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ZHS RUNS TO VICTORYCROSS COUNTRY PREPARES FOR DISTRICT MEETS, 1B

Zapata residents were leftwithout water for nearly 12hours last weekend as ZapataCounty officials prepare to move

operations to the new waterplant.

The problem arose becausethe old and new water plantshave to run simultaneously forabout three weeks during atransition period to prevent any

water production interruptions,said Carlos Treviño Jr., waterplant director.

“We just started producingwater last week, Treviño said.

The pressure of both waterplants running simultaneously

built up and busted a 24-inchmain transmission water line,he said.

“On Sunday morning, theyhad a system failure on one of

UTILITIES

A dry 12 hoursLine break leaves residents without water one-half day

By LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See WATER PAGE 10A

As the Zapata High School Mariachi band,the reigning 3A state champions prepare formore contests, Ruby Lake Productions select-ed the group to star in a documentary titled“Mariachi High,” about how American chil-dren relate to their culture.

As part of an endowment, a Ruby LakeProductions representative called Adrian Pa-dilla, Mariachi director, to inform him aboutan idea to film students in South Texas, be-ginning with ZHS Mariachi band members.The production company would eventuallymove into the valley in search of a worthygroup of students to film.

A month later Padilla received the good

news.The production company has already vis-

ited the mariachi band twice since the begin-ning of the school year, and will be gettingabout 400 hours of footage this year, he said.

The ZHS Mariachi band also earned sec-ond place in the Albuquerque contest lastyear and graduated two of its members. InMay, 11 seniors will be graduating, withmany more coming in next year, Padillasaid.

“Our gene pool runs real deep, about 174at the middle school and approximately 70 atthe high school,” he said.

The production company will follow ma-riachi band members in their day-to-day ac-

MUSIC

ABOVE: Left, Charlie Rodriguez plays the violin as the Zapata High School Mariachi practices Thursday. The group is the star of a documentary entitled “MariachiHigh,” now being filmed by Ruby Lake Productions.BELOW: Sophomore Collin Moffett plays the guitarron during practice at Zapata High School on Thursday afternoon, in preparation for this year’s competitions.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

READY FOR THE BIG SCREENMariachi group is chosen for

documentary on American cultureBy LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See MARIACHI PAGE 10A

MONTERREY, Mexico — Mex-ican soldiers killed at least 30 sus-pected cartel members in twoshootouts near the U.S. border ina region that has become one ofbiggest battlegrounds in the coun-try’s drug war, authorities saidFriday.

Twenty-five of the suspectswere killed Thursday during araid on a building in Ciudad Mierin Tamaulipas state. The otherfive were killed Friday in neigh-boring Nuevo Leon state, during ashootout on a highway leading tothe border, the Mexican DefenseDepartment said in a statement.

All 30 gunmen were believed tobelong to the Zetas gang — thegroup suspected of killing 72 mi-grants nearly two weeks ago inwhat could be Mexico’s biggestcartel massacre to date.

Violence along Mexico’s north-eastern border with Texas has

MEXICO VIOLENCE

See GUNMEN PAGE 10A

Troopskill 30allegedZetas

By MARK WALSHASSOCIATED PRESS

The Zapata County Sheriff ’sDepartment is investigating ascam that aims to extort thou-sands of dollars from Zapata resi-dents and businesses.

Several people have reportedreceiving calls from individuals inMexico who say the call recip-ient’s relatives have been arrestedand are requesting large amountsof money in order to releasethem, Zapata County officialssaid.

According to Sgt. Mario Elizon-do, the caller attempts to convincethe local resident that he is a rela-tive. The caller then tries to makeplans to visit Zapata. However, thenext day, the same resident gets acall from the faux relative who

LAW ENFORCEMENT

See SHERIFF PAGE 10A

Sheriffcheckingextortion

scamBy LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

SATURDAY, SEPT. 4Texas A&M International Universi-

ty will host its 6th Annual AutMus Festtoday on the TAMIU Lawn facing Univer-sity Boulevard. AutMus Fest is a celebra-tion of music and offers a variety of art-ists and genres. Gates open at 4:30p.m. The fun continues until 12 a.m.Food and refreshments will be available,as will fun games and activities for chil-dren. Pre-sale tickets are available at allPocket Communications stores and CasaRaul South for $10. Tickets will be avail-able at the gate for $15. Children under12 accompanied by an adult get in free.For additional information, contact Ve-ronica González at (956) 326-2171.

Sponsored by the Laredo RotaryClub, Rodeo for Rotary Kick Off Trailridewill start at the Alexander Crossing GolfCenter. With free admission, registrationbegins at 8 a.m. and ride out at 9 a.m.The rodeo will be held at the L.I.F.E.Downs Arena today at 6:30 p.m. Formore information, call George Jimenezat (956) 744-2146.

Martin High School Class of ’75will be meeting at the Ambassador on7128 Rosson Lane behind La Quinta Innon Loop 20 from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. En-trance fee is $25 per person. Spousesand dates are welcomed. Semi-formalwear required. Deadline to RSVP wasAugust 18. For more details, please visitthe Martin High School class of ’75 onFacebook or call Lucy Gutierrez at 956-717-1320.

First United Methodist Church lo-cated at 1220 McClellan will be sellingused books and magazines. Public is in-vited to attend. Donations will also beaccepted.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 5The American Foundation for Sui-

cide Prevention will be hosting the Outof the Darkness Bowl-a-Thon on behalfof “Team Annabel” at Jett Bowl Northlocated on McPherson Rd. and GaleStreet starting at 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.Sign-up fee is $25 per person and fivebowlers per team. All proceeds will goto the American Foundation for SuicidePrevention. For more information, callShelly Barrientos at 210-317-0942 or co-ordinators Angie Barrientos at 210-317-6451 or Patricia Lerke at 956-334-9481.Wednesday, Sept. 8

The South Texas Food BankBoard of Directors meets at noon todayat the Lamar Bruni Vergara South TexasFood Bank office, 1907 Freight St. atRiverside Drive. For more information,call (956) 726-3120.

The American Cancer Society andDoctors Hospital of Laredo will co-spon-sor classes for people with cancer andtheir family and friends. The classes willbe offered on the second and fourthWednesdays of every month from 6 p.m.to 8 p.m. at Doctors Hospital of Laredo.The I Can Cope educational programgive participants an opportunity to sharetheir concerns with others and to designways to cope with the challenges thatarise from a cancer diagnosis. Guestspeakers include professionals in thefield of cancer management. A physicianwill be present at all meetings to answercancer-related questions. The classes arefree. Light dinner will be provided. ToRSVP or for more information, call Jessi-ca Guajardo at 523-2658 or Diana Jua-rez at 723-9682.

The Texican CattleWomen willmeet today at Rudy’s Party Room. Thepurpose of this organization shall be toadvance the welfare of the beef industry.Through education, promotional and leg-islative activities, the CattleWomen shallstrive to maintain and build demand forbeef products, address consumer need,and promote a positive image of thecattle industry. The group is acceptingnew members. For more information,call Cathy Reed at 744-1983.

The Villa Antigua Border HeritageMuseum proudly presents ‘A Photo-graphic Journey along El Camino Realde los Tejas.’ The event will be displayedthroughout the entire month of Sept..Museum hours are Tuesday – Saturday9 a.m. to 4 p.m and is located at 810Zaragoza Street. General admission isfree on Tuesdays. For more information,call the Webb County Heritage Founda-tion at 956-727-0977.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 9The LaredoHams Amateur Radio

club will be meeting at Rudy’s BBQ lo-cated at 7305 McPherson Road in theback room. This meeting is for those in-terested in amateur radio, electronics,antenna building or emergency commu-nications. Meeting is scheduled to befrom 8 to 9:30 p.m. Call 956-712-9629for more information.

To submit an item for the cal-endar, send the name of theevent, the date, time, locationand contact phone number to ed-itorial@lmtonline.com

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, Sept. 4,the 247th day of 2010. Thereare 118 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in Histo-ry:

On Sept. 4, 1781, Los An-geles was founded by Spanishsettlers under the leadershipof Governor Felipe de Neve.

On this date: In 1886, a group of Apache

Indians led by Geronimo sur-rendered to Gen. Nelson Milesat Skeleton Canyon in Arizo-na.

In 1888, George Eastman re-ceived a patent for his roll-filmbox camera, and registered histrademark: “Kodak.”

In 1893, English author Bea-trix Potter first told the storyof Peter Rabbit in the form ofa “picture letter” to NoelMoore, the son of Potter’s for-mer governess.

In 1917, the American Expe-ditionary Forces in Francesuffered their first fatalitiesduring World War I when aGerman plane attacked a Brit-ish-run base hospital.

In 1948, Queen Wilhelminaof the Netherlands abdicatedafter nearly six decades of rulefor health reasons.

In 1951, President Harry S.Truman addressed the nationfrom the Japanese peace trea-ty conference in San Francis-co in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast.

In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Or-val Faubus used Arkansas Na-tional Guardsmen to preventnine black students from en-tering all-white Central HighSchool in Little Rock. FordMotor Co. began selling its ill-fated Edsel.

In 1969, the Food and DrugAdministration issued a re-port calling birth control pills“safe,” despite a slight risk offatal blood-clotting disorderslinked to the pills.

In 1971, an Alaska Airlinesjet crashed near Juneau, kill-ing all 111 people on board.

In 1984, Canada’s Progres-sive Conservatives, led byBrian Mulroney (muhl-ROO’-nee), won a landslide victoryin general elections over theLiberal Party of Prime Minis-ter John N. Turner and theNew Democrats headed by EdBroadbent.

Ten years ago: French in-vestigators announced that astray length of metal whichhad gashed a tire of a super-sonic Concorde, leading to afuel tank fire and the plane’sfatal crash the previous July,probably came from a Conti-nental Airlines plane that hadtaken off on the same runwayfour minutes earlier. (Conti-nental has denied any respon-sibility.)

Five years ago: Six days af-ter Hurricane Katrina left adevastated New Orleans inchaos, police stormed the Dan-ziger Bridge, shooting and kill-ing two people and woundingfour others.

Today’s Birthdays: ActressMitzi Gaynor is 79. SingerMerald “Bubba” Knight (Gla-dys Knight & The Pips) is 68.World Golf Hall of Famer Ray-mond Floyd is 68. Actress Jen-nifer Salt is 66. World GolfHall of Famer Tom Watson is61. Rhythm-and-blues musi-cian Ronald LaPread is 60. Ac-tress Judith Ivey is 59. Rockmusician Martin Chambers(The Pretenders) is 59. ActressKhandi Alexander is 53. Come-dian Damon Wayans is 50.Thought for Today: “This mo-ment contains all moments.”— C.S. Lewis, British author(1898-1963).

TODAY IN HISTORY

DALLAS — A 13-year-old boy and his 12-year-old girlfriend will face capital murdercharges in a Dallas-area shooting after thesecond victim died, authorities said Friday.

Alan Nevil, 48, died Thursday night fromwounds he suffered in an Aug. 17 attack thatalso killed his wife, Darlene Nevil, 46.

Alan Nevil was found bleeding on a neigh-bor’s front yard. He told police who shot himand authorities arrested the 13-year-old boyand 12-year-old girl within a quarter of amile from the house, Harn said.

The children initially were charged withmurder and aggravated assault in the shoot-ing. Garland police said Friday in a state-ment they were working with the DallasCounty District Attorney’s office to upgradethose charges to capital murder.

For adults, the maximum sentence rangeis life in prison or death, in a capital murdercase. But for juveniles, the maximum penal-ty is 40 years confinement in a Texas YouthCommission facility with a possible transferto the Texas Department of Corrections.

At age 19, a juvenile could also be releasedfrom TYC on adult parole if they’ve been re-habilitated, he said.

“Homicide cases make up a very smallpercentage, less than 1 percent of the caseswe prosecute in juvenile court,” Hill said.“We’re not seeking certification (as an adult)on this case; the law would not allow it.”

A child must be at least 14 years old tostand trial as an adult, said Hill.

Hill said he anticipated that the upgradedcapital murder charges against the youthswould “happen very quickly,” though he de-clined to speak in specifics about their case.

AROUND TEXAS

Juan Garcia Jr., a neighbor of Darlene and Alan Nevil, talks with reporters about the shooting that claimed their lives, in Gar-land. A 13-year-old boy and his 12-year-old girlfriend will face capital murder charges in the Garland shooting after the sec-ond victim died, authorities said Friday

Photo by Tony Gutierrez | AP

Murder charges for duoBy LINDA STEWART BALL

ASSOCIATED PRESS

State applies for ed jobsfunding

AUSTIN — Texas has appliedfor $830 million in federal educa-tion dollars intended to helpschools through the recession.

The Texas Education Agencysubmitted the application a dayafter Gov. Rick Perry sent a let-ter to school administrators say-ing restrictions placed on Texasin the federal law “make it un-likely for your school to receivethese federal funds this year.”

Bone found near Lake RayHubbard

DALLAS — Investigatorssearched Lake Ray Hubbard aday after finding a small sectionof human bone nearby.

The investigation continues,and they are unsure whetherwhat they have found so faramounts to a crime scene.

The bone was discovered lateThursday afternoon, and themedical examiner confirmedthat it was human.

S.A. man arrested forheists in several statesOKLAHOMA CITY — The FBI

says a San Antonio man suspect-ed of robbing nearly a dozenbanks in five states was arrested.

Agents say 46-year-old DouglasEdward Ford was taken into cus-tody Friday in San Antonio.

Authorities in Oklahoma, Ar-kansas, Louisiana, Mississippiand New Mexico are looking intothe possibility that Ford is re-sponsible for robberies commit-ted in their states since March.

2 more identified in ElPaso corruption schemeEL PASO — Federal author-

ities have identified two morepeople in a federal public corrup-tion scheme involving more thantwo dozen former and currentpublic officials and lawyers inthe El Paso area.

Patrick Woods pleaded guiltyFriday to charges of conspiracyto embezzle or steal federal pro-gram funds.

Dallas-area man blamesshooting range for wound

ROWLETT — A man with abullet in his back is suing a mile-away shooting range.

Michael Domin of Rowlettlives 1.2 miles from the GarlandPublic Shooting Range. Dominon Thursday sued for damages,alleging a stray .22 caliber bulletstruck him June 12 while he wasin his yard.

Mom gets 50 years afterchild was beaten to death

VERNON — A north Texaswoman whose 5-year-old daugh-ter was beaten to death has beensentenced to 50 years in prison.

Kristina Earnest was sen-tenced Thursday in Vernon afterpleading guilty to injury to achild by omission. She had beencharged with capital murder, butWilbarger County District Attor-ney John Staley Heatly says heractions didn’t directly cause thechild’s death.

— Compiled from AP reports

Suspect in Paris Hiltonburglary pleads not guilty

LOS ANGELES — A man ac-cused of showing up at Paris Hil-ton’s house wielding two kniveshas pleaded not guilty to at-tempted felony burglary.

Hilton was at home when Pa-rada allegedly banged on win-dows. She posted a photo of hisarrest on her Twitter feed.

911 callers describeDiscovery Ch. gunmanSILVER SPRING, Md. —

Emergency calls placed after agunman entered the DiscoveryChannel’s headquarters includedescriptions of the propane tanksstrapped to his body and a blink-ing device in his left hand.

Montgomery County police re-leased recordings of radio trans-missions and 911 calls Friday,two days after a man held threepeople hostage at the DiscoveryCommunications building.

Delay for man chargedwith beheading wife

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The trial ofa New York man accused of be-heading his wife has been de-

layed until January. A judge said Friday that the

psychiatrist for Muzzammil Has-san can testify that he had beendiagnosed as a battered spousewho’d been physically and emo-tionally abused by his wife.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

The tail of a plane that crashed in a home is shown Friday, near the Aurora Air-port south of Portland, Ore. The homeowner escaped unhurt, and the pilot suf-fered cuts on his head and leg.

Photo by Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian | AP

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

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

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

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010 Zlocal PAGE 3A

FFA LEADERS

Courtesy photo

Members of the Zapata chapter of Future Farmers of America attend the Leadership Development Labon Aug. 28. Pictured from left to right are: Trey Alvarez, Rene Alvarez Jr., Luis Morales, Joel Rodriguez,Jennifer Santos, Richard Dominguez and FFA Advisor Ferny Rodriguez. It was the first time the eventwas hosted by the Zapata chapter.

Zapata County officialsgot a sneak peak of thenewly improved computer-ized water plant, which ismore than double the sizeof the old one, at a lun-cheon provided by BryanConstruction Company.

The CommissionersCourt was introduced towater plant operations andits new technology after itscompletion two weeks ago.Commissioner Eddie Mar-tinez was the only one ab-sent from the tour.

“One of the employeesshowed us the differentamenities and what theydo,” said CommissionerJose E. Vela.

The water plant projectwas awarded to Houston-based Bryan Construction.The project totaled $10.5million and was estimatedto take 18 months to com-plete. Funds were allocatedfrom grants and water de-velopment loans, said Car-los Treviño Jr., director ofwater plant.

“We’re very proud of ournew structure, very pleasedwith it,” Treviño said. “Ev-erything turned out just as

I expected. It turned out tobe a very successful pro-gram for us.”

Zapata County was inneed of a larger, more effi-cient water plant as the oldwater plant averaged 2.5million gallons per day andpeaked at 3 million gallonsper day, Treviño said.

“The new one is rated at7.24 million gallons perday,” he said. “It’s quite adifference in size.”

According to Treviño,the new water plant in-cludes state-of-the-artequipment, of which allemployees got extensivetraining in all aspects ofoperations.

Operations in the oldwater plant were antiquat-ed and employees had tooperate systems manually,Treviño added.

“We were behind thetimes in the old one,” hesaid.

During a transition peri-od, both water plants hadto run simultaneously forabout three weeks in orderto prevent water produc-tion interruptions and be-gin operations in the newwater plant, Treviño said.

“We just started produc-ing water last week. We’re

doing great,” he said. Despite the completion

of the physical building inmid-July, operations arestill in the process of apunch list and systemsneed to be introduced grad-ually.

“I haven’t signed off onit yet, but I intend to do sothis week,” Treviño said.

In addition to the newtechnology, a new agent isalso being added to thecombination of chemicalsin the water disinfectantprocess.

“Chlorine dioxide wasintroduced in the new wa-ter plant,” he said. “Weused traditional chemicals,but this new agent addsmore of a disinfectant prod-uct to the water and killswhatever we couldn’t killin the old one.”

A combination of chem-icals are used and con-stantly monitored electron-ically, he added.

“There are various injec-tion points and dosages aresmall parts per million gal-lons,” Treviño said. “Theyall work in harmony witheach other and once thechemical recipe isachieved, then you have aperfect disinfection.

The Zapata County Commissioners were given a tour of the new water plant as it slowly moves to-ward becoming fully operational.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

Zapata water plantnearing completion

By LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

The first unmanned air-craft to patrol the Texas/Mexico border was de-ployed on its first officialmission last week.

Able to fly as many as 20hours straight, and withvideo cameras that canshoot more than 19,000 feet,the aircraft could become avaluable asset to haltingthe smuggling of drugs andhumans across the border,according to U.S. Rep. Hen-ry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

“We’ve been trying to getone of these for a while,”Cuellar said.

The Predator B aircraftis stationed in the NavalAir Station in CorpusChristi.

The use of the aircraftmay be new to Texas, but

since 2005, Predator Bs havehelped capture more than4,000 illegal immigrants, ac-cording to Cuellar’s office.

There is already $32 mil-lion worth of funding fortwo more drones in the Tex-as area that will come fromthe $600 million 2010 supple-mental spending bill.

But Cuellar hopes to seeeven more in the region.

“Texas is so big, I’m hop-ing we can get three or fourmore,” he said.

Currently, there is no for-mal agreement betweenMexico and the UnitedStates regarding use of thedrones, meaning the dronesare permitted fly in U.S. air-space only and may not in-tentionally photographMexico territory.

However, in the longterm, if the drones are suc-cessful enough, Cuellar said

he could imagine coordinat-ing with the Mexican gov-ernment and sharing infor-mation the drones gather.

“We can do as much asthe Mexicans want (us todo) to help,” he said.

Although similar dronesin Iraq and Afghanistan fre-quently have weapons,Cuellar stressed that thereare no weapons on thedrones used in the UnitedStates.

“The only thing they’rearmed with are sophisticat-ed cameras,” Cuellar said.

“The mission here is toprovide intelligence.”

A formal ceremony in-troducing the new un-manned aircraft will beheld in Corpus Christi onWednesday.

(Zach Lindsey may bereached at 728-2538 orzach@lmtonline.com)

Officials deploy aircraft to patrol Texas borderBy ZACH LINDSEYTHE ZAPATA TIMES

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

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

Several weeks ago, justafter the beginningof the Muslim holy

month of Ramadan, SanAntonio’s newest mosqueopened. There were noprotests against the Al-Ma-dinah Mosque. Local pas-tors did not threaten tobuild a bonfire with copiesof the Koran. Thankfully,no acts of vandalism havebeen reported againstwhat is believed to be theAlamo City’s ninth — yes,ninth — mosque.

That is as it should be.Few things are more quin-tessentially American thanmembers of a communitycoming together to build ahouse of worship. In mosttimes and places in thiscountry’s history, thosehouses have been churchesand cathedrals. Then fol-lowed synagogues andtemples. And nowmosques — more than2,000 of them across theUnited States.

So it’s a bit tiresome tohear about how oppositionto the Park51 Islamic Com-munity Center — formerlyknown as the CordobaHouse initiative, also de-scribed as the ground zeromosque — is driven by anational frenzy of bigotryand xenophobia. Ameri-cans have always strived tomake the United States asanctuary of religious free-dom. That endeavor hasnot changed since Sept. 11,2001.

About the Park51 pro-ject, Imam Ameen Aziz,the imam of the Al-Madi-nah Mosque, says there’sno question that its back-ers have the legal right toproceed.

“But (Islamic teachingssay) I should respect myneighbors and friends andlive in a respectful way,”Aziz told my colleague AbeLevy. “If I do somethingthat offends you, I shouldlook again and find a waynot to offend.”

With all due respect tothe imam’s good inten-tions, offensiveness tendsto be overrated. Part of liv-ing in a free society is theright to give and occasion-ally endure offense. Buthis is, essentially, the posi-tion held by most peoplewho think an Islamic cen-

ter near ground zero is aprovocatively bad thoughthoroughly legal idea.

For those who want tobuild bridges of religiousunderstanding and toler-ance, it’s especially badand likely to achieve pre-cisely the opposite result.To point this out certainlyshould not inescapably cat-egorize you as a bigot orxenophobe — though thosedo indeed exist.

Last week, arsonists setfire to equipment at thesite of a mosque in Mur-freesboro, Tenn. That is, asthe crow flies, 750 milesfrom ground zero. A groupof pastors is leading a pro-test against the establish-ment of a mosque in She-boygan, Wis., also about750 miles from ground ze-ro. Another pastor is lead-ing the opposition to con-struction of a mosque inTemecula, Calif., 2,400miles from ground zero.

Exactly how far fromlower Manhattan does amosque need to be in or-der not to be offensive?And speaking of offense, apastor in Gainesville, Fla.,plans to lead a mass burn-ing of Korans on Sept. 11.People of good faith can’tremain silent in the face ofsuch uncharitable — toput it mildly — acts.

“We live here side byside peacefully.” Thosewere the words AhmedSharif told reporters inNew York last week. Sharifis the cab driver who wasrepeatedly stabbed andhad his throat slashed by arider who apparently wentinto an alcohol-induced an-ti-Muslim rage. There’s alesson in charity.

Tolerance is, of course, atwo-way street. If somewealthy individuals are go-ing to start building cen-ters for interfaith under-standing, I’d prefer to seethem spend money in plac-es that need it far moredesperately than the Unit-ed States, such as SaudiArabia, Iran and Pakistan.

That doesn’t mean, how-ever, that some Americanscouldn’t use a lesson in re-ligious liberty. And it cer-tainly doesn’t mean thatpeople like Imam Azizshould have to worry thatthey are giving offensemerely by being Muslim.

(E-mail: jgurwitz@ex-press-news.net)

COLUMN

Practicingtolerance

By JONATHAN GURWITZSAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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.

Letters are edited forstyle, grammar, lengthand civility. No name-call-

ing or gratuitous abuse isallowed.

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

WASHINGTON —Last week HouseRepublican leader

John Boehner of Ohio deliv-ered a stinging critique ofthe Obama administration’seconomic policies. But theWhite House’s swift andtart reaction to Boehnerwas both illuminating andsadly predictable.

On the day of the speech,White House communica-tions director Dan Pfeifferoffered a “pre-brutal,”ripped from the playbook ofa presidential campaign.Vice President Joe Bidenjoined the fray, donning hisfull-electoral jacket, remind-ing us once again that itwas another president thatgot us into this mess.

Blame is like classic rockfor this administration —they like it so much theynever stop playing it.

Aiming a political fusil-lade at a specific congres-sional critique may seemnormal in today’s rough-and-tumble 24-hour newscycle, but it’s a fundamen-tally flawed method of steer-ing the ship of state.

Yet this tactical retort toa congressional appraisalwas dismally emblematic ofa broader governing style,demonstrating that the Oba-ma White House fundamen-tally misunderstands therole of the presidency.

Presidents like RonaldReagan, George H.W. Bush,Bill Clinton, or George W.Bush, occasionally, but rare-ly, engaged in personal tit-for-tat with congressional

leaders. Whenever they did,it also weakened them andadvanced their opponents.But this president hasraised the practice to an artform.

Instead of positioninghimself as the leader of thefree world or as a post-parti-san healer, Obama regular-ly inserts himself as a com-bative participant in Wash-ington’s permanentcampaign.

Whether inexperience orpoor strategic judgment, it’scertainly not the governingstyle he promised. Yet,whatever the cause, it di-minishes him, elevates hisdetractors and mobilizes op-ponents.

Maybe he thinks wadinginto culture-war battles ortactical political controver-sies reinforces his standingas a man of conviction. Oneexample was his opiningabout Harvard professorSkip Gates’ scrape with thelaw last summer and whatit meant about race rela-tions and law enforcement.

His response to the Ari-zona immigration law re-flected the same tacticalthinking.

Most recently, choosingto engage on the New Yorkmosque controversy rein-forced the pattern.

It’s like Obama createdhis own version of Newto-nian physics: Every actiondeserves an equal reactionfrom the federal Leviathan.

Each time it happens, itleads the White Housedown a new and unknowncommunications ally, farfrom the disciplined mess-age march that his cam-

paign walked in the 2008campaign.

These spontaneous out-bursts of opinion are unnec-essary, revealing, and de-structive. They are unneces-sary because as president,he doesn’t need to engagein every local controversy.That he does paints him asman with more hubris thanjudgment, who doesn’t un-derstand the nuanced dif-ferences between campaign-ing and governing.

His opinions expose himas more ideologically liber-al than originally adver-tised and also out of stepwith the preferences of acenter-right country.

Picking these fights is al-so destructive. Midterm pol-itics/firing up the base tac-tics might explain some ofhis more recent forays. ButObama has followed thesetactics from the early daysof his presidency.

For example, sittingdown in a room with abunch of congressmen andsenators at his “health caresummit” also diminishedhis presidency. Announcinga compromise in the RoseGarden is one thing. Debat-ing the merits of a “publicoption” at Blair House lastyear as if he was the 436thHouse member is quite an-other.

Why Obama purposelyshrinks his stature leavesmany scratching theirheads. A Republican leader-ship aide underscored thispoint last week, reacting tothe White House’s responseto Boehner: “Anytime thepresident engages in a de-bate like this with Con-

gress, it diminishes himand elevates us. Why heconsistently tries to do this,I just 1/8don’t3/8 under-stand.”

Addiction to politics ispart of it. As a result, heand his staff fail to under-stand the difference be-tween campaigning andgoverning.

Presidential scholarCharles O. Jones, in hisbook “The Presidency in aSeparated System,” offersthis assessment about thelessons every White Houseneeds to learn: “Newly-elected presidents are freshfrom an experience that isall-consuming and extraor-dinarily self-centered. Apresidential campaign ofperpetual motion focusesexclusively on the candi-date.”

But campaigns don’thave eternal life. “It is atthat precise point of tri-umph that a new leadermust be the most disci-plined in acknowledgingthe requirements of a tran-sition from candidate topresident,” Jones argues.“The first lesson, then, for apresident in a separatedsystem is to learn what isrequired to do the new job,understanding the cam-paign experiences and cam-paign workers have little tooffer toward that end.”

If Obama and his staff ev-er take a breather from at-tacking John Boehner, find-ing new culture fights, or fi-guring out new ways toinject the federal govern-ment into state and localquestions, they should readJones’s book.

COLUMN

The blame stops at ObamaBy GARY ANDRES

HEARST NEWSPAPERS

The latest annualsurvey of employerhealth benefits con-

tains good news for theemployers but bad newsfor their workers. Thegood news is that the av-erage total premium foremployer-sponsoredhealth insurance (typical-ly paid partly by employ-ers and partly by theirworkers) rose only a mod-est 3 percent this year forfamily plans, reaching$13,770 in 2010.

The bad news for work-ers is that their share ofthe premiums soared by14 percent, reaching al-most $4,000, while theamount employers con-tributed did not increase.In other words, employersshifted virtually all of theincreased premium coststo their hapless workers,who were in a weak posi-tion to resist in an econo-my where there were fewother jobs to jump to.

Republicans routinely

chastise President BarackObama for failing to guar-antee that you can keepyour current health planif you like it. But the pres-ident has little power overthe choices your boss hasbeen making. This year’sannual survey by theKaiser Family Foundationand the Health Researchand Educational Trustfound that many employ-ers have been changingyour current health planby paring back benefits orcharging you more in pre-miums, deductibles orother co-payments.

The long-term solution— a goal of the newhealth care reforms — isto restrain rising healthcare costs. But, for now,the nation’s economicwoes and high unemploy-ment rate suggest thatburden-shifting will con-tinue. Workers have littleclout to demand cheaperor better coverage. Theirout-of-work brethren areeven more hard pressed topay for health care.

EDITORIAL

Expect to bepaying more

NEW YORK TIMES

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010 Crime & More THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

MEXICO CITY — A for-mer Laredo high schoolfootball player and pettystreet dealer who allegedlyrose to become one of Mex-ico’s most savage assassinssays he personally knewthe country’s top drug lordsand shipped cocaine fromColombia through Panama.

In a video released byMexico’s federal police, Ed-gar Valdez Villarreal,known as “La Barbie” forhis fair complexion andgreen eyes, also told his in-terrogators that he trans-ported cash hidden in trail-ers and spent $200,000 tomake a film based on hislife.

The flamboyant suspect— he once owned a bar inAcapulco called “XXXoti-cas” — decided not to re-lease the movie because itmight reveal too much in-formation about him.

Authorities describedhim as a drug hit man whowent on to become a majortrafficker, shipping a ton ofcocaine a month and think-ing he would never becaught.

Instead, with his arrestMonday, Valdez became thethird major drug lordbrought down by Mexico inless than a year. The 37-year-old Valdez faces charg-es in three U.S. states fortrucking in tons of cocaine.

“I have work ... invest-ments, there in Colombia,”he said, laughing, on thetape that was broadcast lateTuesday and provided tonews organizations, includ-ing The Associated Press.

When asked if he workedin drugs, he replied yes.

Valdez’s U.S. attorney,Kent Schaffer, said Wednes-day he has been stone-walled so far in getting ac-cess to his client.

“I don’t know if it’s dum-mied up ... I don’t if that’swhat he said or if it’s true,”Schaffer said about the in-terrogation video, which hehad not seen. “That’s theperfect reason why they’retrying to keep him fromtalking to his lawyer ... sothey can get whatever theycan get under whateverconditions they can.”

Schaffer said it appearsthe U.S. will seek deporta-tion of Valdez, a U.S. citizenwho is in Mexico illegally.

“Whether an actual re-quest has been made, that I

don’t know,” he said.Authorities said Valdez

could provide intelligenceon other top traffickers, in-cluding Sinaloa chief Joa-quin “El Chapo” Guzman,Mexico’s most-wanted druglord.

Valdez told interrogatorsthat he knew the principalleaders of the drug cartels,such as Guzman, the broth-ers Arturo and Hector Bel-tran Leyva, Ismael “ElMayo” Zambada and JoseGerardo “El Indio” Alvarez,whom he called his friend.

His arrest at the en-trance to a ranch outsideMexico City also yieldedcomputers, telephones andother equipment author-ities said would likely pro-vide more informationabout his group.

Valdez’s capture in someways is more significantthan the downfall of theother two suspected druglords, Arturo Beltran Leyvaand Ignacio “El Nacho”Coronel, who were killed ingunbattles with Mexicanmilitary forces, said DavidJohnson, assistant U.S. sec-retary of state for interna-tional narcotics.

Valdez can provide thekind of information to dis-mantle an organization, hesaid.

In fact, as Mexican au-thorities presented ValdezTuesday, Colombian author-ities announced they haddetained 11 people allegedlylinked to him in that co-caine-producing SouthAmerican country. MexicanFederal Police Commission-er Facundo Rosas said thearrests were likely related,with Colombian authorities

taking advantage of a breakin Valdez’s organization.

Local media also showeda video from inside thethree-level residence wherehe was arrested, includingpaintings of religious sub-jects, horses and flowers,Gucci and Cartier boxes,big-screen TVs, a pool tableand a bar.

Mexican police said theychased Valdez across fiveMexican states for a year, apursuit that intensified inrecent months as they raid-ed home after home ownedby the drug lord, missinghim but nabbing several ofhis allies.

The biggest break camein December, when Mexi-can marines killed cartellord Arturo Beltran Leyvaduring a gunbattle in Cuer-navaca.

That unleashed a grue-some fight between Valdezand Beltran Leyva’s broth-er, Hector, the only one ofthe cartel’s founders whowas still at large. Decapitat-ed and dismembered bodieslittered the streets of Cuer-navaca and Acapulco —and often hung frombridges — along with mess-ages threatening one of thetwo feuding factions.

An elite, U.S.-trainedMexican federal policesquad arrested Valdez andfour accomplices on Mon-day.

“We were on his heelsfor the last six weeks, re-ceiving tips, but Mexicanlaw enforcement wouldshow up and they wouldmiss him,” one U.S. officialsaid. “He was feeling theheat of Mexican law en-forcement.”

‘La Barbie’ details lifein taped interview

By MARK STEVENSON AND PAUL J. WEBER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Federal Police escort Laredo-born fugitive Edgar “La Barbie” ValdezVillarreal, center, during his presentation to the press.

Photo by Alexandre Meneghini | AP

Deputies say a fisher-man from Guerrero, Ta-maulipas, Mexico, hadmore than 1,200 pounds ofmarijuana in the back ofhis vehicle Monday morn-ing, north of San Ygnacio.

Authorities arrested Ja-vier Gumercindo Valadez-Valadez, 31, and chargedhim with possession ofmarijuana. Deputies alsoserved the man with awarrant out of the ZapataCounty Sheriff ’s Officeon charges of terroristicthreat and possession of acontrolled substance.

Deputies on patrol con-

ducted a traffic stop on awhite 1992 GMC van boxtruck at about 9:30 a.m.as it traveled north onU.S. 83, approximately 5miles north of San Ygna-cio.

An investigation of thevehicle revealed a com-partment that containedseveral bundles of a greenleafy substance, accord-ing to Sgt. Mario Elizon-do.

Deputies seized the 52bundles, which weighedin at 1,227 pounds. The

marijuana has a streetvalue of $541,107.

Elizondo said thoughthe vehicle was headingnorth, he could not say ifthe load was coming toLaredo.

Elizondo said that thevehicle was not stolen.Though ownership of thetruck is still being inves-tigated, he said it wasregistered to someone inBrownsville.

Deputies booked Vala-dez-Valadez and trans-ported him to the ZapataRegional Jail.

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

Zapata County Sheriff’s deputies seized more than 1,200 pounds of marijuana from a trucktraveling north from San Ygnacio. A Mexican fisherman has been charged in the incident.

Courtesy photo

Deputies charge Mexicanfisherman in pot seizure

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

VALADEZ-VALADEZ:Was also servedwith an outstand-ing warrant.

ARSONDeputies reported to an ar-

son call at about 9 a.m. Mondayin the 1000 block of Morelos Ave-nue in San Ygnacio. An incidentreport states that some peopleentered a residence and lit upwindow curtains. An investigationis ongoing.

CHILD LEFT IN VEHICLEAn incident report states

that deputies arrested two peopleon charges of leaving a child be-hind in a vehicle at about 7:30p.m. Sunday in the intersection of12th Street and U.S. 83.

Authorities identified them asJohnny Lee Vaughn and Cindy Ya-

neth Cipriano. After booking pro-cedures, Vaughn and Ciprianowere taken to Zapata Regional Jail.

DISCHARGE OF FIREARMDeputies arrested Arturo Pe-

ña on charges of discharging afirearm at about 3 a.m. Aug. 28 inthe 5400 block of Grande Lane inthe Siesta Shores.

An incident report states thatdeputies responded to the area forreported shots fired. Officials ar-rived on scene and took Peña un-der custody.

Authorities recovered a 9 mmBeretta handgun. The man wasbooked and transported to ZapataRegional Jail.

DISORDERLY CONDUCTJose Candido Valadez III was

arrested on charges of disorderlyconduct at about 10 p.m. Aug. 28in the intersection of SeventhStreet and Villa Avenue in the Me-dina Addition. Deputies bookedthe man and took him to ZapataRegional Jail.

EVADING ARRESTAlvaro Angeles-Lobaton was

arrested at about midnight Aug.28 near the corner of 20th Streetand Ramireño Avenue in the Medi-na Addition. He was booked andtransported to Zapata RegionalJail.

THE BLOTTER

2010 CTS/V - Payments are for a specially equipped 2010 Cadillac CTS Sedan RWD 3.0L with MX0 Automaticwith an MSRP of $37290. $1999 Due at Signing. 27 monthly payments total $9402. Option to purchase at leaseend for an amount to be determined at lease signing.. GMAC must approve lease. Take delivery by 09-07-2010.Mileage charge of $.25 /mile over 22500 miles. Lessee pays for maintenance, repair and excess wear. Paymentsmay be higher in some states. Not available with other offers. Residency restrictions apply.

2010 CTS Wagon - Payments are for a 2010 Cadillac CTS Wagon Base with an MSRP of $39090. $3249 Dueat Signing. 39 monthly payments total $15559. Option to purchase at lease end for an amount to be determinedat lease signing.. GMAC must approve lease. Take delivery by 09-07-2010. Mileage charge of $.25 /mile over32500 miles. Lessee pays for maintenance, repair and excess wear. Payments may be higher in some states.Not available with other offers. Residency restrictions apply.

2010 DTS - Payments are for a specially equipped 2010 Cadillac DTS Luxury with AN3 Front 40/20/40 Flex Seating with anMSRP of $52740. $5024 Due at Signing. 39 monthly payments total $23357. Option to purchase at lease end for an amountto be determined at lease signing., plus $350 or turn in vehicle and pay a $395 termination fee. Lessor must approve lease.Take delivery by 09-07-2010. Mileage charge of $.18 /mile over 39000 miles. Lessee pays for maintenance, repair andexcess wear. Payments may be higher in some states. Not available with other offers. Residency restrictions apply.

2010 STS - Payments are for a specially equipped 2010 Cadillac STS AWD V6 Luxury with MX7 All Wheel Drive, JE5 PerformanceBrakes and PDP Luxury Collection with an MSRP of $58005. $5724 Due at Signing. 39 monthly payments total $23342. Option topurchase at lease end for an amount to be determined at lease signing., plus $350 or turn in vehicle and pay a $395 termination fee.Lessor must approve lease. Take delivery by 09-07-2010. Mileage charge of $.18 /mile over 39000 miles. Lessee pays for mainte-nance, repair and excess wear. Payments may be higher in some states. Not available with other offers. Residency restrictions apply.

2010 SRX - Payments are for a 2010 Cadillac SRX FWD Luxury with an MSRP of $38235. $2979 Due at Signing.39 monthly payments total $16716. Option to purchase at lease end for an amount to be determined at leasesigning.. GMAC must approve lease. Take delivery by 09-07-2010. Mileage charge of $.25 /mile over 32500miles. Lessee pays for maintenance, repair and excess wear. Payments may be higher in some states. Not avail-able with other offers. Residency restrictions apply.

2010 Escalade - Payments are for a 2010 Cadillac Escalade SUV 2WD Base with an MSRP of $63445. $5049Due at Signing. 39 monthly payments total $27259. Option to purchase at lease end for an amount to be deter-mined at lease signing.. GMAC must approve lease. Take delivery by 09-07-2010. Mileage charge of $.25 /mileover 32500 miles. Lessee pays for maintenance, repair and excess wear. Payments may be higher in somestates. Not available with other offers. Residency restrictions apply.

The 53rd edition of NuevoLaredo’s Expomex, known as“la feria,” is set to kick off to-day, with a grand lineup ofartists and singers at the Tea-tro Del Pueblo.

The fair and exposition fea-tures livestock shows, carnivalrides, Mexican delicacies, artsand crafts, games, comedy

shows and nightclub-type ar-eas.

It all starts tonight withErika performing at the out-door theater.

Expomex President Gerar-do Ramon Serna Aguilar saidthe two-week festival, which ispart of Mexico’s IndependenceDay celebration, will featurepopular artists.

Tonight, Karla Gabriela Ce-ballos Gutierrez will be

crowned the queen of the fes-tivities, which run throughSept. 19.

This year, Expomex hasmore historical significance,as Mexico is celebrating its bi-centennial anniversary of in-dependence and the MexicanRevolution’s 100th anniversary.

According to Serna Aguilar,Expomex was very selective inbooking the artists for the out-door concerts and shows,

which feature bands such asLa Sonora Dinamita, La Cos-tumbre and headliner El Pod-er del Norte. Ten of the artistshave never played at Expo-mex.

As far as the Palenque, thevenue that has hosted big con-certs such as that of VicenteFernandez, among others, Ser-na Aguilar said it will be openfor cockfights, where bettingis legal.

Expomex begins in Nuevo Laredo TEATRO DEL PUEBLO LINEUPSunday, Sept. 5: Nikki Clan Monday, Sept. 6: Ángeles Negros Tuesday, Sept. 7: Teo Gonzalez (comedian) Wednesday, Sept. 8: Cartel de SantaThursday, Sept. 9: La CostumbreFriday, Sept. 10: Natalia LafourcadeSaturday, Sept. 11: VolovanSunday, Sept. 12: Banda Jerez Monday, Sept. 13: Caballo DoradoTuesday, Sept. 14: Los Chicharrines (clown show)Wednesday, Sept. 15: Viva Mexico (ballet)Thursday, Sept. 16: La Sonora DinamitaFriday, Sept. 17: SandovalSaturday, Sept. 18: Playa LimboSunday, Sept.19: El Poder del Norte

By MIGUEL TIMOSHENKOVTHE ZAPATA TIMES

Bumped up a month be-fore it’s usually scheduled,the 2010 version of AutMusFest will feature mostly Te-jano/norteño bands Satur-day at the TAMIU grounds.

The AutMus, short forAutumn Music Festival andorganized by the TAMIUAlumni Association, kicksoff its sixth celebration at4:30 p.m.

Headlining the event willbe El Poder del Norte, alongwith Siggno and Los Palo-minos. Local bands Incansa-ble, The Shazz! and Baccha-nalian Bliss and San Anto-nio rap/reggaeton artistJuvee will be the first fouracts to play.

Like other outdoor festiv-als, AutMus Fest will alsooffer an array of Mexicanantojitos, such as fajita ta-cos and enchiladas; sweets,such as funnel cakes; andmany drinks, includingbeer.

The festival has grownthroughout the years, nowattracting more than 10,000visitors, according to itswebsite.

The bandsLocal rock/ska/punk

band Bacchanalian Blisswill kick things off at 4:30p.m., performing their origi-nal tracks such as “AskReeme” and “This or That.”Bliss band members areAlex Peña, Ivan Rivas, No-lan Arriaga, Oscar Canales,Monika Sanchez and Jo-seph Garner.

Funk/electric band TheShazz! follows at 5:15 p.m.

The band comprises ofErik Gonzales, FernandoGutierrez, David Treviño,and EJ Laurel.

At 6 p.m., San Antonio’sJuvee, a rap and reggaetonartist, takes over the stage.Juvee, who sings ala Pit-bull, is signed to Third De-gree Entertainment, a rapmusic label also based inSan Antonio. His songs in-clude “Get Crazy” and “Na-da Como Tu y Yo.”

Grupo Incansable playsnext, beginning at 6:45 p.m.

Grupo Siggno, fromSanta Rosa, Texas, plays at7:50 p.m. Some of Siggno’spopular songs are “Sin TuAmor,” “El Amor Que TuMe Das,” “Decirte Te Quie-ro,” “En Mi Vas a Encon-trar” and “Yo Queria.”

With a long career in theTejano industry, Los Palo-minos, a group formed byfour brothers out of Uvalde,returns to Laredo onceagain as the co-headliner ofAutMus.

Juan “Johnny,” Jaime“James,” Jorge “George,”and Julio Arreola make upLos Palominos, which hasbeen nominated multipletimes for a Latin Grammy

and finally won one in 2007.Among the many hits

Los Palominos has pro-duced are “Corazon deCrystal,” “Eres Lo Que MasQuiero,” “Como Olvidarte,”“La Llama,” “Duele ElAmor” and “Mi Obession.”Los Palominos play at 9:40p.m.

El Poder del Norte,known for big hits such as“A Ella,” “Pero Me Perdo-nas,” “Maldito Orgullo,”“Para Que Me Engaño,” “NiQue Valieras Tanto,” “EsMejor Perdonar” and “YaPerdi,” among others, willclose out the festival, gettingon stage at 11:30 p.m.

El Poder, as they are of-ten referred as, is made upof Arturo Buenrostro Her-nández, Martín de JesúsBuenrostro Hernández, Ru-dy Wong Cantú, David Leo-nardo Bocanegra Castillo,Rubén Robles Cano and Ale-jandro Fuentes Martínez.

Tickets to Saturday’s Aut-Mus Fest are $10 presaleand $15 at the gate. Presaletickets are available at Pock-et communications stores.

For more information,visit http://www.autmus-fest.com.

El Poder headlines 2010 AutMus Fest lineup

By EMILIO RÁBAGO IIITHE ZAPATA TIMES

Based in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, El Poder del Norte first emergedin the entertainment scene in the mid 1990s.

Express-News file photo

If you want to have somequality family time thisweekend, you might want tohead out to the Laredo In-ternational Fair and Exposi-tion grounds.

The Laredo Rotary Clubis hosting a rodeo competi-tion, dubbed “Rodeo for Ro-tary,” which will feature avariety of competitions, chil-dren’s activities, a trail rideand a country music dance.

Ed Medina, president ofthe Laredo Rotary Club,said the event is a fund-raiser for the club’s contri-butions to the community.

“(This is) the first timethis has ever been done, and

we’re hoping that it’ll beour biggest fundraiser,” Me-dina said, adding that a ro-deo competition hasn’t beenheld in the city for morethan a decade.

The Rodeo for Rotarykicks off Saturday morningwith a trail ride, beginningat 8:30 a.m.

Doors at LIFE Downsopen at 4 p.m. for the rodeoexhibitions and competi-tions and children’s events— calf scramble and muttonbustin’ — begin at 4:30 p.m.,before the rodeo.

Rodeo events include bar-rel racing, bull ridingbreak-away roping, team roping-bronc riding and calf rop-ing. There is a $10paperwork fee as well.

Cash prizes are lucrative,perhaps exceeding $5,000and organizers have added$3,000.Competitions last un-til 9:30 p.m. and the countryconcert starts at 9 p.m. inthe LIFE Downs enclosedpavilion.

Featured artists at thedance, which ends at 2 a.m.,will be Nick Lawrence andthe Nathan Mathis Band,both from San Antonio.

Tickets are $18 for boththe rodeo and concert. Pric-es at the door are $10 for ro-deo only and $14 for theconcert. They are availableat Kelly’s Western Wear andCasa de Musica Guadalupe.Kids under 10 are free.

For more information,call 744-2146.

Rodeo competition at LIFEBy EMILIO RÁBAGO III

THE ZAPATA TIMES

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES Zentertainment SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

SÁBADO 4 DE SEPTIEMBRELAREDO — Se llevará

a cabo una venta de librosen la Widener Room de laFirst United MethodistChurch, 1220 McClellandAve., de 8:30 a.m. a 1 p.m.La entrada es gratuita. Tam-bién se acepta la donaciónde libros y revistas.

LAREDO — Hoy es elAutMust Fest en terrenos deTexas A&M International Uni-versity a partir de las 4:30p.m. Boletos a 10 dólares enpreventa y 15 dólares en lapuerta. Niños menores de 12años entran gratis. El esta-cionamiento también es gra-tuito.

LAREDO — Patrocina-do por el Laredo RotaryClub, la Cabalgata Rodeo forRotary iniciará en el Alexan-der Crossing Golf Center. Laadmisión es gratuita y lasinscripciones inician a las 8a.m. La cabalgata a las 9a.m. El rodeo será en el L.I-.F.E. Downs Arena a las 6:30p.m. Más información conGeorge Jimenez al (956)744-2146.

NUEVO LAREDO —Durante la Semana del Soni-do se presenta una dinámicapara niños “Exploradores so-noros/caminata sonora” alas 2 p.m. u el “Concierto aOscuras”, que es un arte so-noro, música electroacústicacon paisaje sonoro a las 7p.m. en Estación Palabra.

SAN ANTONIO — Hoyse inaugura “FotoSeptiem-breUSA 2010”, con las exhi-biciones ‘Slanted Glances:Idiosyncratic Interpretationsof Independence & Revolu-tion in Mexico’ curada porMichael Mehl; ‘Oyeme conlos Ojos’ de Josephine Saca-bo; ‘Halfway Child’ de Josefi-na Niggli curada por MichaelMehl y William Fisher. La ce-remonia es a las 4 p.m. enel Instituto Cultural de Méxi-co en San Antonio (600 He-misfair Park). Reservar al(210) 227-0123.

DOMINGO 5 DE SEPTIEMBRESAN ANTONIO — Hoy

es la conferencia y eventoprincipal de “FotoSeptiem-breUSA 2010” a las 5 p.m.en el Auditorio del InstitutoCultural de México (600 He-misfair Park). Se presentaráPatricia Mendoza con la con-ferencia ‘Land, Identity &Image’. El evento es gratuito.Favor de reservar al (210)227-0123.

LUNES 6 DE SEPTIEMBRELAREDO — Hoy es el

2010 Family Chevrolet BolaBlanca Chamber Classic conmotivo del Día del Trabajo apartir de las 7:30 a.m. en elLaredo Country Club. Lacuota es de 175 dólares paraquienes no sean miembrosde la Cámara y 150 paraquienes son miembros. Másinformación llamando al(956) 722-9895.

MIÉRCOLES 8 DESEPTIEMBRE

LAREDO — Las Texi-can CattleWomen se reúnenhoy en Rudy’s Party Room.El propósito es compartir lasventajas de la industria de lacarne. El grupo está acep-tando nuevos integrantes.Más información llamando aCathy Reed al 744-1983.

SAN ANTONIO — “Fo-toSeptiembreUSA 2010” pre-senta la exposición ‘The Ca-sasola Archives: Mexico –Beyond the Revolution!’ conimágenes de Agustín VíctorCasasola. La ceremonia eshoy a las 6 p.m. en el Cen-tro Internacional de la Ciu-dad de San Antonio (203South St. Mary’s. Más infor-mación en el (210) 227-0123.

JUEVES 9 DE SEPTIEMBREAVISO: Hoy estará

cerrada la Clínica de Vacuna-ción del Departamento deSalud de la Ciudad de Lare-do de 1 p.m. a 5 p.m.

Agendaen Breve

El primer avión solita-rio para patrullar la fron-tera Texas/México iniciósu primera misión oficialel miércoles.

Con la capacidad paravolar tanto como 20 horascontinuas, y con video cá-maras que pueden vertanto como 19,000 pies, elavión pudiera convertirseen un valor agregado pa-ra detener contrabandode drogas y humanos porla frontera, de acuerdo alRepresentante de EUHenry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

“Hemos estado inten-tando obtener uno de esospor un tiempo”, dijo Cue-llar.

El avión Predator B es-tará ubicado en la Esta-ción Aérea Naval en Cor-pus Christi.

El uso del avión puedeser nuevo para Texas, pe-ro desde 2005, Predator Bshan ayudado a asegurarmás de 4,000 inmigrantesilegales, de acuerdo a laoficina de Cuellar.

Ya hay 32 millones dedólares en fondos parados aparatos más en elárea de Texas que ven-drán de los 600 millonesde dólares en la propuestade gasto suplemental2010.

Pero Cuellar espera verinclusive más en la re-gión.

“Texas es tan grande,

espero que podamos obte-ner tres ó cuatro más”, di-jo él.

Actualmente, no hayun acuerdo formal entreMéxico y los Estados Uni-dos en relación al uso delos aparatos, significandoque son permitidos paravolar el espacio aéreo deEU únicamente y no pue-den fotografiar intencio-nalmente el territorio me-xicano.

Sin embargo, a largoplazo, si los aviones son losuficientemente exitosos,Cuellar dijo que pudieraimaginarse coordinadoscon el gobierno mexicanoy compartir informaciónobtenida por los aparatos.

“Podemos hacer tantocomo México desee (quehagamos) para ayudar”,dijo él.

Aunque aparatos simi-lares en Irak y Afganistánfrecuentemente llevan ar-mas, Cuellar aclaró queno hay armas sobre losaviones en los EstadosUnidos.

“La única cosa con laque están armados soncon cámaras sofistica-das”, dijo Cuellar.

“La misión aquí es pro-veer información”.

Una ceremonia formalpresentando los nuevosaviones sin pilotos, serárealizada en CorpusChristi el 8 de septiembre.

(Localice a Zach Lin-dsey en el 728-2538 ó enzach@lmtonline.com)

Avionesvigilaránfrontera

POR ZACH LINDSEYTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

El domingo 29 de agostoTamaulipas volvió a vivirun lamentable incidente re-sultado de la violencia delos últimos meses.

El Alcalde de Hidalgo,Marco Antonio Leal Gar-cía, fue asesinado alrede-dor de las 3 p.m. sobre elcamino de terracería ubi-cado al lado oriente de laCarretera Victoria-Monte-rrey, rumbo al poblado ElTomaseño.

Leal, quien transitabaacompañado de su hija de10 años, perdió la vida demanera instantánea.

Durante un homenajeluctuoso, el Gobernador deTamaulipas Eugenio Her-nández Flores dijo que lapérdida de Leal pone enevidencia que la amenazamás grande y el principaldesafío que tenemos comopaís y como estado, es lainseguridad.

Además calificó la agre-sión como “injusta, cobar-de y artera”.

“Es un crimen que aten-ta contra las bases de nues-tra convivencia, al igualque a nuestra vida institu-cional y democrática, de talforma que su pérdida, nosmueve a actuar con mayordecisión para salir adelan-te en estos momentos dedolor e infortunio y conti-nuar avanzando en el mar-co de la ley, la unidad y laconcordia”, dijo Hernán-dez.

Hernández aseguró queeste homicidio no puedequedar impune, por lo quese dará puntual seguimien-to a las pesquisas corres-pondientes, para que seaplique todo el peso de laley a los culpables.

La hija de Leal resulócon lesiones en una piernaproducidas por dos impac-tos de proyectil de arma defuego que le provocaronfractura de tibia. Fue aten-

dida en un hospital de Ciu-dad Victoria.

A Leal le sobreviven suesposa Maribel Valdéz Al-bear y sus hijos María Es-ther, Marco Antonio y Ma-ritza Maribel.

InvestigacionesLeal conducía una ca-

mioneta tipo Pick Up, mar-ca Ford F-250 XL, SuperDuty, con placas de Texas,modelo 2004.

La unidad presentaba 44orificios de entrada en ellado izquierdo y cuatro ori-ficios de salida en la puertadel lado derecho, daños enel medallón y parabrisas,así como restos de tejido enel interior del vehículo.

El Subprocurador Gene-ral de Justicia del Estado,Hernán de la Garza Tamez,dijo que autoridades reco-lectaron 18 casquillos ope-rados y percutidos calibre7.62x39, tres casquillos deescopeta calibre 12 y unabala completa con ciertogrado de deformidad.

La autopsia reveló que elcuerpo de Leal presentaba27 heridas producidas porproyectiles disparados porarma de fuego de las cua-les, 11 son orificio de entra-da, siete orificios de salida,cinco no penetran a cavi-dad y cuatro son en sedal.Las lesiones se encontra-ron en cráneo, tórax y ab-domen región anterior yposterior, cadera y extremi-dades superiores e inferio-res.

InseguridadEn un comunicado de

prensa, la situación de se-guridad que vive la entidad

fue calificada como “unacoyuntura inédita”, a locual agregó que Hernándezdijo que su administraciónde nueva cuenta cierra fi-las con el Gobierno de laRepública y con todos y ca-da uno de los municipiosque componen el estado,con el fin de revertir estainadmisible situación.

Ante esto anunció queya se han sostenido acuer-dos con la Secretaría deGobernación, la Procura-duría General de la Repú-blica y la Secretaría de Se-guridad Pública Federalpara seguir trasladando unnúmero cada vez mayor deelementos de las fuerzas yde corporaciones policíacasfederales.

“Es necesario afinar yperfeccionar la estrategiacontra la delincuencia, pa-ra asegurar la tranquilidady la armonía de las fami-lias”, dijo Hernández. “Elcrimen organizado repre-senta la más seria amenazacontra nuestras libertadesy derechos”.

Expresó que ante estepanorama el patrimonio, latranquilidad y el desarrolloacumulado por años y quetanto ha costado a los ta-maulipecos está en riesgo,por lo que convocó a defen-derlo de quienes atentancontra las instituciones ylastiman el Estado de dere-cho.

Declaró que los tamauli-pecos estamos dispuestos ydecididos a recuperar lapaz y el orden, pues la ra-zón está de nuestro lado yadvirtió que la sociedad ta-maulipeca está dispuesta acontinuar haciendo su par-te, nunca se ha doblegado einsiste con firmeza y sere-nidad en la permanenciadel estado de derecho.

El Gobernador de Tamaulipas Eugenio Hernández Flores habla a los presentes durante una ceremoniapara honrar la memoria del Alcalde de Hidalgo, Marco Antonio Leal García.

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

Hernández: homicidiono quedará impune

(La sociedad) nunca se hadoblegado e insiste con firmeza yserenidad en la permanencia delestado de derecho.

Alcalde de Hidalgorecibió 27 disparos

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 4 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2010

NUESTRA BELLEZA TAMAULIPAS 2010

Foto de cortesía

Claudia MaribelGonzález Eli-zondo, es vistaen la etapa devestido casual,durante elevento deNuestra BellezaTamaulipas2010. Gonzálezdijo estar listapara represen-tar al estado enel certamen na-cional que serealizará el 25de septiembreen Coahuila.

Oficiales dicen que unpescador de Nueva CiudadGuerrero, Tamaulipas,México, tenía más de 1,200

libras demarihuanaen la partetrasera desu vehículoel lunes porla mañana,al norte deSan Ygnacio.

Autori-dades arrestaron a JavierGumercindo Valadez-Vala-dez, de 31 años de edad, yacusado con posesión demarihuana.

Oficiales también cum-plieron una orden de ar-resto contra Valadez, departe de la Oficina del Al-guacil del Condado de Za-pata por cargos de amena-

za terrorista y posesión deuna sustancia controlada.

Oficiales patrullando elsector realizaron un altovial a una van GMC, mod-elo 1992, color blanco, alas 9:30 a.m. del 30 deagosto, cuando circulabahacia el norte sobre laU.S. 83, aproximadamentecinco millas al norte deSan Ygnacio.

Una investigación sobreel vehículo reveló un com-partimiento que conteníavarios paquetes de unasustancia de hojas verdes,de acuerdo al Sgt. MarioElizondo.

Oficiales decomisaronlos 52 paquetes, los cualespesaban 1,227 libras.

La marihuana tiene va-lor en la calle de 541,107dólares.

Elizondo dijo que aun-que el vehículo se dirigíahacia el norte, él no podíadecir si la carga iba hacia

Laredo.Elizondo dijo que el ve-

hículo no era robado.Aunque la propiedad de

la camioneta sigue siendo

investigada, agregó queesta registrada a alguienen Brownsville.

Oficiales ficharon a Va-ladez y lo trasladaron a la

Cárcel Regional de Zapa-ta.

(Localice a César G. Ro-driguez en el 728-2568 ó encesar@lmtonline.com)

Oficiales decomisan 1,200 libras de marihuana

Oficiales del Alguacil del Condado de Zapata decomisaron más de 1,200 libras de marihuana local-izadas dentro de una camioneta viajando hacia el norte de San Ygnacio.

Foto de cortesía

Acusado es de Ciudad Guerrero

POR CÉSAR G. RODRÍGUEZTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

VALADEZ

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

SAN JUAN, Texas —When Ruth Garcia’s twinsare born in two months,they’ll have all the rights ofU.S. citizens. They andtheir six brothers and sis-ters will be able to vote, ap-ply for federal studentloans and even run forpresident.

Garcia is an illegal im-migrant who crossed intothe country about 14 yearsago, before her childrenwere born, and the citizen-ship granted to her chil-dren and millions otherslike them is at the center ofa divisive national debate.

Republicans are pushingfor congressional hearingsto consider changing thenation’s 14th Amendmentto deny such children theautomatic citizenship theConstitution guarantees.While a recent Pew Hispan-ic Center study shows 8percent of the 4.3 millionbabies born in the U.S. in2008 had at least one illegalparent, a closer examin-ation shows that most chil-dren of illegal immigrantsare born to parents likeGarcia who have made theUnited States their homefor years.

Out of 340,000 babiesborn to illegal immigrantsin the United States in2008, 85 percent of the par-ents had been in the coun-try for more than a year,and more than half for atleast five years, Jeffrey Pas-

sel, demographer for Pew,told The Associated Press.

And immigration ex-perts say it’s extraordinari-ly rare for immigrants tocome to the U.S. just sothey can have babies andget citizenship. In mostcases, they come for eco-nomic reasons and betterhospitals, and end up stay-ing and raising families.

Garcia’s husband hasbeen deported and sheearns a living selling ta-males to other immigrantswho live in fear of being de-ported from the impover-ished colonias that dot theTexas-Mexico border.

“I think that childrenaren’t at fault for havingbeen born here,” Garciasaid. “My children alwayshave lived here. They’venever gone to anothercountry.”

Under current immigra-

tion law, Garcia and otherslike her don’t get U.S. citi-zenship even though theirchildren are Americans.

With an estimated 11.1million illegal immigrantsliving in the United States,the issue strikes a chordwith many voters — peoplelike retired Air Force nurseand pediatric nurse practi-tioner Susan Struck, 66, ofDouble Adobe, Ariz.

“People come over ... andthey have babies with U.S.birth certificates, then theygo back over the borderwith that Social Securitynumber, with that birthcertificate,” and have ac-cess to public services, shesaid at a recent event nearthe border organized by teaparty activists.

Several prominent Re-publican leaders shareStruck’s beliefs on the is-sue. Sen. Lindsey Grahamof South Carolina has beena vocal advocate for chang-ing the Constitution, andhe helped the issue gainmomentum heading intothe midterm elections.

“Women have traveledfrom across the world forthe purpose of adding aU.S. passport holder totheir family, as far away asChina, Turkey and as closeas Mexico,” said Jon Feere,legal analyst for the Centerfor Immigration Studies,which advocates for strictimmigration laws.

To be sure, some preg-nant Mexican women docome to the United States.In border cities like No-gales, women have been

coming to the U.S. for dec-ades to give birth, althoughthe primary reason is bet-ter medical care, SantaCruz County sheriff TonyEstrada said. Tucson Med-ical Center, 115 miles south-east of Phoenix, offerspackages designed to pro-vide inclusive care to newmothers. The programdraws residents of thenorthern Mexican state ofSonora who can afford itsupfront costs.

Princeton University de-mographer Douglas Mas-sey said in 30 years study-ing Mexican immigration,he’s never interviewed amigrant who said theycame to the United Statesjust to get citizenship for

their children. “Mexicans do not come

to have babies in the Unit-ed States,” said Massey,who blames the tighteningof the border in the 1990sfor cutting off normal mi-gration of men who used tocome to work for a year ortwo and then go home.“They end up having ba-bies in the United Statesbecause men can no longercirculate freely back andforth from homes in Mexi-co to jobs in the UnitedStates, and husbands andwives quite understandablywant to be together.”

More common, he andother experts says, are fam-ilies stuck with one childwho is legal and others

who aren’t — like BeatrizGomez, a 35-year-old illegalimmigrant who came toPhoenix 11 years ago on anow-expired tourist visafrom Arriaga in the Mexi-can state of Chiapas.

Her 12-year-old daughterwas born in Mexico and ishere illegally, but her twoyoungest children, ages 8and 5, were born in the U.S.and are citizens.

“It’s sad,” Gomez said ofher oldest daughter, whowas only 1 when the familycame to the United Statesand won’t qualify for bene-fits such as in-state collegetuition rates. “She studieshard, and she won’t be ableto go to a university likethe other two.”

Few women come to give birth in USBy BOB CHRISTIE AND PAUL J.

WEBERASSOCIATED PRESS

Miguel, 3, plays with his father, Miguel, an illegal immigrant, in San Juan, Texas. Miguel and his wife,who remain in the U.S. as illegal immigrants, have two children born in the U.S.

Photo by Eric Gay | AP

The Obama administra-tion is withholding $26 mil-lion in aid to Mexico, rec-ommending that the gov-ernment give more powerto its human rights com-mission and crack down onabusive soldiers.

In a report released Fri-day, the State Departmentsaid the Mexican govern-ment, which is mired in aviolent battle with power-ful drug cartels, has methuman rights require-ments to receive $36 mil-lion in previously withheldfunds that are part of a $1.4billion Merida Initiative.

But the U.S. was going towithhold 15 percent of new-ly authorized funds untilthe Mexican governmentmeets several require-ments: enhancing author-ity of the National HumanRights Commission, limit-ing authority of militarycourts in cases involvingabuse of civilians, and im-proving communication

with human rights organi-zations in Mexico.

The Mexican govern-ment said it is working toimprove human rights andurged Washington to speedup implementation of theMerida Initiative.

“The State Departmentreport establishes that thegovernment of Mexico iscarrying out actions tostrengthen the observanceof human rights,” the For-eign Relations Departmentsaid in a statement. “Coop-eration with the UnitedStates against transnation-al organized crime throughthe framework of the Meri-da Initiative is based onshared responsibility, mu-tual trust and respect forthe jurisdiction of eachcountry, not on unilateralplans for evaluating andconditions unacceptable tothe government of Mexico.”

Maureen Meyer, a Mexi-co expert at the Washing-ton Office on Latin Ameri-ca, which promotes humanrights and democracy inthe region, said withhold-

ing funds sends the mess-age “that you cannot fightcrime with crime and youcannot fight drugs whiletolerating abuses by yoursecurity forces.”

The Merida Initiativewas a 2008 commitmentfrom the U.S. to help Mex-ico combat cartels. Underthe rules, the State Depart-ment must certify Mexicois banning torture, prose-cuting law enforcementagents and soldiers whoabuse civil rights before al-locating all of the funds.

A State Department re-port sent to the Senate thisweek commends the Mexi-can government for crack-ing down on torture, im-proving transparency andlistening to human rightsgroups’ allegations thatabout military abuses.

But the report, whichhas not been publicly re-leased, said the govern-ment needs to be more pub-lic and aggressive when in-vestigating and prosecutingallegations of abuse by se-curity forces.

Mexico has faced repeat-ed criticism for alleged mil-itary abuses. This year, hu-man rights officials ac-cused soldiers of shootingtwo children and alteringthe crime scene to try toblame the deaths on drugcartel gunmen.

The army denies the al-legations, and says theboys, ages 5 and 9, werekilled in April when theirfamily’s vehicle was caughtin the crossfire of a shoot-out between soldiers andgunmen in the northernstate of Tamaulipas.

To Mexico: Improve human rightsBy MARTHA MENDOZA

ASSOCIATED PRESS

EL PASO, Texas — Fed-eral prosecutors havecharged 11 people, includ-ing the El Paso County dis-trict clerk and the mayor ofa small West Texas town,as part of a years-old publiccorruption case.

Nine of the defendants,including El Paso CountyDistrict Clerk Gilbert San-chez, are charged with as-sorted violations under thefederal anti-racketeeringlaw. Also charged withracketeering violations areFrancisco Apodaca Jr., for-mer head of now-defunctAccess Healthsource Inc.,and Access consultantMarc Schwartz.

The indictment accusesApodaca and Schwartz ofpaying members of countyand local governing boardsso they would sign Accessas health care plan admin-istrators.

Four others charged un-der the anti-racketeeringlaw are accused of accept-ing the payments. All elev-en defendants turned them-selves in at the El Paso FBIoffice Thursday morning.

11 indictedin El Pasocorruption

caseBy ALICIA A. CALDWELL

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Carmen Ramirez - Rathmell, D.D.S.“Let your smile be

a sign of happiness& good health”

1520 Corpus Christi StreetTelephone (956) 726-0160

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

WASHINGTON — Whatnow for the Gulf?

News of another oil rigfire in the Gulf of Mexico,so soon after the BP oilspill, has set off a wave ofanxiety along the GulfCoast and prompted callsfor the government to ex-tend its six-month ban ondeepwater drilling.

Just when it seemed theObama administrationmight be ready to lift theunpopular ban, the fireraises new questions aboutthe dangers of offshoredrilling, leaving the indus-try wondering when it canget back to work.

“Anything that casts anykind of shadow on the in-dustry right now certainlycomplicates lifting the mo-ratorium,” said Bruce Bull-ock, director of the Ma-guire Energy Institute atSouthern Methodist Uni-versity in Texas. “It makesit difficult to continue tosay that (the BP spill) is anaberration.”

But while initial reportswere frightening, Bullockand other experts saidThursday’s platform fire isunlikely to have a lastingeffect.

Unlike the April explo-sion of the Deepwater Hori-zon rig — which killed 11people and led to the large-st offshore oil spill in thenation’s history — the fireat the Mariner Energy Inc.platform 100 miles south ofLouisiana killed no one andsent no crude gushing intothe water.

“There’s over 100 fires inthe Gulf in a given year.Were it not for the BP inci-dent this would receive ve-ry little coverage,” Bullocksaid. “This could have hap-

pened in a meat factory ora paint factory or anywhereelse.”

Even so, environmentalgroups and some Democrat-ic lawmakers rushed to de-nounce offshore drillingand urged the Obama ad-ministration to extend thesix-month deepwater ban toshallow water as well. Thecurrent ban has shut downdrilling at 33 ocean wells,but there still are morethan 7,300 active leases inthe Gulf of Mexico, 58 per-cent of them in deep wa-ters, according to theAmerican Petroleum Insti-tute.

There are about 3,400platforms operating in theGulf, pumping about athird of America’s domesticoil.

The latest fire “is anoth-er reminder that drillingaccidents happen all toofrequently. We cannot af-ford to lose any more hu-man lives, nor can we toler-ate further damage to theGulf and its irreplaceableocean ecosystems,” saidJacqueline Savitz of the en-vironmental group Oceana.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a leading critic ofBP, said the fire highlightsthe risks associated withoffshore drilling. Lawmak-ers “have a duty to ... all oilworkers to make sure theoil industry’s drilling prac-tices are safe and sound,”Markey said.

The Interior Departmenthas said it is consideringlifting the ban for certaincategories of rigs before thescheduled Nov. 30 expira-tion. But after Thursday’saccident the departmentmay hesitate to act.

White House press secre-tary Robert Gibbs said hedidn’t think the incidentwould affect the drilling

moratorium. Gibbs resistedany effort to link the plat-form fire to the BP spill.

“At this point, based onwhat we know, I don’t wantto marry those two up,”Gibbs told reporters Thurs-day.

Interior Secretary KenSalazar said Friday that theplatform fire appeared to bean industrial accident.

“At this point, it doesn’tseem like there was any oilthat was released out so theoil pollution is not an issue,and it’s not another Deep-water Horizon issue,” Sala-zar said at a news confer-ence in Anchorage.

Industry representativesalso distinguished betweenthe two incidents, sayingthat the fire did not involvedrilling and occurred on aproduction platform wherewells have already beendrilled and sealed, ratherthan a drilling rig like theDeepwater Horizon.

Mariner Energy saidthere were seven active pro-duction wells on its plat-form, but they were shutdown for maintenanceshortly before the firebroke out. A crew was onthe platform painting andsandblasting when the fireoccurred, a companyspokesman said Friday.

Lee Hunt, chief executiveof the International Associ-ation of Drilling Contrac-tors, said those urgingtighter restrictions on off-shore drilling were overre-acting.

“These things have hap-pened and been reportedbefore” and generated littlemedia attention, Hunt said.

Still, Hunt conceded thatthe timing of the fire was“not fortuitous,” addingthat he expects upcomingcongressional hearings onthe Mariner fire to be a

“minor circus.” Hunt called the fire a

“major blast” similar toone at a land-based refinery.

“As a geographical work-place, you would expectsome fires. Just like you’dexpect some chemical stor-age facilities ... will occa-sionally have three-alarmfires on land,” he said.“They do happen.”

Federal authorities havecited Mariner Energy andrelated entities for 10 acci-dents in the Gulf of Mexicoover the past four years, ac-cording to safety recordsfrom the Bureau of OceanEnergy Management, Regu-lation and Enforcement.The accidents range fromplatform fires to pollutionspills and a blowout.

A day before the fire, theAmerican Petroleum Insti-tute held a “Rally for Jobs”in Houston to protest thedrilling moratorium. Mari-ner official Barbara DianneHagood was among thosein attendance, according toa Financial Times report.

“I have been in the oiland gas industry for 40years, and this administra-tion is trying to break us,”she told the London-basedpaper. “The moratoriumthey imposed is going to bea financial disaster for theGulf Coast, Gulf Coast em-ployees and Gulf Coast resi-dents.”

Charlotte Randolph,president of the Lafourche,La., Parish and an outspo-ken critic of the moratori-um, said the outcome ofThursday’s platform fireproved that the oil and gasindustry has effective safe-ty procedures.

“The people were safelyrecovered. The oil did notspill. It’s everything theDeepwater Horizon wasnot,” she said.

Boats spray water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana., on Thursday. All 13 crewmembers were rescued.

Photo by Gerald Herbert | Ap

Fire complicates drill debateBy MATTHEW DALYASSOCIATED PRESS

Dr. Ikes invites the pub-lic to the first annualPaint-A-Palooza featuringan art exhibit group “SinLimits,” to inspire peopleto get creative and do itthemselves with an instore promotion to buyone get one free gallon ofTrue Value paint.

The event kicked offFriday and continues to-day, from 1 to 8 p.m. at Dr.Ike’s in Laredo, showcas-ing local talent such aswork from Dr. Ikes veryown associates.

Host paint expert Adol-fo Salas will be showinglive demos in addition toa variety of other enter-tainment for the public.

“Local musician WayneGarcia will be playing 70sand 80 acoustic music,”said Elizabeth Murphy, Dr.Ikes Marketing Coordina-tor.

An additional highlightis Laredo’s very own “El-vis” impersonator LuisSalazar performing at 6p.m., she said.

Refreshments and lightsnacks will be providedfor the public while theylisten to live music, sheadded.

Dr. Ike’s is located at4200 IH 35 North in Lare-do.

For more informationcall (956)721-7300.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557.)

Hardware store holds artexhibit, paint promotion

By LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

WASHINGTON — Un-employment is stuck athigh levels even thoughsome companies are hir-ing. The problem, govern-ment data show, is thattoo few jobs are being cre-ated for the growing num-ber of people looking forwork.

Private employers add-ed a net total of 67,000 jobsin August. But the unem-ployment rate rose to 9.6percent from 9.5 percent,the Labor Departmentsaid Friday, because thenumber of job-seekersoverwhelmed the numberof openings.

The unemploymentrate has exceeded 9 per-cent for 16 straightmonths and is all but sureto extend that streak intonext year. If it does, itwould break a record of 19straight months above 9percent, set from 1982-83,after a severe recession.

Nearly 15 million peo-ple are unemployed thisLabor Day weekend, andthe sluggish economy isputting pressure on Presi-dent Barack Obama andthe Democrats ahead ofthe November midtermelections. Obama said Fri-day that he intends to un-veil a new package of pro-posals that will likely in-clude tax cuts andspending to spark jobgrowth.

On top of the jobs thatcompanies created lastmonth, both July andJune’s private-sector jobfigures were upwardly re-vised. Overall, the econo-my lost 54,000 jobs lastmonth as 114,000 tempora-

ry census positions ended. The Labor Department

report hardly suggests theeconomy is out of danger,but the figures were notas bleak as some econo-mists had predicted.

Wall Street embracedthe news, and stockssurged within seconds ofits release. The Dow Jonesindustrial average closedup 127 points.

“When the bar is low, itisn’t hard to exceed it,”said Diane Swonk, aneconomist at Mesirow Fi-nancial. The report “alle-viates the sense that theeconomy is falling off acliff.”

Even with August’sgains, job growth hasweakened in recentmonths and isn’t enoughto keep the unemploy-ment rate from rising. Pri-vate employers have add-ed only 78,000 jobs permonth, on average, in thepast three months. Itwould take at least 200,000jobs a month to keep upwith population growthand rehire millions of un-employed Americans.

Many economists don’texpect that pace of jobgrowth until next year. Asa result, the unemploy-ment rate could exceed 9percent for more months.

The November mid-term elections are alreadyshaping up to be a refer-endum on Democrats’handling of the economy.Many expect the majorityparty to lose many seatsand possibly control of theHouse and Senate.

Obama called the latestemployment figures posi-tive news but acknowl-edged that much more jobcreation is needed.

Unemploymentrate stays steady

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABERASSOCIATED PRESS

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

tivities, especially theirpractices to see how theydo. The film will show therelationship of the stu-dents with the local cul-ture, Padilla said.

“A lot of my kids don’tspeak Spanish. They do,but not correct,” he said.“It’s a big thing for us, andit’s been pretty neat asthey filmed our auditionsand the first two days ofschool.”

Consequently, produc-tion and post productionof Mariachi High will takeabout two years beforeshowing on PBS.

“It’s going to take awhile, but they’re greatpeople to work with,” Pa-dilla said.

In the beginning thestudents were nervousand slowly adjusted to be-ing in the spotlight, Padil-la added.

“After you get used tothem being around its nobig deal,” he said “Thehardest thing was doingthe auditions with a cam-era in your face. It’s a lotof pressure.”

Most of the studentshave become adjusted tothe film crew, while othersstill need more time.

“It’s really exciting andnerve wracking at thesame time because youhave people following youwith cameras, and youhave the added pressure tonot mess up or else it’s go-ing to come out on T.V.,”said Collin Moffet, maria-chi band guitarrón player.

Moffet said being filmedmay seem like a realityshow at times, but in gen-eral it is pretty steady and

the film crew seems to be-come invisible.

Showing off, on the oth-er hand, becomes hard toresist when playing a solo,he added.

Before Mariachi, Moffetstarted guitar lessons atZapata Middle School inthe fifth grade and beganthe guitarron in the sixthgrade with the middleschool mariachi group,since mariachi as an ex-tracurricular activitydoesn’t begin until thesixth grade. His preferenc-es were towards mariachimusic instead of marchingband, Moffet said.

“I thought there’s guitarin Mariachi and so I de-cided to stick with the in-strument I already know,”he said. “That’s what drewme in, and I started learn-ing the music and what itwas. I stuck with it vigor-ously since then.”

Victor N. Garza Jr., a ju-nior, plays the trumpet forthe mariachi band, butdidn’t share Moffett’s ex-citement.

“Sometimes I feel likeit’s way too much,” hesaid. “They’re followingyou every chance they get.Its cool that’s someone isrecording you, but attimes it feels weird.”

Padilla said this yearthe mariachi band is ex-perimenting with a mix-ture of music from tradi-tional Mexican and Tejanomusic, in addition to Eng-lish and classical.

“It’s a hodgepodge of ev-erything,” he said.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557.)

MARIACHI Continued from Page 1A

the raw valves that controlsraw flow of the pump at thelake,” said Fernando Cuel-lar, water plant treatmentoperator. “One of the valveshad a malfunction andclosed.”

All mechanical systemsand flood valves are con-trolled by the Systems Con-trol and Data Analysis and

operators could not over-ride the operation in timeand blew the line, Cuellarsaid.

According to Treviño, awater system does notwork like an electricity sys-tem where emergency gen-erators take over when amain line is interrupted.

“That was a major trans-

mission water line break.There’s no back up,” hesaid. When it breaks, that’sit; everybody goes down.There really can’t be aback up system like that.When the actual transmis-sion goes down, that’s it;there’s only one.”

Workers replaced a bro-ken section of the pipe a

couple hundred yards fromthe water plant and waterremained shut off while thepump was running, hesaid.

“By the next morning,everything was back tonormal,” he added.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557.)

WATER Continued from Page 1A

reached warlike proportionsamid fighting between secu-rity forces and two feudingdrug gangs — the Zetas andthe Gulf cartel, former allieswho split this year andstarted a vicious battle fortrafficking routes in the ar-ea.

One of two survivors ofthe massacre last month —an Ecuadorean — said thekillers identified themselvesas Zetas and gunned downthe migrants because theyrefused to work for thegang.

A military aircraft flyingover Ciudad Mier on Thurs-day spotted several gunmenin front of a building, theDefense Department state-ment said. When groundtroops moved in, gunmenopened fire, starting a gun-battle in which 25 suspectedcartel members died andtwo soldiers were wounded.

Authorities rescued threepeople believed to be kid-napping victims in the raid,according to the statement.The military said troops

seized 25 rifles, four gre-nades, 4,200 rounds of am-munition and 23 vehicles.

Earlier, a military spokes-man said the gunmen were

believed to be on a propertycontrolled by the Zetas.

The second shootouterupted Friday morningoutside the town of Juarezin Nuevo Leon, on a high-way leading to McAllen.

Soldiers went to the areaafter receiving an anony-mous tip that armed menwere circulating in a blackSUV, according to a militaryspokesman. He provided theinformation on condition ofanonymity because he wasnot authorized to reveal hisname. The spokesman saidthe armed men opened fire,provoking the shootout thatkilled five gunmen, all ofwhom were believed to beZetas.

Drug violence hasclaimed more than 28,000lives since President FelipeCalderon intensified acrackdown on cartels aftertaking office in late 2006.

GUNMEN Continued from Page 1A

A soldier walks past a pick-up truck and seized weapons near thetown of Ciudad Mier in northern Mexico, on Thursday. Gunmenopened fire on soldiers after an airborne patrol detected armedmen guarding a home near this town. At least 30 gunmen werekilled and two soldiers were injured.

Photo by Secretary of Defense | AP

says he has been detainedin Mexico and needs moneyto be released. The call isthen interrupted by an al-leged “comandante de poli-cia,” who tells the local resi-dent that $3,000 is needed torelease the faux relative, ac-cording to Elizondo.

“Deputies were called to alocal convenience store be-cause of several peoplesending large amounts ofmoney to Mexico,” Elizondosaid.

About five cases have al-ready been reported and on-ly one individual is known

to have sent $3,000 to Mexi-co, said Sheriff SigifredoGonzalez.

Also, several businesseson the U.S. border have beenreporting disturbing callsfrom alleged cartel mem-bers in Mexico demandingmoney and threatening thebusiness, Gonzalez said.

“They are being told ifthey don’t pay, it will causedamage to the business,” hesaid. “If they fall prey tothis, they should notify usimmediately.”

In addition, an unidenti-fied individual is known to

be going around, visitingZapata businesses that havereceived the threateningcalls, and is offering protec-tion for a price, Gonzalezadded.

“You don’t have to payanyone. We provide this ser-vice at no cost,” he said.

Residents of Zapata, Starr,Hidalgo counties have al-ready fallen victim to thisscam, Gonzalez added.

“We take these mattersvery seriously and we willnot tolerate this type of ac-tivity from thugs.” he said.“Zapata is a peaceful com-

munity.” The public is being ad-

vised not to give out anypersonal information orsend any money if contactedby anonymous individualsand should immediatelycontact the sheriff ’s office.

These cases are being in-vestigated and any informa-tion can be reported to theZapata County Sheriff ’s Of-fice at (956) 765-9960.

Callers will remain anon-ymous.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557)

SHERIFF Continued from Page 1A

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

The Zapata Lady Hawkswill be flying high intotheir first district gamethis morning against PortIsabel as they stroll in witha 10-3 pre-season mark.

“It really is exciting thatwe are starting district in apositive way,” Zapata coachRosie Villarreal said.“When we started on Aug.1, I told the girls that wehad so much talent that wecould go far if everyoneplayed as a team and not asan individual.

“They all understoodand accepted their role andthings just started to fallinto place.”

For the past two week-ends, the Lady Hawks havebeen road warriors whohave found a way to win onunfamiliar territory.

Zapata’s first stop wasthe Port Isabel tournamenton Aug. 20-21.

The Lady Hawks torethrough the tournament,making their way into thechampionship gameagainst a heavily favoredDonna team.

Zapata, behind a greatdefensive effort by the backrow and a poised attacked

VOLLEYBALL

Zapatasoars

Lady Hawks roll intodemanding district

By CLARA SANDOVALZAPATA TIMES

See VOLLEYBALL PAGE 2B

“They allunderstoodand acceptedtheir role andthings juststarted to fallinto place.”ROSIE VILLARREAL,ZAPATA COACH

The Zapata girls’ crosscountry team continued tosend a strong message tothe rest of the district withits first-place trophy at theNikki Rowe Invitational atBensent Park in Missionlast Saturday.

Zapata was the only 3Aschool at the meet, butthat did not deter its moti-vation and desire to takeon the 4A and 5A schools.

A field of 12 schools allhit the course early in the

morning, but with a differ-ent twist than your nor-mal high school crosscountry meets.

In a regular cross coun-try meet, schools field avarsity, junior varsity andfreshmen team.

At the Nikki Rowemeet, athletes ran onlyagainst their own gradelevel.

“The buzz started earlyas our seven seniors toedthe line,” Coach Mike Vil-larreal said. “A coach ap-proached us and said wecould only run seniors,

not the whole team. I re-plied “’Those are our se-niors!’”

The Lady Hawks had byfar the most entries in thedivisions in which theycompeted.

The meet was not exact-ly run as smooth as teamswould like, but the condi-tions were the same for allcontestants.

High, thick grass, apoorly marked course andwith no one leading therunners made for a hecticstart for all contestants.

The Lady Hawks over-

came the adversity andran well with MarlenaGarcia capturing the topsenior honors.

Kristina Garcia contin-ued her assault on break-ing the 13-minute markwith a strong ninth placefinish and was trailedclosely by teammates Glo-ria Jauregui (11th), AlbaJasso (12th) and AdriannaRamirez (17th).

When the six LadyHawks sophomores madetheir way to the starting

CROSS COUNTRY

Left to right, Zapata High sophomores Lesli Juarez, Kassandra Garza and Angela Darnell compete at a recent meet.

Courtesy Photo

RUNNING NUMBERSZHS takes first place at Nikki Rowe

By CLARA SANDOVALZAPATA TIMES

See XC PAGE 2B

HOUSTON — No. 5 Tex-as has more than a dozenfreshmen on its depthchart.

Coach Mack Browndoesn’t see that as causefor concern as the Long-horns prepare for Satur-day’s opener against Rice.

“Youth is an excuse,”Brown said. “These guysare good players, and theycame to play. It’s our job toget them in the right plac-es. It’s our job to teachthem what to do and thenthey’ll get the experience.”

There’s Jackson Jeff-coat, son of former DallasCowboys defensive endJim Jeffcoat, at reservelinebacker. And there’sCase McCoy, brother ofColt McCoy, at backupquarterback.

More important thanany freshman who mightplay on Saturday, though,is the performance of asophomore: quarterbackGarrett Gilbert.

Gilbert takes over forColt McCoy full-time thisseason after an inauspi-cious start filling in for thestar in a 37-21 loss to Ala-bama in the BCS titlegame.

Gilbert threw four inter-ceptions in that game aftertaking over McCoy in thefirst quarter. That facthasn’t left him now thatthis is his team.

“I think as a quarter-back, the thing that’s beenthe most important for meis to be able to be the lead-

er, the guy that managesthe game well and doesn’tturn the ball over —doesn’t make mistakeswith the ball,” he said.

Brown wants Gilbert tounderstand he doesn’thave to try to be McCoyand that he wants him tohave fun and enjoy the mo-ment. The high-school All-American will get showhis stuff against a Rice de-fense which allowed 464 to-tal yards and more than273 yards passing a gamelast season.

Still, the coach knows itwill take some time forthings to run smoothly.

“He’s going to havesome problems,” Brownsaid, “but the way you

NCAA FOOTBALL

See GILBERT PAGE 2B

Young ’Hornslook foridentity

By KRISTIE RIEKENASSOCIATED PRESS The

high-schoolAll-Americanwill get showhis stuffagainst a Ricedefense whichallowed 464total yards andmore than 273yards passinga game lastseason.

IRVING, Texas — Pa-trick Crayton wanted outthe minute the Dallas Cow-boys drafted Dez Bryant.He finally got his wish Fri-

day, and it might’ve beenworth the wait.

Crayton was dealt to theSan Diego Chargers, wherehe’ll be a bigger part of theoffense than he would’vebeen in Dallas and he willstill be playing for a conten-

der. The change in localesisn’t bad either, althoughhe’s leaving the area wherehe grew up.

Dallas received only fu-ture considerations, likely alate-round draft pick. Theclub figured it was better

than cutting him and get-ting nothing, plus it putshim in the other confer-ence.

The Cowboys kept Cray-ton all summer mainly be-

NFL

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant (88) reaches down to make a grab on a pass during drills at an afternoon practice at the Cow-boys training facility Tuesday in Irving, Texas. The practice was Bryant’s first with the team since injuring his right ankle on the openingweek of their camp.

Tony Gutierrez | AP

Cowboys deal CraytonBy JAIME ARON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See COWBOYS PAGE 2B

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

at the net, beat Donna 19-25, 25-18, and 25-22 toclaim the title.

“Winning the Port Isa-bel tourney has given theteam the energy and con-fidence they need goinginto district,” Villarrealsaid.

Senior Brandi King wassensational throughoutthe tournament and hasfound a place as one ofthe best volleyball playersto come out of Zapata.

“I knew that BrandiKing would be a big partof our success,” Villarrealsaid. “She is just amazingand is probably the bestathlete I have evercoached. She has workedhard and is very unselfishand is the core of theteam.”

King is complimentedat the net by teammatesShelby Bigler and Kristi-na De Leon.

“I have been blessedwith two other girls whocomplement Brandi,” Vil-larreal said. “Shelby andKristina have come upfrom the JV team andhave added depth to the

team.”Last weekend, Zapata

traveled to Laredo for amuch-anticipated LadyLonghorn tournament atUnited High.

Zapata made its way in-to the semifinals after dis-posing of Laredo LyndonB. Johnson in their quar-terfinal game, 23-25, 25-19,28-26, to earn a shot at thetitle.

The Lady Hawks fell tothe host school, United, intheir semi-final game, 25-22, 10-25, 25-19 and playedCigarroa for third place.

Zapata overcame a two-game deficit against theLady Toros to claim third.

King was named to theall-tournament team.

“Finishing in thirdplace at the United tour-ney was the icing on thecake,” Villarreal said.“Playing as well as theydid, especially againstUnited, and missing myNo. 2 hitter made them re-alize that they are a goodteam and they can go asfar as they want to aslong as they play likechampions.”

VOLLEYBALL Continued from Page 1B

cause there was no incen-tive to give in to his traderequest. But as club officialsdiscussed their 53-man ros-ter, they apparently felt theycouldn’t justify keepingsomeone with his high sala-ry ($2 million) in a reducedrole (fourth receiver, backuppunt returner).

“You have to take every-thing into consideration —economics, how he fits withthe team, the overall body ofwork — and you make a de-cision based on that,” Cow-boys vice president StephenJones said. “We really wait-ed to evaluate all our receiv-ers. ... We feel very comfort-able with our depth.”

They also feel comfortablewith Bryant’s health. Theformer Oklahoma State starmissed the entire preseasonwith a high ankle sprain,but is ready for the openerat Washington a week from

Sunday. Bryant is expectedto take over the roles Cray-ton had last season — No. 3receiver and punt returner.

Crayton skipped offseasonworkouts because he wasupset about Bryant’s arriv-al. Once he showed up,there were never any prob-lems. He just couldn’t getahead of Miles Austin, RoyWilliams and Bryant on thedepth chart, and the Cow-boys felt Kevin Ogletree wasready to take on a largerrole in his second season.

“I think he’s proven hedeserves an opportunity,”Jones said.

Dallas also has Sam

Hurd, a fifth-year receiverand special teams standout.His roster spot could be injeopardy, too, because hehas a $1.8 million contract.

Crayton was among theteam’s most sure-handed re-ceivers, catching 196 passesfor 2,888 yards and 23 touch-downs in 82 games, includ-ing 33 starts. However, fanswill never forget that hedropped a likely touchdownpass late in a humiliatingplayoff loss to the New YorkGiants in 2007.

Also Friday, Dallas tradedoffensive lineman PatMcQuistan to the MiamiDolphins for future consid-

erations. McQuistan was drafted

by the Cowboys when Mia-mi executives Bill Parcellsand Jeff Ireland were hereand Dolphins coach TonySparano was his positioncoach for two seasons. Heplayed 40 games, but neverstarted.

The acquisition ofMcQuistan gives the Dol-phins more depth in the of-fensive line. Pro Bowl lefttackle Jake Long hurt hisleft knee during Thursday’sgame at Dallas.

Long left the game butwalked afterward without alimp and said he was fine.

COWBOYS Continued from Page 1B

Crayton was among the team’s most sure-handedreceivers, catching 196 passes for 2,888 yards and 23touchdowns in 82 games, including 33 starts.

line, coaches continued tobe in great disbelief onhow many runners Zapa-ta carried on its squad.

“A comment was madeonce again about ournumbers,” Villarreal saidwith a laugh. “The girlswere up against a talent-ed field of sophomores,many of whom just lastseason qualified for theregional meet as fresh-men at the 5A and 4A lev-els.”

Erica Hernandez wasup to the challenge andoutlasted some of the Val-ley’s top runners to takefifth place honors, whileteammate Wendy Medinaalso medaled with a top20 finish.

Chuckles came across agroup of coaches as thenine freshmen begin theirrunning drills at the start.

“The RGV (Rio GrandeValley) coaches were cer-tainly impressed by ournumbers, but they werein for a treat with ourperformance,” Villarrealsaid.

Jazmine Garcia, whoblazed through the coursein 12:53 to take top fresh-man honors as well as tophonors for the entire

meet, led the team.The freshmen girls

competed against boys intheir race, with Jazmineactually placing second,beating all but one malerunner.

Cassie Pena ran an im-pressive race as shefought for a fifth place fin-ish, while teammatesClarissa Villarreal (eighthplace) and Sara Pena(ninth place) also ran ex-tremely well in their firsttwo-mile race of theyoung season.

Newcomer Daniela Vela(20th place) rounded outthe medals for the fresh-man team.

The team champion-ship was decided by rank-ing all the times fromeach division from fastestto slowest. The ZHS girlswere at the top of the listand earned their first vic-tory of the season.

Jazmine received an ad-ditional “spark plug”award for having the fas-test overall time of themeet.

The team will be offthis weekend from compe-tition but will be back inaction on Sept. 11 at theFalfurrias Invitational.

XC Continued from Page 1B

overcome your problemsis the way you win.”

The Longhorns alsohave a new look at run-ning back with hard-run-ning junior Cody John-son earning the startingjob. The 5-foot-11, 250-pound Johnson nabbedthe position after finallygetting health and shed-ding some extra pounds.Brown is looking forJohnson to change theLonghorns’ runninggame, but that doesn’tmean they’re going toabandon the passinggame.

“We just want to runthe ball better when werun it,” Brown said. “Ev-erybody’s talking abouthow we’re going to lineup and run it every play.That’s not going to be thecase. We’re going to dowhatever we need to doto win. We’ll still throwthe ball.”

Brown believes thisteam has all the pieces tobe successful despitetheir youth. He’s eager tosee how they’ll respondthis season and says they“can’t play with compla-cency.”

“The question will betheir chemistry, theirmotto, ’Every play, everyday,”’ he said. “Are theygoing to do that or will itbe a team like in ’06 andin some times ’07 early,that played up anddown?”

They’ll get their firsttuneup against a teamthat is almost alwaysovermatched when facing

the Longhorns and is amore than 30 point un-derdog on Saturday.

Coach David Bailiffdidn’t shy away from thatfact and figures thingswill be most difficult forhis offensive line againstthe Texas defensive front.

“Earlier I called (Hous-ton Texans coach) GaryKubiak to see if we couldget a scrimmage lastweek, but they were bu-sy,” Bailiff joked. “That’sabout the same type ofpeople the Longhornshave. I think they have abunch of future Hall ofFamers. They’re a goodfootball team. Is it agauge? I don’t know, but Iwould sure like to seesome improvement.”

Owl fans are lookingforward to the Rice debutof running back SamMcGuffie, who sat out ayear after transferringfrom Michigan followinga freshman season wherehe gained 486 yards andscored three touchdowns.He was a high school starin the area, with 5,847yards and 83 touchdownsin his career at Cypress-Fairbanks high school.

“He’s a difference mak-er in the program,” Bai-liff said. “He’s a lot likeall the great ones. He’sthe first one here and thelast to leave. He loves thegame of football.”

Texas linebacker Kee-nan Robinson knowsMcGuffie is good, but hethinks the Longhorn de-fense is ready for thechallenge of facing him.

GILBERT Continued from Page 1B

COLLEGE STATION —Texas A&M’s offense wasone of the most potent inthe country last year, butthe Aggies put up a losingrecord with a defense thatwas among the nation’sworst.

They’re hoping the de-fense improves this seasonunder first-year coordina-tor Tim DeRuyter, whocame to College Stationfrom Air Force. The Aggieshave scrapped the 4-3 de-fense they’ve ran for thelast few years and will un-veil DeRuyter’s 3-4 schemewhen they open the seasonon Saturday against Ste-phen F. Austin.

DeRuyter is ready to seehow the group, anchoredby last season’s nationalsack leader Von Miller,stacks up against someonebesides A&M’s offense.

“I think we’ve got toreally play fast,” DeRuytersaid. “We’re getting to thepoint where our guys un-derstand our defense andare going to maximizetheir speed. If we do thatwe should be able to forcesome takeaways, and getoff the field and get the ballback to our offense.”

DeRuyter said StephenF. Austin’s offense, led byquarterback Jeremy Mos-es, reminds him of prepar-ing for Houston and CaseKeenum while at Air Forcelast season. Moses and theLumberjacks won theSouthland Conference lastseason and are ranked inthe top 10 in six of the sev-en FCS polls this year.

“He does a great job dis-tributing the ball,” DeRuy-ter said of Moses. “Theyspread you out to getmatchups. They are goingto throw ball down thefield as well as dink anddump, so they make youdefend the whole field.”

Miller, who had 17 sackslast season, isn’t concernedabout matching or outdo-ing that mark this year. Hetakes it personally that thedefense didn’t keep up withthe offense last season andwants to help changethings this year.

“I just want us to takeadvantage of our opportu-nities ... so we can get theball back to the offense,”he said. “We have a reallyexplosive offense. If we canget the ball back to themwe are going to give our-

selves a really good chanceto win games.”

The Aggies have a 59-6record against non-confer-ence opponents in the last25 years and have lost justtwo of their last 25 homeopeners, daunting numbersfor Stephen F. Austin coachJ.C. Harper.

“Playing at Kyle Fieldand they’re 23-2 playingthere, that within itselfmakes it incredible andthen you add in their play-ers ... it’s just a tremen-dous challenge for us,” hesaid.

While Texas A&M’s de-fense is trying to establisha new identity, the offenseis trying to build on whatit did last season. Quarter-back Jerrod Johnson re-turns for his senior seasonafter leading the Big 12

conference in total offenselast year.

He has simple goals forSaturday’s opener andknows exactly what hewants to see.

“Execution and tempo,”Johnson said. “With prac-tice and substitutions it’skind of hard to simulatethat tempo. I’m looking for-ward to getting into therhythm of things in a gameand into what we do. If wecan find that tempo, Ithink we’ll be successful.”

Johnson threw for 30touchdowns and 3,579yards and ran for 506 yardsand eight more scores in2009. Coach Mike Shermanhas been impressed withthe improvement of John-son since he took over thestarting job in 2008.

“I’ve seen a lot of pro-

gress in Jerrod,” Shermansaid. “I thought last yearhe made his biggest jump,but he had the furthest togo when we went throughlast season. He continuesto be a student of the gameeven more so. He studies iteven more.”

Harper knows Johnsonpresents a major challengeto his defense, but he’smore focused on dealingwith sophomore runningback Christine Michael.The 5-foot-11, 215-pound Mi-chael ran for 844 yards and10 touchdowns last season.

“I don’t know how we’regoing to tackle him,” Har-per said. “He might not gettackled. He might just keeprunning. He’s definitely aproblem, one that we’re ve-ry aware of and very wor-ried about.”

Aggies open with new defenseBy KRISTIE RIEKENASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Oct. 4, 2008 file photo, Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson carries the ball during a gameagainst Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla. Johnson spent last spring student-teaching elementary andhigh school kids, and football wasn’t necessarily the first thing on his mind. Now that he’sback with histeammates, Texas A&M’s star quarterback has realized that the skills he used in the classroom havehelped improve how he deals with things on the field.

Photo by Sue Ogrocki | AP

MINNEAPOLIS — CliffLee returned to the TexasRangers on Friday afterspending the previous twodays in Dallas, hoping thata cortisone shot in his ail-ing back will help him getback to his dominating self.

Lee had been gettingprogressively worse overhis last four starts, culmi-nating with a loss to Kan-sas City in which he lasted

just 4 2-3 innings and al-lowed seven runs — fourearned — on 10 hits. In hislast four starts, spanning 23innings pitched, Lee is 0-3with a 9.00 ERA.

He flew to Dallas andhad the cortisone shot onWednesday. On Friday, Leesaid his back was still sore,but he wasn’t sure if thatwas from the shot itself ornot. He is scheduled tothrow a bullpen session onSaturday, after which theteam will determine if he

will make his next sched-uled start on Tuesday.

“It’s probably what Ishould’ve done a coupleweeks ago, but the compet-itive side of me wants to goout there and pitch everytime,” Lee said.

The lefty said his backhas been bothering him fora few weeks and was affect-ing his ability to locatepitches.

“I don’t want to say thisis the reason why I pitchedbad. There’s more to it

than that,” Lee said. “I stillshould be able to beardown and make pitches butdefinitely has affected mymechanics a little bit andmy ability to be consistentwith location.”

Lee finished July 9-4with a 2.40 ERA. But as theback problem surfaced inAugust, his ERA graduallyrose to 3.37 and after allow-ing just nine home runs inhis first 21 starts of the sea-son, he has given up six inhis last four.

Banged up Rangers get Lee backBy JON KRAWCZYNSKI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES — Here’s how to work it: FAMILY CIRCUS DENNIS THE MENACE

A VET’S VIEWSDear Readers: Here is a

reader response to a previ-ous column about FIND-ING A NEW VETERINAR-IAN:

"Dear Heloise: My hus-band has been a practicingveterinarian for 35 years.We highly discourage own-ers from being with theirpets as they come out ofsurgery. The pet sees theowner and tries to movearound and get to him orher long before it is able.The pet also whines andcries and is more upsetonce the owner leavesthan if it hadn’t seen theowner. It’s much better forthe owner to call us a cou-ple of hours after surgeryto check on the pet, thenpick the pet up when it isfully awake.

"Also, my husband rare-ly makes house calls. It isimpossible to always bringall of the right thingsneeded to treat the pet. Wemuch prefer having thepet brought to us, wherewe can carry it into thebuilding on a stretcher ifnecessary. Then we haveour entire pharmacy,blood machines and X-raysto get to work on solvingthe problem.

"So don’t hold it againstthe vet if he says no tomaking a house call. Wehave good reasons for say-ing so. We have the healthand well-being of your petalways in mind. -- Marilyn,Middletown, Ohio"

Marilyn, your letter ex-plains well why many vetscan or cannot make a "pethouse call," and my read-ers will now understand.

Thank you for enlighten-ing us! Woof, woof. -- He-loise

FUNNY STORYDear Heloise: When

reading your columnabout funny cell-phone sto-ries, the one about theman whose horsecrunched his phone be-cause he sat it on a fencepost was hilarious! It re-minded me of an incidentI had with guests. We wereall taking naps. My terrier,Alf, joined one of myfriends in her bed, thencame into my room andjumped on my bed. I kepthearing a clicking noise,and realized it was comingfrom Alf ’s mouth. Iopened his mouth, and outfell my friend’s hearingaid. I got it just in time.Suppose he had swallowedit!

My guest had taken itout and put it on the nighttable when she lay down.We had a real good laughover that for the rest of theweek, and still do when wethink about it today. -- Pen-ny in Durham, N.C.

VINEGAR FOR COF-FEEPOT AND PET DISH

Dear Heloise: I use thevinegar from cleaning mycoffeepot to clean my dog’swater dish or the birdbath.Hot vinegar works reallywell, and I don’t waste en-ergy heating vinegar forboth tasks. -- MargaretSchultz, Green Lake, Wis.

HINTS BY | HELOISE

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4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Sports SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

ARLINGTON, Texas —Boxing champion MannyPacquiao dismissed a de-rogatory online video post-ed by Floyd MayweatherJr., calling it an “unedu-cated message” and choos-ing to instead focus on hisupcoming fight with Anto-nio Margarito.

In the widely circulatedvideo, Mayweather goeson an expletive-filled andsometimes racist rantagainst Pacquiao, the new-ly elected Congressmanfrom the Philippines whofaces Margarito on Nov. 13at Cowboys Stadium nearDallas.

Mayweather said dur-ing the video, which ap-peared this week, that he’son vacation “for about ayear” and would easily de-feat Pacquiao after that.

“I just heard about that,but I didn’t see the video,”Pacquiao said Friday, atthe final stop of a three-city tour to promote hisfight. “But it’s an unedu-cated message.”

Mayweather, at timesinteracting with fans byphone on the video, claimsPacquiao “can’t speak noEnglish” and has “neverseen a contract he didn’tlike.” There are also sug-gestions that the Filipino

sensation has used per-formance-enhancingdrugs, assertions raisedpreviously by the May-weather camp that result-ed in a defamation lawsuitthat is still pending.

“It’s a really cheap lowblow, but again, considerwhere it came from,” saidFreddie Roach, Pacquiao’strainer. “We tried to fighthim. He said no. Hedoesn’t want to fight.”

Roach said he hadn’tseen the Mayweather vid-eo.

Mayweather’s chief ad-viser, Leonard Ellerbe, didnot return messages leftby The Associated Press.

Fans have been callingfor Mayweather to fightPacquiao, but negotiationshave repeatedly brokendown for what could havebeen the richest fight inboxing history.

When a deal wasn’treached in January, Pac-quiao instead fought Josh-ua Clottey, defeating himin March at Cowboys Sta-dium. When negotiationsbroke down again thissummer, Pacquiao turnedhis attention to Margarito,whom he’ll fight for a va-cant junior middleweighttitle.

It is unclear when theMayweather video wasmade, but it appeared on-line this week when Pac-

quiao and Margarito werein the midst of their pro-motional tour.

When asked about thepossibility of a Mayweath-er bout Friday, Pacquiaoresponded: “I’m not look-ing for that fight. I’m satis-fied with what I’ve done inboxing already.”

Todd duBoef of promo-ter Top Rank said he hadheard about the May-weather video but “proba-bly” didn’t have any inter-est in seeing it. Mayweath-er used to be a Top Rankfighter.

Margarito (38-6, 27 KOs)was denied an applicationto fight in California andhad another applicationtabled in Nevada beforethe Texas Department ofLicensing and Regulationlast week approved his ap-plication. That cleared theway for another high-pro-file boxing match at Cow-boys Stadium, the $1.2 bil-lion showplace built byCowboys owner JerryJones.

When Texas licensingexecutive director WilliamKuntz spoke Friday, hesaid Jones paved the wayfor major boxing events inTexas. While he didn’t ad-dress Margarito’s licenseissue, duBoef applaudedthe decision by Texas reg-ulators.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, center, poses for photos with boxers Manny Pacquiao, left, of thePhilippines and Antonio Margarito of Mexico during a pre-fight news conference promoting their up-coming bout at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Friday. The two fighters face each other on Nov. 13,2010 for the WBC junior middleweight title.

Photo by LM Otero | AP

Big bout in “Big D”By STEPHEN HAWKINS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PITTSBURGH — BenRoethlisberger isn’t the on-ly Steelers quarterbackwho might be out for fourweeks.

Byron Leftwich’sstrained left knee ligamentcould sideline him for mostor all of the first month ofthe season, leaving theSteelers with only twohealthy quarterbacks —Dennis Dixon and CharlieBatch — for their Sept. 12opener against Atlanta.

Given how secretivecoach Mike Tomlin was inrefusing to announce astarter for any preseasongame, it isn’t certain whenhe’ll disclose his startingquarterback. The Steelersdon’t practice again untilMonday.

After the Steelerslearned the nature of Left-wich’s injury, Dixon wastaken out of Thursday’sgame against Carolina af-ter throwing a single pass,for a touchdown — astrong indication he wasbeing protected for theopener. Batch played the fi-nal 21/2 quarters, throwingonly four passes.

After working with fourexperienced quarterbacksduring training camp, anawkward situation that re-

sulted in Batch getting al-most no work with thestarters, the Steelers sud-denly are down to two.

“Of course, I’ll be excitedif it does come my way,”said Dixon, the third-yearquarterback who got morepreseason playing timewith the starters than anyquarterback except Roeth-lisberger. “At the sametime, I’m even keel. I neverget too high or never gettoo low.”

An MRI exam performedFriday on Leftwich appar-ently did not reveal a tornanterior cruciate ligament,which could have sidelinedhim for the season. Astrained medial collateralligament is less serious,but still commonly takesweeks to heal. The teamdid not disclose any pro-jected timetable on Friday.

This injury couldn’thave occurred at a worsetime for the Steelers, whotraded for Leftwich inApril with the intent ofstarting him while Roeth-lisberger served his sus-pension for violating theNFL’s personal conductpolicy. That punishmentwas reduced Friday to fourgames by NFL commission-er Roger Goodell, meaningRoethlisberger can returnfor the Oct. 17 home gameagainst Cleveland.

Now, the Steelers mustfind a way to remain com-petitive until Roethlisberg-er gets back.

“I think we’re in goodhands,” Batch said. “Youhad three solid guys whocould step in when needed,and now we’re down totwo.”

Batch, a Steelers backupsince 2002, owns an exten-sive knowledge of the play-book and often huddleswith Roethlisberger be-tween series to review cov-erages. Batch also playedwell while Roethlisbergerwas injured in 2005 and2006, going 3-0 as a starter.

Roethlisberger saidthere’s no reason why theSteelers can’t be as success-ful with Dixon as theirstarter as they were whenhe was forced to play afterTommy Maddox was in-jured in 2004. “It’s going tobe different for him wheth-er it’s on the road, at home,he’s got nerves, jitters, he’sgoing against a great nosetackle or a tough defense inBaltimore,” Roethlisbergersaid. “It’s going to be achallenge for him if he’s in-deed the starter, but I thinkhe’ll be up for it if his num-ber is called.” The Steelerscut 10 players Friday andmust make an additional 11cuts Saturday to reach the53-man roster limit.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger (7) and Byron Leftwich, left rear, warm up beforean NFL preseason game against the Carolina Panthers in Pittsburgh, Thursday.

Photo by Gene J. Puskar | AP

QB questions continuefor Steelers

By ALAN ROBINSONASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — Houstoncoach Gary Kubiak got histoughest cut out of the wayfirst.

The Texans releasedkicker Kris Brown, the on-ly player remaining fromthe inaugural 2002 season.Brown lost a competitionin training camp to NeilRackers, a free agent whowas signed in the offsea-son.

Kubiak said Brown wasthe first player he met withon Friday, a sign of respectfor the only player who’sappeared in all 128 gamesin Texans history.

“It was miserable, I don’tknow how to put it any dif-ferently,” said Kubiak,who’s entering his fifth sea-son. “Kris and I had a lot ofconversations throughoutmy time here. We’ve hadsome great conversations,we’ve had some tough con-versations on Sundaynights. But I respect him asa man. He’s a great person.I respect his career, and Iknow he’s going to have agood one.”

Brown followed up hisbest season as a pro in 2008with his worst last season,when he made just 21 of 32field goals. Rackers spentthe previous seven seasonsin Arizona. He made thePro Bowl in 2005 after set-ting an NFL record forfield goals in a season (40).

Kubiak said Rackerswon the job more becauseof his deeper kickoffs thanhis field-goal accuracy. Nei-ther kicker missed in thepreseason until Browncame up short on a 56-yar-der in Thursday’s 24-17 lossto Tampa Bay. Rackers hit

a 21-yarder later in thegame.

“It was a tough, toughcall,” Kubiak said. “I havea lot of respect for Kris,and what he’s done here.But we made a decision togo in another direction,and we’ve got a lot of confi-dence in Neil.”

Cornerback JacquesReeves was also cut afterhe was outplayed by young-er, less experienced playersat training camp.

Kubiak was secretiveabout other players re-leased Friday. He said theTexans are still mullingsome decisions, and wouldput out the full list of cutson Saturday, the deadlinefor teams to trim their ros-ters to 53 players.

Kubiak said he’s stickingwith Dan Orlovsky as thebackup quarterback, de-spite his uneven perform-ance in Thursday’s presea-son finale. Orlovsky com-pleted his first eight passesbefore throwing two inter-ceptions in the first half.

“I can’t dismiss the greatcamp he’s had,” Kubiaksaid. “I’m not going tothrow that away becausehe made two poor deci-sions. Now, do I like thosedecisions? Can we winwith those decisions? No.But I can’t but help butthink of the good thingshe’s done this camp, theprogress he’s made.”

Kubiak said formerSouthern Cal quarterbackJohn David Booty wouldnot make the final 53, butmight be placed on Hous-ton’s practice squad. Bootythrew for 209 yards and twotouchdown passes againstTampa Bay.

The Texans worked outrunning backs Derrick

Ward and Justin Fargas onFriday as they look to re-plenish depth at the posi-tion. Arian Foster hasearned the starting role,but Steve Slaton and Jere-miah Johnson have sus-tained recent toe injuries.

“Obviously, we’ve got arunning back issue on ourfootball team right now, sowe’ll be talking to a bunchof people,” Kubiak said.“We’ll be looking at thewaiver wire very, veryclosely. We’ve got some is-sues to try and get cleanedup.”

At least the toughest oneis out of the way. Brown’sagent, Glenn Schwartzman,said he’s confident Brownwill play somewhere thisseason.

“We’re kind of going tojust digest what just hap-pened,” Schwartzman said.“The first situation thatmakes sense to us, we’lldefinitely strongly considerthat. But we’re not in arush to just take some-thing, just to take some-thing. We want to makesure it’s a place where heand his family can be for awhile.”

Brown was 29 of 33 onfield-goal attempts in 2008,the highest percentage ofhis 11-year career, beforemissing 11 kicks last year.

“It’s been a great ride forhim,” Schwartzman said.“He loves the Texans or-ganization and the city. Hedid everything he could toput himself in a position tostay with the team. He hadone of the best camps he’sever had. He competed real-ly hard, but the team madethe decision it made, andhe’s got to respect that andget ready for his next op-portunity.”

Kubiak makes final cutsBy CHRIS DUNCANASSOCIATED PRESS