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other at the county landfill nearSan Ygnacio, accepted the tiresfrom 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. over the lasttwo Saturdays. Treviño said theturnout exceeded his expecta-tions.

“There are now two mountains

hopes the county repeats it. “I’m calling this the ‘first an-

nual.’ I anticipate I’m going to goahead and ask the commissionersto do it again,” he said.

Two sites, one at the water-works maintenance yard and an-

Zapata residents used theirtime and effort recently to maketheir county neater and addressan environmental issue for South

Texas. The county held its firsttire dump event to collect scraptires off the streets and out of thebrush.

County water plant managerCarlos Treviño said the eventwent “magnificently” and he

of tires,” he said. “When you lookat these masses of tires it makesyou appreciate just what we gotout of the environment.”

Aside from waiting for resi-

ENVIRONMENT

Bye bye to scrap tiresCounty effort takes tires off the streets and out of the brush

By MIKE HERRERA IVTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See TIRES PAGE 8A

Mayors of cities along the Tex-as-Mexico border intent on pro-tecting the images of their com-munities are drawing differentconclusions about a proposal thatwould bring in equipment fromoverseas war zones to bolster bor-der security efforts.

The Send Equipment for Na-tional Defense Act, written by U.S.Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, would re-quire that 10 percent of certainequipment returned from Iraq —specifically Humvees, night-visionequipment and unmanned aerialsurveillance craft — be madeavailable to state and local agen-cies for border security oper-ations.

The proposal has drawn criti-cism from Mayor John Cook of ElPaso, who has vigorously disput-ed assertions that his city, whichis across the border from CiudadJuarez, Mexico, is affected by thesame violence that has plaguednorthern Mexico.

“I would invite them to come toEl Paso and we can look at the in-ventory of equipment that’s com-ing back from Iraq and they cantell me where they’d want to lo-cate this,” Cook said. “To me, it’sjust showing a whole lot of igno-rance.”

The mayor said moving warzone equipment to the borderwould send the wrong signal toMexico and potentially damagethe robust symbiotic economic re-lationship between the two coun-tries. The neighboring cities trademore than $70 billion annually,Cook said.

But Mayor Raul Salinas of La-redo, which has the nation’s large-st inland port, said he welcomedthe equipment and did not view itas an unnecessary militarization

MILITARY SURPLUS

Wargear onborder

See WAR GEAR PAGE 9A

Differing opinions heldby mayorsBy JULIAN AGUILAR

TEXAS TRIBUNE

three people dead and a boy mis-sing a finger.

“I’m not nervous. I’m wait-ing,” electrician Robert Youngsaid Friday as he clutched a mil-itary-style assault rifle outsidehis home, a few doors down fromthe scene of the latest attack inthe 12000 block of Dermott.

The normally quiet neighbor-hood is thick with pine trees,sprawling lots and concern aboutwhat might have motivated the

HOUSTON — The crews ofbad guys bash down doors in thenight or early morning hours,wearing masks and carryingguns as they stalk their victims.

Such teams have attackedHouston-area homes at least fourtimes in the past two weeks,most recently on Thanksgivingevening. Their attacks have left

attack.“I have got my guns ready,”

said Young, fresh back from Iraq,where he did electrical contract-ing.

Authorities said they’ve seenan increase in home invasionsrecently, although statistics werenot available because of the holi-day.

Attackers often target resi-

CRIME

Gunmen target Houston homes

See HOME PAGE 9A

By DANE SCHILLER AND JAMES PINKERTONHOUSTON CHRONICLEUsually the

criminals have atip from someonewho is in thehome or has beenthere.

For thousands of people,sleep deprivation andchaotic crowds are a

small price to pay for an op-

portunity to stock up on aplethora of half-priced goods.

Black Friday has quicklybecome the aftermath ofThursday sales, with manyspending Thanksgiving Dayand evening in a parking lot

among strangers.Still, there were shoppers

who made their way out af-ter the first, second andthird waves of early birds.

“I needed to do Christmasshopping, but I’m not goingto sacrifice my sanity,” saidChristine Flores, a Targetshopper, adding that thechallenge has shifted to rif-

fling through morning shop-per leftovers.

Flores’ sentiments weresimilar to those of other late-morning Black Friday shop-pers.

“I didn’t want to miss outon Thanksgiving with myfamily. But I still wanted to

BLACK FRIDAY

SOME BALANCE FAMILY, SHOPPING

Fred Regalado, Target Greatland Executive Team Leader of Store Operations, holds balloons used as markers to indicate how many customers to let inat a time on Thursday night.

Photo by Danny Zaragoza | Laredo Morning Times

Not all customers are tempted by earlyThanksgiving deals at local retail stores

By STEPHANIE IBARRATHE ZAPATA TIMES

See SHOPPING PAGE 9A

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

Thursday, Dec. 1The Webb County Heritage Foun-

dation will host an opening receptionfor the exhibit of entries in the HistoricLaredo Photo Competition from 6 p.m.to 8 p.m. today at the Villa AntiguaBorder Heritage Museum, 810 ZaragozaSt. Final selections will be featured ina 2012 Historic Laredo calendar, whichwill be unveiled today and be for sale.For more information, contact theWebb County Heritage Foundation atwww.webbheritage.org or 727-0977.

Laredo Community College willhost its annual Holiday Celebration andPosada in front of the Yeary Librarycourtyard on the Fort McIntosh campusfrom 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. today. Admis-sion is free and open to the public. Formore information, call 721-5179.

Friday, Dec. 2Literacy Volunteers of Laredo will

hold a free tutor training workshop to-day and Saturday to prepare volunteersto tutor adults who need help withEnglish as a Second Language and ba-sic reading. The two-day workshop willbe in Laredo Community College’s DeLa Garza Building, Room 101. Registra-tion ends Wednesday, Nov. 30. Formore information or to register, con-tact Jaime Morales or Gloria Vasquezat 724-5207.

Saturday, Dec. 3A book sale will be held in the

Widener Room of the First UnitedMethodist Church, 1220 McClellandAve., from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thepublic is invited, and admission is free.Donated books and magazines are ac-cepted. Call 722-1674 for more infor-mation.

Tuesday, Dec 6Les Amies will have its monthly

luncheon at 11:30 a.m. at the HolidayInn at 800 Garden St. Honorees areAlicia Laurel and Olga Laurel. Hostess-es are Consuelo Lopez, Hilda Lopez,Berta Garza and Olga Hovel.

The South Texas Food Bank willhave a fundraiser today at Hal’s Land-ing, 6510 Arena Road, next to the La-redo Energy Arena. The event will fea-ture a lockup “jail and bail” of Laredopersonalities from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. AHal’s-sponsored party will be from 6p.m. to 11 p.m., featuring music by Jol-ly Ranchers. Admission is $10 per per-son, with raffle prizes available. Pro-ceeds benefit the food bank. For moreinformation, call the food bank at 324-2432.

The Alzheimer’s support groupwill meet at 7 p.m. today in MeetingRoom 2, Building B, of the LaredoMedical Center. The support group isfor family members and caregivers tak-ing care of someone who has Alzheim-er’s.

Tuesday, Dec. 13Blackstone Dilworth’s honorary

dinner will take place at the LaredoEnergy Arena from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.today. This is the Laredo Gateway Ro-tary’s largest fundraiser for the year.Money collected from this event fundslocal programs and services.

Friday, Dec. 16The Laredo Ballet Theatre, spon-

sored by Dance Expressions, will havetwo performances of “The Nutcracker”today from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in theLaredo Civic Center Auditorium, 2400San Bernardo Ave. For reservations,and ticket information, call 724-5330.

Saturday, Dec. 17The South Texas Food Bank will

hold a bucket brigade fundraiser atseveral Laredo intersections from 8a.m. to 2 p.m. today. For information,call the food bank at 324-2432.

Sunday, Dec. 18Memorial Bells of the First United

Methodist Church will present the thirdannual Christmas Concert in the sanc-tuary at 1220 McClelland St. at 4 p.m.today. The handbell ensemble, underthe direction of Linda Mott, will pre-sent both sacred and secular carols aswell as a ring-sing-along of favoritecarols. Admission is free and open tothe public, but donations will be ac-cepted to cover concert-related expens-es. For more information, contact thechurch office at 722-1674 or LindaMott at lmott@stx.rr.com.

To submit a calendar entry,visit lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or email edito-rial@lmtonline.com with theevent name, date, time and lo-cation and a contact phonenumber

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, Nov. 26,the 330th day of 2011. Thereare 35 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On Nov. 26, 1941, U.S. Secre-tary of State Cordell Hull de-livered a note to Japan’s am-bassador to the United States,Kichisaburo Nomura (kee-chee-sah-boor-oh noh-moo-rah), proposing an agreementfor “lasting and extensivepeace throughout the Pacificarea.” The same day, a Japa-nese naval task force consist-ing of six aircraft carriers leftthe Kuril Islands, headed to-ward Hawaii.

On this date:In 1789, this was a day of

thanksgiving set aside by Pres-ident George Washington toobserve the adoption of theConstitution of the UnitedStates.

In 1825, the first college so-cial fraternity, the Kappa Al-pha Society, was formed atUnion College in Schenectady,N.Y.

In 1842, the founders of theUniversity of Notre Dame ar-rived at the school’s present-day site near South Bend, Ind.

In 1910, two dozen youngwomen were killed when firebroke out at a muslin factoryin Newark, N.J.

In 1933, a judge in New Yorkdecided the James Joyce book“Ulysses” was not obscene andcould be published in the Unit-ed States.

In 1943, during World WarII, the HMT Rohna, a Britishtransport ship carrying Amer-ican soldiers, was hit by aGerman missile off Algeria;1,138 men were killed.

In 1950, China entered theKorean War, launching a coun-teroffensive against soldiersfrom the United Nations, theU.S. and South Korea.

In 1965, France launched itsfirst satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.

In 1973, President RichardNixon’s personal secretary,Rose Mary Woods, told a feder-al court that she’d accidentallycaused part of the 18-1/2-min-ute gap in a key Watergatetape.

In 1986, President RonaldReagan appointed a commis-sion headed by former SenatorJohn Tower to investigate hisNational Security Councilstaff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

Ten years ago: PresidentGeorge W. Bush appealed toCongress to outlaw humancloning after scientists in Wor-cester (WU’-stur), Mass., re-ported they had created thefirst cloned human embryo.The National Bureau of Eco-nomic Research, the recog-nized arbiter of when reces-sions begin and end in theUnited States, declared thatthe country had entered adownturn in March 2001.

Today’s Birthdays: Im-pressionist Rich Little is 73.Singer Tina Turner is 72.Blues singer-musician Ber-nard Allison is 46. ActressKristin Bauer is 38. Actor Pe-ter Facinelli is 38. ActressTammy Lynn Michaels Ether-idge is 37. Actress Maia Camp-bell is 35. Actress Jessica Bow-man is 31. Pop singer NatashaBedingfield is 30. Rock musi-cian Ben Wysocki (The Fray)is 27. Singer Lil Fizz is 26.Singer Aubrey Collins is 24.

Thought for Today: “Putsomething off for one day, and10 days will pass.” — Koreanproverb.

TODAY IN HISTORY

NEW CANEY — Dry, brown grass crunch-es underfoot as David Barfield walksthrough his 45-acre Christmas tree farmpointing at evergreens covered with brittle,rust-colored needles.

"Dead tree, dead tree, dead tree," he says,shaking his head at dry timber he hopedwould be chopped down by parents with ex-cited children.

Instead, Mother Nature delivered theGrinch in the form of a historic drought thathas killed thousands of trees across Texasand Oklahoma. Some died of thirst. Otherswere destroyed by wildfires, whose breadthand intensity were magnified when windswept the flames across parched landscape.

Most farmers plan to import trees fromNorth Carolina to supplement any they have

left, said Marshall Cathey, president of theTexas Christmas Tree Growers Association.They say they aren’t planning to raise pricesbecause consumers are reluctant to paymore than $40 or $50 for a Christmas tree, es-pecially in the poor economy.

But families hoping for a homegrown treeto cut down will have a harder time findingone, and dozens of farmers are struggling.Most painful are the deaths of the youngestsaplings, which guarantee the drought’s ef-fect will be felt for years to come.

"It’s depressing, it really is," said Barfield,53. "This was going to be our retirement."

He and his wife, Karen, 49, bought thefarm about six years ago with dreams of re-tiring from Texas’ oil fields. Instead of sell-ing some 400 homegrown trees as they do ina good year, they will be lucky to sell 100 —nearly brought in from North Carolina.

AROUND TEXAS

In this photo taken Nov. 8, David Barfield checks a dying tree at his Christmas tree farm in New Caney. This year’s historicdrought has killed thousands of trees on Barfield’s farm and across Texas and Oklahoma.

Photo by Pat Sullivan | AP

Drought cuts tree bizBy RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Border Patrol has busyholiday week

EDINBURG — The U.S. Bor-der Patrol says agents from itsRio Grande City Station seizedmore than 900 pounds of mari-juana being loaded into a vehicleby smugglers on ThanksgivingDay.

The large bundles were reco-vered near Escobares.

Bay City nuke plant backat full power

WADSWORTH — The SouthTexas Project nuclear plant out-side Bay City is back on full pow-er after a 23-day shutdown forscheduled refueling and mainte-nance.

Unit 2 of the twin-unit gener-ating station was taken downOct. 29 and restored to 100 per-cent power Thursday.

The next scheduled downtimefor Unit 2 is in 18 months. Thatunit started commercial oper-ation in 1989.

Firefighter loses arm afterfiery tanker crash

SOUR LAKE — Officials say avolunteer firefighter lost her leftarm while assisting at the sceneof a fiery tanker truck crash.

The driver of a semitrailercarrying crude oil fell asleepThursday morning, causing thetanker to run off the road nearSour Lake.

Kimberly Huckabee, a Pine-wood volunteer firefighter, hadher arm amputated in surgeryafter she was struck by anothersemitrailer.

Police: SE Texas toddlerstruck by car, killed

ORANGE — Police say a 2-year-old girl has died after beingstruck by a vehicle while cross-ing a street.

Orange police said the acci-dent happened Wednesday eve-ning as the girl and an unidenti-fied woman were crossing astreet. The girl died laterWednesday at a hospital.

Man facing rape chargeaccused in shooting death

SAN ANTONIO — Authoritiessay a man already jailed on rapeand prostitution charges is nowaccused in the shooting death ofa man in a San Antonio motel.

An arrest affidavit for Kwaku“Q’’ Agyin alleges that the 20-year-old used a woman to lure 35-year-old Marcus Anderson to amotel room, where Agyinemerged from a closet and fatallyshot Anderson on Oct. 2.

Parts of Bastrop StatePark to reopen Dec. 2

BASTROP — Parts of BastropState Park will reopen Dec. 2,three months after devastatingwildfires turned the park’s pic-turesque Central Texas hills intoa blackened sea of torched pinetrees.

Park Superintendent ToddMcClanahan says there is “a lotof green” and he thinks visitorswill be pleasantly surprised.

— Compiled from AP reports

Stocks slip to end theroughest week since Sept.

NEW YORK — The worstweek for the stock market in twomonths ended with a whimper inthin trading Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial av-erage lost 4.8 percent this week,while the broader Standard &Poor’s 500 index fell 4.7 percent.Both had their worst weeks sinceSept. 23.

Occupy movementscelebrate ThanksgivingSAN FRANCISCO — Anti-

Wall Street demonstratorsaround the country spentThanksgiving serving turkey, do-nating time in solidarity withthe protest movement and, insome cases, confronting police.

In San Francisco, 400 occu-piers were served traditionalThanksgiving fixings sent by therenowned Glide MemorialChurch to volunteers and sup-

porters of the movement fightingsocial and economic inequality.

Giffords serves meal atArizona air base

TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Rep.

Gabrielle Giffords helped serve aThanksgiving meal to servicemembers and retirees at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tuc-son. She was accompanied byher retired astronaut husband,Mark Kelly.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband, retired Capt. Mark Kelly,serve a Thanksgiving meal to troops at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on Thurs-day in Tucson, Ariz.

Photo by Matt York | AP

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 Zlocal PAGE 3A

Norma Eliza Quintero, alocal elementary teacher,will take on another spe-cial role as she gets to im-personate the late SelenaQuintanilla in a specialmusical tribute to the Teja-no music queen with Lare-do Community College’sShow Band on Friday at7:30 p.m. in LCC’s FortMcIntosh Campus’ Guada-lupe and Lilia MartinezFine Arts Center theater.

Admission to the ShowBand’s 2011 fall concert isfree and open to the public.

“Dreaming of You,”“Baila Esta Cumbia,” “NoMe Queda Mas” and “ICould Fall in Love” are se-lections to be performed byQuintero during the LatinJazz music and Selena trib-ute concert.

“Selena represents hopeto all those Hispanics thataspire to make it in themusic industry,” Quinterosaid. “I enjoy singing andportraying Selena becauseso many of her songs arestill popular with the com-munity. I know that shewould have been up therewith singers like Beyoncéand Jennifer Lopez. Shetruly is an example thatwith hard work and dedi-cation, anything is possi-

ble.”Quintero will be accom-

panied by the LCC ShowBand.

“Our local communityhas a lot of talent out thereand it’s great that studentsparticipate with the LCCShow Band because itgives them a great founda-tion to compete in the ‘realworld,’” Quintero added.

During the concert, ap-proximately 20 membersfrom the band also willperform a few jazz num-bers.

The concert will begin

with Duke Ellington’s“Caravan” as performedand recorded by the rockgroup Chicago.

The LCC Show Band al-so will perform “Oye ComoVa,” a solo first performedby Tito Puente, “Frenzy,” amambo written by Latingreat Mario Bauza, “Wa-termelon Man” by HerbieHancock, and a BuddyRich Orchestra favorite“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.”

“The fabulous, exhilarat-ing, and award-winningCamelia’s Dancers alsowill join the band to per-

form a dance routine to‘Mambo #5,’” José D. Com-peán, director and conduc-tor for the LCC ShowBand, said. “We’re very ex-cited to have them on andthis concert will be a greathit for all of our fans.”

For more informationabout the LCC Show Bandand its concerts, contactCompeán at jdc@lare-do.edu or the LCC Per-forming Arts Departmentat 721-5330.

(Roger Sanchez Jr. is apublic relations specialistwith LCC)

LCC band pays tribute to SelenaBy ROGER SANCHEZ JR.

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The Laredo Community College Show Band will perform its 2011 fall concert, Latin Jazz and a tribute toSelena. Norma Eliza Quintero, a fifth-grade instructor, will perform several of Selena’s songs.

Courtesy photo

Federal officials are ac-cusing two Roma men al-legedly acting as “spotters”of conspiring to smuggle 14undocumented people, ac-cording to court recordsreleased Wednesday.

Joe Henry Perez andJuan Gonzalo Rodriguez,both United States citizens,are being charged withconspiracy to transport theundocumented group ofpeople by means of a mo-tor vehicle within theSouthern District of Texas.Both men are in federalcustody on a $75,000 bondeach.

Monday, U.S. Border Pa-trol agents working the in-tersection of Texas 16 andFM 649 spotted a whitetruck and a blue trucktraveling one after the oth-er. According to a federalcriminal complaint, thewhite truck was heavily la-den.

As agents attempted topull over the white truck,it abruptly got off the roadand several people exitedthe truck and ran into thebrush. Court records statethe blue truck pulled overbehind the empty whitetruck. A passenger of theblue truck got out andwent ahead to drive thewhite truck. Both vehiclestraveled south on FM 649.

Agents eventuallystopped both trucks alongthe road. Meanwhile, anextensive search of thebrush area yielded 14 un-documented Mexican na-tionals. Perez and Rodri-guez along with the groupwere taken to the Hebbron-ville Border Patrol Station.

Both Perez and Rodri-guez agreed to talk to spe-

cial agents with HomelandSecurity Investigationswithout an attorney pre-sent, states the criminalcomplaint. Rodriguez saidhe picked up the whitetruck at a Church’s Chick-en in Roma and drove to alocation where the undocu-mented people could loadup and follow him and Pe-rez.

“Perez stated that heand Rodriguez were goingto act as spotters lookingup for law enforcementahead on the highway,” thecriminal complaint states.Both were to be paid $100per Mexican national.

Court records indicatethe plan was for the whitetruck to drop off the un-documented people at acertain location so theycould walk their way pastthe Border Patrol check-point. Rodriguez was goingto get out of the blue truckand drive the white truckto pick up the group on theother side.

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

Two Roma menface charges

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES As agents

attempted topull over thewhite truck, itabruptly gotoff the roadand severalpeople exitedthe truck andran into thebrush.

Air and ground patrolled Mexican troops toseize more than two tonsof marijuana in a Tamau-lipas border town acrossfrom Roma, federal offi-cials announced Thursday.

Soldiers with Secretaría

de la Defensa Nacional,Mexico’s defense ministry,assigned to the EighthMilitary Zone found thecontraband in Ciudad Mi-guel Alemán.

The story of the confis-cation unfolded Wednes-day while troops workedOperation Northeast, amission to combat orga-

nized crime in the north-ern Tamaulipas area.

A Mexican army reportdoes not go into specificsabout how the contrabandwas found. But officialsmentioned that theyseized 518 bundles of mar-ijuana within the munici-pality.

A report states the mar-

ijuana weighed 2.09 tonsor 4,604.57 pounds. Feder-al officials say thatamount could’ve been bro-ken into 1,044,300 doses.An investigation is ongo-ing.

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

Soldiers seize 2 tons of marijuanaBy CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

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

“We are the 99percent” is agreat slogan.

It correctly defines the is-sue as being the middleclass versus the elite (asopposed to the middleclass versus the poor).

And it also gets past thecommon but wrong estab-lishment notion that ris-ing inequality is mainlyabout the well educateddoing better than the lesseducated; the big winnersin this new Gilded Agehave been a handful of ve-ry wealthy people, not col-lege graduates in general.

If anything, however,the 99 percent slogan aimstoo low. A large fraction ofthe top 1 percent’s gainshave actually gone to aneven smaller group, thetop 0.1 percent — the rich-est one-thousandth of thepopulation.

More contributionAnd while Democrats,

by and large, want that su-per-elite to make at leastsome contribution to long-term deficit reduction, Re-publicans want to cut thesuper-elite’s taxes even asthey slash Social Security,Medicare and Medicaid inthe name of fiscal disci-pline.

Before I get to those pol-icy disputes, here are afew numbers.

The recent Congres-sional Budget Office re-port on inequality didn’tlook inside the top 1 per-cent, but an earlier report,which only went up to2005, did. According tothat report, between 1979and 2005 the inflation-ad-justed, after-tax income ofAmericans in the middleof the income distributionrose 21 percent.

The equivalent numberfor the richest 0.1 percentrose 400 percent.

Dramatic riseFor the most part, these

huge gains reflected a dra-matic rise in the super-elite’s share of pretax in-come.

But there were alsolarge tax cuts favoring thewealthy. In particular, tax-es on capital gains aremuch lower than theywere in 1979 — and therichest one-thousandth ofAmericans account forhalf of all income fromcapital gains.

Given this history, whydo Republicans advocatefurther tax cuts for the ve-ry rich even as they warnabout deficits and demanddrastic cuts in social in-surance programs?

Job creatorsWell, aside from shouts

of “class warfare!” when-ever such questions areraised, the usual answer isthat the super-elite are“job creators” — that is,that they make a specialcontribution to the econo-my.

So what you need toknow is that this is bad ec-onomics. In fact, it wouldbe bad economics even ifAmerica had the ideal-ized, perfect market econo-my of conservative fanta-sies.

After all, in an idealizedmarket economy eachworker would be paid ex-actly what he or she con-tributes to the economy bychoosing to work, no more

and no less. And thiswould be equally true forworkers making $30,000 ayear and executives mak-ing $30 million a year.

There would be no rea-son to consider the contri-butions of the $30 millionfolks as deserving of spe-cial treatment.

Higher taxesBut, you say, the rich

pay taxes! Indeed, they do.And they could — andshould, from the point ofview of the 99.9 percent —be paying substantiallymore in taxes, not offeredeven more tax breaks, de-spite the alleged budgetcrisis, because of the won-derful things they suppos-edly do.

Still, don’t some of thevery rich get that way byproducing innovationsthat are worth far more tothe world than the incomethey receive? Sure, but ifyou look at who reallymakes up the 0.1 percent,it’s hard to avoid the con-clusion that, by and large,the members of the super-elite are overpaid, not un-derpaid, for what they do.

ExecutivesFor who are the 0.1 per-

cent? Very few of them areSteve Jobs-type innova-tors; most of them are cor-porate bigwigs and finan-cial wheeler-dealers.

One recent analysisfound that 43 percent ofthe super-elite are execu-tives at nonfinancial com-panies, 18 percent are infinance and another 12percent are lawyers or inreal estate. And these arenot, to put it mildly, pro-fessions in which there isa clear relationship be-tween someone’s incomeand his economic contri-bution.

Executive pay, whichhas skyrocketed over thepast generation, is set byboards of directors ap-pointed by the very peoplewhose pay they deter-mine; poorly performingCEOs still get lavish pay-checks, and even failedand fired executives oftenreceive millions as they goout the door.

A mirageMeanwhile, the eco-

nomic crisis showed thatmuch of the apparent val-ue created by modern fi-nance was a mirage.

As the Bank of Eng-land’s director for finan-cial stability recently putit, seemingly high returnsbefore the crisis simply re-flected increased risk-tak-ing — risk that was most-ly borne not by the wheel-er-dealers themselves buteither by naive investorsor by taxpayers, who end-ed up holding the bagwhen it all went wrong.

And as he waspishlynoted, “If risk-makingwere a value-adding activ-ity, Russian roulette play-ers would contribute dis-proportionately to globalwelfare.”

So should the 99.9 per-cent hate the 0.1 percent?No, not at all. But theyshould ignore all the prop-aganda about “job cre-ators” and demand thatthe super-elite pay sub-stantially more in taxes.

Occupyslogan great,but too low

“PAUL KRUGMAN

We are the 99.9 percent

OTHER VIEWS

The Zapata Times doesnot publish anonymousletters.

To be published, lettersmust include the writer’sfirst and last names aswell as a phone numberto verify identity. The

phone number IS NOTpublished; it is used sole-ly to verify identity andto clarify content, if nec-essary. Identity of the let-ter writer must be veri-fied before publication.

We want to assure our

readers that a letter iswritten by the person whosigns the letter. The Zapa-ta Times does not allowthe use of pseudonyms.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

A few weeks ago I askedpeople over 70 to send me“Life Reports” — little es-says in which they eval-uate their own lives. A fewthousand people have writ-ten in, and I’ve been post-ing an essay a day on myblog.

Born in the 1920s and1930s, most of themlearned work habits in anage of scarcity and thengot to explore opportuni-ties in an age of growth.Unlike later generations,many of the men wentthrough a phase in whichthey did physical labor ina factory, even if later theywent on to become profes-sionals.

Many of the womenwere born with limited as-pirations and only sawtheir horizons expandedwith feminism. By middleage, people of both sexeswere moving freely, assum-ing there would be a de-cent job wherever they set-tled.

Some of my correspond-ents were influenced bythe social revolution of the’60s.

Hugh Nazor writes, “Mywife, who had quit collegewhen we married, wasbored with life and theroles of suburban house-wife and mother. Her af-fair with my best friendwas easy for me to under-stand. Having grown up inthe repressive, conformist’50s, those of us who had

recently lost the trust ofthe younger generation bybeing ‘over 30’ felt cheated.We were of another era,and wanted more. Aftersome time acting out andplaying ‘Bob & Carol &Ted & Alice,’ my divorcewas a foregone conclu-sion.”

Resilience is a centraltheme in these essays. Idon’t think we remindyoung people enough thatlife is hard. Bad thingshappen.

Gilda Zelin lost her hus-band. “The loneliness willnever disappear. The inten-sity ebbs as the years goby. To take care of the cold,empty nights, I have sub-stituted an electric mat-tress warmer and largepillow to hug and push in-to, to take the place of mybeloved.”

Robert Roy writes, “I of-ten revisit the birth of myfirstborn, Greg, andthoughts of who he wouldbecome. I fast-forward towhen he was 35 and theimage of placing a mahog-any box filled with his ash-es in a grave along side mymother and father.”

“My faith survived atrial by fire,” MargueriteE. Moore writes. “My sev-en-year-old son was hit bya car. Will he live? (PleaseGod!) Will he regain con-

sciousness? (Please God!)... I know how it feels to betotally vulnerable and toknow God is the only be-ing that can save my son.(He had five doctors, noneof whom would look me inthe eye.) I stormed heaven,begged, pleaded, swore andpromised. He survived,and so did I. My faith islike a steel rod that goesthrough my core and theglue that holds me togeth-er.”

Most people give them-selves higher grades fortheir professional livesthan for their private lives.Almost everybody is satis-fied with the contributionsthey made at work. Thepeople who started familybusinesses seem especiallyhappy.

At home, many givethemselves mediocregrades. One workaholic de-scribes the time his 6-year-old son brought a familyportrait home from school.He wasn’t in it, but thedog and cat were.

“During my drinkingyears, I was unfaithful tomy wife,” writes a doctorfrom Pennsylvania. “Thisis my greatest regret andshame and will remain sountil I die.”

The essays give a bigwarning about the perilsof marrying young. Somepeople found their belovedat 19 and have spent ablissful half-century withthem. But many peoplemarried before they knewthemselves and endured alonely decade before di-

vorcing. A vast majority ofthose people made a wiserchoice the second timearound.

When the writer has ahappy marriage, the essayglows with contentment.Others somehow made itwork. “It wasn’t a lovematch for me, or for himfor that matter,” a womanfrom New Jersey writes,“but we made a good fam-ily and did very well forthe first decade or so andstayed together until hedied at 81.”

I’ve probably overem-phasized the pitfalls oftheir lives in this column— I’ll write more aboutthe positive lessons in thenext one. But many of thewriters have integratedthe ups and downs into anenveloping sense of grati-tude.

Judy Eddy from Nevadawrites, “My symptoms ofParkinson’s disease havenow become a major partof my life. But, oh wow! Ithink that I am handlingParkinson’s well — no de-spondency at what I canno longer do, but I get en-couragement from every-one to do what I can. Mylife is full: love sharedwith family, love sharedwith friends, love sharedwith another dog, variousprojects and even anothercareer, that keep my timeoccupied. How fortunate Iam that I can count bothmy ex-husbands as friends,as we share a differentkind of love from and forme.”

COLUMN

Lessons from readers’ livesBy DAVID BROOKSNEW YORK TIMES “DAVID BROOKS

COLUMN

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 Mexico THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

GUADALAJARA, Mexi-co — A baker, a truck driv-er, a soft-drink vendor anda dental technician wereamong the 26 men foundbound, gagged, slain andleft in the center of Guada-lajara, a state prosecutorsaid Friday.

Written in motor oil onthe victims’ bodies werethe names of the Zetas andMillennium drug cartels.Law enforcement officialssaw that as a possible indi-cation the two allied gangswere announcing their in-tent to seize a city histori-cally controlled by the pow-erful Sinaloa cartel.

The Zetas and Sinaloahave emerged from years ofMexican drug wars as thelargest cartels in the na-tion, and potential compet-itors for control of smug-gling and other businessesworth billions of dollars ayear. Both frequently formalliances of conveniencewith smaller local gangs.

Analysts cautioned, how-ever, that the killers inGuadalajara may also havebeen engaging in an isolat-ed act of retaliation for theslaughter of dozens of mendumped on a roadway inSeptember 600 miles awayin the eastern, Gulf coast

city of Veracruz. Author-ities blamed that killing onthe New Generation, agang believed to be work-ing with the Sinaloa cartel.A video posted by menclaiming to be the Veracruzkillers said the victimswere Zetas.

Crucial timeThe next few weeks will

be crucial in determiningwhether Guadalajara, Mex-ico’s second largest city, be-gins dissolving into thechaotic killing, kidnappingand streetfighting that hasdevastated cities and townsalong the U.S. border, saidSamuel Logan, director ofSouthern Pulse, a riskanalysis firm specializingin Latin American orga-nized crime.

“The Mexican govern-ment has to react quicklyand strongly,” Logan said.“This could be the begin-ning of Guadalajara mov-ing into a more insecureenvironment ... We need alittle more time to watchthings play out.”

The identities of 14 ofthe men slain in Guadalaj-ara were released Fridayby Jalisco state prosecutorTomas Coronado, who saidthat only two had criminalrecords, without providing

details.Among the victims were

Alejandro Robles Vidal, 22,who had been working as adental technician in thenearby city of Zapopan forthree years and disap-peared Monday evening.

Also among the deadwas Jose Antonia PargaGuareno, 23, a cargo-truckdriver who disappearedTuesday and was identifiedby his father, Coronadosaid.

The prosecutor cau-tioned the press and publicnot to draw conclusionsabout the victims’ potentialinvolvement in drug cartelactivity, saying that wouldbe one of the subjects of theinvestigation.

He said the victims diedof strangulation or blows tothe head.

Earlier, he told MVS Ra-dio that even though amessage signed by the Ze-tas was left in one of thecars, investigators had notconfirmed that the cartelwas responsible.

Wednesday, 17 bodieswere found burned in twopickup trucks in a striking-ly similar attack in Sina-loa, the home state of theSinaloa cartel. Twelve ofthe bodies were in the backof one truck, some of themhandcuffed and wearingbulletproof vests.

A soldier patrols as a vehicle that was discovered carrying bodies inside is taken away in Guadalajara,Mexico, on Thursday. At least 20 bodies were discovered early Thursday in three vehicles abandoned inthe heart of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and the site of the recent Pan American Games,according to an official with the prosecutor’s office in the state of Jalisco.

Photo by Victor Fernandez | AP

Authorities ID bodiesBy ARTURO PEREZ NAVARRO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The mission was sup-posed to be a textbook“controlled delivery” — aroutine trap by law en-forcement officers using asecret operative posing asa truck driver to bust drugtraffickers when their nar-cotics are delivered to arendezvous point.

Instead, things spun outof control. Shortly beforethe marijuana deliverywas to be made Monday,three sport utility vehiclescarrying alleged Zeta gun-men seemingly came outof nowhere and cut off thetanker truck as it rumbledthrough northwesternHarris County, sourcestold the Houston Chroni-cle.

They sprayed the cabwith bullets, killing the ci-vilian driver, who was se-cretly working with thegovernment. An undercov-er sheriff ’s deputy, whowas driving nearby in an-other vehicle, was wound-ed, possibly by friendlyfire from officers arrivingat the scene.

“We are not going to tol-erate these types of thugs

out there using their weap-ons like the Wild, WildWest,” said Javier Peña,the new head of the U.S.Drug Enforcement Admin-istration’s Houston Divi-sion. “We are going afterthem.”

“Everybody is surprisedat the brazenness,” Peñacontinued as he stressed afull court press by theDEA, the sheriff and po-lice. “We haven’t seen thistype of violence, whichconcerns us.”

For some at the scene, itseemed all too similar towhat has been playing outin Mexico, where cartelsoperate with near impuni-ty as they clash with eachother and with the mili-tary and police.

Sources discussed as-pects of the shootout onthe condition they not beidentified publicly due tothe sensitivity of the ongo-ing investigation.

A contingent of law en-forcement officers hadbeen covertly shadowingthe truck as it eased itsway through the Houstonarea to deliver a load ofmarijuana fresh from theRio Grande Valley.

As the gunmen at-

tacked, officers quicklyjumped into the fray andalso opened fire on the at-tackers. The truck keptrolling until it careened offthe roadway.

Dozens of law officersdescended on the scene aswell and fanned out in thesurrounding neighbor-hoods.

Four suspects, all be-lieved to be citizens ofMexico, were arrested andcharged Monday with cap-ital murder in connectionwith the shooting.

They are Eric De Luna,23; Fernando Tavera, 19;Ricardo Ramirez, 35; andRolando Resendiz, 34.

The sheriff ’s deputy,who has not yet been iden-tified publicly because hewas working undercover,was hit in the knee duringthe melee, which involvedseveral cars and guns.

The eight-year veteranwas expected to spendThursday in the hospitalbut to make a full recovery.

Authorities would notdiscuss how the deceaseddriver, who was an inform-ant and held a job as acommercial truck driver,first made contact with thetraffickers.

Bust spins out of controlBy DANE SCHILLER

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

MEXICO CITY — Sixinmates from the last is-land penal colony in theAmericas were recapturedat sea after they usedbuoyant containers andwood planks to try toswim to freedom in an es-cape reminiscent of the1973 movie “Papillon.”

The Mexican navy saidthe inmates used emptyplastic gas or water tanksto help stay afloat as theyswam about 60 miles southof the Islas Marias, a Mex-ican penal colony whereinmates live in small

houses and are normallynot locked up.

The six men were onlyabout 60 miles from thePacific coast resort ofPuerto Vallarta when theywere spotted by a passingboat early Thursday.

The boat called in a tipto a local naval base, andpatrol boats were quicklydispatched to take the meninto custody. Photos pro-vided by the navy showedthem men sunburned butalert on the deck of the pa-trol vessel.

The men, who range inage from 28 to 39 years,were taken back to PuertoVallarta for a medical

check.Later, the federal Public

Safety Department, whichis in charge of Mexico’sfederal prisons, said themen had been found to bein acceptable health andwould be returned to thepenal colony “withinhours.”

The department saidthe prison oversight agen-cy wasn’t notified untilThursday that the menwere missing from theprison — the same daythey were found at sea,suggesting that their ab-sence had not been noticedwhen they set off on theescape bid.

Mexico catches escapeesBy MARK STEVENSON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES National SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — Arobber shot a Black Fridayshopper who refused to give uphis purchases outside a Wal-mart store, leaving the victimhospitalized in critical but sta-ble condition after one of sever-al violent incidents in Califor-nia that marred the annual bar-gain-hunting ritual, authoritiessaid.

Police in San Leandro, about15 miles east of San Francisco,said the victim and his familywere walking to their cararound 1:45 a.m. when theywere confronted by a group ofmen who demanded their shop-ping items. When the family re-fused, a fight broke out, and oneof the robbers pulled a gun andshot the man, said Sgt. Mike So-bek.

“The suspects saw these guys,got out of their car and tried torob them but were unsuccess-ful,” Sobek said.

At another Walmart in awealthy suburb of Los Angeles,a woman trying to get the upperhand to buy cheap electronicsunleashed pepper spray on acrowd of shoppers, causing mi-nor injuries to 20 people, policesaid.

The attack took place about10:20 p.m. Thursday shortly af-ter doors opened for the sale atthe Walmart in Porter Ranch inthe San Fernando Valley.

The store had brought out acrate of discounted Xbox videogame players, and a crowd hadformed to wait for the unwrap-ping, when the woman beganspraying people “in order to getan advantage,” police Sgt. JoseValle said.

“Faces were red,” shopperJohn Lopez told ABC News Ra-dio. “This one guy was comingup to my wife going, ‘Call anambulance! Call an ambu-lance!”’

Ten people were slightly in-jured by the pepper spray and10 others suffered minor bumpsand bruises in the chaos, Vallesaid. They were treated at thescene.

The woman got away in theconfusion, but it was not imme-diately clear whether she got anXbox. If found, she could facefelony battery charges, Vallesaid.

“Walmart is going throughregister receipts to see if it was

purchased,” he said.In the San Leandro shooting,

family members of the victimwrestled down one of the al-leged robbers, but at least threeothers — including the gunman— fled in a car, police said.

Tony Phillips, 20, was arrest-ed on suspicion of attemptedhomicide and attempted rob-bery and booked into AlamedaCounty jail after being treatedat the hospital for minor inju-ries from the scuffle with the

victim’s family, Sgt. Sobek said.Sobek and jail officials did

not immediately know if Phil-lips had a lawyer.

Investigators were reviewingvideo from a surveillance cam-era mounted outside the store.“The footage is a bit grainy, butwe’re hoping it gives us a betteridea of what happened,” Sobeksaid.

Witnesses said the Walmartparking lot was crowded withBlack Friday shoppers at thetime, and the store was brieflyclosed as police investigated.

Also Friday, a man wasstabbed outside a Sacramentomall in an apparent gang-relat-ed incident as shoppers werehitting the stores.

The victim was taken to ahospital with non-life-threaten-ing injuries, police said.

The stabbing stemmed from afight between two groupsaround 3 a.m. in front of a Ma-cy’s department store at the Ar-den Fair Mall. The store hadopened at midnight to offershoppers post-Thanksgivingdeals.

Richard Swift, a witness, toldKCRA-TV that the stabbing in-volved three men and beganwhen one of them made a com-ment about women who werewith two other men.

No arrests have been made.Police were hoping surveillancevideo will help identify the sus-pects.

Violence mars some Black Friday shoppingASSOCIATED PRESS

A shopper walks to his car after purchasing a bike at Walmart in Butler Plaza on Thursday, in Gainesville, Fla. Walmartopened stores on Thursday.

Photo by Matt Stamey/The Gainesville Sun | AP

WASHINGTON — Theyare fuzzy about some is-sues but the Republicanpresidential candidatesleave little doubt aboutwhere they stand on gunrights.

Rick Perry and RickSantorum go pheasanthunting and give inter-views before heading out.Newt Gingrich and Her-man Cain speak to the Na-tional Rifle Associationconvention. Michele Bach-mann tells People maga-zine she wants to teach herdaughters how to shoot be-cause women need to beable to protect themselves.Mitt Romney, after backingsome gun control measuresin Massachusetts, now pre-sents himself as a strongSecond Amendment sup-porter.

President Barack Oba-ma, on the other hand, isvirtually silent on the is-sue.

He has hardly addressedit since a couple of monthsafter the January assassi-nation attempt on Rep. Ga-brielle Giffords in Tucson,Ariz., when he promised todevelop new steps on gunsafety in response. He stillhas failed to do so, even asTucson survivors came toCapitol Hill last week topush for action to closeloopholes in the gun back-ground check system.

Democrats have learnedthe hard way that embrac-ing gun control can be ter-rible politics, and the 2012presidential election isshaping up to underscorejust how delicate the issuecan be. With the electionlikely to be decided largelyby states where hunting isa popular pastime, likeMissouri, Ohio or Pennsyl-vania, candidates of bothparties want to win overgun owners, not alienatethem.

For Republicans, thatmeans emphasizing theirpro-gun credentials. But forObama and the Democrats,the approach is trickier.

Obama’s history in sup-port of strict gun controlmeasures prior to becom-ing president makes it diffi-cult for him to claim he’s aSecond Amendment cham-pion, even though hesigned a bill allowing peo-ple to take loaded guns intonational parks. At the sametime, he’s apparently decid-ed that his record backinggun safety is nothing toboast of either, perhaps be-cause of the power of thegun lobby and their opposi-tion to anything smackingof gun control.

Obamasilent

on gunsBy ERICA WERNERASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Ayear from Election Day,Democrats are crafting acampaign strategy for VicePresident Joe Biden thattargets the big three politi-cal battlegrounds: Ohio,Pennsylvania, and Florida,states where Biden mightbe more of an asset toPresident Barack Obama’sre-election campaign thanthe president himself.

The Biden plan under-scores an uncomfortablereality for the Obamateam. A shaky economyand sagging enthusiasmamong Democrats couldshrink the electoral mapfor Obama in 2012, forcinghis campaign to depend oncarrying the 67 electoralvotes up for grabs in thethree swing states.

Obama won all threestates in 2008. But thistime he faces challenges ineach, particularly in Ohioand Florida, where voterselected Republican gover-nors in the 2010 midtermelections.

The president some-times struggles to connectwith Ohio and Pennsylva-nia’s white working-classvoters, and Jewish voterswho make up a core con-

stituency for Florida Dem-ocrats and view him withskepticism.

Biden has built deep tiesto both groups during hisfour decades in nationalpolitics, connections thatcould make a difference.

As a long-serving mem-ber of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee, Bi-den cemented his reputa-tion as an unyielding sup-porter of Israel, winning

the respect of many in theJewish community. AndBiden’s upbringing in aworking class, Catholicfamily from Scranton, Pa.,gives him a valuable politi-cal intangible: He empath-izes with the struggles ofblue-collar Americans be-cause his family livedthose struggles.

“Talking to blue-collarvoters is perhaps his great-est attribute,” said Dan

Schnur, a Republican polit-ical analyst. “Obama pro-vides the speeches, and Bi-den provides the blue-col-lar subtitles.”

While Biden’s campaigntravel won’t kick into highgear until next year, he’salready been making stopsin Ohio, Pennsylvania andFlorida this fall, speakingat events focused on educa-tion, public safety andsmall businesses and rais-

ing campaign cash. Behindthe scenes, he’s workingthe phones with prominentJewish groups and Catho-lic organizations in thosestates, a Democratic offi-cial said.

Biden is also targetingorganized labor, speakingfrequently with unionleaders in Ohio ahead of avote earlier this month ona state law that would havecurbed collective bargain-ing rights for public work-ers. After voters struckdown the measure, Bidentraveled to Cleveland tocelebrate the victory withunion members.

The Democratic officialsaid the vice president willalso be a frequent visitorto Iowa and New Hamp-shire in the coming weeks,seeking to steal some ofthe spotlight from the Re-publican presidential can-didates blanketing thosestates ahead of the Janu-ary caucus and primary.

And while Obama mayhave declared that hewon’t be commenting onthe Republican presiden-tial field until there’s anominee, Biden is follow-ing no such rules. He’scalling out GOP candidatesby name, and in true Bi-den style, he appears to berelishing in doing so.

Biden targets Ohio, Pennsylvania, FloridaBy JULIE PACE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this March 23, 2010, photo President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden react to cheersas they arrive in the East Room of the White House for the health care bill. A year from Election Day,Democrats are crafting a campaign strategy for Biden that targets the big three political bat-tlegrounds: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, states where Biden might be more of an asset to Presi-dent Barack Obama’s re-election campaign than the president himself.

File photo by J. Scott Applewhite | AP

ASHLAND, Ore. — InAshland, murder is com-monplace on the stages ofthe Oregon ShakespeareFestival.

There sword fights arechoreographed entertain-ment, and the blood thatspurts is fake.

The real-life slaying of ayoung grocery clerk near-ly decapitated by someonewielding a sword or ma-chete has sent a shiver ofhorror through the story-book town in SouthernOregon.

A small shrine is grow-ing on the side of the bikepath where 23-year-old Da-

vid Grubbs was killed lastweekend while walkinghome from work, just asdarkness was falling. It’san open place where thepath goes through a parkand past an elementaryschool.

Zhawen (ZHAH-wen)Wahpepah (WAH-peh-paw)and August Haddick knewthe victim.

They say the slayinghas shattered their feelingof safety.

Police stumpedBy THOMAS KAPLAN

NEW YORK TIMES

NUEVO LAREDO11/27 — Grupo de Tea-

tro Expresión invita a “ParaMorir Nacimos” a las 7 p.m.en el Teatro Lucio Blanco dela Casa de la Cultura. Entra-da libre.

11/29 — Encuentro conArtistas, Creadores y Promo-tores Culturales a las 6 p.m.en Estación Palabra.

12/02 — Compañía deBallet Laredos presenta “ElCascanueces” de Piotr IllichTchaikovsky, dirigida porBecky Salinas Chapa, en elCentro Cultural a las 7 p.m.

LAREDO11/26 — El cuarto con-

curso de cocina Football enla Cajuela, de 9 a.m. a 7p.m. en El Metro Park & Ri-de. Habrá venta de comida,manualidades, entre otrosartículos. Costo: 1 dólar paraasistir al evento. Para con-cursar llame al 286-9055.

11/26 — Con motivo de“Navidad en el Barrio”, Lare-do Ranch Sorting Associa-tion invita a una Competen-cia de Ranch Sorting a las 3p.m. en JB’s Ranch, por laCarretera 83. Habrá premios.

11/26 — Hockey: LaredoBucks reciben a Texas Bra-hams a las 7:30 p.m. en La-redo Energy Arena.

11/29 — Recital de Es-tudio de Piano de Otoño alas 7:30 p.m. en el RecitalHall del Center for the Fineand Performing Arts de TA-MIU. Entrada gratis.

11/30 — Hockey: LaredoBucks reciben a Arizona SunDogs a las 7 p.m. en LaredoEnergy Arena.

11/30 — ‘Concierto Ve-las de Navidad’ a las 7:30p.m. en la Cantú VeteransMemorial Chapel del Cam-pus Fort McInotsh de LCC,con la participación del Corode TAMIU y del Coro deLCC. Entrada gratuita.

12/01 — Fundación parael Patrimonio del Condadode Webb invita a la exhibi-ción compuesta por las foto-grafías que concursaron enel evento “Historic Laredo”, alas 6 p.m. en el Museo VillaAntigua Border Heritage, 810calle Zaragoza. Igualmentese mostrará el calendariocon las fotografías ganado-ras, mismo que estará a laventa.

12/01 — 10ma. PosadaTradicional Mexicana a las 7p.m., partiendo del jardín enla Biblioteca Yeary en elcampus Fort McIntosh deLaredo Community College.Evento gratuito.

12/01 — 10mo. Concier-to “Guitarras de Navidad” alas 7:30 p.m. en el RecitalHall del Center for the Fineand Performing Arts de TA-MIU. Evento gratuito.

12/02 — “TAMIU Night”es hoy en Laredo EnergyArena. Habrá una fiesta pre-via al juego de las 12 p.m.donde Laredo Bucks recibe aQuad City Mallards. Boletosa 10 dólares para estudian-tes de TAMIU en el aula 229del Student Center de laUniversidad. Parte de las ga-nancias se destinará a orga-nizaciones estudiantiles en laUniversidad.

12/02 — “Concierto LasPosadas” a las 7 p.m. en elCenter for the Fine and Per-forming Arts de TAMIU. Par-ticiparán el Ballet Folklóricoy el Ballet Folklórico Juvenilde TAMIU. Entrada gratuita.

12/02 — “Concierto deTemporada” del Coro Filar-mónico de Laredo y la Or-questa de Cámara de Lare-do, a las 7:30 p.m. en elCenter for the Fine and Per-forming Arts de TAMIU. En-trada gratuita.

12/02 — Norma ElizaQuintero imitará a SelenaQuintanilla junto a la ShowBand de LCC, a las 7:30p.m. en el teatro MartinezFine Arts Center, en el Cam-pus Fort McIntosh de LaredoCommunity College. Entradagratuita.

Agendaen Breve

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 26 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2011

Residentes del Condadode Zapata deseando estu-diar una carrera en servi-cios médicos de emergen-cia o expandir sus conoci-mientos actuales tendránuna oportunidad de hacerloconforme el ProgramaEMS en Laredo Communi-ty College ofrecerá un pro-grama de entrenamiento

especial en la primaveradel 2012.

Por primera vez en suhistoria, el programaEmergency Medical Tech-nician-Paramedic Certifi-cate (Certificado de Para-médico-Técnico en Emer-gencia Médico) seráofrecido fuera de Laredo.

“Estamos extremada-mente emocionados acercade ofrecer este programade un año en el Condado de

Zapata porque podremosotorgar servicios afuera denuestro ambiente usual”,dijo el director del progra-ma de EMS, Manuel Rami-rez. “Esta es una de las me-jores oportunidades queresidentes en el área pue-den obtener porque iremosa donde viven y todo lo queellos tienen que hacer es to-mar ventaja de esta oportu-nidad”.

Las clases se ofrecerán

en martes, jueves y sábadoen el Centro de EducaciónTécnica y Avanzada delCondado de Zapata.

Para ser elegible, los in-teresados deben ser may-ores de 18 años de edad,contar con un diploma depreparatoria o equivalente,y tener una certificaciónvigente de Técnico-Básicoen Emergencias Médicas,de parte del Departamentode Servicios de Salud del

Estado de Texas.El programa también es-

tá abierto a residentes delos condados de Starr yJim Hogg.

El Programa EMS deLCC está acreditado por elDepartamento de Serviciosde Salud del Estado de Tex-as y por el Consejo Coordi-nador de Educación Supe-rior en Texas.

Más información lla-mando al 721-5261.

PROGRAMA INICIARÁ EN PRIMAVERA DEL 2012

LCC certificará paramédicosClases serán tres veces a la semana en Centro de Educación Técnica y Avanzada de Zapata

POR ROGELIO SANCHEZ JRESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Una visita de supervisión de trabajosdel nuevo Centro de Salud y de laJurisdicción Sanitaria No. V, en elsector de instalaciones médicas en

la colonia La Fe, fue realizada por el secretar-io de Salud de Tamaulipas, Norberto TreviñoGarcía Manzo, acompañado del director gen-eral de Desarrollo Social y Humano en NuevoLaredo, México, José Trinidad Vázquez Ló-pez.

El objetivo fue estar pendientes de la edif-icación de este inmueble.

García estuvo en Nuevo Laredo inauguran-do el Centro Integral de Salud Mental (Ci-same), segundo de su tipo en Tamaulipas yrecorriendo las instalaciones del Centro deAtención Primaria a las Adiciones.

El nuevo Centro de Salud y JurisdicciónSanitaria se espera tenga una vida útil de dé-cadas, explicaron los funcionarios.

De la misma manera, García anunció quetambién será puesto en operación el Centrode Rehabilitación Integral y que durante elaño 2012 será construido el Centro Oncológ-ico, con lo que los neolaredenses tendrán unamplio perfil de servicios públicos de salud.

“La salud es factor básico para tener unasociedad fuerte”, dijo García.

El Presidente Municipal, Benjamín GalvánGómez, informó que se espera el edificioentre en funcionamiento a inicios del año en-trante.

Centro OncológicoEn cuanto al Centro Oncológico de Nuevo

Laredo, se dio a conocer que la obra fue lic-itada y adjudicada, por lo que en los próxi-mos meses empezarán los trabajos.

“Esta obra, una vez concluida, apoyará engran medida a quienes padecen la enferme-dad del cáncer”, mencionó Galván Gómez.

El Centro Oncológico, con inversión de casi200 millones de pesos, favorece a los neolare-denses, porque no tendrán que hacer pagoscostosos por las atenciones médicas que ahíse brindarán como las radioterapias y qui-mioterapias, entre otros servicios.

El edificio también se ubicará en la coloniaLa Fe.

De igual forma resaltó que se están si-guiendo muy de cerca los trabajos del Centrode Rehabilitación Integral (CRI), para que seaterminado a la brevedad posible, y empiece abrindar las primeras atenciones a finales deeste año.

Estuvo presente en el recorrido el jefe de laJurisdicción Sanitaria número 5, Jaime Emi-lio Gutiérrez Serrano.

SUPERVISAN TRABAJOS DE LA NUEVA JURISDICCIÓN SANITARIA NO. V

SALUD REGIONAL

De izquierda a derecha, el Jefe de la Jurisdicción Sanitaria No. V, Jaime Emilio Gutiérrez Serrano, el Secretario deSalud en Tamaulipas, Norberto Treviño García Manzo y el director general de Desarrollo Social y Humano en NuevoLaredo, México, José Trinidad Vázquez López, realizaron un recorrido de supervisión por el nuevo Centro de Salud yoficinas de la Jurisdicción.

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Nuevo Laredo

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Las reliquias del BeatoJuan Pablo II visitarán la fron-tera de Tamaulipas a partirdel lunes 28 de noviembre.

“Las reliquias (del latín reli-quiae, que significa ‘restos’) secomponen de una urna decristal que contiene sangre delBeato, así como una bandablanca del Papa con el escudode su Pontificado”, explica unfolleto entregado por la Dióce-sis de Nuevo Laredo, México.

La grey católica de la re-gión recibirá las reliquias delBeato en Nuevo Laredo el 28de noviembre y posterior-mente viajarán a Nueva Cui-dad Guerrero, Ciudad Mier yCiudad Miguel Alemán.

Corresponderá al Obispo dela Diócesis de Nuevo LaredoGustavo Rodríguez Vega reci-birlas el lunes y entregarlas elmartes 29 de noviembre en laDiócesis de Matamoros.

“Las reliquias del BeatoJuan Pablo II nos recuerdan

su mensaje para abrir laspuertas a Cristo y no tenermiedo”, dijo Rodríguez. “Mar-carán un símbolo de paz y es-peranza para esta comuni-dad”.

El párroco Rogelio LozanoAlcorta, de la Diócesis de Nue-vo Laredo, informó que la lle-gada de las reliquias está pro-gramada a las 8 a.m. proce-dentes de Piedras Negras,

Coahuila y llegaráN hasta elatrio de la Catedral del Espír-itu Santo para la celebraciónde una Misa a las 9 a.m.

“El vehiculo donde se trans-portarán se desplazará lenta-mente para permitir a la ciu-dadanía aproximarse a la un-ción”, expuso Lozano.

Las Reliquias que recorrendesde agosto diferentes ciu-dades de México.

RELIGIÓN

Vendrán reliquias de Papa

La figura de cera del Papa Juan Pablo II con las reliquias y una urna con lasangre del ex-Pontífice es vista al centro de la imagen durante su recorridopor la Basílica de Guadalupe en la CIudad de México en agosto. Las reli-quias recorrerán la frontera norte de Tamaulipas a partir del lunes.

Foto por Eduardo Verdugo | Associated Press

POR MIGUEL TIMOSHENKOVTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Patrullaje por tierra y aire llevó a tropasmexicanas a decomisar más de 2 toneladasde marihuana la frontera ribereña de Tamau-lipas, al cruzar Roma, Texas, informaron of-iciales federales el jueves.

Elementos de la Secretaría de la DefensaNacional, asignados a la 8va. Zona Militar,encontraron el contrabando en Ciudad Mi-guel Alemán, México.

La confiscación ocurrió el miércoles cuan-do tropas trabajaban en el Operativo Noreste,una misión para combatir al crimen organi-zado en el norte de Tamaulipas.

Un reporte del Ejército Mexicano no espec-ifica cómo ubicaron el contrabando, pero of-iciales mencionando que confiscaron 518 pa-quetes de marihuana en la municipalidad.

Un reporte agrega que la marihuana pesa-ba 2.09 toneladas o 4,604.57 libras. Oficialesfederales indicaron que la cantidad pudierahaber producidor 1, 044,300 dosis. Hay una in-vestigación en proceso al respecto.

(Localice a César G. Rodriguez en el 728-2568 o en cesar@lmtonline.com)

MIGUEL ALEMÁN

Descubrencontrabando

POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

AUSTIN — State figuresshow a more than three-fold increase in just oneyear in the number of ele-mentary schools allowedto exceed class-size limitsin Texas, one of the mostvisible signs of the bigeducation funding cutsthat the Legislaturepassed to balance the bud-get, a newspaper reportedFriday.

Figures obtained byThe Dallas Morning Newsshow that state officialsallowed cash-strappedpublic school districts toexceed the 22-student lim-it in 6,988 classrooms fromkindergarten throughfourth grade, up from2,238 a year ago.

Larger classes are a factof life this year at 1,360campuses, nearly 30 per-cent of all elementaryschools in the state. Morethan 150,000 students aredirectly affected.

“We are clearly seeingthe impact of the budgetcuts this year,” said Deb-bie Ratcliffe, a spokeswo-man for the Texas Educa-tion Agency, which ap-proved the vast majorityof class size waiverssought. “School districtscan save some money inthe short term by increas-ing their class sizes, andthat is what many havefelt compelled to do.”

Ratcliffe said there arealso reports of largerclasses in other grades,but that school districtsare not required to getpermission to put morestudents in classes ingrades five through 12.

Most districts cited fi-nancial hardship, a newcategory of exemptionthat was approved alongwith the funding cuts.While state funding cutswere taking effect, lowerproperty tax revenue alsowas a factor, the newspa-per reported.

Critics of the class sizelaw sought changes fromthe Legislature this yearthat would have allowedmore students in elemen-tary classes to save money.They contend that a fewmore students per classwon’t harm learning.

A report from Comp-troller Susan Combs esti-mated school districts andthe state could save $558million a year by switch-ing to an “average” classsize of 22 students — orup to 25 per class.

The Texas State Teach-ers Association said thesurge in class size exemp-tions “represents a seri-ous erosion of educationalquality standards” in thepublic schools.

Ratcliffe said most dis-tricts are adding no morethan a few students perclass, although districtsare not restricted on howmany students they canadd once they get a statewaiver. They also do nothave to report those in-creases.

Lawmakers backedaway from a change in theclass size requirement inthe face of fierce opposi-tion from teachers andDemocrats, but theyopened the door to thenew financial hardshipexception when theyslashed education fundingby $2 billion a year overthe next two years.

An additional $1.4 bil-lion in state grants alsowas eliminated in the newbudget, as lawmakerssought to close a huge rev-enue shortfall withoutraising taxes.

School districts sawtheir funding cut by an av-erage of 3.3 percent thisyear, and many districts— including Dallas andseveral others in NorthTexas — face decreases ofup to 8.6 percent nextyear.

When he signed the leg-islation that included thefunding decreases lastsummer, Texas Gov. RickPerry said he and law-makers “followed the di-rection laid out by votersand balanced our budgetby prioritizing and reduc-ing spending without rais-ing taxes.”

The class size exemp-tions are good for oneyear, and districts willhave to reapply for the2012-13 school year. Withmany districts facing evenlarger funding reductionsnext year, the number ofclassrooms with morethan 22 students is expect-ed to increase.

Class-sizewaivers have

tripledASSOCIATED PRESS

“School districtscan save somemoney in the short term by increasingtheir classsizes, and that is what many have felt compelledto do.”TEXAS EDUCATIONAGENCY SPOKESWOMANDEBBIE RATCLIFFE

AUSTIN — Restorationexperts working onthe Texas Governor’sMansion have turnedto a couple of Austin

homes built by the same 1850scontractor to find somethingclose to the original pine floorsthat burned in a fire at the his-toric home three years ago.

Dealey Herndon, project man-ager for the State PreservationBoard, said no one’s sure whatthe original floors looked like be-fore they were sanded and refin-ished. The mansion officiallyopened in 1856.

“There are no photos,” Hern-don told the Austin AmericanStatesman. “We know the sub-floor (a second floor beneath thetop layer) is original. The housemay not have had anything otherthan the subfloor originally. Wejust don’t know.”

What’s certain is the floorswere made of Bastrop pine. And,according to a letter then-Gov. El-isha Pease wrote to his wife,were covered by oilcloth.

Herndon says flooring examin-ed at two other homes from thesame period built by Abner Cookhad random-width boards. Sothat’s what’s going in at the gov-ernor’s house, the oldest execu-tive mansion still in use west ofthe Mississippi. The boards thenwill be covered with historic car-pets.

The $26 million project is ex-pected to be completed next sum-mer, four years after the home

was the target of a still unknownarsonist.

The outside work is expectedto be done within a week. Al-ready, scaffolding has been com-ing down from the six toweringwhite columns on the frontporch. Decorations atop the col-umns sustained heavy damagefrom flames.

Herndon said the work has un-covered some hidden gems, in-cluding a basement pocket thatheld an empty champagne bottlefrom the early 1900s and tinyclosets that had been hidden bybookcases in upstairs bedrooms.She believes the closets may havebeen the work of Sam Houston,who was governor just before theCivil War.

“They were very shallow, just

big enough for some hooks tohang clothes on,” she said. “As amother, if I had eight kids andfour bedrooms like the Houstonsdid, I’d want someplace for themto hang their clothes.”

The approximate age of theclosets was confirmed by theoriginal baseboards and trimwood found inside walls.

Besides the restoration work,the project includes modern up-grades like geothermal heatingand cooling and solar panels toheat water. Also, 1,500 square feethave been added in bedroom,kitchen and living space.

Renovation of the mansion be-gan in 2007, and Gov. Rick Perryand his wife weren’t living therewhen the fire was set a year lat-er.

This Nov. 22 photo shows the restored columns at the Texas Governor’s Mansion in Austin. Restoration experts have turned to acouple of Austin homes built by the same 1850s contractor as models for the flooring.

Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman | AP

Experts work to recreateGovernor’s Mansion floors

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dealey Herndon, 64, who is the site manager for the 155-year-old governor’s man-sion shows off the main entry way and one of the two parlors on the first floor onThursday. The mansion is about six months away from being ready for the Gov. RickPerry to move back in.

Photo by Jonny Hanson/Houston Chronical | AP

AUSTIN — A federalcourt is refusing to blocka congressional redistrict-ing map it drew up forTexas after minoritygroups challenged theoriginal Republican-backed plan.

Texas Attorney GeneralGreg Abbott had askedthe San Antonio-basedcourt to stay the imple-mentation of its map,which would ensure mi-norities made up the ma-jority in three additionalTexas congressional dis-tricts for the 2012 election.

Turned downThe court turned down

the request Friday eve-ning. Abbott plans to ap-

peal to the U.S. SupremeCourt.

The court drew themaps after minoritygroups sued, claiming aredistricting plan devisedby the Republican-con-trolled Texas Legislaturedidn’t reflect growth inthe state’s Hispanic andblack populations.

In a court filing earlierFriday, Abbott accused thecourt of interfering withthe work of the Legisla-ture and “underminingthe democratic process.”

Abbott accusesUS court

of interferingBy WILL WEISSERTASSOCIATED PRESS Abbott plans to

appeal to theU.S. SupremeCourt.

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

dents to deposit tires, vol-unteers took the initiativeto “go into the woods” asTreviño put it and collecttires dumped illegally. Untilthis event, illegal and envi-ronmentally unsound dis-carding of tires was unad-dressed in Zapata. The re-cent attention paid to theissue came about after theTexas Commission on En-vironmental Quality(TCEQ) sent inspectors tomonitor a lift station sew-age spill, said Pct. 1 Com-missioner Jose Vela.

“TCEQ went ahead andcited (the county),” Velasaid, adding that the scraptires were seen as an ancil-lary problem. Treviño andthe county commissionersnegotiated with TCEQ andthe two parties came to anagreement: Zapata Countywould undergo a concertedenvironmental remediationeffort, and the costs in-curred through that effortwould be credited towardsthe amount of the fine.

“We decided somethingneeds to be done about thetires. We have tires all overthe place,” Vela said. “Sowe set aside these two daysfor people to pile up thetires, and we’ll pay a com-

pany to come in and recy-cle them.”

According to Vela, thecounty hasn’t yet deter-mined which company willtake on the tires.

Vela was unsure of thefine amount, and represen-tatives from TCEQ wereunavailable Friday due tothe Thanksgiving holiday.Treviño, however, estimat-ed that the sheer amount oftires means the disposalcosts incurred by the coun-ty should meet or even ex-ceed the TCEQ fine.

The TCEQ Border Initia-tive lists tire waste as “pri-ority issue” that “poses asignificant threat to humanhealth and air quality.” Infact, TCEQ’s website lists itas a participant in the U.S.-Mexico Tire Initiative Col-laborative Effort, a projectinvolving the Environmen-tal Protection Agency.

“It’s a big issue here onthe border and an issue ve-ry close to me,” said VictorOliveros, former chief ofenvironmental health ser-vices for Laredo. Oliverosalso actively participates inthe Rio Grande Interna-tional Study Center. He’sdealt with the issue ofscrap tires in both capaci-

ties for years.“It started in 1997. Up un-

til that year, the state ofTexas was in the businessof regulating the recyclingof tires,” he said. “Whenyou went to Sears or Fire-stone and bought new tires,the company charged you a$5 dollar recycling fee, andthe state made sure thosetires were properly recy-cled. That stopped in ’97.

“They can resell them tojobbers, people who goaround and buy used tiresfor resale. Many people seeMexico as a market forused tires. So, other states’tires head to the border.”

While some are, in fact,sold into Mexico, far toomany end up dumped inborder towns like Laredoand Zapata, Oliveros ex-plained. The rate at whichall Americans generate tirewaste only adds to theproblem.

“We generate one wastetire per person per year,”added Oliveros. “If theUnited States has 30 mil-lion people, that’s 30 mil-lion tires. Some of thatheads to the Mexican bor-der.”

Besides simply being un-sightly, scrap tires provide

mosquitoes with idealbreeding grounds due totheir shape.

“When water gets intothe tire because of rain orhowever,” Oliveros ex-plained, “it is very hard toget out. You can roll a tire,you can flip it, and the wa-ter will stay in it. You real-ly have to scoop water outof a tire to make sure youget it out.”

The water attracts mos-quitoes, which spawn anew generation every fiveto seven days. These newmosquitoes can becomevectors for viruses, whichthey transmit throughtheir saliva when they feedoff a person. Dengue andWest Nile are among themost common and danger-ous viruses often attributedto water-borne mosquitoes.

“We had isolated inci-dents in Laredo and NuevoLaredo,” said Oliveros.“But the problem is veryreal.”

The best way to disposeof tires, he said, is to takethem to a landfill with tire-crushing capabilities, hesaid.

(Mike Herrera IV can bereached at 728-2567 ormherrera@lmtonline.com)

TIRES Continued from Page 1A

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Oscar Gutierrez, 100, along-time resident of Zapa-ta County, passed awayWednesday, Nov. 16, 2011.

He was born in Guerre-ro Viejo, Mexico, on Dec. 6,1910. His family lineagetraces to the original set-tlers of Old Zapata andGuerrero Viejo. Mr. Gutier-rez was a well-knownrancher, entrepreneur, de-voted son, brother and un-cle to his beloved family.

Throughout his life, hetreasured the company ofhis many friends by shar-ing memorable experienc-es and insightful conversa-tions at his San BartoloRanch on the banks of theRio Grande and partakingin authentic South Texaslunches and dinners at hisbusiness and homes. Hewas exceptionally talentedin reciting by memory po-ems and passages in Span-ish, followed by listening toa friend or a family mem-ber play the piano, violinor guitar.

He lived through theGreat Depression of the1920s and 1930s with tre-mendous fortitude and pos-sessed a creative zest of en-trepreneurship, always fo-cusing on providing for thewell being of his familythrough ranching, the res-taurant business and otherfamily real-estate ventures.His work ethic was admi-rable, with his days begin-ning at the crack of dawnand continuing until sun-set. He also served as amentor to his ranch handsand business employees,teaching them the tools ofthe trade and sharing hislife experiences during themost dramatic transforma-tion of the world as weknow it today. Oscar joyful-ly left us to join his Makerand his departed familyand friends in the King-dom of Heaven.

His memory will becherished by his sister,Amanda G. (†Roy) Rash;and numerous nieces, ne-

phews, cousins, andfriends.

He is preceded in deathby his parents: Carlos andAna Chapa Gutierrez;brothers: Eloy (†FelicidadG.), Dennis and Sergio Gu-tierrez; and sisters: Blanca(†Salvador) Garcia, Sacra-mento (†Juan Esteban)Garcia, Gloria (†Flavio)Gonzalez and Ana Iris Gu-tierrez.

The family would alsolike to thank his loyal anddevoted caregivers, DavidMata and Raul Marquez,and good friends, DanielPerez and Mario Martinez.

Visitation hours wereheld Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011,at 8 a.m. at Rose GardenFuneral Home.

The funeral processiondeparted at 9:45 a.m. for a10 a.m. funeral Mass atOur Lady of Lourdes Cath-olic Church.

Committal services fol-lowed at Zapata CountyCemetery.

In lieu of flowers, dona-tions can be made to OurLady of Lourdes CatholicChurch or any charity ofyour choice.

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

OSCAR GUTIERREZ

SAN YGNACIO — Cap-tain Francisco Botello,55, passed away Wednes-day, Nov. 16, 2011, at Lare-do Medical Center in La-redo, Texas.

Captain Botello is pre-ceded in death by hisparents: Humberto andPaula J. Botello.

Captain Botello is sur-vived by his brothers:Humberto Jr. (Martha)Botello and Andres(Vicky) Botello; sisters:Adriana Botello, MariaAlejandra Botello, Mari-cela B. Hernandez andLourdes Botello; and bynumerous nieces, neph-ews and many friends.

Captain Botello served25 years with ZapataCounty Fire Departmentand rose to the rank ofcaptain.

Visitation hours wereheld Thursday, Nov. 17,2011, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.with a rosary at 7 p.m. atRose Garden FuneralHome.

The funeral processiondeparted Friday, Nov. 17,2011, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10a.m. funeral Mass at Mis-sion Nuestra Señora DelRefugio in San Ygnacio,

Texas. Committal servic-es followed at Uribe Cem-etery in San Ygnacio,Texas.

Condolences may besent to the family atwww.rosegardenfuneral-home.com.

Funeral arrangementswere under the directionof Rose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonza-lez, funeral director, 2102U.S. 83, Zapata, Texas.

FRANCISCO BOTELLO

Mr. Valentin G. Medina,79, entered into eternal restNov. 18, 2011, surroundedby his loving family, aswell as his nurse, Liza Ra-mirez.

He was born in SanMarcos, Texas, to Leandroand Leonor Medina. Mostof his education was inSan Marcos, where heearned his bachelor of sci-ence degree at SouthwestTexas State College. Laterhe earned his master ofarts degree at the Universi-ty of North Texas in Den-ton, Texas.

Mr. Medina served inthe United States Armyduring the Korean Conflict,1952-1954. He was stationedin Seattle, Washington, as aguided missile instructor.He came to teach at ZapataISD in 1957 and retired as acounselor in 1991.

Mr. Medina is precededin death by his parents:Leandro and Leonor G.Medina; parents-in-law: To-mas and Amelia G. Rami-rez; sister-in-law, Ada Ra-mirez; and nephews, EdgarRamirez and Ricky Rami-rez.

Mr. Medina is survivedby his wife of 50 years, An-ita Ramirez-Medina; son,Valentin (Karrie Yaeger)Medina, Jr.; grandchildren:Valentin “Trey” Medina IIIand Marissa Nicole Medi-na; brother, Gilbert Medi-na; sisters: Oralia “Lala”(Domingo) Tobias and Jo-sie (Inocencio) Cantu;brothers-in-law: Tomas(Selfi) Ramirez and Lean-dro (Lourdes) Ramirez;and numerous nieces, ne-phews and cousins.

Honorary pallbearerswere: Leobardo Martinez,

Raul Vasquez, JuventinoFlores, Jaime Gonzalez andAlvaro Vela.

Pallbearers were: Valen-tin “Trey” Medina III, An-thony Tobias, Robert To-bias, Tommy Ramirez,Marcos Ramirez, EddieGracia, Tommy Uribe andGilbert Medina.

Visitation hours wereheld Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011,from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with arosary at 7 p.m. at RoseGarden Funeral Home.

The funeral processiondeparted Monday, Nov. 21,2011, at 9:45 a.m. for a 10a.m. funeral Mass at OurLady of Lourdes CatholicChurch.

Burial services followedat Zapata County Cemetery,including full military hon-ors by the American Le-gion Post 486 Color Guard.

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

VALENTIN G. MEDINA

of the border.“I would welcome any re-

sources and equipment thatwould help us to be morevigilant along the border,”he said. “And if it’s equip-ment that would providesupport, I would welcome itwith open arms.”

Salinas has also had tofend off allegations that hiscity is as violent as its Mex-ican counterpart, NuevoLaredo, in Tamaulipas. Infact, data from the FederalBureau of Investigationshows that El Paso and La-redo are among the safestcities of their respective siz-es in the country.

Poe said there is no re-quirement that local andstate agencies accept theequipment. He said sixHumvees previously usedby the military are alreadyoperating in six South Tex-as counties.

“They are better than

chasing somebody in aCrown Victoria in someparts of Texas,” Poe said.“We got this equipment, it’sAmerican equipment, andit was used to secure Iraq.Now why not use it to se-cure the southern border?”

Poe’s proposal is likely todraw bipartisan supportfrom two other Texas con-gressmen, Reps. HenryCuellar, D-Laredo, and Mi-chael McCaul, R-Austin.

Cuellar says recycling theequipment does not consti-tute militarizing the border,which he says is not in thecountry’s best interest.

“If you send personnelout there to militarize theborder, that’s one thing,” hesaid. “But if you use tax-payers’ technology that hasbeen used in one environ-ment” and ask whether itcan be used in a differentenvironment like the bor-der, “the answer is yes.”

WAR GEAR Continued from Page 1A

shop, so I ate, slept andthen came,” said AlmaGutierrez.

Gutierrez, who woke be-fore the crack of dawn forBlack Friday, admits thatwhile her time spent withfamily had its drawbacksin the eyes of hardcoreBlack Friday shoppers, ithas its advantages, too.

She detailed a gameplan her family createdaround the dining room.

“We’ll go through adsand then decide how we’regoing to split up,” Gutier-rez said.

“You have to know whatyou’re looking for. Wemight be late, but wewon’t waste more time(browsing).”

Meanwhile, some peoplewere still reeling fromshopping thrills.

“It’s fun,” said MichaelPerez, who, unlike Floresand Gutierrez, had beenup since 4 a.m. and con-tinued to trudge onwardsix hours later.

Perez, accompanied byhis girlfriend, had hitmore than four retailersalready.

Though their tit-for-tatmethod has left the coupleexhausted, with him hit-ting one store for items onhis wish list and then do-ing the same for her, hemaintained they haveplenty to show for their ef-forts.

Arriving at one store,

Perez said they’d “hit” it,then call it a day.

“(There’s) no point any-more,” he said. “A lot ofthe good stuff is gone.”

When asked what hisgame plan was, he saidthat while they had whatthey wanted in mind, ifthey saw something theyliked, they didn’t hesitatebefore grabbing.

People get nasty whenthey’re looking, he said,echoing the advice ofmany Black Friday shop-pers: Get in, get what youwant and get out.

“It’s a challenge. Youneed to be up for it,” saidJonathan Reyes.

Reyes said teamwork,communication, patienceand persistence are BlackFriday shopping necessi-ties.

“Ask questions, too.Sometimes they’ll moveitems that you were usedto being in a certain area.If that happens, just asksomeone who worksthere.”

“Also, snacks,” he said,laughing, explaining thatit’s easy to get tired outand hungry, especially ifyou’re going from store tostore.

Tips from Black Fridayveterans aside, all shop-pers had a similar goal.

“Don’t lose your cool,”Reyes said, adding that hesaw more than his shareof heated arguments.

SHOPPING Continued from Page 1A

dents they think are eitherdrug traffickers who stashcash in their homes, or im-migrants, particularly fromAsia or the Middle East,who run small, cash-basedbusinesses.

“These guys are violentcriminals,” said FranceskaPerot, a spokeswoman forthe Bureau of Alcohol, To-bacco, Firearms and Explo-sives. “You see them nowmore prepared — skimasks, zip ties (handcuffs),firearms. They basicallyhave a plan when they gointo these homes.”

Usually the criminalshave a tip from someonewho is in the home or hasbeen there.

The attackers are said tohope their victims are athome so they can intimi-date them into handing overdrugs or cash instead ofwasting time tearing intowalls or tossing furniture.

The ATF has arrestedmultiple teams of invaders,often specialists with repu-tations for helping disgrun-tled traffickers attack rivalsor former partners.

Former Houston drugdealer Rogelio Gonzalez tes-tified during a trial thisyear that home invaders dis-guised as police barged intohis residence and pistol-whipped him in front of histerrified family.

Invasions occur regularly,and authorities concede

they don’t know about all ofthem. In break-ins wherenobody is hurt and a drugdealer gets ripped off, no-body calls police.

Complicating matters isthat attackers could targetthe wrong person or ad-dress.

Investigators have provid-ed few details about the re-cent attacks, including theone just before midnightThursday when Trieu QuocNguyen, 33, was shot todeath. Nguyen’s brotherheard a commotion andgunshots in the front of thehouse, and after finding thebody, fled with two smallchildren to call police.

On Nov. 17, a gunmanshot off the finger of a boy,about 7 years old, while at-tacking a home.

The father, who was shotfour times, opened fire onthe attackers, sending themscurrying into the street.They fled in a mini-van asthe father shot out the win-dows and hit at least one ofthe men, authorities said.

The little boy seemed inshock over his finger. Priorto being loaded into an am-bulance, he kept asking fora Band-Aid so he could goto school.

Neighbors said the familykept to themselves. Uponmoving in several monthsago, neighbors said, thefamily put up a reinforceddoor and covered windows.

HOME Continued from Page 1A

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

While another Thanks-giving is in the books,family and friends still

gather in gratefulness and cele-brate another year for BlackFriday.

It’s the one day every yearwhen millions of consumersprepare like athletes before achampionship with plans to de-sign and maximize their timeand conquer every sale.

Black Friday’s markdownsmake people’s head spin withthe best bargains of the year.

Who wouldn’t want an Ipadfor $150 or a laptop for $100?

Every shopper hopes andprays that they are one of thelucky few to get their hands ona deal as doors open in the weehours of the morning.

What stores fail to mentionexcept for the fine print, is thatonly have a select number ofitems per store can be sold, de-spite thousands of people wait-ing outside.

People get crazy and deviseplans to get the merchandise oftheir dreams. Grandma takesthe toy department, while UncleEddie handles the electronicsand video games, meanwhilemom take on the clothes.

Ready. Set. Go!Shoppers review and orga-

nize like a sports team beforethey hit the floor.

They make sure everyone ontheir team is on the same pagebecause, after all, this is theirone get one.

I can honestly say that I havenever been to a Black Fridaysale, and never plan to becauseof all the craziness that is asso-ciated with it.

While everyone’s eyes burnedfrom Black Friday’s rising sun,I was snuggled in my bed allwarm, comfortable, and dream-ing.

Others were ready for themad dash on their holiday lists,running through stores as ifthey were the streets of Pamplo-na during the running of thebulls.

This Black Friday startedseveral years ago as a way tokickoff the Christmas shoppingseason. During PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt’ reign inthe 1930’s, he moved Thanksgiv-ing to the third Thursday of No-vember to give merchants anextra week of shopping. After abig controversy, the governmentfinally stepped in to make it the

Darkestday of

the yearBlack Friday takesover everywhere

See SANDOVAL PAGE 2B

IRVING — The DallasCowboys did everything ex-pected from them in No-vember. They played fourgames and won them all.

They didn’t exactly getbetter as they went along,and they didn’t exactly facethe toughest foes in thetoughest circumstances. Yetthey always found a way towin, and there’s somethingto be said about that.

It remains to be seenwhether this group led byTony Romo, DeMarcusWare and rookie sensationsDeMarco Murray and DanBailey can consistently beat

winning teams in high-stakes games. But the bot-tom line on this recentsurge is that they’ve putthemselves in position tofind out.

The Cowboys (7-4) willhead into the final fiveweeks of the season atopthe NFC East. They’ll ei-ther be tied with the Giantsor a game ahead of them,depending on what happenswhen New York plays inNew Orleans on Mondaynight.

“We needed to get go-ing,” Romo said. “We hadsome tough losses earlier inthe year, and we were in po-sition to win some games.At some point you’ve got to

get on a roll and stack thewins together. Getting thesefour wins was very big.”

Dallas and New York stillhave two meetings left, in-cluding the finale on theroad on New Year’s Day.The Cowboys’ other threegames are all against teamswith losing records, butnone are gimmes. They’llbe on the road against Ari-zona and Tampa Bay, andboth are .500 at home, andthey will play host to Phila-delphia on Christmas Eve.

The Eagles were the lastteam to beat the Cowboys,and they spanked them 34-7in the most lopsided loss of

NFL

Dallas Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman (41) and outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware (94) centerright, celebrate in front of Frank Walker (25), Victor Butler (57), Sean Lee (50) and Jay Ratliff, right,against the Miami Dolphins on Thursday in Arlington. The Cowboys won 20-19.

Photo by Matt Strasen | AP

Cowboys cruise with winsBy JAIME ARON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See COWBOYS PAGE 2B

DETROIT — For the firstseason-and-a-half of his youngcareer, Ndamukong Suh couldalmost brush off talk about his

penalties and fines, saying hewould keep doing what wasneeded to help his Detroit Li-ons.

On Thursday, Suh was pub-licly apologizing to his team-mates after he was ejected

from a loss to Green Bay.It could be several days be-

fore Suh finds out the true costof his third-quarter stomp inDetroit’s 27-15 loss to the Pack-ers on Thanksgiving. An NFLspokesman said Friday that

plays from Week 12 looked atfor potential discipline won’tbe reviewed until all games arecompleted.

Detroit coach Jim Schwartz

NFL

Suh stomping waits for rulingDetroit’s polarizing defensive lineman waits for NFL decision, punishment after ejection

By NOAH TRISTERASSOCIATED PRESS

See SUH PAGE 2B

The basketball season has ar-rived and the Zapata Hawksare trying to find the rightcombination to garner anoth-er trip to the 3A state playoffs.

After last May’s graduation robbedthe Hawks of their entire staring lineupand bench — 14 players total — Zapatahas to build the team from the upcomingjunior varsity.

Coach Juan Villarreal faces the daunt-ing task of constructing the Hawks intoa playoff team, with things looking grimat the moment. Zapata has yet break intothe win column through three tries, al-though, the team is showing sparks andheading in the right direction, just as heenvisioned.

The Hawks flourished in the past un-der Villarreal’s watchful eye, makingseveral trips to the playoffs, includinglast year’s run ending in the first round,and this year will test him because ofthe lack of experience.

“We have no returning letterman andno one from last year’s team,” Villarrealsaid. “Added into all that, we have no ex-perience, but we will be working hardeveryday in practice.”

Villarreal is counting on the leader-ship of junior Danny Chapa and sopho-more Alonzo Gutierrez, both have addedstability with their play the past fewweeks.

“The experience will come with eachpassing game, but the team needs to be-come a little more confident,” Villarrealsaid. “They need to believe in them-selves and do what the coaching staffasks them to do.”

Villarreal is banking his team’s suc-cess on its uncanny speed and he seeshow deadly they can be in the opencourt, especially when the ball getskicked out to the guards by the big men.

The Hawks fly when in the open courtand get the easy basket, but those transi-tion points must come consistently, and,with time, Villarreal feels that Zapatacan make that aspect benefit the team.

“We have a lot of speed and we need to

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Learning to fly

Zapata’s Hawks play for another playoff run, although they feature inexperience. They look to learnas they go in a competitive district with Rio Hondo, Port Isabel, La Feria, and PSJA Southwest.

Photo by Danny Zaragoza | The Zapata Times

Hawks searchfor early form

By CLARA SANDOVALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See HAWKS PAGE 2B

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

fourth Thursday.The most desperate peo-

ple to make sure securetheir desires, they evencamp out nights before.

I enjoy camping, theoutdoors and wouldn’thesitate to pitch a tent atGardner Sate Park on aweekend, but there’s noway I’d pitch a tent in theconcrete jungle for a flat

screen television.This year some stores

opened at midnight for aheadstart, while othersare encouraging CyberMonday sales on the inter-net.

That’s a day for me be-cause it’s within the com-fort of my home and nophysical fights break outover the last of anything.

SANDOVAL Continued from Page 1B

maximize it,” he said.“Right now our recordmight not show it but weare still getting acquaintedwith each other but we willget there.”

The Hawks utilize theirspeed on defense to pres-sure opponents by play in-their-face defense.

“When the fourth quar-ter comes around we wantto be the team that is run-ning up and down thecourt,” he said.

Villarreal also noted theHawks haven’t put all fourquarters together, stayingin the games through thefirst three, but fall apart inthe last quarter.

“Right now we are play-ing 2 ½ quarters that arereally good but have notput together a full game.We are not there yet,” hesaid. “During the gameagainst Mission last Tues-day we were tied in thethird quarter and then fellapart.

“We just need to playfour quarters.”

The Hawks boast heightwith four athletes toweringtaller than six feet. Villar-real plans to exploit thatadvantage.

“We have some good sizedown low on the block witha couple of six footers,” hesaid. “We are just trying tosee how we can rotate themin. Right now we a playing

with four guards and a bigman down low.”

The Hawks hit the floorwith Chapa, Gutierrez, Pe-pi Martinez and Ricky So-lis, but look to add anotheringredient.

The shooting aspect ofthe game has challengedZapata, as they’ve yet tofind a rhythm in games.

“Our shooting is no-where near where we wantit to be, but we will getthere,” Villarreal said.

To prepare for the brutaldistrict season, Villarrealmade sure his preseasonopponents would test histeam to create some posi-tive results by season’s end.

Villarreal scheduledgames with Mission and anappearance in the LaredoBorder Olympics tourna-ment opening with LaredoNixon.

“We have a tough presea-son,” Villareal said. “I amhoping that playing allthese tough teams can helpus when the district seasonrolls around.”

The Hawks biggestthreats in district are RioHondo, who return every-one from last year’s team,Port Isabel, who only lostthree seniors, La Feria,who has everyone back,and PSJA Southwest.

(Clara Sandoval can bereached at sandoval.cla-ra@gmail.com)

HAWKS Continued from Page 1B

coach Jason Garrett’s ten-ure. Philadelphia also iscoming off a victory overthe Giants and could beback in the division race bythen.

Thus, it all comes back tohow Dallas plays down thestretch. Do well, and theCowboys will make theplayoffs. Struggle, andthey’ll give Garrett andowner-GM Jerry Jones abetter idea of which playersare and aren’t keepers in2012 and beyond.

“We’re trying not to thinkof it in the overall big-pic-ture yet,” Romo said. “It’sstrictly about the week-to-week and the process. ... Atthe end of the year, thosethings will add up andthat’s what will be talkedabout.”

Romo laughed as he saidthat, admitting he was par-roting some of Garrett’s petphrases. He knows that overthe three-day weekend —the reward for havingplayed three times in 12days — everyone will beanalyzing how far they’vecome and what they haveleft to return to the playoffsafter a bottoming-out seasonlast year.

“We’ll come back to workon Monday and hopefullyeverybody gets a chance todecompress a little bit, takea breath, get refreshed andready to go and we’ll get ...going again,” Garrett said.

The Cowboys wouldn’t bein such great shape withoutthe emergence of Murrayand Bailey.

Murray was a third-round pick who was expect-ed to help complement FelixJones. The lockout and ahamstring injury slowedhim so much that whenJones went out with an in-jury, Dallas didn’t immedi-ately hand him the job.Then he ran for 253 yards ina game he didn’t start andthere was no doubt theyhad a special player.

Dallas is 5-1 since Murraybecame the featured runner.He’s gained 761 yards overthose six games, which ismore than NFL rushingking Emmitt Smith, fellowHall of Famer Tony Dorsettor any other Cowboys run-ning back has ever had.

Against Miami on Thurs-day, he showed he can be acloser, the kind of guy whogrinds out yards and burnsthe clock even when every-one knows that he’s coming.On five straight carries, hegained between 3 and 9yards. He nearly broke oneof those into a longer gainbut had the presence ofmind to fall down in boundsrather than risk gettingshoved out of bounds andstopping the clock.

“I’m still growing,” Mur-ray said.

Bailey won a preseasonkicking competition that in-cluded a fellow rookie, theincumbent and two veter-ans. But he didn’t exactlywin the job outright as in-cumbent David Buehler waskept for kickoffs and rookieKai Forbath went on thenon-football injury list, giv-ing Dallas a pair of optionsjust in case.

Buehler is now on injuredreserve and Forbath isn’tlikely to get a chance here.

Bailey has made 26straight field goals, one shyof matching the club recordand 12 more than any roo-kie in NFL history. The lasttwo games ended with himmaking a field goal, andhe’s won four games thisseason with a kick in the fi-nal 2 minutes of regulationor in overtime. No kicker inNFL history had ever donethat more than three times.

“Knock on wood, he’sbeen pretty automatic,”Garrett said. “He’s a veryconsistent guy, both in hispersonality and his temper-ament. ... He seems to goout there and kick itthrough the pipes everytime we ask him to do it.”

That’s what the Cowboyshave done for the lastmonth. They pulled awayfrom Seattle in the secondhalf, crushed Buffalo andeeked out wins over Wash-ington and Miami. The Red-skins and Dolphins eachhave only three wins, soconsider that a potentialwarning sign.

Or maybe it’s a sign of ateam that simply does whatit takes to win.

The answer will be re-vealed over the next fiveweeks.

COWBOYS Continued from Page 1B

was curt after Thursday’sdefeat when asked if hewas worried about a pos-sible suspension.

“I’m worried about los-ing this game,” Schwartzsaid.

Suh was dismissed af-ter tangling with Packersoffensive lineman EvanDietrich-Smith. After be-ing pushed off Dietrich-Smith, Suh stepped downhard with his right foot,appearing to make con-tact with Dietrich-Smith’sright arm.

Suh said he was tryingto keep his balance whilefreeing himself from thebrief scuffle. He apol-ogized to teammates,coaches and fans for “al-lowing the refs to have anopportunity to take meout of this game,” but heinsisted he didn’t inten-tionally step on anyone.

“People are going tohave their own opinions— that’s fine,” he said.“The only (people) that Ireally care about are myteammates, my true fansand my coaches and theiropinions, and that’swhere it lies. And honest-ly, the most importantperson in this wholething that I have to dealwith is the man up-stairs.”

In less than two sea-sons as a pro, Suh has es-tablished himself as oneof the game’s strongestand most athletic defen-sive linemen, but he’s al-so received his share offines.

Suh requested and re-ceived a meeting earlierthis month with Commis-sioner Roger Goodell todiscuss his play. He saidthat dialogue was helpful,but now the league willhave to decide whether

more discipline is merit-ed after he was ejected onnational television.

New York Jets coachRex Ryan came up withone tongue-in-cheek solu-tion Friday.

“I’ll be honest withyou, I think the youngman, he should be re-leased ... and come to theJets,” Ryan joked. “I’mjust throwing that outthere. I don’t think he’sthat good of a player. Idon’t know about the in-cident and all that jazz,but we’ll take him. We’llsacrifice that way.”

Ryan then turned a lit-tle more serious.

“I don’t even knowwhat to say on it,” Ryansaid. “You’ve seen thingslike that happen on thefield before. It’s an emo-tional game.”

In 2006, Albert Haynes-

worth, then with the Ten-nessee Titans, was sus-pended five games afterswiping his cleats acrossthe head of helmetlessDallas center Andre Gu-rode. Suh’s stomp wasn’ttoward Dietrich-Smith’shead, and the Green Bayplayer didn’t seem toomuch worse for wear.

When asked afterwardwhere Suh stepped onhim, Dietrich-Smithsounded like he didn’twant to stir the pot.

“I have no idea,” hesaid. “I have to watch thetape.”

If Suh is suspendedearly next week, he wouldhave a chance to keepplaying pending any ap-peal — but that appealsprocess can be expedited.Detroit plays at New Or-leans on Dec. 4.

The NFL moved that

game to prime time, a re-flection of the buzz sur-rounding the improvedLions this season. Led byyoung stars Suh, Mat-thew Stafford and CalvinJohnson, Detroit won itsfirst five games, but theLions have since lost fourof six.

Defensive backs LouisDelmas, Chris Houstonand Brandon McDonaldwent down with injuriesagainst the Packers, andso did running back Ke-vin Smith. If the Lionsare without Suh for anextended period, it couldhurt them in the playoffrace.

“He plays aggressive.All of us, sometimes,might overreact in cer-tain situations,” Detroitdefensive lineman CliffAvril said. “We’ve got toplay real smart.”

SUH Continued from Page 1B

Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh (90) talks with head coach Jim Schwartz during thethird quarter against the Green Bay Packers after being ejected in Detroit on Thursday.

Photo by Carlos Osorio | AP

TULSA, Okla. — Case Keenumthrew for 457 yards and five touch-downs, Patrick Edwards had 181yards receiving and four scores andNo. 8 Houston earned a spot in theConference USA championshipgame by beating Tulsa 48-16 on Fri-day.

The Cougars (12-0, 8-0) set aschool season record by winningtheir 12th game. The 12 straightwins also match the school’s longestwinning streak, set over the 1990and ’91 seasons.

If they can make it 13 in a row inthe C-USA title game at home onDec. 3, against either Southern Mis-sissippi or Marshall, the Cougarswill earn their first BCS bid and be-come from first team from the con-ference to play in the Bowl Cham-pionship Series.

Keenum helped Houston pullaway by hooking up with Edwardstwice for touchdowns on fourthdown in no man’s land. He foundEdwards cutting across the field fora 33-yard score on fourth-and-10 inthe second quarter, then threw adeep ball to him for a 38-yard TD onfourth-and-1 in the third quarter.

That score came in the midst of28 straight points by the Cougars.

Edwards broke the school recordby surpassing 100 yards receivingfor the 16th time in his career and

also broke the Conference USA ca-reer record for receiving yardagethat was held by Rice’s Jarett Dil-lard.

It figured to be the toughest testyet for Houston, facing C-USA’s topdefense and a team that also camein without a loss in league play. Tul-sa (8-4, 7-1) was allowing only 16points per game in league play butcouldn’t keep up once its offensestarted sputtering in the secondhalf.

Tulsa got only three points out oftwo drives with favorable field posi-tion in the third quarter. After Cur-nelius Arnick recovered a fumbledexchange between Keenum and run-ning back Charles Sims, the GoldenHurricane got only 1 yard beforesettling for Kevin Fitzpatrick’s 51-yard field goal to cut the deficit to20-16.

Tulsa got the ball back again atmidfield but again failed to get afirst down and punted the ball backto set up an 80-yard scoring drive bythe Cougars capped by Edwards’ 38-yard score.

Michael Hayes added a 1-yardplunge that had to be reviewed be-fore Houston was awarded a touch-down, and Keenum tacked on an 8-yard TD pass to Justin Johnson setup by Edwards’ 51-yard reception.

Edwards’ final score came on a14-yard pass from backup CottonTurner, who replaced Keenum fol-lowing G.J. Kinne’s interception

with 6:55 left in the game. The Cougars celebrated by slap-

ping high-fives with a group ofHouston fans that occupied the cor-ner of H.A. Chapman Stadium be-hind their bench.

Keenum, the nation’s leading pas-ser, recorded the 18th 400-yard gameof his career and easily continuedhis streak of throwing for at least300 yards in every game this season.A finalist for the Davey O’Brien andJohnny Unitas quarterback awards,he’s also positioning himself for achance at the Heisman Trophy.

With another impressive day, henow has 42 touchdowns and onlythree interceptions this season.

Kinne finished with 176 yards,one touchdown pass and two inter-ceptions — both as he tried to rallythe Golden Hurricane out of a latedeficit against a defense that hasn’tallowed more than seven fourth-quarter points in any game this sea-son.

His only touchdown pass was an11-yarder to Willie Carter to give theGolden Hurricane an early lead.Fitzpatrick also matched his career-best with a 52-yard field goal thatcleared the uprights easily with asteady wind gusting to around 35mph, and he connected a 36-yarder.

All four of Tulsa’s losses this sea-son have come against teamsranked in the top 10 at the time —Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, BoiseState and Houston.

University of Houston quarterback Case Keenum (7) looks to connect with his wide receiver Tyron Carrier (35) during the third quarteron Friday in H.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa. The University of Houston won 48-16.

Photo by Nick de la Torre | Houston Chronicle

Keenum carries No. 8 CougarsBy JEFF LATZKE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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DENNISTHE MENACE

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES | HERE’S HOW TO WORK IT:

COLD OR FLU?Dear Readers: Is it a

COLD OR THE FLU? Doyou know the difference?Flu season is here, and youcould be a victim. Here aresome symptoms of this re-spiratory illness:

fatigue body achescough and sore throatrunny noseheadache and fever

(although fever is not al-ways present).

Flu is spread mostly bycoughing and sneezing, andby touching surfaces thathold the virus and thentouching your mouth oreyes. Don’t rub your eyes!

The Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention(www.cdc.gov) say that a fluvaccine is the best way toprevent influenza. Thereare two types of flu vac-cines:

1. A flu shot contains theactual flu virus, but don’tworry — it’s not active andwill not give you the flu.There are three varieties ofshots:

The typical flu shot,which is recommended formost people, even thosewho are pregnant.

For those over 65, astronger dose.

And there is a new va-riety this season for people18-64 that is injected intothe skin.

2. The other type of fluvaccine is a nasal spray. Itis approved for healthy peo-ple who are not pregnant.

Some people should nothave the flu shot: peoplewith egg allergies, infantsyounger than 6 months ofage and people who are al-ready ill fall into this cate-gory.

Talk to your health-careprovider about the flu, theflu shot and how to protectyourself and your family. —Heloise

PET PAL

Dear Readers: Meow Me-ow, our office cat, is thisweek’s Pet Pal. He is showncamping out on top of theoutside trash can, lettingus know it’s time for himto eat. Afterward, he’ll havea sun bath on the patio forthe rest of the afternoon.To see Meow Meow andour other Pet Pals, visitwww.Heloise.com and clickon “Pets.” — Heloise

STRAY HELPDear Heloise: A few

years ago, I started feedinga stray cat. She was veryskittish but would comearound on a regular basisfor food. I wanted to startpetting her but was nerv-ous about how she wouldreact.

I stuffed an old garden-ing glove with tissue andtied it to the end of a yard-stick. When she camearound to eat, I would“pet” her with the glove. Ifshe swatted, she would getthe glove and not my hand.When she stopped reactingto the glove, I started usingmy hand.

Now she lets me pet heras much as I want. It easedher into being “loved on”and saved me a lot ofscratches! — Georgia inTexas

EASY FUNNELDear Readers: I’ve found

an easy and cheap way totransfer coffee, peas, flourand other kitchen staplesinto a different container. Itake a paper plate and rollit into a circle. The itemswill slide into the new con-tainer! — Heloise

HINTS BY | HELOISE

“HELOISE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Sports SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

Eagles coach Andy Reid and Patri-ots coach Bill Belichick are theNFL’s coaching version of “bestfriends forever.”

“We knew each other as assistantcoaches and then really when he be-came the head coach at New Eng-land, I came here as the head coachand we developed a close relation-ship,” Reid said.

The two coaches will face eachother when Philadelphia (4-6) hostsNew England (7-3) on Sunday. Belich-ick is 3-0 against Reid, including a24-21 win in the 2005 Super Bowl.

Reid and Belichick are the long-est-tenured coaches in the league.Reid joined the Eagles in 1999 andBelichick went to New England ayear later. They are two of the mostsuccessful coaches around.

Reid has led Philadelphia to nineplayoff appearances, six division ti-tles, five NFC championship gamesand one Super Bowl. Belichick haswon three Super Bowls.

They have similar personalities,showing a different side to theirplayers than the media. One morething they have in common is dedi-cation to their families.

“I think we both love football,”Reid said. “We love the game. We’reboth put in a position where we’reresponsible for personnel decisions,so we both talk about that.”

Marvin’s backThe usually reserved Marvin Har-

rison is coming back to Indianapolison Sunday to be inducted into theColts’ Ring of Honor.

Harrison never said much whileplaying, choosing instead to let hisplay do the talking — somethingteammates, from Adam Vinatieri toDwight Freeney, got accustomed to.

From 1996 until 2008, nobody inColts history was better. Indy took

Harrison with the 19th overall pickin the draft out of Syracuse andwatched him develop into PeytonManning’s favorite receiver. Hecaught over 100 passes in fourstraight seasons, shattering theleague’s single-season mark for re-ceptions with 143 in 2002. He was theNFL’s only unanimous pick to theAll-Pro team that season.

When he was released in a cost-cutting move in 2008, Harrison had1,102 receptions, second in leaguehistory behind Jerry Rice. He is nowthird in receptions, sixth in yards re-ceiving (14,580) and fifth all-time inTD catches (128). And in 2005, Man-ning and Harrison passed Jim Kellyand Andre Reed as the most prolificpassing duo in league history. Thetandem combined for a league re-cord 953 completions, 12,766 yardsand 112 TDs.

But Sunday will mark a first forHarrison.

Fashion statement?It was so unseasonably warm in

Denver that the Broncos practiced inshorts this week.

They were more like short shorts,or, as coach John Fox noted, like un-derwear.

“They come from the 1980s,” widereceiver Eric Decker explained. “Wecall them vintage shorts that ourequipment guys pulled out for us sowe could wear them out there.They’re actually our cold tubshorts.”

Combined with high white tubesocks, the players looked more likeNBA stars from a quarter-centuryago than NFL players of today.

Running back Willis McGahee,who was promoted to team captainfollowing Kyle Orton’s departurethis week, refused to wear the grayshorts and donned blue ones instead— and caught some good-naturedflak about being a nonconformist.

Catching up around the NFL

Eagles coach Andy Reid, middle, is one of the longest tenured coaches. He shares afriendship with another longtime coach, the Patriots’ Bill Belichick. They play on Sunday.

Photo by Michael Perez | AP

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARLINGTON — RobertGriffin III boosted hisHeisman Trophy pushwith a record-setting per-formance for the nation tosee in Baylor’s first winever over Oklahoma.

RG3 and the No. 21Bears now must avoid aTexas Tech-like Soonerhangover. The two teamsthat delivered the 1-2knockout punch to Okla-homa’s national titlehopes play each other Sat-urday night at CowboysStadium.

Since their big upset inNorman last month, theRed Raiders (5-6, 2-6 Big12) have lost four in a row.Now, they must win theirregular season finale to bebowl eligible for the 19thconsecutive season,though that still might notguarantee them anothergame.

“We’re not going to givethem an opportunity to de-stroy our season,” saidGriffin, who had 551 totalyards against Oklahomain a 45-38 thriller lastweekend. “We know whatwe have in front of us.”

Baylor (7-3, 4-3) is goingfor five Big 12 wins for thefirst time. And the Bearshaven’t won eight gamesoverall since 1991, whenGrant Teaff was still theircoach.

“The biggest game ofthe year is right now,” se-nior running back Ter-rance Ganaway said.

Maybe more so for theRed Raiders, who have lostsix of seven since a 4-0start.

After winning 41-38 inNorman to end Oklaho-ma’s 39-game home win-ning streak, Texas Techlost three in row by an av-erage margin of 42 pointsbefore a 31-27 loss lastweek at Missouri, whichscored 14 points in thefourth quarter.

Texas Tech has won 15games in a row againstthe Bears. The last Baylorvictory in the series camein 1995, the final South-west Conference season.

Big games have becomea pretty ordinary occur-rence for Griffin, who hashad at least 400 total yardsin five consecutive games.

The dual-threat juniorquarterback leads the na-tion with 412 total yardsper game, and is second inpass efficiency throwingfor 3,572 yards with 33touchdowns and only fiveinterceptions. He has runfor 550 yards and fivemore scores.

RG3, Baylor takeon Red Raiders

By STEPHEN HAWKINSASSOCIATED PRESS “The biggest

game of theyear is rightnow,” BAYLOR RUNNING BACKTERRANCE GANAWAY

Joe Paterno, Rick Pitinoand Mack Brown — mil-lionaires all and manytimes over. Their bosses?Go ahead. Try to namethem.

Even if you can — Gra-ham Spanier, James R.Ramsey and William C.Powers, for the record —they’re not householdnames. When it comes totheir salaries, it’s asthough they’re working indifferent worlds, not on thesame campus.

There are more than 90football and basketballcoaches making more than$1 million a year, includingBrown, who tops out thefootball list at around $5million at Texas, and Piti-no, who brings in morethan $7 million at Louis-ville. Meanwhile, there areonly 10 presidents at thenation’s 185 largest publicuniversities taking homemore than $725,000 annual-ly.

Call it an imbalance ofpriorities or tipping thescales, but it happens allacross America when mul-timillion-dollar athleticprograms become the faceof a university instead ofthe other way around.

If that’s become lost onthe schools, it’s also lost onthe public.

“You go anywhere inthe world and mentionPenn State and the firstthing they say is, ‘Do youknow Joe Paterno?”’ saidWilliam Asbury, the vicepresident emeritus for stu-dent affairs at Penn State,who also serves on theKnight Commission on In-tercollegiate Athletics, awatchdog group that seeksto keep the influence ofsports at big schools incheck.

Paterno is so closelytied to Penn State, asidefrom its football program,that he’s likely to remainsynonymous with theschool for a long time, de-spite being fired two weeksago in the aftermath of thechild sex abuse scandal in-volving his former assist-ant coach.

The name UConn is al-most a parenthetical refer-ence next to the names Ge-no (Auriemma) and (Jim)Calhoun.

UCLA? That’s JohnWooden.

Florida State? Still Bob-

by Bowden. Alabama? If you’re not

talking about Nick Saban’ssuccess in the present,you’re talking about theteams Bear Bryantcoached in the past.

Now, try to name a cele-brated professor or re-search breakthrough atthose schools.

“It’s an imbalance,” saidAllen Sack, a Penn Statealum and president-elect ofanother reform coalition,The Drake Group. “It’smass commercial enter-tainment, and it can bewonderful. But it’s withinthe university. It’s inevita-ble that when you havesuch an incredible venuefor people to gather, andyou get the collective eu-phoria you get, that’s go-ing to cause some prob-lems because of its tremen-dous power.”

In some cases, coacheshave almost completelystopped pretending it’sabout an education —most notably in collegebasketball, where playersare allowed to attendschool for a single year,then leave for the NBA.Two seasons ago, Ken-tucky had four key playerswho left after their fresh-man year.

Maybe the most tellingsingle quote to come out ofa year filled with scandals— at Auburn, UConn,Southern California, Mia-

mi, Ohio State and else-where — came from theOhio State president, Gor-don Gee.

Gee, whose $1.8 millionsalary is the highest for apublic-university presi-dent, was asked if he wasgoing to dismiss the coach,Jim Tressel, in the wake ofgrowing allegations thathe covered up the prob-lems in his program.

“No, are you kidding?”Gee said with a laugh.“Let me be very clear. I’mjust hoping the coachdoesn’t dismiss me.”

Tressel, long considereda model citizen among hiscoaching peers, did eventu-ally get fired. And the dis-turbing echo of Gee’s state-ment — which he said lat-er was a lame attempt athumor — wasn’t lost onanyone: At many schools,the football or basketballcoach really does holdmore sway than the presi-dent.

While the NCAA keepstrying to sort out its mis-sion, the schools them-selves have spent the lastfew years engaging in con-ference realignment.

The process has been,by and large, a set of clum-sy, money-driven decisionsthat has very little to dowith schools’ locations orthe welfare of the so-called“student-athletes” and ev-erything to do with ex-panding conference foot-

prints, signing better TVdeals and — always, al-ways, always — makingmore money. Exhibit A: Byadding two teams in theMountain Time Zone, thePac-12 quadrupled TV rev-enue. Exhibit B: The Uni-versity of Texas is runningits own TV network, whichin many ways is leading tothe slow disintegration ofthe Big 12.

This strange values sys-tem exists, University ofOregon professor NathanTublitz, a member of theCoalition On Intercolle-giate Athletics, a facultygroup seeking reform,says, because of the moneyand the fame that success-ful sports programs canshower upon a school.

At Penn State, for exam-ple, the football programproduced almost $73 mil-lion in revenues over thepast year.

Tublitz points to a studyfrom about 10 years agothat was circulated inter-nally by his school presi-dent: Of all the headlinesmentioning the Universityof Oregon in the state’slargest newspaper, TheOregonian, 72 percentdealt with sports, 18 per-cent dealt with deaths ofalumni and others withconnections to the schooland the rest was dividedequally between academicand nonacademic issueson campus.

Dollars vs. sense in the NCAATrying to balance

money and schoolBy EDDIE PELLS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Texas head coach Mack Brown is the highest paid NCAA football coach in a world that seems to valuesports over education.

Photo by David J. Phillip | AP

HOUSTON — InjuredTexans quarterback MattSchaub was back at prac-tice on Thanksgiving, wear-ing a protective boot on hisright foot as he kept a closeeye on his replacement,Matt Leinart.

Schaub sustained a Lis-franc injury in Houston’s37-9 win over Tampa Bayon Nov. 13, and had to giveup hope on returning thisseason after meeting withfoot specialist Dr. RobertAnderson in Charlotte onWednesday.

Houston (7-3) placedSchaub on injured reserve,and Leinart will make hisfirst start at Jacksonville(3-7) on Sunday.

Schaub is scheduled tohave surgery in Charlottenext Wednesday. Doctorshave assured him his inju-ry is not career-threateningand isn’t likely to occuragain when he returns toaction.

Coach Gary Kubiak saidSchaub will travel with theteam this weekend and beavailable to support Lei-nart, rookie T.J. Yates andthird-stringer Kellen Clem-ens, who signed with Hous-ton on Wednesday.

“He needs to stay verymuch involved,” Kubiaksaid. “I think there’s a way

he can help this team, sowe’re going to give him achance to do that. It’s justtough to see him standingback there.”

Schaub has been the Tex-ans’ starter since 2007, afterhe was acquired in a tradewith Atlanta. He missedfive games in his first yearwith the team because of ashoulder injury and concus-sion, then sat out five morein 2008, one with an illnessand four with a knee injury.

So far, Houston has sur-vived remarkably well asone key player after anoth-er has gone down with aninjury, taking control of theAFC South behind the best10-game start in team histo-ry.

Running backs ArianFoster and Ben Tate missedtime early, outside lineback-er Mario Williams was lostfor the season with a tornchest muscle, and star re-ceiver Andre Johnson hassat out six games with aright hamstring injury.Johnson is expected to playin Sunday’s game, alongwith safety Danieal Man-ning, who broke his left legin a victory over Tennesseeon Oct. 23.

Still, the Texans haven’ttrailed in four games, holda two-game lead in the divi-sion and seem to be closingin on the team’s first play-off appearance.

Houston Texans quarterbacks Matt Schaub (8) and Matt Leinart(11) hope to feed off each other for help after Schaub’s injury.

Photo by Dave Einsel | AP

Schaub helpsQB’s in practice

By CHRIS DUNCANASSOCIATED PRESS