will be 33 inApril and should be losing some of hisnimbleness any time now. Never mind thathe’s the one player the Cowboys can’t af-

ford to lose, a fact reflected in Jones’ de-sire to extend his contract. Never mind hehas already suffered a season-ending inju-ry (broken collarbone in 2010) thanks to abig hit.

“All I’m saying to you is Tony is out-standing at understanding why it is youcan’t have it all,” Jones said. “He reallyunderstands that. Had he rather have a lit-tle less pressure and a little more at receiv-er? What he would rather have is no pres-sure, give me a couple more great receiv-ers, and, by the way, give me the bestrunning game you got. I’ll take more all ofthat.

“But nobody understands better thatyou just can’t have it all. You just don’thave it all.”

What the Cowboys don’t seem to have isa GM capable of pulling them out of themuck of mediocrity they’ve been stuck insince they won three Super Bowls in the1990s with a team built largely by JimmyJohnson’s shrewd personnel moves.

Since the start of the 1997 season, Dallasis 128-128 in the regular season and has on-ly one playoff win in that span. The Cow-boys have missed the playoffs the lastthree years and are 16-16 in the regularseason the past two seasons.

It’s a sorry showing that would have re-sulted in the firing of any other GM. Ofcourse, any GM who suggested it was OKfor his club’s franchise QB to play behinda porous line might not survive, either.

If it is credit Jones wants, perhaps heshould step down as GM and find a sharp,young mind to replace him. Such a movewould be guaranteed to produce plenty ofapplause.

ORSBORN Continued from Page 1B

right-hander Zack Greinke saidlast week. “I feel like we just gotto spring training. If we just paceourselves out, it’ll be fine. Butit’s definitely different. I don’tknow what I think about it yet.”

This early start has led to un-usual occurrences, whether it’sthat freak Cactus League snow-storm or Grapefruit League line-ups loaded with minor leaguersand fringe prospects for much ofFebruary. Since many stars sit-ting out the WBC don’t want topeak too soon in their preseasonpreparation, they’ve got extratime to spend working on theirgolf swings, playing clubhousepingpong or idly counting thedays until March 31, when theRangers and Astros open the reg-ular season.

“Everyone knows that springtraining is at least a week toolong, and probably two weeks toolong just on a regular basis,”said Texas slugger Lance Berk-man, who skipped the first weekof games to avoid starting toosoon on his injured calf. “Andthis year it’s even longer thanthat.”

Indeed, the Dodgers will play ahead-scratching 40 exhibitiongames this spring. The San Die-go Padres are setting a franchiserecord with 38 games, and sever-al other teams are clocking inwith similar numbers.

Managers have worked out de-tailed plans to pace their teamsfor the long haul to opening day.Many players are voluntarilyholding back on their normalspring routines, particularlywhen they’re coming back frominjuries or offseason surgery.

“Basically it’s a week longer,”Milwaukee manager Ron Roen-icke said. “So those guys, it’susually the last week or two ofspring where we’re having theboredom, and those regularswant to start the season ... andnow you’ve got to add anotherweek onto that.”

But that’s leaving fans holdingtickets to spring games featuringwatered-down lineups with al-most no recognizable names. Forinstance, the Angels’ split-squadroster for its spring openeragainst the Giants had maybe

one player with a chance tomake the major league team —and certainly not Albert Pujols,who won’t play until mid-Marchto give extra rest to his surgical-ly repaired right knee.

While the Dodgers put ClaytonKershaw and Greinke into theirfirst two exhibition games, theAngels, White Sox, Royals,Orioles and several other teamsheld back their starting pitchersfor the first week or more, tryingto keep their rotations on theirtypical ramp-up to opening day.

“If you think about it, it’s basi-cally a quarter of a full season intraining camp,” said Angelsmanager Mike Scioscia, whokept Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilsonand his other three starters onthe shelf. “I think it’s counter-productive. It’s kind of a softerspring in how you’re going tostep up. We’ve got more time,and we’re going to take advan-

tage of that. If we got to themearlier, it might ruin their edgefor opening day.”

Yankees left-hander Andy Pet-titte acknowledges the longspring schedule changed his ap-proach.

“It’s slowed me down in a bigway,” the 40-year-old said. “It’s along spring training, so they givea few days off in between mybullpens, stuff like that. You’vegot so much time down here, it’slike, ‘Why rush?’ We work back-wards. You work from the open-ing day of the season and figureout what you need. It’s definitelyimpacted me.”

Others are grateful for everyextra week. Players returningfrom injury or surgery — every-body from Pujols and Detroit’sMax Scherzer to the Yankees’Mariano Rivera and C.C. Sabath-ia — have all the time they needto get closer to full strength.

“We don’t want them to starttoo many games down here, be-cause then you’re using inningsthat you would use during theseason,” said Yankees managerJoe Girardi, who’s limiting Sa-bathia in his return from elbowsurgery. “You can control theirpitch count easy. The key is toget them built up and just readyfor the season.”

And the teams that playeddeep into October last fall wel-comed the extra time in spring.With a shorter offseason aftersweeping the Tigers in the WorldSeries last fall, many San Fran-cisco Giants didn’t get as muchwork done during the winter, in-stead giving their bodies a need-ed break.

“I’m glad that spring training(started) earlier so we can makesure these guys are ready,” SanFrancisco manager Bruce Bochysaid.

After the Tigers’ secondstraight trip to the postseason,manager Jim Leyland is balanc-ing his concerns about Detroit’slong seasons against the de-mands of a seven-week spring.

“We’re not going to baby them,but we’re not going to kill them,either,” Leyland said.

Bochy thinks players who tookpart in winter ball had a headstart going into spring training,particularly with a shorter gapbetween the dates when pitchersand catchers report and whenposition players arrive. Manypitchers had fewer bullpen ses-sions than normal before facinglive hitting this spring.

Oakland manager Bob Melvinalso planned spring training toaccount for the extra time, butthe A’s are more familiar with itthan most teams. They openedwith two games in Japan lastseason, forcing them to reportearly in 2012 as well, and Melvinknows how to make sure playersare ready when needed.

“Some will be just be slowerinto games,” Melvin said at thestart of spring training. “So youmight not see some our guys thatwere taxed a little more, certain-ly the relievers, in games earlyon.”

Dodgers manager Don Mat-tingly thinks the extra-longschedule only exacerbates thebaseball world’s tendency to readtoo much into spring training.With so many games to play, par-ticularly without the WBC-boundplayers, Mattingly knows manyteams will be forced to use line-ups and pitching combinationsthat won’t matter much in theregular season.

Mattingly and Toronto manag-er John Gibbons both urgedtheir fans not to worry aboutwhat happens in March — anddon’t draw too many conclusionsabout what’s waiting when theseplayers finally escape the longestspring training of their lives.

“These are our guys, regard-less of how their spring goes,”Gibbons said of his startingpitchers. “When it’s all said anddone, even if a guy has a badspring, there’s a good chancehe’ll still be with us.”

SPRING TRAINING Continued from Page 1B

The Texas Rangers’ Lance Berkman bats during a spring training game against the Cleveland Indians om Thursday in Sur-prise, Ariz.

Photo by Charlie Riedel | AP

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES — Here’s how to work it:

FAMILY CIRCUS

PEANUTS

GARFIELD

DILBERT

DENNIS THE MENACE

HINTS | BY HELOISESOUND THE HORN ON

DRAWER SAFETYDear Heloise: My hus-

band stumbled on a greatway to keep our 13-month-old grandson from gettinginto the kitchen drawerswithout having to installdrawer SAFETY LATCH-ES. He purchased 24-inchextra-long shoehorns.They were inexpensiveand plastic.

He slid the shoehornwith the hook so that itgrabs the drawer handleon the first drawer andslides down through therest of them. Dependingon the number of drawersin a set we want to secure,he cuts the shoehorn tothe desired length. I usu-ally make sure the bottomdrawers are safe ones somy grandson can get intothem — his favorite placeto play.

Small downside: His lit-tle hands can sneak in onthe sides, but he can’treally get into the drawer.— Lynda H., Boerne, Tex-as

Lynda, this is an inex-pensive solution, but it’swise to invest in the right

safety locks. You don’twant to take a chance thata little one could get intotrouble. — Heloise

PET PALDear Readers: J.P. McGif-

fin of Bedford, N.H., sent aphoto of her cat, Armani.She says this handsomeboy knows how to keepwarm or cool because healways wears his gray suit.To see Armani in his suit,visit www.Heloise.com andclick on “Pets.” — Heloise

NEW PRESCRIPTIONDear Heloise: When I get

a new prescription, I writeon the bottle four days be-fore the refill date as a re-minder when to order thenext refill. — Bruce Cam-mack, Lubbock, Texas

HANDY CELLPHONEDear Heloise: The lights

were out in the men’s rest-room at work recently, andthe light from my cell-phone saved the day. Hey, itworked! — E.G., via email

“HELOISE

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013