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TEEING OFFZAPATA BOYS, GIRLS HIT THE COURSE AT NIXON INVITATIONAL, 1B

A program that is being toutedas a boon to long-term economicgrowth as well as job creation be-gins here Feb. 1.

Texas A&M International Uni-versity’s Small Business Develop-ment Center has set up shop in Za-pata and now offers the course lo-cally to people who want to startnew businesses or perhaps thosewanting to brush up on their skills.

Vicki Garcia graduated from the

program in December. She wasamong 18 graduates in the firstclass to receive certification fromthe newly developed Zapata pro-gram.

With the help of the Small Busi-ness Management Program, Garciawas able to kick-start her own in-surance agency in Zapata calledBrush Country Insurance Agency.

“I feel that the program is a bigcontribution to our community,”she said. “It really helped not onlyme, but a lot of businesses start upand grow.”

Garcia said even if she hadn’t re-ceived training through the pro-gram, she still would have openedher business, but the one-on-one as-sistance she received gave her con-fidence going into the venture.

Under the tutelage of the SmallBusiness Development Centerteam, she was able to develop abusiness plan, something she saidwould have been more difficult ifnot for the program. The programalso aided Garcia in terms of theorganization of her business, shesaid.

“There are certain things that,as a business owner, you reallydon’t know what to expect,” Garciasaid. “They offer a lot of additionalresources that we didn’t have.”

Yael Rodriguez, who heads theoffice in Zapata, said the centeropened up shop here with a clearobjective in mind: giving people thetools to start their businesses andthus create jobs locally.

“We want to grow economic de-velopment over (here),” said Yael

ECONOMY

Helping create jobsSmall Business Development Center may help economy

By BY JJ VELASQUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

See JOBS PAGE 9A

LAREDO — As theygained the upper hand intheir war against a rivalcartel in 2006, killers for theZetas wiped out rivals inhails of gunfire and, on oneoccasion, in a gruesome

killing withshades of hu-man sacrifice,jurors heardFriday in thefederal court-house here.

Drug En-forcementAdministra-

tion Agent Chris Diaz toldjurors in a drug conspiracytrial here that agents whotapped a Zetas hit man’sphone heard him braggingabout using blood from oneof two teenage victims totoast the Santa Muerte, afolk saint favored by Mexi-can drug traffickers.

“They tortured him, andhe ended up splitting theirbellies open and he pouredthe blood into a cap and hemade a toast to the Santisi-ma Muerte,” Diaz testified.

The grisly testimonycame in the ongoing trialFriday of Gerardo CastilloChavez on drug conspiracy,weapons and racketeeringcharges.

Earlier in the day, a for-mer Zetas sicario, or hitman, said his compatriotsbelieved the two teenagers,14-year-old Inez Abundo Vil-larreal and 19-year-old Al-fonso “Poncho” Aviles, wereworking for the rival Sina-loa Cartel.

When the teens made themistake of showing up at aZeta-controlled bar near theinternational bridges indowntown Nuevo Laredo,

TRIAL

Jurorshear

bloodydetails

By JASON BUCHSAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

See TRIAL PAGE 10A

CASTILLO CHAVEZ

WASHINGTON — The Su-preme Court on Friday threwout electoral maps drawn by fed-eral judges in Texas that favoredminorities. The decision ulti-mately could affect control ofthe U.S. House of Representa-tives and leaves the fate of Tex-

as’ April primaries unclear.The justices ordered the

three-judge court in San Anto-nio to come up with new plansthat pay more attention to mapscreated by Texas’ Republican-dominated state Legislature. Allfour of the state’s new congres-sional seats could swing basedon the outcome.

But the Supreme Court did

not compel the use of the state’smaps in this year’s elections, asTexas wanted. Only JusticeClarence Thomas said he wouldhave gone that far.

The court’s unsigned opinionthus did not blaze any new trailsin election law or signal retreatfrom a key provision of the Vot-ing Rights Act, as some support-ers of the law feared would re-

sult from this case. Still, the outcome appeared to

favor Republicans by instructingthe judges to stick more closelyto what the Legislature did, saidelection law expert Richard Ha-sen, a professor at the Universi-ty of California, Irvine, lawschool.

Controversy over the mapsarose from redrawing political

boundaries based on results ofthe 2010 census that found thatTexas had added more than 4million new residents, mostlyLatinos and African-Americans,since 2000. The minority groupscomplained they were deniedsufficient voting power by Re-publican lawmakers who sought

TEXAS PRIMARIES

Court throws out judge-drawn state electorial mapsBy MARK SHERMANASSOCIATED PRESS

See COURT PAGE 9A

ANOTHER CELEBRATION

Zelina Ruiz, portraying Princess Pocahontas, and Trey Morales III as Chief Mystic Healer attend the WBCA Commander’s Reception at the Laredo Energy Arena on Thurs-day evening as the annual George Washington Birthday Celebration kicks off its nearly month-long run.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | Laredo Morning Times

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

SATURDAY, JAN. 21The annual Crime Stoppers Me-

nudo Bowl Cook-off Contest is from 11a.m. to 6 p.m. today at LIFE Downs,on U.S. 59. The event includes mer-chandise and food booths, beveragesand live music, including that of MickCruz. For more information, emailcrimestoppers@bizlaredo.rr.com.

Victor Villarreal will present areading of his book, “I No Hero,” from1 p.m. to 4 p.m. today in the San Mar-tin de Porres Church Meeting Room,1704 Sandman St., as part of the VillaSan Agustin de Laredo GenealogicalSociety Book Reading. A book signingwill follow.

SUNDAY, JAN. 22The Pro-Life Rosary Walk is a 2-

mile walk from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. to-day that culminates at San Agustín Ca-thedral with a Holy Hour. Everyone iswelcome.

SATURDAY, JAN. 28The Rio Grande International

Study Center will sponsor a river con-ference today. The theme is “RioGrande/Rio Bravo: River of Life, Riverin Peril.” The conference will be held atthe UT Health Science Center Laredocampus, 1937 E. Bustamante St. Regis-tration begins at 8 a.m.; conferencestarts at 9 a.m. Breakfast and lunchare included. Admission is free andopen to the public. Seating is limitedto 150 people, so RSVP. Translationservices will be available. For more in-formation, contact the center at 718-1063 or tricia@rgisc.org.

FRIDAY, FEB. 3Today is a staff development

day at Zapata County ISD and a stu-dent holiday.

SUNDAY, FEB. 4The Area Health Education Cen-

ter will sponsor a workshop on collegeentrance exams preparation with em-phasis on the SAT from 7:45 a.m. tonoon today at the UT Health ScienceCenter Laredo campus, 1937 E. Busta-mante St., for LISD high school stu-dents. For more information, call 712-0037 or email mrgbahec-coord@stx.rr.com.

League of United Latin AmericanCitizens Council No. 7 will have its 17thannual Noche de Cabaret, a galadance, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. today inthe Laredo Civic Center Ballroom, 800Garden St. At the dance, TAMIU fineand performing arts department chairBede Leyendecker will receive theHigher Education Award. Tickets are$20 per person or $200 for a table of10, with proceeds to benefit the coun-cil’s scholarship fund. Cocktail attire isrequired. For tickets or more informa-tion, call 949-7685 or 753-6656.

TUESDAY, FEB. 7The Zapata Chamber of Com-

merce board of directors will meet atnoon at a restaurant to be announced.Board meeting date subject to change.For more information, call 956-765-4871.

Monday, Feb. 13The Zapata County Commission-

ers Court will meet in regular sessionat 9 a.m.

Thursday, Feb. 16Today is Winter Texan and Se-

nior Appreciation Day. For more infor-mation, call 956-765-4871.

TUESDAY, MARCH 8Spring Break begins for Zapata

ISD students.The Zapata County Fair begins

today. For more information, call 956-765-4871,

THURSDAY, MARCH 10Today is the last day of the Za-

pata County Fair.

FRIDAY, MARCH 16This is the last day of Spring

Break for Zapata ISD students.

SATURDAY, MARCH 31The South Texas Collectors Expo

returns for its two-day collectible eventat the Laredo Civic Center, 2400 SanBernardo Ave., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.It will feature vendors from Austin,Houston, San Antonio, the Rio GrandeValley, Corpus Christi and Nuevo Lare-do, Mexico. Admission will be $3 perday or $5 for a weekend pass.

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

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, Jan. 21,the 21st day of 2012. There are345 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On Jan. 21, 1908, New YorkCity’s Board of Aldermenpassed an ordinance prohibit-ing women from smoking inpublic. (Although the measurewas vetoed two weeks later byMayor George B. McClellanJr., at least one woman, KatieMulcahey, was arrested andspent a night in jail after be-ing unable to pay a $5 fine.)

On this date:In 1648, Margaret Brent

went before the Maryland co-lonial assembly to seek twovotes in that body, one for her-self as a landowner, the otheras the legal representative ofthe absent Lord Baltimore; theassembly turned her down.

In 1793, during the FrenchRevolution, King Louis XVI,condemned for treason, wasexecuted on the guillotine.

In 1924, Vladimir Lenindied at age 53.

In 1937, Count Basie and hisband recorded “One O’ClockJump” for Decca Records (onthis date in 1942, they re-re-corded the song for Okeh Re-cords).

In 1950, former State De-partment official Alger Hiss,accused of being part of aCommunist spy ring, wasfound guilty in New York of ly-ing to a grand jury. (Hiss, whoproclaimed his innocence,served less than four years inprison.) George Orwell (EricBlair), author of “NineteenEighty-Four,” died in Londonat age 46.

In 1954, the first atomic sub-marine, the USS Nautilus, waslaunched at Groton, Conn.(However, the Nautilus did notmake its first nuclear-poweredrun until nearly a year later.)

In 1968, the Battle of KheSanh began during the Viet-nam War as North Vietnameseforces attacked a U.S. Marinebase; the Americans were ableto hold their position until thesiege was lifted 21/2 monthslater. An American B-52 bomb-er carrying four hydrogenbombs crashed in Greenland,killing one crew member andscattering radioactive materi-al.

In 1977, President JimmyCarter pardoned almost allVietnam War draft evaders.

In 1982, convict-turned-au-thor Jack Henry Abbott wasfound guilty in New York offirst-degree manslaughter inthe stabbing death of waiterRichard Adan in 1981. (Abbottwas later sentenced to 15 yearsto life in prison.)

In 1997, Speaker Newt Gin-grich was reprimanded andfined as the House voted forthe first time in history to dis-cipline its leader for ethicalmisconduct.

Ten years ago: Sultry sing-er Peggy Lee died in Bel Air,Calif., at age 81.

Today’s Birthdays: Operasinger Placido Domingo is 71.Singer Richie Havens is 71.musician Jim Ibbotson (TheNitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 65.Attorney General Eric Holderis 61. Microsoft co-founderPaul Allen is 59. Actress Gee-na Davis is 56. Actor VincentLaresca is 38.

Thought for Today: “Ihonestly think it is better tobe a failure at something youlove than to be a success atsomething you hate.” —George Burns, American co-median (1896-1996).

TODAY IN HISTORY

AUSTIN — When Gov. Rick Perry an-nounced his bid for the presidency lastyear, dozens of Republican politicians inTexas calculated their possible career tra-jectories in a post-Perry Texas.

The cotton farmer from Paint Creek hasheld the state’s top office for 12 years and,in doing so, denied other Republicans achance to move up the ladder. If Perry’scampaign was successful, they wanted tobe ready to run for a higher office. Andnow that Perry has dropped out of the race,diminished by a dismal showing, and Lt.Gov. David Dewhurst is running for U.S.Senate, ambitious Texas politicians arereadjusting their plans for 2014.

Knowing the governor has competitionwaiting in the wings, Perry’s spokesman

said Thursday that the governor reservesthe right to run again in 2014, and to pos-sibly launch another presidential bid in2016. In his campaign exit speech, Perrysaid he plans to remain in politics, despitehis first defeat.

“So now the journey leads us back toTexas, neither discouraged nor disenchant-ed, but instead rewarded for the experienceand resolute to remain in the arena and inthe service of a great nation,” he said.

Perry endorsed former House SpeakerNewt Gingrich, who immediately recruitedPerry to work on states’ rights issues, sig-naling that the governor could have a rolein a Gingrich administration. Perry,though, has said he would not serve in an-other president’s administration and hasrepeatedly insisted that being governor ofTexas is “the best job in the world.”

AROUND TEXAS

In this 2011 photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, center, Speaker of the House Joe Straus, left, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, right,speak to members of the media at the State Capitol in Austin. Now that Perry has abandoned his bid for the White House,ambitious Texas politicians are adjusting their plans.

Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman | AP

What now for Perry?By CHRIS TOMLINSON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Texas gets $31M HUDgrant for wildfires

WASHINGTON — The federalgovernment has earmarked $31million for Texas wildfires recov-ery with most of the money go-ing to devastated Bastrop County.

Housing and Urban Develop-ment Secretary Shaun Donovanmade the announcement Friday.

Eighty percent of the Texasgrants are for the Bastrop area.

Health dept. assumesfinal say on doc hires

AUSTIN — The Texas healthdepartment assumed final saythis week over the hiring of doc-tors at its 10 facilities, followinga newspaper report that showedstate mental health hospitals hadhired psychiatrists with docu-mented histories of sexual mis-conduct.

An Austin-based administra-tor must review and approve psy-chiatrists before they are hired,the Austin American-Statesmanreported Thursday.

Feds drop 2 charges incorruption case

EL PASO — Federal prosecu-tors have dropped two corrup-tion-related charges against aformer West Texas county judgeand a businessman accused of of-fering him bribes.

The filing of a superseding in-dictment Thursday leaves formerEl Paso County Judge AnthonyCobos and businessman LorenzoAguilar facing one count each ofconspiracy to commit fraud.

The defendants have pleadednot guilty and are out on bond.

Civil Air Patrol exerciseplanned for Texas

HOUSTON — The Civil AirPatrol has scheduled an exerciseacross Texas to brush up onskills used in emergency oper-ations like Hurricane Ike.

Details of the Jan. 28-29 exer-cise were announced Friday,with plans for many of the state’smore than 3,400 volunteer mem-bers to take part.

Jobless rate at lowestpoint since July 2009

AUSTIN — Texas’ unemploy-ment rate fell to 7.8 percent inDecember, the lowest it has beenin 2½ years, as more than 20,000jobs were added, the state’s em-ployment agency said Friday.

The jobless rate dropped from8.1 percent in November and washalf a percentage point below theDecember 2010 rate, according toTexas Workforce Commissionfigures. In Laredo, the rate fell0.2 percent to 6.9.

Indictment returned inNorth Texas heroin ringMcKINNEY — Authorities say

16 people have been indicted inan investigation of a heroin ringoperating in North Texas.

Prosecutors on Friday an-nounced the arrest of 10 peoplecharged with conspiracy to pos-sess with intent to distribute her-oin in the McKinney area. Thearrests started Tuesday.

— Compiled from AP reports

Power outages in NWcould continue for daysSEATTLE — A Pacific North-

west storm that brought snow,ice and powerful winds left amess of fallen trees and powerlines Friday as tens of thousandsof residents already without pow-er faced the prospect of a cold,dark weekend and flooding be-came a top region-wide concern.

Meanwhile, the storm systemcontinued its plod east, where itwas expected to move into thePlains and Great Lakes regionsby Saturday evening.

Gas pump prices at recordhigh on supply concerns

Americans aren’t likely to findmuch relief from high prices atthe gas pump as they go aboutpaying their post-holiday bills.

Retail gas prices are at theirhighest levels ever for this timeof year despite ample suppliesand declining demand, because

tension in the Persian Gulf haskept crude oil prices around $100per barrel for most of the month.

Analysts say oil prices arelikely to remain at those levelsuntil there is more clarity aboutwhat will happen in the Gulf,where Iran has threatened to

close the Strait of Hormuz ifcountries impose more sanctionson its nuclear program.

Iranian imports are banned inthe U.S., but Iran supplies 2.2million barrels per day to therest of the world.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

Firefighters wait for water before attacking an outbuilding adjacent to a homeThursday in Pleasant Valley, Nev. Winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south of Reno out of control on Thursday.

Photo by Tim Dunn/The Reno Gazette-Journal | AP

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CONTACT US

AUSTIN − Superintend-ents and school board trust-ees with the South TexasAssociation of Schools metwith a state representativeto discuss the educationalgoals of their school dis-tricts and the region as awhole.

In attendance were su-perintendents and trusteesfrom Zapata ISD, RamirezCSD, Roma ISD, WebbCISD, Laredo ISD and Unit-ed ISD.

“As a member of the

House Committee on PublicEducation, a son of educa-tors, and a former educatormyself, I deeply value theefforts of our local schooldistrict officials to createmore opportunities for stu-dents to achieve in theclassroom and beyond,”said Rep. Ryan Guillen (D-Zapata County). “Since tak-ing office in 2003, I’ve sin-cerely enjoyed workingalongside South Texas pub-lic education leaders to ad-vance the priorities of stu-dents and educators alike. Iam, and have always been,

committed to ensuring thatall South Texas studentshave access to a qualityeducation.”

Guillen, who advocatedfor use of the state’s RainyDay Fund to restore $6.3billion in funding for publicschools during a legislativesession dominated by cutsto public education andhealth services, receivedpraise at the meeting fromMartin Peña, executive di-rector of the South TexasAssociation of Schools, forpushing education advance-ments in the region.

State rep meets witharea education leaders

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 Local THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

ASSAULTArmando Eduardo Vela, 58,

was arrested and charged with as-sault family violence Jan. 12 in the500 block of Hidalgo Street rightafter 9 p.m. The man was taken tothe Zapata Regional Jail, where hewas later released for court ap-pearance.

An 18-year-old man reportedat 11:10 p.m. Jan. 13 at 10th Streetand Roma Avenue that he was as-saulted by two men.

An aggravated assault wasreported at 1:12 a.m. Jan. 14 in the300 block of Gonzalez Street. Dep-uties say the incident was a do-mestic disturbance.

BURGLARYA burglary of a habitation

was reported at 1:41 a.m. Mondayin the 5300 block of McAllen Lane.

DISORDERLY CONDUCTDiego Arnoldo Martinez Jr.,

26, was arrested and charged withdisorderly conduct at the AquaRestaurant and Bar Jan. 12 atabout 4 a.m. The man was takento the Zapata Regional Jail. He waslater released for a future courtdate.

DUI

Deputies arrested FidencioAdrian Mendoza, 20, and chargedhim with driving under the influen-ce at about 11:30 p.m. Jan. 13 atTexas 16 and Alamo Street. Fur-thermore, Daniela Nicole Longoria,18, was charged with minor in pos-session of alcohol. Both peoplewere taken to the county jail facili-ties.

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONTeresa Delana Bolton, 34,

was arrested and charged withpublic intoxication at about 7:45p.m. Jan. 13 near a local businessoff of U.S. 83. She was transportedto the Zapata County Jail and laterreleased for future court appear-ance.

THEFTA 42-year-old woman report-

ed at 12:15 p.m. Jan 12 in the 100block of Loma Verde Circle thatsomeone stole her purse from avehicle.

A theft was reported at 6:41p.m. Jan. 12 in the 1000 block ofCarla Street.

A motorcycle was reportedstolen at 3:26 p.m. Jan. 15 in the1300 block of Miraflores Avenue.

Deputies went out to a vehi-cle theft call at 10:47 p.m. Jan. 15in the 300 block of Vista Hermosa.

THE BLOTTER

An ongoing investi-gation landed one manin jail after investiga-tors allegedly caughthim with drugs in hispossession.

On Jan. 12 at about8:40 p.m., Zapata Coun-ty Sheriff ’s Office in-vestigators conducted awarrant search at aresidence in the 700block of Guerrero Ave-nue.

Investigators seized6.8 grams of crack co-caine, 453.1 grams ofmarijuana and $296. Amale subject identifiedas Jorge Luis PrezazJr., 31, was arrested forpossession of a con-trolled substance andpossession of marijua-na.

A $20,000 total bondwas set by Justice ofthe Peace Jose C. Gu-tierrez. The drugsseized have a street val-ue of $9,468.

Copsseizedrugs

THE ZAPATA TIMES

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

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

NORTH CHARLES-TON, S.C. — Today, Ibring good news and badnews. It’s all the samenews, but for some of you,it will be good news, andfor some of you, it will bebad news.

It is this: Your gover-nor is home.

Whether you considerRick Perry’s return toTexas a good thing orbad, here are some up-sides for all of us: the endof that leaderless feelingwe’ve suffered throughwhile our governor wasgallivanting about tryingto become our president.Also on the plus side: anend to his spending ourtax dollars on security toprotect him on the cam-paign trail.

I knew something wasup about 24 hours beforePerry publicly acknowl-edged something lots offolks knew weeks ago: Hewon’t be taking the presi-dential oath of office nextyear.

I’ve known Perry fortoo long, and know himto be too good a politic-ian, to believe he has notunderstood his campaignwas headed for a deadend. Perhaps it shouldhave ended in Iowa. Per-haps it did. For whateverreasons — and there weresome plausible ones — hechose to go on to SouthCarolina.

I had a feeling the endwas near on Wednesdayduring Perry’s “MainStreet Walk” (actually onTrade Street) in Greer,S.C., an event that turnedout to be the campaign’sfinal one.

Perry was friendly, butsomething was missingas he chatted with folkson the street and instores. He never askedanyone to vote for him.

He lingered over shoesand gloves in Acme Gen-eral Store and, through-out the walk, talked amia-bly with folks about howmuch he likes South Car-olina towns, signed auto-graphs, posed for photosand talked with youngpeople about what’s bestabout campaigning (“Get-ting to see different partsof the country that younever would, whether it’sSouth Carolina, Iowa,New Hampshire”) andwhat’s most importantabout life (giving back tocountry and community).

Further down theblock at the SouthernThymes Cafe, Perry wenttable to table beforespeaking.

A woman told Perry hehad said something shethought was “cute.” Imissed part of the conver-sation, but Perry told her,“Moses wasn’t a verygood speaker, either, buthe got them to the prom-ised land. He never got tobe there himself, but he

got them to the promisedland.”

The woman asked Per-ry if he thought he wasgoing to make it. I’m notclear if she meant theWhite House or the prom-ised land.

“I don’t know,” he said.“That’s up to the goodLord.”

Moments later, GriffinPerry, the governor’s son,got the day’s only cam-paign event started.

He told an audience ofabout 80, “My father hasdone some things in hiscareer that will translateon the national level andmake this country anamazing place to liveagain and will make thiscountry the superpowerthat it once was.

“And I’m proud to in-troduce the next presi-dent of the United States,Rick Perry,” the youngerPerry said as the gover-nor, beaming as hewatched his son speak,rose and enveloped Grif-fin in a tight hug.

I’m getting dangerous-ly close to mind readingwithout a license, but Isensed at the moment aman aware he would notbe what his son had justsaid he would be. But Per-ry, perhaps in a reflectivemood, talked very person-ally about something hehas been for 28 years.

“It is a special honor tobe introduced by yourson, particularly one whohas made his father asproud as Griffin has,”Perry said. “For those ofyou who are not marriedor do not have childrenyet, it is truly one of thethings that is the mostpowerful, powerful thingthat will most likely hap-pen in your temporal life,to have children and toraise them and to watchthem grow. And that’sreally what this electionis about.”

With that segue, Perrylaunched into a speech inwhich he never asked forvotes until the very end.

And then he did so inautopilot mode with thestandard closing linefrom his standard stumpspeech.

“Listen,” he said,“here’s what I want toask you all to do. We’vegot 72 hours until wemake a decision in theelection. And I’ll make apact with you. If you’llhave my back on Satur-day when you go to thepolls, I’ll have your backfor the next four years inWashington, D.C.”

At that moment, hoursbefore he made the deci-sion to end his campaign,Perry did not sound likea man who thought he’dhave to worry about hold-ing up his end of the bar-gain.

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

Rick Perryis coming

back homeBy KEN HERMAN

COX NEWSPAPERS

OTHER VIEWS

The Zapata Times doesnot publish anonymousletters.

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

We want to assure our

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

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

Via e-mail, send 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

Tomorrow marksthe 11th annualDiocese of LaredoPro-Life Rosary

Walk, which brings togeth-er hundreds of people offaith and goodwill whomarch solemnly in solidar-ity for the sanctity of lifefrom conception to naturaldeath.

Starting on the corner ofBoston Street and Santa Ur-sula Avenue (southboundaccess road to Interstate 35)in Laredo, people of all ageswill walk to San AgustínCathedral in near silence,praying for the universalright to life.

Rev. Anthony Mendoza,pastor of St. Joseph Parishin La Pryor and director ofthe Respect Life Office inthe Diocese of Laredo, orga-nized this 11th annualmarch as a way for all of usto serve as witness to God’screation.

Tomorrow’s gatheringcomes just days before the39th anniversary of the Su-preme Court’s decision ofRoe v. Wade, which allowsfor legalized abortion.

While this evokes astrong emotional reaction,this march is a peacefulone.

We gather as brothersand sisters who in the spiritof our Creator’s mercy andcompassion pray for all thevictims of the different lifeissues.

Through this act, wehope to generate awarenessand a call to justice for thesanctity of life.

As I reflected in prepara-tion for this column, an ar-ticle written by CardinalEdward Egan, ArchbishopEmeritus of the Archdio-cese of New York, came tomind. It wasn’t so much hiswords that moved me, as itwas a photo that he used toaccompany his column.

The photo Cardinal Eganincluded was one of a 20-week-old child inside amother’s womb. It is an un-

touched color photographand you can distinctivelysee the baby’s forehead, eye-brows, closed eyes, nose,open mouth, crossed hands,bent knee and even thechild’s fingernails.

The beauty of creation isbreathtaking and moving.

It is a picture of life in itsmost vulnerable and inno-cent stage.

Incredible!“God created man in his

image; in the divine imagehe created him; male andfemale he created them,”reads Genesis (1:27).

It is with this in mindthat I ask you to join us fortomorrow’s procession.

For the past 11 years,faithful citizens havemarched in unison for thispeaceful effort to bringawareness to our communi-ty that all human life is sa-cred.

Through this Pro-LifeRosary Walk, faithful follow-ers pray the Holy Rosaryand give grateful witnessfor the life we have receivedfrom our parents and fromthe Divine Creator, God.

How can you become aliving bead in each decadeand mystery of the rosary?

All you need is a pair ofgood, comfortable walkingshoes, the appropriate walk-ing attire and a desire topray for the sanctity of lifefrom conception to naturaldeath.

Let us join the RespectLife Office of the Diocese ofLaredo, the Knights of Co-lumbus, the Matachinesand the hundreds marchingin the name of justice thatall life may begin and endas our Creator designed. To-do Con Amor.

Note: Participants shouldgather in front of Hernan-dez-Lopez Funeral Home onthe corner of Boston Streetand Santa Ursula Avenue at2:30 p.m. for the start of themarch. The Diocese of Lare-do and the Knights of Co-lumbus provide a shuttlefor those who cannot walklong distances but desire toparticipate. Water is alsoprovided to all the partici-pants. A holy hour follow-ing the march is scheduledat San Agustín Cathedral.

COLUMN

Annual Pro Life walk is Sun.

“JAMES TAMAYO

The Colorado affiliate ofGirl Scouts of the U.S.A.showed admirable under-standing, and taught itsmembers a valuable lesson,when it said it welcomesyoungsters who were bornmale but identify as a girland have a family that“presents her as a girl.”

The group clarified itspolicy after the mother of a7-year-old was mistakenlytold that her child couldnot join a troop because hehas “boy parts” and she

complained. The Scoutscontacted the mother, butthe child has not enrolled.

Unfortunately, not allGirl Scout troops share theGirl Scouts’ fundamentalvalue of inclusion. Threetroops at a Christianschool in Louisiana dis-banded to protest Colora-do’s policy, which is sup-ported by the national or-ganization.

And the controversyerupted again a few daysago thanks to an eight-min-ute video that was postedon the YouTube channel of

Honest Girl Scouts, a groupthat regularly attacks GirlScouts of the U.S.A. forabandoning “traditionalvalues” — whatever that issupposed to mean.

In the video, a 14-year-old Girl Scout from Califor-nia reads a script criticiz-ing Girl Scouts of theU.S.A. for accepting trans-gender members and call-ing for a boycott of GirlScout cookies. The videoreceived 387,000 hits beforethe group marked the vid-eo “private,” blocking view-ing by the general public.

A portion of the video isstill available on YouTube.

Happily, it seems the vid-eo’s main effect so far hasbeen to draw wide expres-sions of support for theGirl Scouts’ policy. The na-tional and Colorado officesof the organization say thatthey do not expect a dropin sales and that many peo-ple may buy more boxesthan usual to show theystand with the Girl Scoutsand against bigotry. Wehope so. And, for the re-cord, our favorite is theThin Mint.

Not all Girl Scouts show empathyNEW YORK TIMES

Five people have been ar-rested in connection withthe beating of a man whowas sent to a McAllen hos-pital last Sunday.

Jose Guillermo Cantu,21; Jaime Javier Guzman,20; Secilio Ramon Hinojosa,19; and Horacio Saenz Jr.,19, were arrested at thescene and charged with en-gaging in organized crimi-nal activity, a first-degreefelony punishable with upto life in prison at the Tex-as Department of CriminalJustice and a $10,000 fine,and aggravated assault

with a deadly weapon, asecond-degree-felony whichcarries up to 20 years im-prisonment in the TDCJand a $10,000 fine.

According to Sgt. MarioElizondo, more evidencewas gathered and enoughprobable cause was foundto issue an arrest warrantfor Carlos Niel Gonzalez,20, on the same charges. Heturned himself in at the Za-

pata Regional Jail onThursday. Each of the fivesuspects was given a$100,000 bond by Justice ofthe Peace Juana M. Gutier-rez.

Deputies went out to afight in progress reportedat 4:21 a.m. Jan. 15 in the200 block of Diaz Avenue inthe Medina Addition. Sgt.Mario Elizondo said thatan argument had erupted

during a so-cial gather-ing.

On arrival,deputies metwith a 24-year-old manwho had suf-fered a lacer-

ation on his head. ZapataCounty EMS crews werecalled out to the scene.They treated the victimand took him to the StarrCounty Memorial Hospital.He was later transported tothe McAllen Medical Cen-ter for further treatment.

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

5 accused of beating manBy CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

GONZALEZ GUZMAN HINOJOSASANEZ CANTU

A man Zapata Countysheriff ’s officials say wasassociated with the Veter-ans of Foreign Wars wasserved with a warrant, ac-cused of stealing morethan $1,000 from the organ-ization.

Sgt. Mario Elizondo saiddeputies arrested MichaelLee Delgado, 34, on Tues-day in Zapata. He was tak-en to the Zapata RegionalJail and held on a $10,000bond.

According to reports,deputies went out to atheft call at 11:04 p.m. Jan.8 at the VFW building atTexas 16 and 16th Street.An employee told deputiesthat money was missingfrom the safe. Throughoutthe course of the case, in-

vestigatorsidentifiedDelgado asthe allegedoffender andcharged himwith theftand posses-sion of a

controlled substance, ac-cording to sheriff ’s offi-cials.

A sheriff ’s office newsrelease states investigatorsrecovered about $1,100from Delgado’s vehicle.The release goes on to saythat Delgado is associatedwith VFW. Warrants wereissued for his arrest afterDelgado was transportedto the Laredo Medical Cen-ter due to health complica-tions.

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

Man servedwith warrant

now in jailBy CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

DELGADO

LAREDO — The WebbCounty Heritage Founda-tion, in collaborationwith the Texas HistoricalCommission, will host ameeting of the StateBoard of Review todayfrom 8:30 a.m. until noonat the Villa Antigua Bor-der Heritage Museum inLaredo. The meeting isopen to the public andall interested parties areinvited to attend.

The State Board of Re-view reviews all Nation-al Register of HistoricPlaces nominations inTexas before they aresubmitted to the Nation-al Park Service. Theboard is a citizen com-mittee of experts in thefields of Texas architec-ture, history, archeologyand related disciplines.In public meetings, theboard assesses each nom-inated property accord-ing to the National Reg-ister criteria for evalua-tion.

The National Register

of Historic Places is thenation’s official list ofcultural resourcesdeemed worthy of preser-vation, and includesmore than 3,000 listingsin Texas. Listing affordsproperties a measure ofprotection from the im-pact of federally fundedprojects, as well as ac-cess to technical exper-tise and grant funds tofacilitate preservation.Income-producing prop-erties are also eligiblefor federal tax benefitsfor sympathetic rehabil-itation work.

The State Board of Re-view meets three timeseach year, in January,May and September.Meetings are held in dif-ferent locations acrossthe state to both giveboard members the op-portunity to have first-hand knowledge of thevariety of historic re-sources around the state,and also to visit proper-ties that have been orwill be nominated to theNational Register.

Historic groupmeets today

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The opening reception isThursday for the TexasA&M International Univer-sity Faculty Show Exhibitat the TAMIU Center forthe Fine and PerformingArts Gallery.

The exhibition show-cases drawings, paintings,photos, prints, ceramics,sculpture and new mediacreated by TAMIU facultyand adjunct professors.

Full-time TAMIU facultymembers whose works willbe showcased in the exhibi-tion are Alma Haertlein,associate professor of art;Nicole Foran, assistant pro-fessor of art; David Bogus,assistant professor of artand Marcela Moran, assist-ant professor of communi-cation. Adjunct faculty An-gela Carbone and JohnHickey will also show theirwork.

The reception runs from6p.m. until 7:30 p.m. in the

CFPA Gallery Lobby. Ad-mission is free and open tothe public.

This is the first facultyexhibit held at TAMIU inmore than five years.

“It is a very exciting op-portunity for us to show-case what we do for thebenefit of our students andthe community,” said Fo-ran, “There is no overarch-ing theme to the exhibit,because we are all workingin different media and withdifferent subject matter.”

The reception providesan opportunity to meetwith the artists and speakwith them directly abouttheir work and to supportLaredo’s creative communi-ty.

Profs to open artexhibition

Thursday nightSPECIAL TO THE TIMES

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 Local THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

CHICAGO — Chicagoofficials worked Friday toprevent a repeat of lastyear’s “snowmageddon,”when a blizzard left hun-dreds of drivers strandedalong one of the city’smain thoroughfares for upto 12 hours overnight.

With the city gettingsocked by its first majorsnowstorm of the winterand drifts forming, offi-cials detoured buses officy Lake Shore Drive, theiconic road running alongLake Michigan. Bus ser-vice was partially restoredby the end of rush hourexcept for the southernportion of the road.

Last year’s storm,which dumped more than20 inches of snow, broughtChicago to a standstill andcaused serious embarrass-ment to a city known forits ability to keep working

in some of the most severewinter weather. Transitspokesman Brian Steelesaid icy ramps and drift-ing snow led to the deci-sion to move buses awayfrom the lakefront Fridayand onto roads wherethere was less wind andslower traffic.

No significant problemshad developed yet, he said,adding, “The decision wasmade solely as a precau-tion.”

More than 700 flightswere cancelled at Chica-go’s airports, the bulk ofthem at O’Hare Interna-tional Airport, the Chica-go Department of Aviationsaid.

While the snow startedin the morning, the worstof the storm hit just atrush hour. Eight inches ofsnow were expected bynightfall, and the NationalWeather Service issued awinter storm warning

lasting until late Friday. Chicago deployed its

full fleet of 278 plows topush through the snow onmain streets and LakeShore Drive, but they hadto inch along with commu-ters headed home in heavytraffic.

“The biggest challengefor us right now is conges-tion. We’re caught in itjust like everyone else,”said Guy Tridgell, aspokesman with the Illi-nois Department of Trans-portation.

During last year’s Feb-ruary blizzard, the city’sthird-worst storm on re-cord, authorities had to re-move 525 vehicles that gotstuck on Lake ShoreDrive, which was closedfor 33 hours. City officialsbegan work in Novemberto create two turnaroundpoints on the road to makeit easier for cars to avoidgetting stuck.

A woman holding an umbrella walks to a store as snow falls in Chicago on Friday. Officials cancelledhundreds of flights at O’Hare International and Midway airports as a snowstorm moved into the Chica-go area with the threat of dumping more than 6 inches of snow.

Photo by Nam Y. Huh | AP

Chicago snow snarlstraffic, cancels flights

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — As a newAmerican resident, GelarehBagherzadeh frequently em-braced her freedom to speakcritically about humanrights policies in her nativeIran, but friends and familymembers said they neverknew her peaceful activismto attract any enemies.

That’s why, like investiga-tors, they’ve been at a lossfor answers since Bagherza-deh was found shot to deathlast weekend in her car. Themotor was still running andher wallet and cellphonewere still by her side afterthe vehicle crashed into agarage door in the upscaleHouston townhome com-plex where she and her par-ents lived.

“There are people thatbelieve any outspokennesscan be risky. That’s not myopinion here,” said FionaLonsdale, who knew Bagh-erzadeh from a PersianChristian group at theirBaptist church in Houston.“I think it’s more of an actof violence that no one canexplain.”

The fatal shooting re-mains surrounded by mys-tery in part because nothingwas taken from the vehicle,though authorities haven’truled out the possibility itcould have been a botchedrobbery.

Ali Bagherzadeh, heryounger brother, said hedoesn’t know why anybodywould have wanted to harmhis sister, who moved to theU.S. several years ago andwas studying molecular ge-netic technology at the Uni-versity of Texas M.D. An-derson Cancer Center inHouston.

KillingstumpsHouston

policeBy JUAN A. LOZANO ASSOCIATED PRESS

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO01/21 — Estación Pala-

bra invita a: Bazar de Arte alas 12 p.m.; Lecturas antesde Abordar a la 1 p.m.; Fes-tival Infantil a las 2 p.m.; Ta-ller de Creación Literaria conJacobo Mina alas 3 p.m. En-trada gratuita.

01/24 — Cine Club Her-manos Soler presenta “LasMil y Una Noches” a las 6p.m. en el Teatro Lucio Blan-co de la Casa de la Cultura.Entrada gratuita.

01/24 — Concierto paraTodos presenta: Noche Acús-tica y Bohemis con el catau-tor Edu Vargas y sus Amigosa las 8 p.m. en la Sala Ser-gio Peña de la AntiguaAduana. Entrada gratuita.

01/25 — Cine Club pre-senta “¡Ay Palillo no te ra-jes!” en el Auditorio de Es-tación Palabra a las 6 p.m.Entrada gratuita.

01/28 — Estación Pala-bra Gabriel García Márquezinvita a: Bazar de Arte a las12 p.m.; Lecturas antes deabordar “Lecturas sobre sue-ños” a la 1 p.m.; Festival In-fantil “Las Pesadillas” (Cuen-tos: “El Monstruo Pesadillo”y “Desastres de Julián”) alas 2 p.m. Entrada gratuita.

01/29 — Batucada Wee-kend presenta el ensayo ge-neral de los participantes enlos talleres de percusionesde 10 a.m. a 12 p.m.; expo-sición de manualidades de12 p.m. a 1:30 p.m.; la im-perial banda de marcha Co-bat se presenta de 1:30 p.m.a 2 p.m.; y, la fiesta carna-val es de 2 p.m. a 4 p.m.Evento a desarrollarse en elCentro Cultural Nuevo Lare-do.

LAREDO01/21 — AVISO: El pro-

grama VITA (Volunteer Inco-me Tax Assistance) invita ala comunidad a inscribirsepara ser entrenado gratuita-mente y ser certificado porel IRS como un preparadorde impuestos de VITA. Lasesión es hoy de 8:30 a.m.a 5 p.m. Inscríbase enwww.laredofesc.org. Más in-formación con David Moralesal (956) 284-0344.

01/21 — Jornadas Saba-tinas 2012 del Consulado deMéxico en Laredo, es hoy de9 a.m. a 1 p.m. Se expedi-rán documentos consularesy se orientará en el ámbitode protección. Más informesen MEXITEL 1-877-639-4835(desde Estados Unidos) ó01-800-900-0773 (desdeMéxico).

01/21 — El concursoanual ‘Crime Stoppers Me-nudo Bowl’ será de 11 a.m.a 6 p.m. en LIFE Downs, so-bre U.S. 59.

01/21 — Laredo Bucksrecibe a Rio Grande ValleyKiller Bees a las 4 p.m. enLaredo Energy Arena.

01/21 — El PlanetarioLamar Bruni Vergara de TA-MIU presenta: “One World,One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventu-re” a las 4 p.m., “Earth, Mo-on and Sun” a las 5 p.m.,“Stars of the Pharaohs” alas 6 p.m.; y, Pink Floyd’s“Dark Side of the Moon” alas 7 p.m. Costo general: 5dólares; niños pagan 4 dóla-res.

01/27 — PBR: Professio-nal Bull Riders se presentanhoy a las 7:30 p.m. en Lare-do Energy Arena. Costos de10 a 40 dólares.

01/28 — UETA Jamboo-zie es hoy en el Centro deLaredo a partir de las 4p.m. Costo: 8 dólares enpreventa y 10 dólares des-pués de las 6 p.m. (por per-sona). Entrada gratis antesde las 6 p.m. Niños de 12años y menores entran gra-tis.

01/28 — La OrquestaFilarmónica de Laredo ofre-cerá un concierto hoy a las3 p.m. en el CFPA de TA-MIU. Costo: 15 dólares (adul-tos) y 12 dólares para perso-nas de 62 años y mayores.

Agendaen Breve

Militares y Policías Federalesarribaron a San Fernando y NuevoLaredo, México, para reforzar laseguridad y lucha contra el crimenorganizado.

Al cuartel militar en San Fer-nando llegaron 600 militares, entanto que a Nuevo Laredo lo hicie-ron 400, todos ellos miembros del106 Batallón de Infantería.

El Secretario General de Tamau-lipas, Morelos Canseco Gómez,aclaró que el nuevo cuartel militar

en San Fernando es el segundo detres comprometidos por el gobier-no estatal.

“Uno en Ciudad Mier, el segun-do en San Fernando y un terceroen el Mante”, dijo Canseco.

Las estrategias de los 1,000 mili-tares permitirán reforzar la seguri-dad y condiciones de paz y tran-quilidad en esta región norte delEstado, asegura un comunicado deprensa del Gobierno de Tamauli-pas.

“Ahora existe una gran estrate-gia integral de seguridad, para al-canzar la viabilidad y protección

ciudadana”, dijo Canseco.En Nuevo Laredo, los nuevos

agentes iniciaron una serie de ope-rativos.

El miércoles lograron detener alponiente de la ciudad a 11 hombresa quienes identificaron comomiembros de la delincuencia orga-nizada. También les fueron confis-cadas un número indeterminadode armas.

“Los agentes de Seguridad Pú-blica Federal arribaron a reforzarla vigilancia y asumir algunos ope-rativos”, dijo una fuente federalquien habló bajo condición de ano-

nimato.Por otra parte, se dio a conocer

que agentes confiscaron tres vehí-culos comerciales cuando viajabanpor la Carretera Nacional NuevoLaredo-México.

Las unidades fueron escoltadasdesde el Kilómetro 26 a las instala-ciones federales, contando con vigi-lancia de elementos federales y mi-litares.

La fuente no reveló el contenidode las unidades.

(Localice a Miguel Timoshenkoven el (956) 728-2583 o en mrami-rez@lmtonline.com)

MIL OFICIALES SE UNEN A OPERATIVO EN SAN FERNANDO Y NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO

Llegan más militaresPOR MIGUEL TIMOSHENKOV

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

McALLEN — Activos con valor de casi 30millones de dólares, propiedad del ex jefe deun cártel narcotraficante mexicano, han sidodistribuidos entre una docena de agenciaspolicíacas del estado de Texas que participa-ron en una operación de 10 años para su cap-tura, dijeron el martes autoridades.

Al ex jefe del Cártel del Golfo, Osiel Cárde-nas Guillén, extraditado a Estados Unidos en2007, se le ordenó ceder 50 millones de dóla-res cuando fue condenado en 2010, luego dedeclararse culpable de cargos de narcotráfico.El juez también lo sentenció a 25 años de pri-sión.

Según los fiscales del caso, la operación deCárdenas Guillén introducía a Estados Uni-dos entre cuatro y seis toneladas de cocaínaal mes. Durante la investigación, las agenciaspolicíacas realizaron al menos 10 diferentesdecomisos de efectivo, de hasta 4,5 millonesde dólares, de acuerdo con la orden de confis-cación del juez.

El Departamento del Tesoro federal dijoque distribuyó la semana pasada casi 30 mi-llones de dólares de efectivo incautado en re-lación con Cárdenas Guillén entre las agen-cias policíacas, que iban desde departamen-tos locales hasta el Departamento deSeguridad Pública del estado de Texas. Lamayor cantidad de poco más de 5,9 millonesde dólares fue para la oficina del alguacil delcondado de Cameron, que ofreció la mayorparte del trabajo encubierto, dijo el alguacilOmar Lucio.

Lucio dijo que la operación en conjunto

con agencias federales y locales, llamada“Los Cazadores” (en español), empezó en1998 y culminó con la acusación federal deCárdenas Guillén en 2000 en Brownsville.Uno de los agentes de Lucio hizo mucho tra-bajo encubierto durante la investigación y“se reunió cara a cara con (Cárdenas Gui-llén) en dos ocasiones”, dijo Lucio.

En una ocasión, cuando Lucio escuchó queese agente podría estar en peligro, lo mudó aél y a su familia fuera de la zona durante va-rios meses. Pero el agente regresó y continuótrabajando para el alguacil, dijo Lucio.

El alguacil dijo que no había planes especí-ficos para el dinero que apenas fue transferi-do la semana pasada a su oficina, sin embar-go, espera que se pueda contratar más perso-nal, pagar tiempo extra y comprar nuevoequipo.

En un comunicado, el senador federalJohn Cornyn agradeció a las agencias poli-cíacas por haber ayudado a la investigación yhaber rastreado las drogas y el dinero.

TEXAS

Reparten activos deOsiel Cárdenas Guillén

POR CHRISTOPHER SHERMANASSOCIATED PRESS La mayor cantidad de poco

más de 5,9 millones dedólares fue para la oficinadel alguacil del condado deCameron, que ofreció lamayor parte del trabajoencubierto.

CD. VICTORIA, México — La Secretaría deEducación de Tamaulipas (SET) llevó a cabola firma del Acuerdo de Colaboración con 13municipios de la entidad a fin de consolidaren las escuelas de educación básica ambien-tes seguros, dentro del Programa Escuela Se-gura.

El acuerdo se pactó con las ciudades de Al-tamira, Ciudad Madero, Matamoros, Mante,Miguel Alemán, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Río

Bravo, San Fernando, Soto LaMarina, Tampico, Valle Hermo-so, y Victoria.

El Coordinador Estatal de Se-guridad Escolar, Juan GallardoBáez, señaló que el convenio rea-lizado en la SEP de la Ciudad deMéxico, promoverá que en lasinstituciones educativas se forta-lezca la cultura de la prevención

y de la legalidad, contribuyendo a la forma-ción integral de los alumnos.

“Se desarrollarán las competencias ciuda-danas como el auto cuidado y la toma de res-ponsabilidades y decisiones”, dijo Gallardo.“Es por ello que el programa permitirá im-pulsar acciones que beneficien la seguridaden la comunidad escolar, así como orientadasa la prevención de la violencia, las adiccionesy delincuencia”.

El objetivo es compartir experiencias y ar-ticular capacidades y recursos en la ejecu-ción de acciones sustantivas en favor de la se-guridad en las comunidades escolares, indicaun comunicado de prensa.

EDUCACIÓN

Acuerdo buscaorientar a

estudiantesESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

GALLARDO

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 21 DE ENERO DE 2012

Militares estacio-nados en lafrontera chicadesde Ciudad

Mier a Matamoros, Tamau-lipas, confiscaron casi 10toneladas de marihuana y12 kilos de cocaína en cua-tro operativos diferentes eljueves.

En un caso, marihuanafue ubicada en una “isleta”oculta entre matorrales enun punto próximo a CiudadMier, informó la Octava Zo-na Militar de la Secretaríade la Defensa Nacional(Sedena).

Según en el comunicado,fue con un trabajo de análi-sis que se pudo ubicar enlas márgenes del Río Bravolos 833 paquetes de mari-huana que dieron un pesode 7,553 kilos.

Un agente federal dijo, acondición de anonimato,que hombres fueron capta-dos cuando intentaban cru-zar la droga, misma queabandonaron ante la pre-sencia de militares.

No se reportaron arres-tos.

En Miguel Alemán el de-comiso fue de 800 kilos demarihuana.

En el poblado de “Vala-deces”, municipio de Ciu-

dad Díaz Ordaz, detectaron144 paquetes de marihuanacon un peso de 1,198 kilo-gramos.

Militares además confis-caron 12 kilos de cocaína,cuyo valor en las calles esde 400 millones de pesos.

En noviembre del 2011,665 militares fueron esta-cionados en Ciudad Mierpor una disposición delPresidente de México Fe-lipe Calderón, para resca-tar a los habitantes cauti-vos del crimen organizadoy ampliar la seguridadentre la frontera con Texas.

Esta semana a San Fer-nando arribaron 600 mili-tares y a Nuevo Laredo,400.

FRONTERA RIBEREÑA

CUATRO OPERATIVOS DE SEDENAConfiscanbultos de

marihuanay cocaína

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Elementos de Sedena ubicaron 833 paquetes con 7,553 kilos de marihuana en una isleta junto al Río Bravo, cerca de Ciudad Mier, México.

Fotos de cortesía | Sedena

Militares vigilan decomisos de droga realizados en el transcurso de la semana en la frontera ribereñade Tamaulipas, México.

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES State SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

AUSTIN — A challengeto a Texas law that re-quires doctors to performa sonogram before a wom-an has an abortion return-ed to federal court Friday,and the judge suggested anappeals court has givenhim little choice but torule the law constitutional.

U.S. District Judge SamSparks in Austin seemedfrustrated by a recent ap-peals court ruling that allbut told him how to ruleon the case.

“You just can’t ride ahorse that’s been buried,”Sparks said. “What author-ity, other than a Scots-Irishtemper, would I have theauthority to reverse the(appeals court), other thanto feel good?”

But a group of doctorsand the New York-basedCenter for ReproductiveRights continue to arguethat the law infringes onthe doctors’ First Amend-

ment rights and is uncon-stitutionally vague regard-ing enforcement. The doc-tors argue the law requiresthem to perform a proce-dure that is not medicallynecessary and that womenmay not want to havedone.

RequirementsThe law requires doc-

tors to show the womanthe image of the sonogram,to play the fetal heartbeataloud and describe the fea-tures of the fetus at least 24hours before the abortion.There are exceptions incases of rape, incest, fetaldeformities and for womenwho have to travel greatdistances to reach a doctor.

Julie Rikelman, attor-ney for the Center for Re-productive Rights, toldSparks that the law leavesno room for medical judg-ment by the doctor, forceswomen to submit to the so-nogram and forces doctors

to convey information thewomen may not want tosee or hear.

Partially upheldIn 2011, Sparks upheld

the sonogram requirementbut struck down the provi-sions requiring doctors todescribe the images. He al-so struck down a require-ment that victims of sexualassault or incest sign state-ments attesting to thatfact, writing that the statewas trying to “permanent-

ly brand” those women.Sparks also struck downseveral enforcement penal-ties for doctors who didnot comply.

Overturning orderBut on Jan. 10, a three-

judge panel of the 5th U.S.Circuit Court of Appealsoverturned Sparks’ tempo-rary order blocking thelaw.

The appeals court opin-ion, written by Chief JudgeEdith H. Jones, signaledthat the panel believes thelaw to be constitutional.Requiring disclosures of asonogram, the fetal heart-beat and their medical de-scriptions “are the epitomeof truthful, non-misleadinginformation,” Jones wrote,adding that she expectsSparks to use the opinionfor guidance when hemakes any further deci-sions in the case.

‘Enforceable’That ruling effectively

made the law “totally en-forceable,” Sparks said, “Isuspect just to prevent thiscourt from acting.”

Sparks did not issue aformal ruling and did notindicate when he will.

Rikelman said she stillhopes Sparks will rule that

the law creates an uncon-stitutional burden on doc-tors. The Center for Repro-ductive Rights has askedthe appeals court to recon-sider its ruling and willlikely appeal any rulingfrom Sparks that upholdsthe law.

Supporters argue thelaw ensures women willfully understand whatabortion entails and willlead to fewer abortions.About 81,000 abortions areperformed every year inTexas. Gov. Rick Perry, aRepublican who on Thurs-day ended his campaignfor president, had madethe law one of his priori-ties in the 2011 legislativesession.

“This raises the stan-dard of care for womenseeking abortion,” said JoePojman, executive directorof Texas Alliance for Life.“I think the law will be to-tally upheld.”

Judge says hands tied in abortion rulingBy JIM VERTUNO

ASSOCIATED PRESS “This raises the standard of carefor women seeking abortion. Ithink the law will be totallyupheld.” TEXAS ALLIANCE FOR LIFE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JOE POJMAN

Genoveva Valadezpassed away Wednesday,Jan. 18, 2012, at LaredoSpecialty Hospital in La-redo, Texas.

Ms. Valadez is precededin death by her husband,Gumercindo Valadez;daughter Yolanda V. Ala-niz; grandson Osbaldo D.Salas; and a great-grand-son, Jesus Navarro Jr.

Ms. Valadez is survivedby a son, Gumercindo Jr.(Leydiana) Valadez;daughters: Ramon Vala-dez, Alma Rosa (Fernan-do) Melgoza and Mariaele-na Valadez; grandchildrenLeydiana, Gumercindo, Y.Zamara, Karen, Jesus, Ka-reli, Kaslin, Brisa, JavierJr., Raul, Agustin, Nadia,Alondra, Flor, Eva, AdanJr., Adriana, Aaron, Osiel,

Fernando Jr., Iris, Endy,Karina, Ever, Juna Pedro,Gladys and Milady; andby numerous great-grand-children and otherfriends.

Visitation hours will beheld Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012,from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. witha rosary at 7 p.m. at RoseGarden Funeral Home.

The funeral processionwill depart Monday, Jan.23, 2012, at 9:45 a.m. for a10 a.m. funeral Mass atOur Lady of LourdesCatholic Church. Commit-tal services will follow atZapata County Cemetery.

Funeral arrangementsare under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonza-lez, funeral director, 2102U.S. 83, Zapata, Texas.

GENOVEVA VALADEZ

Jaime G. Gutierrezpassed away Wednesday,Jan. 18, 2012, at his resi-dence in Zapata, Texas.

Mr. Gutierrez is preced-ed in death by his wife, No-ra M. Gutierrez; son BabyGutierrez; grandsons Ja-vier Chapa Jr. and Jorge H.Chapa; and his parents:Adan and Norberta Gutier-rez.

Mr. Gutierrez is survivedby his son Richard M. (Let-icia E.) Domiguez; grand-son Richard Jaime Domin-guez; granddaughter, Tere-sa E. (Javier) Camacho;great-grandchildren: JavierCamacho Jr., Javier ChapaIII and Regina A. Chapa;and by numerous cousins,nieces, nephews and manyfriends.

In his early years, Mr.Gutierrez was employed bythe Zachary Company(1958-1978). He would travelto different cities such asSan Angelo, Abilene, Katy,Wylie and Dallas. In 1971he was stationed and resid-ed in San Angelo. In 1981he moved to Zapata, Texas.

He was a lifelong ranch-er and was a board directorof the Zapata Soil and Wa-ter Conservation District.He was also a member ofthe Charro Association ofSan Antonio. For 15 yearshe was a supporter of theZapata County Trailride.

Honorary pallbearerswere: Gilberto Martinez,Heriberto Dominguez, Abel

Gutierrez, Leonardo Flores,Jose Luis Flores, EdmundoFlores, Ruben Gutierrezand Dr. Hildegardo Flores.

Pallbearers were: PeteGutierrez, Frank Gutier-rez, Evaristo (Buddy) Gu-tierrez, Craig D. Bigler, An-tonio Mendoza Jr., ReneGutierrez, Homero FloresJr. and Cesar Javier Gar-cia.

Visitation hours wereThursday, Jan. 19, 2012,from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with arosary at 7 p.m. at RoseGarden Funeral Home.

The funeral processiondeparted Friday, Jan. 20,2012, at 2:30 p.m. for a 3p.m. funeral Mass at OurLady of Lourdes CatholicChurch. Committal servic-es followed at Zapata Coun-ty Cemetery.

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

JAIME G. GUTIERREZ

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

OBITUARIES

Rodriguez. “We want people in Zapata tostay and open new businesses. We want togrow this town.”

The Zapata program mirrors the one of-fered in Laredo but includes fewer cours-es, and fewer continuing education creditsare up for grabs.

Registrants take a total of four classes inthe following subjects: starting a business,developing a business plan, managingcash and customer service.

The program also offers additional as-sistance including business loans, tax re-ports and assistance in hiring.

The six-month course is $20 and re-wards its graduates with one continuingeducation unit from TAMIU.

Zapata native and course graduate Ma-riamada Garza said she’s noticed a posi-tive trend in the community thanks to theprogram, with more people starting smallbusinesses and succeeding.

“With the way the economy is right now,I see more small business owners takingthat leap,” Garza said. “The ones that dosucceed are the people who have beenthrough the program. I highly recommendit.”

She said the program not only fosterseconomic growth but upholds the commu-nity values of this tight-knit town. The al-ready-large contingent of small businessowners is growing, she said, and keeping

things local rather than corporate.“It’s easy to just go to somebody you

know as opposed to somebody 1,500 milesaway,” said Garza. “I think Zapata pridesitself on knowing who everyone is, andthis sort of thing helps with that.”

For more information on the program,call Rodriguez at 286-0042 or visit sbdc.ta-miu.edu.

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

JOBS Continued from Page 1A

to maximize GOP elector-al gains in violation of thelandmark Voting RightsAct.

Texas will have 36 seatsin the next Congress, again of four districts. A di-vided court in San Anto-nio drew maps that differ-ed from the Legislature’sefforts, giving Democratsa chance to prevail inthree or four more con-gressional districts. Re-publicans now represent23 of the 32 current dis-tricts.

The high court said thejudges appeared in someinstances not to payenough attention to thestate’s choices. The judgesmade mistakes in theirplans, particularly in al-tering district lines forstate legislative and con-gressional seats in partsof the state where there is

no allegation of discrimi-nation on the part of theLegislature, the highcourt said.

“In the absence of anylegal flaw in this respectin the state’s plan, the dis-trict court had no basis tomodify that plan,” the jus-tices said, talking aboutstate House districts innorth and east Texas.

The court acted quickly,just 11 days after hearingarguments and a monthand a half after interven-ing in the case, but set nodeadline for new maps toemerge from the court inTexas. State officials havesaid they need to havesomething in place by Feb.1 to hold primary elec-tions, already delayedonce, on April 3. The Tex-as Republican party alsohas said that Texas mayhave no voice in the Re-

publican presidentialnominating process if theprimary is held later thanmid-April.

The complicated legalfight over redistricting inTexas is playing out inthree federal courts. In ad-dition to the SupremeCourt and federal court inSan Antonio, a three-judgecourt in Washington isevaluating the state plansunder a key provision ofthe Voting Rights Act thatforces states, mainly inthe South, with a historyof discrimination in vot-ing to get advance approv-al before making anychanges to the way theyconduct elections.

Even without the Wash-ington court’s approval,Texas said it should beable to use its own mapsjust for this year becausetime is running short be-

fore the primaries. The minority groups, as

well as the Obama admin-istration, say such an out-come is strictly forbiddenby the Voting Rights Actand would, in essence,eviscerate the law’s mostpotent weapon, the ad-vance approval require-ment, also known as pre-clearance.

The justices chose notto allow the state maps tobe used without preclea-rance. But Thomas, whoearlier had said he wouldstrike down the advanceapproval requirement,said Texas’ “duly enactedredistricting plans shouldgovern the upcoming elec-tions.”

The cases, all dealt within one opinion, are Perryv. Perez, 11-713, Perry v.Davis, 11-714, and Perry v.Perez, 11-715.

COURT Continued from Page 1A

LOS ANGELES — Oneof the world’s smallest sur-viving babies was dis-charged Friday from thehospital where she spentnearly five months in anincubator — but not beforegetting the Hollywoodtreatment.

Wearing a pink knit hatand wrapped in a pinkprincess blanket, MelindaStar Guido was greeted bya mob of television cam-eras and news photogra-phers outside the Los An-geles County-USC MedicalCenter.

“I’m just happy thatshe’s doing well,” said her22-year-old mother, HaydeeIbarra.

Melinda was born Aug.30, weighing just 9 1/2ounces, less than a can ofsoda. She was so tiny thatshe fit into her doctor’shand. Melinda is believedto be the world’s third-smallest surviving babyand the second smallest inthe U.S.

Now weighing 4 1/2pounds and breathingthrough an oxygen tube asa precaution, doctors saidMelinda has made enoughprogress to go home. Herbrain scan was normal and

her eyes were developingwell. She also passed ahearing test and a car seattest that’s required of pre-mature babies before dis-charge.

It’s too early to knowhow she will do develop-mentally and physically,but doctors planned tomonitor her for the nextsix years.

“I am cautiously opti-mistic that the baby will dowell, but again there is noguarantee,” said Dr. Rang-asamy Ramanathan, whooversees preemies at thehospital.

Most babies as smalldon’t survive even with ad-vanced medical care. About7,500 babies are born eachyear in the U.S. weighingless than 1 pound, andabout 10 percent survive.

Melinda has come a longway since being deliveredby cesarean section at 24weeks after her mother de-veloped high blood pres-sure during pregnancy.

She was whisked to theneonatal intensive careunit where she breathedwith the help of a machineand received nutritionthrough a feeding tube. In-fants born before 37 weeksare considered premature.

Even after discharge,such extremely premature

babies require constantcare at home. Their lungsare not fully developed andthey may need oxygen athome. Parents also need towatch out for risk of infec-tions that could send in-fants back to the hospital.Even basic activities likefeeding can be challenging.

“They may need extrahelp and patience whilethey learn to eat,” said Dr.Edward Bell, a pediatricianat the University of Iowawho runs an online data-base of the world’s smallestsurviving babies bornweighing less than apound.

Tiny baby leaves hospitalBy RAQUEL MARIA DILLON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Baby Melinda Star Guido is passed by nurses to her mother HaydeeIbarra, right, after being discharged Friday from Los Angeles Coun-ty-USC Medical Center five months after her birth.

Photo by Damian Dovarganes | AP

their fates were sealed, Raul“Richard” Jasso Jr. testifiedin U.S. District Judge Mi-caela Alvarez’s court.

Another Zeta thug, JesusGonzalez III, hit Aviles overthe head with his pistol andtook him to a friend’shouse. Jasso later kid-napped Aviles’ friend, Vil-larreal, from the bar and heand Gonzalez turned theteens over to their supervi-sor, Gabriel Cardona, now25.

Jasso said he didn’t stickaround to see what hap-pened, but heard that Car-dona killed the two and puttheir bodies in what cartelmembers call a guiso, theSpanish word for stew, inthis case used to describe agrisly way of disposing ofbodies.

“They’re thrown into bar-rels and they pour gasolineon them and burn them un-

til they’re powder,” Jasso,29, said through a transla-tor.

Aviles’ and Villarreal’sdisappearances went un-solved until agents listeningto the conversations of Ze-tas operating in the U.S.were able to solve that andother crimes, Diaz testified.

Jurors this week heardfrom Diaz and his partner,agent J.J. Gomez, abouthow the DEA in 2006launched Operation Prophe-cy to target Miguel “El 40”Treviño Morales, the Zetasleader they believed wasleading a war against theSinaloa Cartel. The Zetas, atthe time working as en-forcers for the Gulf Cartel,had been battling the Sina-loa for control of the traf-ficking lanes through thearea, known as the NuevoLaredo Plaza.

That war was spilling

over to Laredo. In 2006, thiscity recorded 24 homicides.The next year, after U.S. of-ficials shut down Zetas hitman crews and the cartelwar in Nuevo Laredodropped off, the numberdropped to eight.

But it wasn’t until an in-formant the DEA had in-side the Zetas cartel helpedpolice arrest a pair of hitmen preparing for a job at amotel here that agents real-ized the extent of the Zetas’plans for this side of theborder, Diaz said.

“After the arrests at theEl Cortez Motel, we learnedthat there was a list of peo-ple the Gulf Cartel wanted

killed in Laredo,” he said.“At the time, we believedthat list to be about 40 peo-ple.”

At the top of that list,said Jasso, the convicted hitman, was Jesus Maria“Chuy” Resendez, a power-ful trafficker based in thenearby town of El Cenizo,who’d cast his lot with theSinaloa.

Yesterday, Resendez’sbrother testified that theman on trial this week, Cas-tillo Chavez, 25, was part ofa Zetas crew that shot himand a family member intwo attacks in 2006.

Cardona’s crew was or-dered to work with another

group of sicarios includingCastillo Chavez, who Jassoidentified in the courtroomand said he knew by thenickname “Cachetes,” theSpanish word for “cheeks.”

Spotters for one of thecrews located Resendez onApril 2, 2006, and eight hitmen armed with handgunsand AK-47 rifles piled intothe cab and bed of a pickuptruck, Jasso said. Theyfound Resendez at about 9p.m., stopped at a trafficlight on a busy section ofthe Zapata Highway inSouth Laredo.

Resendez and his 15-year-old nephew Mariano Resen-dez were killed in the at-

tack.But Jasso admitted that

when he first met with po-lice after his arrest in 2006,he named other co-conspir-ators, but never mentionedCastillo Chavez or “Ca-chetes.”

And defense attorneyswere quick to point out thatJasso is cooperating to get agood deal for himself andhis wife, who were bothcharged in state court andin the same wide-rangingfederal drug conspiracycase as Castillo Chavez,who faces life in prison ifconvicted.

Testimony is expected tocontinue Monday morning.

TRIAL Continued from Page 1A

The grisly testimony came in the ongoing trial Friday of Gerardo CastilloChavez on drug conspiracy, weapons and racketeering charges.

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

LOS ANGELES — Etta James’performance of the enduringclassic “At Last” was the embod-iment of refined soul: Angelic-sounding strings harkened thearrival of her passionate yetmeasured vocals as she sang ten-derly about a love finally realizedafter a long and patient wait.

In real life, little about Jameswas as genteel as that song. Theplatinum blonde’s first hit was asaucy R&B number about sex,and she was known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous rela-tionships with her family, hermen and the music industry.Then she spent years battling a

drug addiction that she admittedsapped away at her great talents.

The 73-year-old died on Fridayat Riverside Community Hospitalfrom complications of leukemia,with her husband and sons ather side, her manager, Lupe DeLeon said.

“It’s a tremendous loss for herfans around the world,” he said.“She’ll be missed. A great Amer-ican singer. Her music defied cat-egory.”

James’ spirit could not be con-tained — perhaps that’s whatmade her so magnetic in music;it is surely what made her so dy-namic as one of R&B, blues androck ‘n’ roll’s underrated leg-ends.

“The bad girls ... had the lookthat I liked,” she wrote in her

1995 autobiography, “Rage to Sur-vive.” “I wanted to be rare, Iwanted to be noticed, I wanted tobe exotic as a Cotton Club chorusgirl, and I wanted to be obviousas the most flamboyant hookeron the street. I just wanted tobe.”

“Etta James was a pioneer.Her ever-changing sound has in-fluenced rock and roll, rhythmand blues, pop, soul and jazz art-ists, marking her place as one of

the most important female art-ists of our time,” said Rock andRoll Hall of Fame President andCEO Terry Stewart. “From JanisJoplin to Joss Stone, an incredi-ble number of performers owetheir debts to her. There is nomistaking the voice of EttaJames, and it will live forever.”

Despite the reputation she cul-tivated, she would always be re-membered best for “At Last.” Thejazz-inflected rendition wasn’t

the original, but it would becomethe most famous and the songthat would define her as a leg-endary singer. Over the decades,brides used it as their song downthe aisle and car companies tohawk their wares, and it filteredfrom one generation to the nextthrough its inclusion in movieslike “American Pie.” Perhapsmost famously, President Obamaand the first lady danced to aversion at his inauguration ball.

In this April 29, 2006, photo, Etta James performs during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. Jamesdied Friday at age 73. James had been suffering from dementia and kidney problems, and was battling leukemia.

Photo by Jeff Christensen | AP

R&B, blueslegend dies in

Calif. at 73By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY

AND ROBERT JABLONASSOCIATED PRESS

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

AUSTIN — I had the op-portunity to head toAustin and cover awomen’s college bas-

ketball game on Jan. 14 whenTexas hosted the No. 1 team inthe country, Baylor.

To cover the No. 1 in the na-tion was an invitation I could notpass up because I would also getto see the one of the most dom-inating players in the country,Britney Griner.

This is not the first time I’veseen Griner in action. A fewyears ago, I was fortunateenough to cover the NCAA Div. IWomen’s Final Four in San Anto-nio and hers’ was the name oneveryone’s lips.

Griner had an outstandinghigh school career and it wasBaylor that landed her — notTexas — as the Lady Longhornprogram has gone downhill for afew years.

I recalled Griner played out-standingly, but Baylor still losttheir semi-final game.

Two years later, Griner is lead-ing the Lady Bears to anothergreat season with a perfect 17-0record.

If you’re lucky enough to in-terview this young lady, you’dbetter bring a ladder, because shestands at 6-foot-8 and has a wingspan if 88 inches.

We are a few months out ofMarch Madness, but you can beassured that Griner will have herLady Bears in the mix of things.

I enjoyed watching Griner, butthe real beauty of the game wasthe coaching on the sidelinefrom Baylor coach Kim Mulkey. Iguess I am partial to the coachesbecause of my coaching back-ground, and I am always lookingat the way that they coach.

During my coaching days atUnited South High School, I wasvery much into learning moreabout basketball and wouldn’thesitate to write or call collegecoaches.

In 2005 Baylor won their firstand only national championship,and I decided to write coach Mul-key about basketball.

I was told that she would nev-er write back because she wastoo busy and does not have timefor high school coaches.

Lo and behold she wrote back.Not only did she write back, Iwas invited to attend the Baylorbasketball camp and have the op-portunity to sit down one-on-onewith coach Mulkey.

This was an opportunity of

See LEGENDS PAGE 2B

Meetinga pair of

hoopslegends

Teams will be put to the testduring the season as theymust learn how to reboundfrom a loss.

After enjoying a undefeateddistrict season, the LadyHawks suffered their first lossat the hands of La Feria twoweeks ago.

The question lingered inpeople’s mind, how will the

Lady Hawks rebound?Zapata answered that ques-

tion Tuesday night, they werenot going to allow another Dis-trict 32-3A game to slipthrough their hands.

Zapata, behind Shelby Bi-gler’s double-double, beat PortIsabel, 48-34, to start off the

second round on the rightnote.

Zapata (6-1, 16-5) stays insecond place behind La Feria,who is perfect in district play.

“The team was ready anddetermined to start the secondround,” said Zapata coach Hec-tor Garcia Jr. “Our goal is towork on our fundamentals andget back to our winningways.”

Bigler, who is on everyone’sradar, had to work hard and

scored 14 points to go alongwith her 14 rebounds.

She was double teamed andhad to find creative ways toput some points on the boardand was relentless on gettingrebounds.

“Shelby is our go-to girlwhen we have a chance, butnow all the teams are doubleteaming her, so most of herpoints are coming from her re-

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Hawks rebound

See GIRLS’ PAGE 2B

By CLARA SANDOVALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

KRISTINA DE LEON:Helped the LadyHawks return totheir winning ways.

ARLINGTON — Before theTexas Rangers committed morethan $107 million to get Japan’sbest pitcher, they spent morethan two years watching andgetting to know Yu Darvish.

“It wasn’t just sitting behindthe plate with a radar gun,”Texas general manager Jon Da-niels said.

Sure, that was part of the pro-cess of scouting Darvish. ButRangers scouts in the PacificRim who watched just about ev-ery one of his starts in recentseasons and other team officials

also spent time developing apersonal relationship with thepitcher and his family.

“They’ve probably seen about50 games the last two years,they were very thorough in howthey evaluated,” said Don Nom-ura, one of Darvish’s agents.“We knew they were very inter-ested in Yu, and I’m glad it wasthe Texas Rangers that won thebid.”

That familiarity with eachother should help the 25-year-old Darvish with the culturaltransition he faces playing inthe United States and the majorleagues.

Arn Tellem, the other agent,

said all the effort by the Rang-ers to build a personal connec-tion was “very significant” toDarvish, who agreed Wednes-day to a $56 million, six-yearcontract with the two-time de-fending American Leaguechampions.

The deal was finished at theend of a 30-day exclusive nego-tiating window for Texas thatbegan when its record$51,703,411 posting bid was ac-cepted last month by the Hok-kaido Nippon Ham Fighters,Darvish’s team in Japan’s Pacif-ic League.

Though negotiations wentdown to the final minutes be-

fore a deadline when Darvishwould have stayed in Japanwithout a deal, Daniels saidtalks were never contentious

since they knew each other sowell.

MLB

Extensive process inks Darvish

Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish will play for the Texas Rangers, who scouted him formore than two years and then needed nearly every minute of a 30-day negotiat-ing window before finalizing a $60 million, six-year contract Wednesday.

Photo by Koji Sasahara | AP

By STEPHEN HAWKINSASSOCIATED PRESS

See RANGERS PAGE 2B

Zapata did not have to go to far intheir search for a new golf coachafter David Saenz opted to stepdown from his coaching duties atthe end of last year.

A new era in Hawks athletics has takenflight in Zapata with the hiring of ClydeGuerra Jr. to take over the golf program.

Guerra is a familiar face to the Hawksathletic department as he served as thehead girl’s basketball coach for severalyears and helped the Lady Hawks enjoygreat success, claiming district and bi-dis-trict titles under his tenure.

Now Guerra takes his talents to a golfprogram that has seen a steady growth inthe past few years and eyes a district titlewith hard work and dedication.

Guerra heads both the boys and girls golfteams and is vying to build on the success.

“(I’m) really excited to take on this newchallenge. Our golfers have a great workethic,” Guerra said. “Our goal is always tobe District Champs.”

After all those weeks of practice to getthe team back in championship form, theHawks will be put to the test when theteam’s first swing of the season arrives atthe Nixon golf tournament in Laredo.

The Nixon golf invitational started Fri-day and finishes today at the Casa Blancagolf course in Laredo. Tee times are set for 8a.m. both days.

The top golfers heading into the seasonare senior Tony Gutierrez and sophomoreLeanna Saenz.

“We are just looking to improve on lastyears achievements,” Guerra said.

The boys and the girls teams return awealth of experience and are eyeing thatdistrict title.

On the boys’ side, the Hawks will be leadby a trio of seniors who bring a wealth of

HIGH SCHOOL GOLF

GOLF TAKES SWING

Zapata’s Tony Gutierrez tees off during the Mustang Invitational, Friday morning at Lake Casa Blanca, in La-redo.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

New coach, newseason for

Zapata HawksBy CLARA SANDOVAL

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See GOLF PAGE 2B

life time and I could notpass it up, so I headed toWaco.

Coach Mulkey was one ofthe rare down-to-earthcoaches who took the timeto talk to this little old highschool coach.

I utilized a lot of herplays and implemented asimilar coaching philoso-phy that helped my teammake the play-off for a fewyears.

Six weeks away from atime that I will be lost in

the glimmer of March Mad-ness, I know that Grinerand coach Mulkey willhave the Lady Bears in thenational championshipgame.

It was just nice to meettwo of college’s biggest bas-ketball icons and ranks upthere with many of the ath-letes I have met from thehigh school level to the pro-fessional level..

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

LEGENDS Continued from Page 1B

“It wasn’t like the clock started on Day1 and we were a brand new entity. Theywere open with us and talked with usand gave us access,” Daniels said. “Youhear about other negotiations whereyou’re completely shut off from the play-er or the family, and it wasn’t handledthat way.”

Darvish, whose only previous visit toTexas was two weeks ago, was expectedback Friday night to be formally intro-duced by his new team.

Darvish gets $5.5 million this year, $9.5million in 2013, $10 million in each of thefollowing three years and $11 million in2017.

The 2017 season would become a playeroption, with no buyout, if during the firstfive years Darvish either wins a CyYoung and finishes second throughfourth, or finishes second once and sec-ond through fourth twice.

He would earn an additional $800,000 ayear in each of the first five seasons if heis not on the disabled list. In any of thoseseasons in which he is on the disabledlist for more than 30 days, the $800,000would be reduced by $5,228.75 for eachday starting with day 31.

He would earn $50,000 if he’s voted ALRookie of the Year, $50,000 if he’s an All-Star, $100,000 for winning a Gold Glove,$100,000 for league championship seriesMVP and $150,000 if he’s World SeriesMVP. For AL MVP and Cy Young, hewould get $250,000 for winning, $200,000for finishing second, $150,000 for third,$100,000 for fourth and $50,000 for fifth.

Parts of the terms were first reportedby the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Texas appointed a director of PacificRim operations just more than four yearsago, and has since expanded to three full-time scouts and a couple of part-timerswho scout the area that includes Japan.

With the bigger presence there, theRangers got to see and bring back starterColby Lewis, a supplemental first-roundpick by Texas in 1999 who revived his ca-reer with two seasons in Japan. Right-handed reliever Yoshinori Tateyama, ateammate of Darvish’s with the Fighters,joined the Rangers last year.

“We’ve had more and more of ourAmerican professional scouts and someof our best evaluators go over there, justknowing that, not just with Yu, thatthere was going to be opportunity,” Da-

against him, his managers, coaches andpeople who knew him outside of base-ball.

“You heard the same thing time aftertime,” Daniels said. “This is a guy that’sreally committed to his craft, that wantsto be the best and wants to win on thebiggest stage.”

Texas President and Hall of Famepitcher Nolan Ryan, who has watchedfilm and first met the pitcher earlier thismonth, called Darvish a unique talentwho clearly has the potential to be a No.1 starter in the majors. But the Rangersaren’t yet putting that kind of expecta-tion on him even with their huge finan-cial investment.

“What you hope is that he comes tospring training and that he’s comfortableand that he fits into the routine, anddoesn’t put a lot of pressure on himself totry to prove that he’s worthy of the con-sideration that he got and also of the at-tention that is going to brought to him,”Ryan said. “If he comes in and doesn’tput a lot of pressure on himself, the tran-sition should go fairly well.”

Darvish doesn’t have to impress theRangers. They already know him.

niels said. They turned quite a bit of their atten-

tion the last couple of seasons towardDarvish, the 6-foot-5 right-hander who isa two-time Pacific League MVP. He had a93-38 record with a 1.99 ERA in 167games the past seven seasons in Japan,and pitched an average of 205 innings thepast five years.

“As it became more and more evident,whether it was this year or next year atsome point there was a chance Yu wouldget posted, we really ramped up our ef-forts,” said Daniels, one of 12 differentRangers officials or scouts who watchedDarvish pitch in Japan just last season.

“We knew the size of the investmentwas going to be big and we were going tohave to be really thorough in our pre-sentation to ownership and be convictedif this is what we decided to do,” he said.“Our guys really did their homework,and we feel really good about the pro-cess.”

So do Darvish’s agents, who said Texasis where the pitcher wanted to play inthe majors.

The Rangers talked to Darvish’s team-mates in Japan, players who competed

RANGERS Continued from Page 1B

experience; Gutierrez,Ricky Prado and VictorGarza.

“The seniors are a greatgroup of guys with greatleadership skills, they arealways offering to help theunderclassmen,” Guerrasaid.

Also making a splash in

his second year of varsitygolf is sophomore RodrigoSaldivar, and making hisdébut is freshman RamiroTorres.

On the girls’ side, famil-iar faces are rare on theLady Hawks golf team asjunior Anissa Garcia is theonly returning upperclass-

man.Just in their second year

of competition are sopho-more Krysta Lozano andJessenia Garza. The onlyrookie on the team is fresh-man Leann Hughes.

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

GOLF Continued from Page 1B

bounding,” Garcia Jr. said. Junior Kristina De Leon

scored ten points to goalong with eight reboundswhile Jackie Salinasscored nine points and ElaGonzalez finished thenight with seven points.

Zapata firmly believesin their defense, which hasbeen the cornerstone ofthe team, and Tuesdaynight the Lady Hawks un-leashed it on an unsus-pecting Port Isabel.

Zapata’s 1-3-1 half-court

defense forced Port Isabelinto turnovers.

The defensive unit ofJackie Salinas, RebeccaQuintanilla and Aly Gu-tierrez was in full force asit help the Lady Hawksopen the game with a 16-4first quarter lead.

The Lady Hawks neverrelinquished the lead andcontinued to press the La-dy Tarpons to extend theirlead into double digits.

Zapata enjoyed a 27-12halftime advantage thanks

to the defensive effort ofthe team.

Port Isabel was able tomake some halftime ad-justments and open thethird quarter with a 6-0run, capitalizing on Zapa-ta’s mental mistakes on de-fense.

“We were able to refocusas a team and, midwaythrough the third quarter,we started to find our-selves as a team,” GarciaJr. said.

The Lady Hawks re-

sponded to Garcia’s de-mands and Zapata wasable to push the lead backup to 36-22 at the end ofthe third quarter.

In the final period, Zapa-ta continued to press PortIsabel as they had thegame under control.

Zapata hosts PSJASouthwest on Tuesdaywith tip off set for 7:30p.m.

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

GIRLS’ Continued from Page 1B

MELBOURNE, Austra-lia — For the first time infour decades, there willbe no American man inthe fourth round of theAustralian Open. JohnMcEnroe thinks heknows why.

The seven-time GrandSlam champion, who isworking as a TV analystat Melbourne Park, sus-pects a lack of passion.

“You could certainlywonder whether our guysare as hungry as some ofthe others,” McEnroesaid on Fox after JohnIsner lost to 18th-seededFeliciano Lopez in thethird round Friday. “Itreally comes down to theindividual. If people haveheart or desire, that tome is more importantthan any shot.”

This is the first timeno U.S. player reached themen’s fourth round at theAustralian Open since1973 — when no Ameri-cans traveled to the tour-nament.

Isner, the last Ameri-can man left in the sin-gles draw, lost to Lopez6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-1.It was the 6-foot-9 Isner’ssecond straight five-setmatch after he knockedout David Nalbandian ina 4-hour, 41-minute thrill-er.

“It’s very ugly, to behonest, to have no one inthe round of 16,” Isnersaid. “We’ve got to try torectify that next time thebig tournaments rollaround.

“It’s very disappoint-ing. That’s not a good ef-fort from the Americansin this tournament. Iknew going in today Iwas the last one left and Iwanted to keep on going,but just didn’t happen.”

Instead, Lopez earneda fourth-round matchagainst Rafael Nadal,who won the 2009 Austra-lian Open and has 10 ma-jor titles to his credit.

The last Americanman to win the Austra-lian Open was AndreAgassi in 2003. No. U.S.man has won a majorsince Andy Roddick atthe 2003 U.S. Open.

“We’ve been spoiledwith the success we’vehad in the past,” McEn-roe said.

At least the Americansstill have Serena Wil-liams, the 13-time GrandSlam champion who is ona 16-match winningstreak at MelbournePark. She won titles in2009 and 2010 but missedlast year because of inju-ry. On Saturday night, thefive-time champion willplay Greta Arn of Hun-gary in the third round.

Before that, defendingchampion Novak Djokov-ic will take on NicolasMahut of France at RodLaver Arena.

When four Americanmen reached the fourthround of the U.S. Open inSeptember — only twomajors after no Ameri-cans reached the round of16 at the French Open —Roddick talked about a“healthy jealousy” con-tributing to the improve-ment. There hadn’t beenfour American men intothe fourth round at theU.S. Open since 1995.

It didn’t last long inMelbourne. Among thebest contenders, No. 8Mardy Fish lost to Ale-jandro Falla of Colombiain the second round be-fore Roddick hurt hisright hamstring had toretire from his second-round match with formerNo. 1 Lleyon Hewitt.

Ryan Harrison took

No. 4 Andy Murray tofour sets before losing;Ryan Sweeting lost to No.5 David Ferrer; and Do-nald Young lost to quali-fier Lukas Lacko.

“People expect us tocontend for GrandSlams,” McEnroe said. “Ithink there’s a lot of ten-nis fans, but to have anAmerican contending andwinning majors, thatwould make a big differ-ence.”

The pressure of beinglast man standing got toIsner on Friday when helapsed in the last set afterdominating the fourth-settiebreaker.

“It just got away fromme. I just wasn’t as sharpas I needed to be,” hesaid. “It just kind of spi-raled out of control there,and it just ... I couldn’tclimb out of the hole Idug.”

“I honestly felt like itwas more mental thananything,” he added.“Just like the wholematch I wasn’t really thatsharp.”

Now he has to considera Davis Cup series nextmonth against a Swissteam that could featureFederer and StanislasWawrinka.

“That’s not an idealdraw for a first round.But, yeah, it’s going to betough,” Isner said. “It’saway, and, you know,more than likely I thinkif Roger plays we’re prob-ably the underdogs.”

Djokovic started 2011on a 41-match winningstreak and finished itwith the No. 1 rankingand three of the four ma-jor titles. His two main ri-vals are already throughto the third round on theother side of the draw.

Nadal had a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2win over Lacko, the lastqualifier in the draw.

Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine makes a return to Australia’s Bernard Tomic during their thirdround match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Friday.

Photo by Andrew Brownbill | AP

No Americans leftin the land of Oz

By JOHN PYEASSOCIATED PRESS

Here’s the deal, football fans: NFL offi-cials are going to mess up. Calls will bemissed. Others will be made thatshouldn’t have been.

Even the league knows that — and itwants to make sure you remember, too.

“Certainly there have been some callswe wish had not caused so much atten-tion,” NFL Executive Vice President ofFootball Operations Ray Anderson said ina telephone interview Friday. “Whenthings are going 100 mph, at game speedand with game pressure, sometimes mis-takes are going to be made. When itcomes to officiating, fans apparently tendto be less forgiving.”

Thanks to a handful of eyebrow-raisingcalls in these playoffs, and NFL Commis-sioner Roger Goodell’s mention of a pro-posal to start hiring some game officialsas full-time employees, the men in black-and-white striped shirts are a topic of con-versation heading into the Ravens-Patri-ots and Giants-49ers conference cham-pionship games Sunday.

“We’re never completely satisfied. Wecertainly think we can do better, and arecertainly hoping all the crews remainingwill do better in the games upcoming,”Anderson said. “We want to make surethat the whole officiating body is per-forming at the highest level. We wouldprefer to have calls ... not take centerstage for the entire next week.”

Or longer.Mike Pereira was NFL vice president

of officiating from 2001-09, and nothingate at him more than the prospect of ablown call in the Big Game.

“That’s always a concern. The eyes ofthe world are upon you. The Super Bowlis clearly your most important game for alot of reasons, including how officiating isgoing to be perceived,” Pereira said. “Iwent through all those Super Bowlswhere, I mean, I sat in the operationsbooth and I was nervous as a cat, becauseyou know you’re in the spotlight, and youjust beg not to be a part of the discussionwhen the game is over.”

In the Giants’ 37-20 upset of the reign-ing champion Packers last weekend, therewere a couple of rulings that stood out: Aphantom blow-to-the-head penalty on NewYork defensive lineman Osi Umenyiora,and a “He fumbled the ball; no, wait, hedidn’t; upon further review, we’ll stickwith no fumble” call on a play involvingGreen Bay receiver Greg Jennings.

Both benefited the Packers and bothbaffled plenty of observers.

The Jennings call drew the most no-tice.

“I thought the officiating was really ona roll, and then it got to the game inGreen Bay. And that obviously painted a

different picture,” said Pereira, who ap-pears on Fox’s NFL telecasts. “You had alack of a replay reversal that 99 percent ofthe country, including me, thought wouldbe reversed.”

And yet, Giants coach Tom Coughlinsaid, “I doubt there will be any explana-tion at all” from the league.

Among other curious calls this postsea-son were the whistle that brought actionto a halt before the Lions got a chance toreturn a fumble in their 45-28 loss to theSaints, and a lateral by the Steelers mis-takenly thought to be an incomplete for-ward pass in their 29-23 overtime loss tothe Broncos.

The good news for the league is theoutcome of those games weren’t affected.But there have been other, more pivotal,officiating decisions in postseasons past.

One example: This week marks the10th anniversary of the “Tuck RuleGame,” when Patriots quarterback TomBrady appeared to fumble the football inthe last two minutes while trailing theOakland Raiders, who recovered. Eventu-ally, it was ruled an incomplete pass; NewEngland retained possession, tied thescore, and wound up winning in over-time.

One more: The last time the 49ers andGiants met in the playoffs, in January2003, San Francisco rallied to win 39-38.In the final 10 seconds, the Giants linedup for a go-ahead field-goal attempt. Butthere was a bad snap, and the holder triedto throw a pass downfield to guard RichSeubert, who had been announced as aneligible receiver. Before the ball arrived,Seubert was knocked down by a 49ersplayer, but another Giants lineman waspenalized for being downfield illegally,and the game ended. A day later, the NFL— Pereira, actually — apologized, sayingthe correct call would have been offset-ting penalties, allowing the Giants anoth-er kick.

“The reality is that things happen in 1/26th of a second in real time, and officialshave to make judgment calls real quick,”Pereira says now, “and you don’t get asecond chance. So there’s going to be in-consistency.”

Refs scrutinizedBy HOWARD FENDRICH

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thanks to a handful of attention-getting calls inthis year’s playoffs, the NFL’s officiating is a topicof conversation.

Photo by Chris Schneider | AP

2B THE ZAPATA TIMES Sports SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

DENNISTHE MENACE

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES | HERE’S HOW TO WORK IT:

JUDGE PARKER

REXMORGAN M.D.

FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE

HINTS | BY HELOISEDear Heloise: We live in

the country, so when myhusband and I go shopping,we stop at the thrift storeor dollar store and stock upon all kinds of GREETINGCARDS. When I have agrandkid who has a birth-day or some other event, Idon’t have to rush out andspend tons of money ongasoline for a greetingcard.

If this can be helpful toanyone, I’m delighted. —Jeanne C., Comptche, Calif.

Stocking up on greetingcards from a dollar storesaves you money andstress, because you will al-ways have a card handy. —Heloise

PET PALDear Readers: Mary P. in

Huntsville, Ala., sent in apicture of her miniatureMaltese, Diva Marie, sit-ting on an antique dresser.Mary says that Diva Mariegets mistaken for a toy dog!To see Diva Marie and ourother Pet Pals, visitwww.Heloise.com and clickon “Pets.” — Heloise

HEFTY HOUNDSDear Heloise: We are

“parents” to two smalldogs. Each weighed about 8pounds when we got themlast spring. Now theyweigh 11 pounds and 12pounds. My husband feedsthem treats all day longand from the table. Theynever touch their dog food.I can’t convince him thathe is killing them andalong the way ruining thejoints in their legs. I knowyou are an animal lover, soI hope you can help. — Bar-bara in Alabama

Barbara, yes, I’m an ani-mal lover! It is importantthat dogs eat foods formu-lated specifically for them,and not too much. Eatingtoo many treats (they arecalled treats for a reason!)can lead to obesity, as mostcommercial treats you buyare very high in calories!

“People food” is often

high in fat, which can leadto a number of health prob-lems (pancreatitis is one)and even death. The Amer-ican Society for the Preven-tion of Cruelty to Animals(www.aspca.org) has infor-mation on this “tubby” top-ic.

Please work with yourhusband to wean your dogsoff excess treats and tablescraps. Also look for a top-quality, gravy-type dogfood, which can make drydog food taste better.Switch to healthy treatslike small pieces of carrots,etc. Remember, your petcannot open the refrigera-tor door or order fast foodfor itself. You are respon-sible for what your peteats. Good luck, andthanks for writing! — He-loise

EASY CLEANDear Heloise: I read

your hints in the RapidCity (S.D.) Journal everyday. We live in a home with12-foot ceilings and wallsin the entry. I could neverdry-mop the ceilings andwall with my mop withoutusing a ladder, plus themop handle was alwayscoming unscrewed. Wehave several of the extenda-ble paint poles, and I decid-ed to try using one of themas a handle. Well, it workedlike a charm! I saved mon-ey by using what we had athome. — Dianne Kenny,Hot Springs, S.D.

Send a money-saving ortimesaving hint to Heloise,P.O. Box 795000, San Anto-nio, TX 78279-5000, or youcan fax it to 1-210-HELOISEor email it to Heloise(at)Heloise.com. I can’t answeryour letter personally butwill use the best hints re-ceived in my column.

“HELOISE

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

EAST RUTHERFORD,N.J. — Chris Snee took acouple of quick stabs athow much Eli Manninghas changed since the twocame into the NFL as roo-kies with the New York Gi-ants in 2004.

“He’s got some hair onhis chin now,” Snee dead-panned, before letting asmile spread across hisface. Then he pointed outthat Manning was older.

The two-time Pro Bowlguard finally gave up.

“Honestly, the guy hasbeen a cool customer eversince was a rookie in thesame huddle as me,” Sneesaid. “He is not fazed byany situation or rattled. Heis the best prepared as anyguy I have ever beenaround.”

Unflappable Eli. EliteEli. Take your pick.

There’s also: Super Eli— maybe for a second time.

Manning and the Giants(11-7) take on the San Fran-cisco 49ers (14-3) in theNFC title game on Sundaywith the winner advancingto Indianapolis for a SuperBowl showdown against ei-ther the Patriots or Ravens.

Whatever happens, Man-ning isn’t going to change.That’s what teammateslove about the quarterbackwho comes from a familyof quarterbacks.

There is no ego. Just adesire to work hard andwin. Nothing upsets the 30-year-old.

“I don’t think you aresupposed to change,” Man-ning said Friday. “I thinkthe reason I had successwhether in high school orin college and some suc-cess here in the NFL, is be-cause you don’t changeyour personality. You don’tchange whether you arehaving success or toughtimes. You try to work hardand stay confident and sup-port your teammates and

be a good teammate, andplay the game the way itshould be played.”

Manning, who threw fora career-best 4,933 yardsand 29 touchdowns thisseason, is a creature ofhabit. He shows up everymorning at the Giants’headquarters around 7a.m., wears the sameclothes at most practicesand leaves nine hours laterafter taking almost everysnap in practices.

He’s a prankster, too. Heloves to take teammates’phones and change the lan-guage to anything otherthan English.

“He has gotten me plen-ty of times,” long snapperZak DeOssie said. “I don’teven remember the lastlanguage. He just switchesit. It took me an hour tofigure it out.”

When it comes time towork, Manning doesn’t foolaround. He comes in Tues-days — his day off — tobreak down the film on the

upcoming opponents, whilefamiliarizing himself withthe game plan. On Fridays,he holds a meeting withhis receivers and showsclips of what they shouldexpect on game days.

“He understands basedon coverage where wewould like the ball to go,”offensive coordinator Ke-vin Gilbride said. “He’s notgoing to be overwhelmedby what’s going on. He’sbeen through it enoughtimes. We’ve had enoughsuccess with it that heplays very confidently. Idon’t think the situationoverwhelms him and Ithink he has a very pro-found understanding ofwhat we’re trying to do of-fensively.”

Manning also knowssometimes things gowrong, which is what hap-pened to an unproven re-ceiver named Victor Cruzon the Giants’ third playfrom scrimmage this sea-son.

The New York Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning (10) could be the dif-ference between victory and defeat when his team faces the SanFrancisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game, Sunday, in SanFrancisco.

Photo by Kathy Willens | AP

Eli the Elite lead GiantsBy TOM CANAVANASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With arecord-setting day and the winningtouchdown in his playoff debut,Vernon Davis left no doubt he is in-deed a winner.

A weeping Davis fell into thearms of coach Jim Harbaugh, whorepeated over and over: “You did it!You did it! You did it!”

It’s been more than three yearssince the young, volatile tight endgot booted from the sideline andsent to the locker room early byMike Singletary. Davis then becamethe focus of the coach’s now infa-mous “I want winners” rant follow-ing a 34-13 loss to Seattle.

“I was looking at him like he’scrazy,” Davis recalled this week.“How could you send your first-round draft pick to the lockerroom? I understood, I understoodthe reason why, because I was hurt-ing the team. Penalties and missedassignments, things like that. It willkill the team.”

These days, Davis is playing for anew coach, and playing for a SuperBowl berth. The 49ers (14-3) havehim — and quarterback AlexSmith, of course — to thank for get-ting them to Sunday’s NFC cham-pionship game against the NewYork Giants (11-7) at Candlestick

Park.“He’s a different man,” running

back Frank Gore said. “He grewup.”

Davis capped his spectacular af-ternoon last Saturday with a leap-ing 14-yard touchdown catch underpressure with 9 seconds remainingas San Francisco stunned DrewBrees and the favored New OrleansSaints 36-32.

“Little Duke,” as he was knowngrowing up — his Dad, Vernon, was“Big Duke” — had done it on theNFL’s big stage at last. Davis woundup with seven catches for 180 yards— the most yards receiving by atight end in a playoff game.

As Davis cried on the bench inan emotion-filled moment after-ward, teammate Michael Crabtreeapproached with a one-word com-pliment: “Superman! Superman!”

This is the same player who notso long ago was known for scufflingin practice and trash-talking oppo-nents at every chance. Defenderswould purposely try to bait him.

“He’s so much better about notgetting kind of emotionally hi-jacked,” Smith said Friday.

Before the start of the 2010 sea-son, Davis let Crabtree have it infront of the entire team.

He angrily confronted the 200910th overall draft pick during apractice and Singletary had to step

between them before the three ofthem headed to the locker room tochat. Davis said later he was doinghis job as a team captain — a titleSingletary gave him after watchingthe tight end grow up before hiseyes.

Davis, who turns 28 on Jan. 31,didn’t always agree with the coach.

After that Seahawks game in Oc-tober 2008, Singletary fumed: “Iwould rather play with 10 peopleand just get penalized all the wayuntil we have to do something elserather than play with 11 when Iknow that right now that person isnot sold out to be a part of thisteam. It is more about them than itis about the team. Cannot play withthem, cannot win with them, can-not coach with them. Can’t do it. Iwant winners. I want people thatwant to win.”

Davis looks back on that momentnow with appreciation and realizesits importance in where he is today.He grew from that experience,changed his attitude, — and he ap-preciates Singletary for calling himout. Davis insists that’s what it tookfor him to get back on track.

“He was here at the right time,”Davis said. “The timing was per-fect, couldn’t have been better. I amvery grateful that he was able to behere and help me make that transi-tion.”

The San Francisco 49ers’ tight end Vernon Davis (85) runs past the New Orleans Saints’ strong safety Roman Harper (41) in their NFLdivisional playoff game Saturday in San Francisco.

Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP

Niners work for rebirthBy JANIE MCCAULEYASSOCIATED PRESS

OWINGS MILLS, Md. —Ray Rice has played ineight postseason games,none more memorablethan the one in which heran for 159 yards to helpthe Baltimore Ravens beatthe New England Patriots.

About the only thingthat could possibly top thatwould be playing in the Su-per Bowl, a quest Rice justmight realize if he can runwild again in Sunday’sAFC championship gameagainst those same Patri-ots.

Now in his fourth sea-son, Rice has emerged asBaltimore’s main offensivethreat. The 5-foot-8 runningback stepped into that rolein his second year, when heenjoyed the first of threestraight seasons with morethan 1,000 yards rushing.

Rice put together a mas-terful performance againstthe Patriots in the 2009postseason, beginning withan 83-yard run on the firstplay from scrimmage thatset the tone for what wouldbe a 33-14 rout.

“If you want to ask me ifthat was my fondest mo-ment in my NFL career,yes it was,” Rice said thisweek. “When you can dosomething that special in aplayoff game in anotherteam’s stadium, that washuge. And that’s somethingthat I’ll cherish for the restof my life.”

Rice has finished each ofhis four seasons with anappearance in the playoffs.This is the second timeBaltimore (13-4) has ad-vanced to the AFC titlegame.

“I’m not going to say it’sbeen easy. It’s been veryhard every year,” he said.“For me, I’ve been spoiled.I’ve been in the playoffsand played in every singlegame but one, and that’s

the Super Bowl.” Rice is a key figure in

Baltimore’s bid to makethis trip different than therest. He is the only playerin the NFL this season toamass more than 2,000yards in offense, combining1,364 yards on the groundwith a team-leading 76catches for 704 yards.

It doesn’t matter thatNew England (14-3) ownsthe 31st-ranked pass de-fense in the league. Balti-more’s best chance to winis if Rice can be successfulrunning the ball, whichwill make it easier forquarterback Joe Flacco topass and, even more impor-tantly, keep New England’sprolific offense on the side-line.

“Anybody will tell you,when you can keep aquick-striking offense offthe field it limits thegame,” Rice said. “But withthat being said, I think wehave a great balance onthis team. I think when werun it effectively, it sets upthe pass. When we pass iteffectively, it sets up therun. So, in order to keep(Patriots quarterback) TomBrady off the field, I’m justgoing to say we have tosimply execute at a highlevel.”

The Ravens have longbeen successful by usingthe old-fashioned approachof combining a strong de-fense with a solid runninggame. Eighteen games intothe season, there’s no rea-son to change now.

Operating in the ruggedAFC North, Baltimore hasa roster designed to com-pete in physical show-downs with Pittsburgh,Cincinnati and Cleveland.That means running theball early and often.

Reliable Ricebig part of

Ravens’ planBy DAVID GINSBURG

ASSOCIATED PRESS

RAY RICE: Will beasked to carry theload against NewEngland, Sunday.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — BillO’Brien wore a cap with a Patri-ots logo as he prepared his play-ers for Sunday’s AFC champion-ship game.

New England’s offensive coor-dinator would like to keep wear-ing it for a couple of weeks —through the Super Bowl — beforeswitching to a Penn State hat inhis next job as head coach of theNittany Lions.

For now, he’s preparing his of-fense to face the dominant de-fense of the Baltimore Ravens.

“We’re definitely all focused onthe game with Baltimore andthat’s what our team is preparingfor,” coach Bill Belichick saidThursday. “He’s done what we’ve

asked him to do last week andthis week and, hopefully, we’ll beable to play well on Sunday.”

On Jan. 8, shortly after theDenver Broncos beat the Pitts-burgh Steelers 29-23 in overtimeto advance to the divisional gamein Foxborough, the Patriots an-nounced they had hired JoshMcDaniels as an offensive assist-ant.

He was the Patriots’ offensivecoordinator from 2006-08, servedas Denver’s coach in 2009 andpart of 2010, and was offensive co-ordinator of the St. Louis Ramsthis season.

“Josh has integrated verysmoothly into everything that wedo because he knows most every-body here,” quarterback TomBrady said. “He knows the of-fense. His input is greatly appre-

ciated, whether it’s tips for me ortips for other players. He seessome things and is very helpful.It’s been good.”

On Thursday, O’Brien talkedwith Brady and other players atpractice while members of hisnew staff focused on recruiting.Seven of his Penn State assistantsare on the road at one time andhe makes recruiting calls him-self.

National signing day is Feb. 1,four days before the Super Bowl.

“We’re certainly making thebest of it we possibly can,” offen-sive line coach Mac McWortersaid Thursday in a telephone in-terview. “You certainly have tocommend coach O’Brien for fin-ishing his obligations to NewEngland. That says a lot aboutthe way he does things.”

On Jan. 6, Penn State an-nounced it was hiring O’Brien toreplace Joe Paterno, who wasfired Nov. 9 after child sex abusecharges were filed against retiredassistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

O’Brien spent the next twodays, the weekend of the Patriotsbye week, in Happy Valley. ThatSaturday, he was formally intro-duced at a news conference oncampus. On Sunday, he received astanding ovation after being in-troduced at a basketball gameand later met with his new play-ers.

Then it was back to Foxbor-ough to prepare for Denver lastSaturday night. The Patriots won45-10, the most points they’vescored in their 20 postseasongames in Belichick’s 12 years ascoach.

The New England Patriots’ offensivecoordinator Bill O’Brien, center, will at-tempt to mastermind one last SuperBowl run before leaving to coach PennState University.

Photo by Steven Senne | AP

Patriots hope for O’Brien parting giftBy HOWARD ULMANASSOCIATED PRESS

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES NFL SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012