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Zapata County Independent School Dis-trict took action at a special called meet-ing Thursday, announcing the termina-tion of 54 probationary contract teachersand the nonrenewal of six pre-K-3 pro-gram teachers.

The layoffs will be made effective at theend of the 2010-2011 school year and comeafter a declaration of a reduction-in-forceannouncement and days before an April13 contract renewal deadline.

“The probationary staff, according to(the) legal (department), is the less prob-lematic to terminate,” said Superintend-ent Norma Garcia. “But our intent is to

bring the vast majority, if not all, back de-pending on the severity of the cuts. If theyend up being minor, the (school) boardsays we want them all back.”

SavingsBetween $2.6 million and $11 million in

state education funds may be on the chop-ping block for the district, which is al-ready finding ways to pinch pennies.

While the district is waiting on finalnumbers, however, legal consultants havedetermined it’s safe to say they have toeliminate $5 million to $6 million from

ZAPATA COUNTY CISD

60 facing budget axeTrustees seek ways of offset effects of possible $11M cut from the state

By DENISE BLAZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

See SCHOOLS PAGE 10A

ABOVE: A Zapata County sheriff’s deputy moniters the school zone Friday afternoon at North Zapata Early Childhood Center. BOTTOM LEFT:A pick-up truck passes by one of the new signs prohibiting cell phone use in school zones along Highway 16. BOTTOM RIGHT: Several driv-ers were seen in school zones using cell phones Friday afternoon.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

STAY OFF THE PHONE

The third Saturday ofevery month, Jarvis Plazain downtown Laredo isfilled with the fragrantaroma of fruit and herbsand the vibrant colors offresh, in-season vegeta-bles — all native to theSouth Texas region — be-cause of the El Centro deLaredo Farmer’s Market.

This month, the Farm-er’s Market will take

place on Saturday, April16, from 9 a.m. to noon,and El Centro de Laredoalready has a number oflocal producers and arti-sans lined up for the date.The open-air market willhave its familiar facesstanding behind booths,but “this month, we willhave some new producevendors,” said AlliHrncir, market managerfor the farmer’s

LAREDO

Market keepsthings fresh

By ERICA MATOSTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See MARKET PAGE 10A

Zapata County com-missioners on Mondaywill consider postponinglegal action against thecounty’s Economic De-velopment Center inlight of a recent settle-ment offer.

Commissionersclaimed that the centerhad been unlawfullywithholding $315,000 inreimbursed grant moneyowed to the county forthe construction of theAdvanced EducationCenter.

Juan Cruz, of Escamil-la, Poneck and Cruz, a

law firm contracted byZapata County, had senta letter to George Alt-gelt, the center’s attor-ney, saying that if thecenter did not send themoney to the county,commissioners wouldauthorize his law firm topursue civil and crimi-nal charges.

Altgelt, meanwhile,had said that the countymust comply with thegrant to get the moneyback, citing missing pa-perwork and an allegedlymismanaged project. Hesaid Friday that the cen-ter has since confirmedthat the county compliedwith the terms of thegrant and is entitled toreceive the $315,000.

COMMISSIONERS

Settlementmay haltlawsuit

County eyed suitfor $315,000

By NICK GEORGIOU THE ZAPATA TIMES

See COUNTY PAGE 9A

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011

SATURDAY, APRIL 9The 61st annual Flower and Art

Show, sponsored by the United Metho-dist Women of the First United Metho-dist Church, is from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.today and Sunday in the FUMC Fellow-ship Hall, 1220 McClelland Ave. Thepublic is welcome. Admission is $3.

Lake Casa Blanca InternationalState Park is hosting a two-day pro-gram today and Sunday for families.During the overnight Texas OutdoorFamily program, families will learn howto pitch a tent, cook outdoors andmore. The workshop costs $65 perfamily (up to six people) and includesall of the necessary equipment. Thelimit is 16 families. Food and beddingare not provided. To register, call (512)389-8903 Monday through Friday, 9a.m. to 6 p.m., or emailtofsp@tpwd.state.tx.us. After registra-tion, a confirmation packet with direc-tions and details will be sent. For moreinformation, visit www.tpwd.state.tx.us/learning/bof.

The St. Mary’s University AlumniAssociation Laredo Chapter is lookingfor volunteers to help staff its sodabooth at this year’s Fiesta Oysterbakefrom 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, April9. Alumni, family and friends of St.Mary’s are encouraged to participate inthis fundraiser, which helps providethousands of dollars in scholarships forLaredo students heading to St. Mary’s.Anyone who would like more informa-tion on volunteering can call XochitlMora Garcia at 337-3639.

Veterans Helping Veterans willmeet in the Laredo Public Library, 1120E. Calton Road, from noon to 2:30p.m. today and April 30, May 7 and 21,and June 4 and 18. Meetings are confi-dential and for military veterans only.For more information, contact GeorgeMendez at 794-3057 or georgem@bor-derregion.org or Jessica Morales at794-3091 or jessicam@borderre-gion.org.

SUNDAY, APRIL 10The 61st annual Flower and Art

Show, sponsored by the United Metho-dist Women of the First United Metho-dist Church, continues today from 1p.m. to 6 p.m. in the FUMC FellowshipHall, 1220 McClelland Ave. The publicis welcome. Admission is $3.

Voz de Niños invites you to their3rd Annual Family Field Day at the IBCLago del Rio from 1-5 p.m. Please joinus for this all-inclusive event and anafternoon of arts & crafts, field games,face painting, great food, and enter-tainment. Proceeds will support ongo-ing efforts to advocate the best inter-ests of abused and neglected childrenin Webb County. $20 general admis-sion.

SCAN Inc. will host its annualChildren’s Play Day for the communityfrom 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. today at the La-redo Civic Center grounds and ball-room. It’s a day to come out with yourfamily and enjoy a day of games,prizes, music, food, drinks and fun.There will be moonwalks and a rockwall. Admission is free. This is a drug-free event.

TUESDAY, APRIL 12The Epoca de Oro Social Club

will have its Spring Dance from 9 p.m.to 1 a.m. today at the Laredo CivicCenter Ballroom, 800 Garden St. Livemusic will be by Noe Esparza and theDells. Tickets are $15 presale or $20at the door.

THURSDAY, APRIL 21Former Texas A&M University stu-

dents will assemble in Laredo at 6p.m. today for the annual Texas AggieMuster to honor Texas Aggies whohave passed away in the last year.Muster activities will begin at 6 p.m. atthe Dolores Ranch in Laredo. Currentand former students, their families andfriends of Texas A&M University are in-vited.

SATURDAY, APRIL 30The March of Dimes’ 2011 March

for Babies is today from 8 a.m. tonoon at Texas A&M International Uni-versity. To register your family team,visit http://www.marchforbabies.org/.For more information, contact LuisGarcia, division director, at 1-800-580-3256 or LGarcia@marchofdimes.com.

SATURDAY, MAY 7A book sale will be held in the

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

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, April 9,the 99th day of 2011. There are266 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On April 9, 1939, singerMarian Anderson performed aconcert at the Lincoln Memo-rial in Washington after beingdenied the use of ConstitutionHall by the Daughters of theAmerican Revolution.

On this date: In 1511, St. John’s College at

the University of Cambridgewas established by charter.

In 1682, French explorerRobert de La Salle claimed theMississippi River Basin forFrance.

In 1865, Confederate Gen.Robert E. Lee surrendered hisarmy to Union Gen. Ulysses S.Grant at Appomattox CourtHouse in Virginia.

In 1940, during World WarII, Germany invaded Denmarkand Norway.

In 1942, American and Phi-lippine defenders on Bataancapitulated to Japanese forces;the surrender was followed bythe notorious Bataan DeathMarch which claimed thou-sands of lives.

In 1947, a series of torna-does in Texas, Oklahoma andKansas claimed 181 lives.

In 1959, NASA presented itsfirst seven astronauts: ScottCarpenter, Gordon Cooper,John Glenn, Gus Grissom,Wally Schirra, Alan Shepardand Donald Slayton. ArchitectFrank Lloyd Wright, 91, diedin Phoenix, Ariz.

In 1965, the newly built As-trodome in Houston featuredits first baseball game, an ex-hibition between the Astrosand the New York Yankees.(The Astros won, 2-1, in 12 in-nings.)

In 1983, the space shuttleChallenger ended its first mis-sion with a safe landing at Ed-wards Air Force Base in Cali-fornia.

In 1996, in a dramatic shiftof purse-string power, Presi-dent Bill Clinton signed a line-item veto bill into law. (Howev-er, the U.S. Supreme Courtstruck down the veto in 1998.)

Ten years ago: PresidentGeorge W. Bush sent Congressdetails of his $1.96 trillion bud-get for fiscal 2002, in which hetargeted scores of federal pro-grams to make room for histen year, $1.6 trillion tax cut.American Airlines’ parentcompany acquired bankruptTrans World Airlines. BaseballHall-of-Famer Willie Stargelldied in Wilmington, N.C., atage 61.

Today’s Birthdays: Play-boy magazine founder HughHefner is 85. Naturalist JimFowler is 79. Actor Jean-PaulBelmondo is 78. Actress Mi-chael Learned is 72. ActorDennis Quaid is 57. ActressCynthia Nixon is 45. Rock mu-sician Albert Hammond Jr.(The Strokes) is 31. ActorCharlie Hunnam is 31. ActorRyan Northcott is 31. ActorJay Baruchel is 29. ActressLeighton Meester is 25. Actor-singer Jesse McCartney is 24.Rhythm-and-blues singer Jaz-mine Sullivan is 24. ActressKristen Stewart is 21. ActressElle Fanning is 13. Classicalcrossover singer Jackie Evan-cho (ee-VAYN’-koh) (TV:“America’s Got Talent”) is 11.

Thought for Today: “I al-ways felt that the great highprivilege, relief and comfort offriendship was that one had toexplain nothing.” — KatherineMansfield, New Zealande au-thor (1888-1923).

TODAY IN HISTORY

EL PASO — An elderly Cuban former CIAoperative accused of lying during a U.S. im-migration hearing was acquitted on allcharges Friday after 13 weeks of often-de-layed testimony.

Luis Posada Carriles, 83, broke out in ahuge grin when the verdict was read andhugged all three of his attorneys simultane-ously. One of the attorneys broke down intears.

Across the aisle, the federal prosecutorswho painstakingly built their case duringthe first 11 weeks by calling 23 witnesses, satstill.

“Anytime a jury has a case, there’s no tell-ing what they might do. But we respect thejury’s decision,” Assistant U.S. AttorneyTimothy Reardon said after the hearing.

Posada, who spent decades working to des-tabilize communist Latin American govern-ments, often with Washington’s backing, isPublic Enemy No. 1 in his homeland and isconsidered ex-President Fidel Castro’s neme-sis.

Prosecutors said Posada lied to immigra-tion officials about how he sneaked into theU.S. in 2005 and by denying he mastermind-ed a series of hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997that killed an Italian tourist and wounded 12other people.

Posada said in a 1998 interview with TheNew York Times that he planned the attacks,but later recanted that.

The defense, which called just eight wit-nesses over eight days, maintained Posadashould have been allowed to retire a hero inMiami for his service to the country duringthe darkest days of the cold war.

AROUND TEXAS

In this April 7 photo, Luis Posada Carriles gets into a car in front of the Camino Real hotel in downtown EL Paso. A Texas juryhas found the elderly ex-CIA agent from Cuba not guilty of 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud.

Photo by Juan Carlos Llorca | AP

Ex-CIA agent acquittedBy WILL WEISSERTASSOCIATED PRESS

West Texas wildfire burns50,000 acres

ASPERMONT — More re-sources have been dispatched tobattle a fast-moving West Texaswildfire that has scorched morethan 50,000 acres.

The Texas Forest Service saysthat the sprawling fire north ofAspermont, located betweenLubbock and Abilene, was notcontained Friday. It was beingfought by land and air.

Airline executives saythey still support Boeing

DALLAS — The CEOs ofSouthwest Airlines and Ameri-can Airlines say they still haveconfidence in Boeing.

The airline executives saidFriday the hole that ripped openon a 737 operated by Southwestlast week won’t stop them frombuying more Boeing planes.

Southwest CEO Gary Kellysaid that Boeing pitched in tohelp plan inspections and re-pairs of its older planes.

Dallas electric car driverscan get juiced faster

ARLINGTON — Electric cardrivers who live in the Dallas ar-ea can get juiced much fasternow.

NRG Energy on Friday un-veiled its new fast-charging sta-tion that can add 30 miles ofrange to an electric car in as fewas 10 minutes.

Texas author pens tales ofPanhandle heritage

DUMAS — Louise CarrollGeorge is in the story business.

Specifically, George retells thetales of the region’s past; the peo-ple and places of a different era,one that shaped so much of theTexas Panhandle.

“Our heritage is so interest-ing,” the longtime Dumas resi-dent said. “I want the stories tolive on.”

George’s latest book, “SomeReal Good Old Boys,” spotlightsthe lives of 11 men ages 84 to 95from the Texas Panhandle.

State health officials sayhorse had rabies

AUSTIN — State health offi-cials say people who attendedhorse shows in Belton and Luf-kin last month may have beenexposed to a horse that testedpositive for rabies.

The horse died April 4 andtested positive for rabies April 6.

Committee approvescontrols on pet breeders

AUSTIN — A Texas Housecommittee has approved a billthat would require commercialcat and dog breeders to registerwith the state and apply for li-censes.

The proposed law is designedto crack down on so-called puppymills that breed animals in pooror unsafe conditions. Texas cur-rently does not regulate dog andcat breeders.

Rep. Thompson’s bill will nowgo before the full House for avote.

— Compiled from AP reports

NYSE gets a facelift; itsfuture unknown

NEW YORK — What do youdo when a cathedral of capital-ism becomes antiquated? Youturn it into New York’s best par-ty space.

The New York Stock Exchangehas lost most of its famous bustlein the age of computerized trad-ing. So it’s hoping its status asan icon of American finance willbe a popular draw for cocktail re-ceptions, analyst presentationsand other festivities.

The exchange already availa-ble for some events. It wants toexpand to 1,000 a year, double thenumber from three years ago.

Ex-NFL player gets $1Mbond in theft case

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bondhas been set at over $1 million ina theft case against a formerOhio State and NFL playerwhose career was derailed by a

gambling addiction.Attorney Sam Shamansky

says Art Schlichter had hoped tobe released from jail to get treat-ment for the addiction. Schlich-ter was charged in Februarywith stealing more than $1 mil-lion from a Columbus-area wom-

an by deceiving her about whyhe took the money.

If Schlichter posts bond, hemust remain on house arrest athis mother’s home in Washing-ton Court House in southwestOhio.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

This artist’s rendering provided by the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesdayshows the proposed renovation of the posts on the NYSE trading floor.

Photo by Richard Drew | AP

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

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SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011 Zlocal PAGE 3A

ASSAULTJose Luis Gonzalez was arrested and charged

with assault at about 10:45 a.m. April 1 in the5300 block of Pharr Lane in the Siesta Shores sub-division. He was taken to the Zapata Regional Jail.

Gilberto Sanchez was arrested and chargedwith assault causing family violence at about 9:45a.m. April 3 in the 1500 block of Bravo Avenue. Hewas taken to the Zapata Regional Jail.

BURGLARYA burglary of a vehicle was reported at 8:32

a.m. April 2 in the 1600 block of Zapata Avenue.An incident report states someone stole a blackand gray Jensen DVD-CD player from inside agreen Silverado 1500.

A burglary of a vehicle was reported at 12:42p.m. April 3 in the 1400 block of Falcon Avenue.The case remains open.

Deputies went out to a burglary in progresscall at 11:02 p.m. April 3 in the intersection of 16thand Zapata Boulevard. Investigators are looking intothe case.

A burglary of a vehicle was reported at 6:48p.m. April 4 in the 1000 block of Diaz Avenue,where the complainant told deputies that someonestole a car stereo.

Deputies responded to a burglary call at 11:15a.m. April 5 in the 1800 block of Del Mar Street.The complainant told officials that someone brokeinto her gold Honda CR-V and stole her purse andlegal documents.

A burglary of a habitation was reported at6:59 p.m. April 5 in the 2800 block of Las CruzesDrive.

Deputies responded to a burglary of a habita-

tion call at 11:42 p.m. April 5 in the 1500 block ofBravo Avenue. The complainant told officers thatsomeone stole an Xbox 360 from inside the resi-dence.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEFDeputies responded to a criminal mischief call

at 5:42 p.m. April 2 in the 2500 block of HidalgoBoulevard. A man told deputies that someone in atruck backed up and damaged his fence.

DEADLY CONDUCTDeputies responded to a shots fired call at

3:09 a.m. April 3 in the 100 block of GuerreroStreet. Deputies arrested Jaime Alonzo Zepeda andcharged him with deadly conduct/discharge of afirearm. Zepeda told deputies he had shot in theair. A Marlin Model 336 30-30 Winchester was re-covered from the scene. He was taken to ZapataRegional Jail.

POSSESSIONDeputies responded to a reported drunk driv-

er at about 2 a.m. April 2 in the vicinity of OsoBlanco Lane and U.S. 83. Joel Flores was arrestedafter a motor vehicle stop and charged with publicintoxication and possession of a controlled sub-stance. He was taken to Zapata Regional Jail.

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONTimoteo Delgado was arrested and charged

with public intoxication at about 3:15 p.m. April 5at a convenience store parking lot in the 100 blockof U.S. 83. The man was taken to the Zapata Re-gional Jail.

THE BLOTTER

The Zapata CountyChamber of Commerce isin the first phase of orga-nizing and planning theKids Fishing Tournamentfor this summer, and ishosting a contest for stu-dents to choose this year’sevent name and picture.

A name and picture con-test has started at all Zapa-ta County elementaryschools: AL Benavides, Fi-del & Andrea Villarreal, Za-pata North and Zapata

South. Students in firstthrough fifth grades are en-couraged to participate inthe contest. All elementaryschools will have first-, sec-ond- and third-placeawards.

The date for judging thecontest will be announcedat a later time. The judgesfor the contest will be Zapa-ta County Judge Joe Rath-mell and Laredo artist Pan-cho Farias. The chamber isseeking two more judges.

The first-place awardsand the overall winner will

be sponsored by Farias.The overall winner of thename and picture contestwill become the officialname and picture of theevent. T-Shirts and buttonswill be printed with theevent name and picture.The fishing tournamentwill be held Saturday, July23. The location will be an-nounced later. The cham-ber has already contacted anumber of local businessesto sponsor and support thesignature event of the Zapa-ta County Chamber of

Commerce. Farmers Insurance

Group and Dr. Ike’s HomeCenter have come forwardto participate in this event.Organizers encourage allother local businesses, or-ganizations, and individu-als to participate, sponsor-ing and supporting thetournament so childrencan have an enjoyable andmemorable fishing day.

For more information,contact the Zapata CountyChamber of Commerce at956-765-4871.

Kids fish tourney seeking helpSPECIAL TO THE TIMES

TEACHER, AIDE OF THE YEAR

Courtesy photo

Fidel & Andrea R. Villarreal Elementary announces William Lane as Teacher of the Year and Mary Jacobson as Instructional Assistant of theyear in recognition of their hard work and dedication to the students of Villarreal Elemenatry.

www.lmtonline.comunder entertainment,

click ¿Qué Pasa? Online.

Read online.

Texas A&M Internation-al University will remem-ber departed alums, com-rades and students at thefirst “Celebration of Life”observation Wednesday at6:30 p.m. at the Center forthe Fine and PerformingArts Recital Hall.

TAMIU director of alum-ni relations Yelitza How-ard said the occasion af-fords the university achance to pause and reflecton those who have sharedtheir lives with the univer-sity over the past 40-plusyears.

“We’ve developed thisevent to become an obser-vation where we can cometogether as a universitycommunity and communi-ty at large to remember

those who are no longerwith us, to celebrate theirlives and to move forwardtogether,” Howard noted.

As this is the first yearof the event, the universityis encouraging all thosewho have lost a member oftheir family affiliated withthe university since 1970 asa student or graduate orfaculty or staff member atthe time of their death tobe a part of the event.

The Celebration of Lifeobservance will begin at6:30 p.m. in the Recital Hallwith a visual presentationof those who have passedon. Provost Pablo Arenazwill welcome visitors andguest artist organist Mado-lyn Fallis of San Antoniowill join the TAMIU Choirfor special selections.

After an invocation, a

series of special readingswill be offered by TAMIUalumni and students andPresident Ray Keck will of-fer reflections. The Memo-rial Bells of First UnitedMethodist Church will per-form. A roll call of thosebeing remembered will fol-low with bells tolling foreach name called. Closingremarks will follow by vicepresident for Student Suc-cess Minita Ramírez andthe TAMIU choir will per-form the Alma Mater.

A candle-lit processionled by the Border PatrolHonor Guard Bagpiperswill follow to the LamarBruni Vergara MemorialGarden where a wreathwill be placed. A conclud-ing reception will be heldfor family and friends inthe Student Center patio.

‘Celebration of Life’ set for Wed.SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011

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

There’s a crisis inU.S. policy in theMiddle East — and

it’s not about Libya. Forweeks the Obama admin-istration has been preoc-cupied with averting a hu-manitarian catastrophe inNorth Africa. But on theother side of the region, inthe oil-rich Arabian Pen-insula, a matter of vital,strategic importanceawaits the urgent atten-tion of policymakers.

Over there, the ailing87-year-old king of SaudiArabia probably isn’t get-ting much sleep. Abdul-lah, this Sunni monarchof monarchs, custodian ofthe holy mosques of Mec-ca and Medina, can seethe flames of instabilityand turmoil licking at allhis borders. In the south,Yemen is imploding, tothe advantage of his al-Qaida enemies. In theeast, Bahrain’s Shiite ma-jority has been in such astate of revolt that Abdul-lah has already sentarmed forces to preventIran from establishing a“cat’s paw” on the SunniArab side of the PersianGulf. In the north, Abdul-lah sees Iraq’s Shiite-dom-inated government asnothing more than a frontfor the hated Persians. Inthe west, a Palestinianmajority is demandingthat the Hashemite kingof Jordan become a consti-tutional monarch. Mean-while, Egypt’s Hosni Mu-barak, that other Sunnipillar of regional stability,has already been over-thrown.

Historically, in times oftrouble, Saudi kings havedepended on Americanpresidents to guaranteetheir external security.But at this moment of cri-sis, Abdullah views Presi-dent Obama as a threat tohis internal security. Hefears that in the event of awidespread revolt, Obamawill demand that he leaveoffice, just as he did toMubarak, that other long-time friend of the UnitedStates. Consequently, Ab-dullah is reportedly mak-ing arrangements for Pa-kistani troops to enter hiskingdom should the needto suppress popular dem-onstrations arise.

This presents the Oba-ma administration with aparticularly thorny dilem-ma. Saudi Arabia is theworld’s largest oil pro-ducer and the only onewith sufficient excess pro-duction capacity to mod-erate rises in the price ofoil. Instability in SaudiArabia could produce pan-ic in the oil markets andan oil shock that couldput an end to America’seconomic recovery (andthe president’s hopes forreelection). This would ar-gue for granting an “ex-ception” to Saudi Arabiafrom the Obama adminis-tration’s trumpeting ofuniversal rights. Indeed,the soft criticism of Bah-rain’s Saudi-dictated sup-pression of its people sug-gests that this has alreadybecome U.S. policy.

Yet helping the Saudiking effectively erect awall against the politicaltsunami sweeping acrossthe Arab world is not along-term solution. Ifthere’s one thing that wecan now predict withsome confidence, it’s thatno Arab authoritarian re-gime can remain immunefrom the demands of itspeople for political free-dom and accountable gov-ernment. To be sure, $100billion in subventionsfrom the palace and the

promise of 60,000 jobs canhelp postpone, for a time,the demands of unemploy-ed Saudi youths. But polit-ical freedom, transmittedacross borders via cableTV and the Internet, hasproved to be a seductiveidea. In the end, it will notbe assuaged by economicbribes or police-state sup-pression.

And the Saudi systemis fragile. Power is concen-trated in the hands of theking and his brothers,who are old and ailing.The Saud family’s legiti-macy depends in signifi-cant part on its pact witha fundamentalist Wahhabiclergy that is deeply op-posed to basic political re-forms, such as equalrights for women. Thedeep structural tensionsgenerated by a 21st-centu-ry Westernized elite exist-ing within a 15th-centurySaudi social structurehave been papered overfor decades by oil wealth.If this strange social con-tract begins to fray, itmight tear completely.And over in the easternquarter, adjacent to Bah-rain, where most of SaudiArabia’s oil reserves arelocated, sits a restive Shi-ite minority who havebeen treated as second-class citizens for decades.

Even if the Obama ad-ministration were under-standably inclined to leavewell enough alone, it can-not afford to do so for oth-er reasons. The Saudis areattempting to erect thewall beyond their bordersnot only by suppressingthe revolt in Bahrain butalso by insisting that Jor-dan’s king not pursue thereform agenda he haspromised his people. In ef-fect, Abdullah intends tocarve out an exception forall the kings and sheiks -Sunni to a man - in SaudiArabia’s neighborhood. Itmight work for a time.But should this dambreak, it could generate asectarian Sunni-Shiite,Arab-Iranian conflict onone side and an Arab-Is-raeli conflict on the other.It could spell the end ofPax Americana in theMiddle East.

For all of these reasons,President Obama urgentlyneeds to negotiate a newcompact with King Abdul-lah. He has to find a wayto convince him that de-fining a road map thatleads to constitutionalmonarchies in his neigh-borhood, and eventuallyin Saudi Arabia, is the on-ly effective way to securehis kingdom and the in-terests of his subjects. Ab-dullah has been willing toundertake important re-forms in the past. But ifthe king is to be persuad-ed to embark on this roadagain, he will need toknow that the presidentwill provide a secure safe-ty net of support, ratherthan undermine him. Andhe will need to know thatthe United States will notmake a deal with his Ira-nian enemies at Saudi ex-pense.

Such a compact wouldbe difficult to negotiate inthe best of times. It cannoteven be broached in cur-rent circumstances unlessthe basic trust betweenthe president and the kingcan be reestablished. Witha budget crisis at homeand turmoil in the MiddleEast, it’s understandablethat Obama has had littletime for the personal en-gagement with potentatesthat does not come natu-rally to him. But it’s notjust Abdullah’s survivalthat is at stake. A revolt inSaudi Arabia could sinkhis presidency.

COLUMN

Obama facesdilemma

with SaudisBy MARTIN INDYK

THE WASHINGTON POST

OTHER VIEWS

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

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

ing or gratuitous abuse isallowed.

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

Among the late GildaRadner’s many com-ic characters on

“Saturday Night Live,”none was more endearingthan the befuddled EmilyLitella.

Miss Litella would deliv-er an editorial commentaryabout some issue of the day,working herself into an in-creasing state of agitation— only to be informed byChevy Chase that her dis-tress was the result of asimple yet fundamentalmisunderstanding of thesubject at hand.

“What’s all this fuss Ikeep hearing about violinson television?” she mightfuriously ask. Other topicsthat sent Miss Litella’sblood pressure soaring wereyouth in Asia, endangeredfeces and President GeraldFord’s attempt to makePuerto Rico a steak.

When Chase would inter-rupt Litella’s bristlingmonologue to inform her ofher error, she would settledown and meekly declare,“Never mind.”

It is unclear whetherRichard Goldstone, a re-

tired justice of South Afri-ca’s high court and formerchief prosecutor of the U.N.criminal tribunals for theformer Yugoslavia andRwanda, is a fan of EmilyLitella. But his ability tochannel her character isuncanny.

Goldstone headed an in-quiry into the war betweenIsrael and Hamas thaterupted in Gaza in late 2008and early 2009, a conflictprecipitated by the launchof hundreds of rockets andmortars into Israeli citiesand made unnecessarily de-structive by Hamas’ deliber-ate strategy to bog Israeldown in messy, confusingand bloody urban warfare.

The U.N. Human RightsCouncil authorized theGoldstone “fact-finding mis-sion.” For anyone who un-derstands the difference be-tween flea elections andfree elections, that shouldhave been the first clue thatthe Goldstone inquiry andsubsequent report weremeant to be a cruel joke.

Among the current mem-bers of the Human RightsCouncil are such fine hu-man rights arbiters as Chi-na, Cuba, Pakistan and Sau-di Arabia. In January, the

council issued a lengthy re-port praising the “commit-ment to upholding humanrights” by Moammar Gad-hafi’s Libya, which held acouncil seat until it was fi-nally suspended last month.By any objective standard,it should be known as theHuman Wrongs Council.

Nevertheless, Goldstoneissued his report in 2009.While it noted wrongdoingson the part of Hamas, theGoldstone Report was over-whelmingly devoted to vio-lations of international lawand war crimes allegedlycommitted by Israel. Thereport quickly became alodestone for anti-Israel andanti-Jewish extremistsaround the world.

Then on April 1 of thisyear — April Fool’s Day —Goldstone said, “Nevermind.” In an op-ed publish-ed in the Washington Post,the international juristwrote, “If I had known thenwhat I know now, the Gold-stone Report would havebeen a different document.”

He acknowledged thatthe Human Rights Council’smandate for his inquirywas “skewed against Is-rael.” “That the crimes al-legedly committed by Ha-

mas were intentional goeswithout saying — its rock-ets were purposefully andindiscriminately aimed atcivilian targets,” Goldstonenow writes. As for Israel, henow accepts “that civilianswere not intentionally tar-geted as a matter of policy.”

Those admissions, how-ever, understate the mon-strous injustice Goldstonehas wrought. In testimonybefore the Human RightsCouncil in 2009, Col. Rich-ard Kemp, the former com-mander of British forces inAfghanistan, said of theconflict in Gaza, “The Israe-li Defense Forces did moreto safeguard the rights of ci-vilians in a combat zonethan any other army in thehistory of warfare.”

The Emily Litella skitswere comedy. The Gold-stone Report is a lethal er-ror, a sham document that— like the phony Protocolsof the Elders of Zion —gives succor to anti-Semiticfanatics who will use it tojustify violence againstJews — in Israel and else-where. For this, “Nevermind” can never suffice.

(Email Jonathan Gur-witz at jgurwitz@express-news.net)

COLUMN

Goldstone Report is a shamBy JONATHAN GURWITZ

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Cleve Foster, a formerArmy recruiter con-victed of murder,

was scheduled to be execut-ed earlier this week inHuntsville, Texas, when the

U.S. Supreme Court grant-ed a stay pending a reviewof his case.

There are so many rea-sons why the death penaltyshould be repealed every-where. It is barbaric, and ahigh number of innocent

defendants have beenplaced on death row or exe-cuted. Foster’s petitionmakes a strong case that,but for his ineffective state-appointed trial lawyer, hewould not have been sen-tenced to death and that

the evidence against himleaves room for doubtabout his guilt. The execu-tion of an innocent personis a great horror. The Su-preme Court should giveFoster the chance to provehis innocence.

EDITORIAL

Country should nix death penaltyNEW YORK TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

VICTORIA — Author-ities fired two firefightersfor violating the city’sconduct policy followingan investigation into acomplaint about photos ofnaked men on display attheir fire station.

The Victoria Advocateobtained copies of themontage of about 10 pho-tos through an open re-cords request after thecity announced the firingsWednesday.

The racy photos, in-cluding men in sexuallyprovocative poses, weredisplayed at Victoria FireStation No. 2, the newspa-per reported Friday.

A complaint about thepictures was filed withthe city in March.

The city declined to re-lease the names of thefired firefighters.

“To protect all partiesinvolved in internal inves-tigations, the city will notcomment on individual

cases,” a city spokesman. The incident violated

the city’s conduct policy,Garza said. Conduct thatinterferes with oper-ations, discredits the cityor is offensive to custom-ers or fellow employeeswill not be tolerated, ac-cording to the city.

Greg Mitchell, presi-dent of the Victoria fire-fighters’ union, also de-clined comment.

“I would like to make acomment on this situationbut, since the parties in-volved are not associationmembers, city policy pro-hibits me from doing so,”said Mitchell.

City employees aretrained on city policies,Garza said.

"If an incident occursthat signals a need for ad-ditional emphasis on spe-cific policy expectations,we will prepare and deliv-er training to remind ourworkforce of the expecta-tions of being a city em-ployee,” he said.

Nude photos getfirefighters fired

ASSOCIATED PRESSAUSTIN — State correc-tions officials said Fridaythat a test of cell phone de-tection technology at aSoutheast Texas prisonwhere an inmate used acontraband phone when heescaped last month has en-couraged them to move for-ward with plans to installthe devices around thesprawling system to thwartthe illegal activity.

A Coral Springs, Fla.-based business, cellAnten-na, recently spent morethan two days at the TexasDepartment of CriminalJustice Stiles Unit, outsideBeaumont, and showedhow its technology couldfind phones inside the pris-on, said Rick Thaler, direc-tor of the Texas prisons.

“The next step is puttingout a request to vendors inthe field that offer similartechnology so they can putforth their proposal as totheir services and whatthey can provide us,” Thal-er said.

There was no immediate

cost estimate. “Part of that is contin-

gent on how many devicesyou put at a facility,” Thal-er said. “The more you putin, the more you can honein on the location or atleast a particular buildingthat the phone is used in.”

He said it was realisticto believe the technologycould be in place by theend of the year.

“We’re trying to moveforward as rapidly as possi-ble with the request,” Thal-er said. “Hopefully it’s an-other tool we’ll have in thenear future.”

Illegal cell phone use hasbeen a problem for yearsnow in Texas, which hasthe nation’s second-largestprison system, and othercorrections agencies na-tionwide. Technology todisrupt phone calls, known

as jamming, also is availa-ble, but its use is illegal.

The managed access cel-lAntenna uses, which is le-gal, “allows them to divertcell phone signals and sendthem on a detour essential-ly to a dead end so the callsare not completed,” saidBrad Livingston, executivedirector of the Texas crimi-nal justice department.

Livingston last monthordered a demonstration ofthe technology after 27-year-old convict DavidPuckett escaped from theStiles Unit. He was cap-tured five days later inOmaha, Neb. John Moriar-ty, the agency’s inspectorgeneral, said Puckett’s pos-session of a cell phone be-hind bars was “a majorcomponent of the escape.”

“We did a forensic exam-ination on the phone he

was caught with and therewere 300-plus calls to awoman who assisted him,”Moriarty said. “It justshows you how the proce-dures set up in the prisonsare totally circumvented.”

Moriarty and Livingstonblamed friends and fam-ilies and even some em-ployees for smuggling thephones or arranging fordrops outside the prisonwhere inmates on work de-tails can retrieve them.

“There’s a host of rea-sons,” Livingston said.“You really can’t pinpointone in particular.”

He said video surveil-lance has eased the contra-band problem at the Polun-sky Unit outside Living-ston, where two years agoan inmate used a smuggledphone to threaten a statelegislator.

Officials hope device finds cellsBy MICHAEL GRACZYK

ASSOCIATED PRESS Illegal cell phone use has been a problem for yearsnow in Texas, which has the nation’s second-largestprison system, and other corrections agenciesnationwide.

A QUICK CAR CHARGE

Photo by Lara Solt/The Dallas Morning News | APA Nissan Leaf is charged during a demo at the first-ever quick charge electric vehicle charging stationin Texas, at the Walgreens at Beltline and Monfort, unveiled Friday in Dallas. It is one of dozens of newstations NRG Energy Inc. and others are planing for Dallas and Houston.

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES State SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011

S

SÁBADO 9 DE ABRILLAREDO — Hoy es el

sexto Festival del Día de laTierra en terrenos del LaredoCivic Center de 10 a.m. a 6p.m. Evento gratuito.

LAREDO — Béisbol:Dustdevils de TAMIU recibe aUniversity of Arkansas – FortSmith a la 12 p.m. en el dia-mante universitario. Costo ge-neral: 5 dólares.

LAREDO — Pase la tar-de en el Planetario LamarBruni Vergara de TAMIU y ex-plore: “The Zula Patrol: Underthe Weather” a las 5 p.m.,“IBEX: Search for the Edge ofthe Solar System” a las 6p.m. y Pink Floyd’s “Dark Si-de of the Moon” a las 7 p.m.Costo general: 5 dólares.

LAREDO — El 61er Es-pectáculo Anual de Flores yArte, patrocinado por el Uni-ted Methodist Women de laFirst United MethodistChurch, de 1 p.m. a 6 p.m. eldía de hoy y el domingo enel FUMC Fellowship Hall,1220 Avenida McClelland. En-trada general es de 3 dóla-res.

NUEVO LAREDO —Festival Infantil presenta “ElPrincipito”, con cuenta cuen-tos y dinámicas, en celebra-ción de los 68 años de la pri-mera publicación hoy a las 2p.m. en el Acervo Infantil deEstación Palabra, César Lópezde Lara 1020. Entrada libre.

DOMINGO 10 DE ABRILLAREDO — SCAN Inc.

invita a su Children’s PlayDay de 1 p.m. a 5 p.m. en elLaredo Civic Center. Habrájuegos, premios, música,brincolines, pared de rocas,comida, bebidas y diversión.Entrada gratuita. Es un even-to libre de drogas.

NUEVO LAREDO —Obra de teatro “El Carpinte-ro” en Teatro Lucio Blanco dela Casa de la Cultura, Lincolny Chimalpopoca, a las 7 p.m.

LUNES 11 DE ABRILLAREDO — Hoy se

inaugura la exhibición “Obser-vational Drawing” a las 10:30a.m. en la Biblioteca Senado-ra Judith Zaffirini del LaredoCommunity College, campusdel Sur. Se exhibirán trabajosde 9 estudiantes de las cla-ses de Dibujo 1 y 2.

MARTES 12 DE ABRILLAREDO — Disfrute el

Recital de Percusiones de Pri-mavera 2011 hoy a las 7:30p.m. en el teatro del Guada-lupe and Lilia Martinez FineArts Center de LCC. Costo: 5dólares; estudiantes, 3 dóla-res. Ganancias se destinarána becas.

LAREDO — El Club So-cial Época de Oro invita a suBaile de Primavera de 9 p.m.a 1 a.m. en el Salón de Bailedel Laredo Civic Center, 800calle Garden. Música a car-god e Noe Esparza and theDells. Boletos en preventa a15 dólares y 20 dólares en lapuerta.

JUEVES 14 DE ABRILNUEVO LAREDO —

Obra de teatro infantil contema ecológico “El Secretode Guiti” a las 7 p.m. en laCasa de la Cultura. Entradagratuita.

VIERNES 15 DE ABRILNUEVO LAREDO —

Yoshio en concierto en elTeatro Principal del CentroCultural a las 8 p.m. en be-neficio de las víctimas deltsunami y sismo en Japón.Costo: 400 VIP; 300 plantabaja preferencial; 250 pesos,planta baja atrás; 200 pesosprimer nivel; y, 100 pesos ensegundo nivel. Boletos a laventa en Cas a de Música Ta-lamás.

SÁBADO 16 DE ABRILNUEVO LAREDO —

Hoy es el primero de dosdías de la Expo Infantil de 10a.m. a 8 p.m. en el CentroCívico de Nuevo Laredo.

Agendaen Breve

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 9 DE ABRIL DE 2011

MATAMOROS, México —Autoridades localizaron 13cadáveres más en dos fosasclandestinas en Tamaulipas,con lo que se eleva 72 elnúmero de cuerpos encon-trados en los últimos díasen la región.

El secretario de Gobiernode Tamaulipas, MorelosCanseco, informó el viernesque las dos fosas se localiza-ron el jueves en una zonadiferente al lugar donde es-ta semana hallaron losprimeros 59 cadáveres.

Nueve de los cuerpos es-taban dentro de una fosa ycuatro en otra, dijo el fun-cionario a la AP vía telefón-ica.

El gobierno federal infor-mó el jueves que 14 presun-tos sospechosos ya fuerondetenidos, aunque no se hainformado si pertenecen aalgún grupo del narcotráfi-co.

Los primeros 59 cuerposestaban dentro de ocho fo-sas en la municipalidad deSan Fernando, la misma

donde en agosto fueron ase-sinados 72 migrantes y cuyohomicidio ha sido atribuidoen principio al cartel de lasdrogas de Los Zetas.

Canseco dijo también a lacadena Televisa que los 13nuevos cuerpos son de va-rones y se presume que sonmexicanos. Fueron encon-trados también en San Fer-nando.

Los primeros cuerpos lo-calizados fueron trasladadosa Matamoros donde famil-iares de personas que desa-parecieron en México en laguerra del narcotráfico in-tentaban determinar si al-guno de ellos estaba entrelas víctimas.

Gobiernos de otros esta-dos mexicanos, como Gua-najuato y Querétaro, hanentrado en contacto con au-toridades de Tamaulipas pa-ra determinar si algunos desus habitantes reportadoscomo desaparecidos esta-

rían entre los asesinados, di-jo Canseco.

La vocera de la Procura-duría de Guanajuato dijo elviernes a la AP que 17 per-sonas desaparecieron enmarzo cuando viajaban enun autobús de pasajeros dela empresa Omnibus.

Se desconoce aún el desti-no que tenían y la fecha ex-acta en que desaparecieron,aunque se presume queiban hacia el norte de Méx-ico, dijo la portavoz.

Funcionarios de la em-presa Omnibus no habíanrespondido a peticiones deinformación de la AP.

En Michoacán, la Procu-raduría local señaló quetambién entró en contactocon el gobierno de Tamauli-pas para averiguar si entrelas víctimas está alguna delas 59 personas que han sidoreportadas como desapareci-das en el último año.

Canseco dijo en Milenio

Televisión que ningún go-bierno centroamericano haentrado en contacto con el-los.

Las víctimas de la ma-sacre de agosto eran mi-grantes procedentes de país-es como El Salvador, Hondu-ras, Guatemala, Ecuador yBrasil.

En Matamoros, familiar-es buscan a sus seres queri-dos que no ven desde haceun par de semanas, otrosdesde hace unos cuantosmeses y algunos inclusodesde hace tres años.

Un hombre que aguarda-ba el jueves frente al depósi-to de cadáveres en esta ciu-dad fronteriza —y que senegó a ser identificado portemor a las represalias— di-jo que su tío y un primoabandonaron su casa en Ci-udad Valles, en San Luis Po-tosí el 25 de marzo. Viajabanen autobús a Río Bravo perono dieron señales de vida

desde entonces.Dijo que deberían haber

llegado a Río Bravo el 26 demarzo para un trabajo dedos semanas regando sem-brados de sorgo.

“Nunca llegaron”, indicó,y agregó que temía decirmás. “Aquí uno teme hablar,aquí no hablamos de lo su-cedido, pero estamos deses-perados por saber qué lespasó”.

La mayoría de los congre-gados frente a la morguebuscaban desesperadamentecualquier indicio, aun sifuere una confirmación desus peores temores.

“Sólo quiero saber si estámuerto para que pueda ten-er paz”, dijo Flor Medellín,con los ojos llenos de lágri-mas mientras aguardabacon su esposo.

Medellín dijo que su her-mano, de 43 años, se pusoen contacto por última vezcon su familia en sep-tiembre mientras transpor-taba ganado en Nuevo León,que al igual que Tamauli-pas, es un estado azotadopor la violencia del narco-tráfico.

SUBE A 72 CIFRA DE CUERPOS ENCONTRADOS ESTA SEMANA EN SAN FERNANDO

Se repite historiaPOR OLGA R. RODRÍGUEZ

ASSOCIATED PRESS El gobierno federal informó que 14 presuntossospechosos ya fueron detenidos.

puestal debido a la fal-ta de disponibilidad defondos en subsidios.

“Personalmente mevoy a reunir con (losempleados afectados) yles explicaré esto y lesentregaré la carta”, di-jo ella. “Creo que deboser quien se las en-tregue. Conozco a mu-chos de ellos, y aún sino los conociera, sim-plemente es lo correc-to por hacerse. Noquiero que se vayanpensando que no nosinteresan, que somosinsensibles a sus nece-sidades”.

Fideicomisariostambién aprobaron elprograma incentivo deseparación adelantadaen la junta del jueves,el cual brindará re-cortes adicionales alya apretado presupues-to.

En una entrevista lasemana pasada, Garciadijo que entre cinco yseis maestros mostra-ron interés en una en-cuesta informal pararecibir 15 por ciento desu salario base si ellosrenuncian al distrito.

Garcia estará envi-ando cartas el día dehoy a todos los emplea-dos de tiempo comple-to elegibles.

Sin embargo, hay unlímite de participaciónen el programa de, elcual ahorraría al dis-trito 1.6 millones dedólares.

No más de 20 pues-tos de maestros, asis-tentes de instrucción usecretarias, y no másde tres cargos adminis-trativos pueden ser re-cortados si los emplea-dos elegibles partici-pan en los incentivosadelantados.

Los requisitos ne-cesitan que empleadosprofesionales posean elcertificado apropiado,estar en regla y habertenido tres años con eldistrito escolar.

Empleados parapro-fesionales deben estaren regla y haber con-cluido tres años conZCISD.

(Localice a DeniseBlaz en el 728-2547 ó endblaz@lmtonline.com)

En reunión especialel jueves, el DistritoEscolar Independientedel Condado de Zapataanunció el despido de54 maestros a prueba yla no renovación demaestros de seis pro-gramas de pre-K-3.

Los despidos seránefectivos al final del ci-clo escolar 2010-2011 yvienen tras el anunciode una reducción nece-saria y días antes de lafecha límite del 13 deabril para la renova-ción de contratos.

“El personal a prue-ba, de acuerdo al de-partamento legal, es elmenos problemáticopara despedir”, dijo laSuperintendente Nor-ma Garcia. “Pero nues-tra intención es traer ala mayoría, si no todos,de regreso dependien-do de la severidad delos recortes. Si termi-na siendo menor, elconsejo escolar dirálos queremos a todosde regreso”.

AhorrosEntre 2.6 millones

de dólares y 11 mil-lones de dólares defondos educativos en elestado pudieran ser re-cortados para el distri-to, el cual ya está bus-cando formas de evitargastos.

Mientras el distritoespera las cifras fi-nales, sin embargo,consultores legaleshan determinado quees seguro decir que tie-nen que eliminar de 5millones a 6 millonesde dólares del presu-puesto de 44 millonesde dólares del distrito.

Garcia dijo que elanuncio de los re-cortes eliminará 50.000dólares por personacuando se agregan loscostos de beneficios yseguro.

De acuerdo a Gar-cia, el programa pre-K-3 fue uno de losprimeros en irse al de-terminar cómo traba-jar con el déficit presu-

ZAPATA ISD

Es oficialdespido depersonal

POR DENISE BLAZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

DENVER — Tiffany Har-tley, de Colorado exigió la se-mana pasada que el gobiernoestadounidense emprendamás acciones para encontrarel cadáver de su marido, Da-vid Hartley, seis meses des-pués de que supuestamentefue abatido a tiros en el lagoFalcon.

Ella dijo que no se ha he-

cho nada desde el 14 de oc-tubre, cuando las autori-dades mexicanas cancelaronla búsqueda de su esposo.

La mujer realizó en la jor-nada una protesta con famil-iares y simpatizantes en lasede del Legislativo de Col-orado, a fin de pedir a las au-toridades estatales que pre-sionen al gobierno federal,con el objetivo de que dé pa-sos para encontrar al desapa-recido y para reforzar la se-

guridad en la frontera.“Si recuperamos su cuer-

po, podemos al menos rendir-le tributo como le hubieragustado, al menos por sufamilia”, dijo a The Associat-ed Press.

Hasta el momento no seha emitido un certificado dedefunción, y las autoridadesmexicanas han dicho a Har-tley que el caso sigue abierto.

“No nos alejaremos”, dijoTiffany Hartley.

CASO HARTLEY

Familia exige avances POR P. SOLOMON BANDA

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CD. VICTORIA, México— Ante las altas tem-peraturas que se han

registrado en Tamaulipas yque han superado los 40 gra-dos centígrados, la Secretar-ía de Salud en el Estado semantiene en alerta.

Personal de salud en laentidad tiene instrucionesde atender de forma in-mediata a la población quelo requiera.

El Gobierno de Tamauli-pas emitió recomendacionespara evitar las deshidrata-ciones, quemaduras en lapiel e incluso el denominadoGolpe de Calor.

El Secretario de Salud,

Norberto Treviño García-Manzo, mencionó que desdeel mes de marzo se trabajaen el programa “Temporadade Calor”, cuyo objetivoprincipal es reducir los ries-gos y daños a la salud de lapoblación por exposición alas altas temperaturas ambi-entales y contar con los in-sumos necesarios para aten-der a la ciudadanía.

“Es de suma importanciaponer especial cuidado enmenores de 5 años, adultosmayores, así como en laspersonas que presentan al-guna enfermedad como dia-betes u obesidad, ya que estoincrementa el riesgo de pre-sentar este tipo de padeci-mientos”, dijo Treviño Gar-

cía-Manzo.Explicó que en las uni-

dades médicas se distribuyeel sobre de Vida Suero Oralde manera gratuita, el cualpuede ser de uso diario y lopueden consumir todos losgrupos de edad.

Las recomendacionesprincipales son: consumirsuficientes líquidos, evitar laexposición directa al sol pa-ra no caer en una deshidra-tación, insolación y lo másgrave, en un Golpe de Calor;mitigar los rayos solares uti-lizando la sombrilla, sombre-ro o cachucha, aumentar elconsumo de líquidos y evitaren lo posible las bebidas quecontienen cafeína, azúcar obebidas alcohólicas.

TAMAULIPAS

Trabajadores ordenan agua embotellada en una bodega. Oficiales de Salud están recomendando consumirsuficiente agua para evitar la deshidratación ante las temperaturas altas en la región.

Foto de archivo\Paul Sakuma | Associated Press

ALERTA DE CALORPiden protegerse ante temperaturaESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

PAGE 8A Zentertainment SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011

Almost everybody lovesbuffalo wings — thosespicy mini chicken legsand wings. Add someranch dressing on the sideand you’re set for a good,tasty meal.

Realizing wings arepopular in Laredo —well,anywhere for that matter— Women of Destiny Min-istries, a non-profit organ-ization that provides so-cial services to women, ishosting a Tejano-CountryBuffalo Wing Festival.

“We’re pretty excitedabout the response we’vegotten so far,” said TonieGamboa, the event’s coor-dinator. The non-profitwill host the Buffalo WingFestival on Saturday, atthe Casa Blanca BallroomGrounds, off U.S. 59.

It starts at 10 a.m. andends at 10 p.m. and it willfeature live music, exhib-its, a kids’ zone, a DJ com-petition, a wing cook-offcontest and a wing-eatingcontest. There also will bea car and motorcycleshow.

According to Gamboa,this is the first time a buf-falo wing fest is plannedfor Laredo. She said thereare about 20 participantsalready signed up for thewing-eating contest.

Admission to the eventis $3 and free for kids 12and under.

Southern Distributingis sponsoring the cook-off.

For more informationon the contest, call Gam-boa 333-5096.

(Emilio Rábago III maybe reached at 728-2564 orerabago@lmtonline.com)

BuffaloWing

Festivaltoday

By EMILIO RÁBAGO IIITHE ZAPATA TIMES

Luis Miguel, one of themost acclaimed voices ofour generation, is return-ing to the Laredo EnergyArena on Wednesday, June8.

He’s set to perform at 8p.m., the arena announcedTuesday.

Throughout his career,

Luis Miguel has released atotal of 21 albums and soldmore than 60 million re-cords worldwide.

His albums have beencertified multiple diamond,platinum and gold, his con-certs have broken attend-ance records in each of hisworld tours, and he has re-ceived numerous awards.Luis Miguel has also cap-

tivated the hearts of mil-lions of people around theworld for almost three dec-ades.

Tickets go on sale Satur-day at 10 a.m. at all Ticket-master locations, includingthe LEA box office andwww.ticketmaster.com.

Ticket are $39.50, $49.50,$69.50 and $125, plus facili-ty fees.

Latin singer Luis Miguel performs at the AT&T Center in San Antonio in October 2008. Luis Miguelwill be back in Laredo on Wednesday, June 8, for a concert at the Laredo Energy Arena. Tickets startat $39.50 and go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

Express-News file photo

Luis Miguelreturns to Laredo

THE ZAPATA TIMES

The second annualConcerto Competitionwill be held Sunday at 2p.m. at Texas A&M Inter-national University’sCenter for Fine and Per-forming Arts.

The winner of the Con-certo Competition willperform with the LaredoPhilharmonic Orchestraon Sunday, April 17.

“The chance to per-form a concerto accompa-nied by a professional or-chestra as a young musi-cian is a rare treat,” saidBrendan Townsend, LPOmusic director. “It marksthe highest of artistic ac-complishment for a Lare-do student.”

The competition isopen to all young musi-cians enrolled in coursesat TAMIU, Laredo Com-munity College, Laredoor United independentschool districts, or anyother Laredo school.

The opening of theApril 17 concert will in-clude students from areahigh schools joining withthe LPO to perform “Fan-fare for the CommonMan” by Aaron Copland– a sight and sound not to

be missed, Townsendsaid.

Sunday’s concertocompetition is open tothe public. It will be heldin room 134 of the TA-MIU Center for the Fineand Performing Arts, be-ginning at noon.

For more information,call Townsend at 326-3039.

Concerto CompetitionSunday at TAMIU

By STEVE HARMONSPECIAL TO THE TIMES

MATAMOROS, Mexico— Investigators have un-covered 13 more bodies inmass graves in the violentnorthern state of Tamauli-pas, where 59 dead wereexhumed earlier thisweek, officials said Friday.Families and authoritiesfrom across Mexico con-tacted the morgue insearch of those who havevanished in the country’sdrug wars.

Seventy-two bodies havenow been discovered sinceauthorities began chasingreports in late March thatgunmen had kidnappedpeople off of passengerbuses headed toward theU.S. border.

Nine were discovered inone newly found grave andfour in another on Thurs-day near the city of SanFernando, state InteriorSecretary Morelos Cansecosaid Friday. The total nowmatches the number of mi-grants who died in a mas-sacre near that town lastAugust.

Canseco said investiga-tors are searching for yetmore graves in the area.

Families came to themorgue in Matamorosacross from Brownsvillelooking for loved ones notseen for a couple of weeks,others a few months —some as long as threeyears. Canseco said he hasheard from officials in thecentral states of Guanajua-to and Queretaro search-ing for residents who dis-

appeared on buses travel-ing through Tamaulipas orto the U.S. border.

Guanajuato attorneygeneral spokeswoman Su-sana Montero said 17 mis-sing people rode an Omni-bus de Mexico companybus to northern Mexico inMarch. The bus route andexact date were unknown,but Montero said theywere apparently travelingto the United States.

In Michoacan, the attor-ney general’s office said italso was working with Ta-maulipas to determine ifany of the 59 people mis-sing from that state in thelast 12 months were killedand buried in northernMexico.

Canseco told the Mile-nio television channel thathe had yet to hear fromother countries, particular-ly those in Central Amer-ica, the origin of thou-sands of migrants whocross Mexico each year ontheir ways to the U.S.

The victims of the Au-gust massacre were fromEl Salvador, Honduras,Guatemala, Ecuador andBrazil. Survivors said theywere killed for refusing towork for the Zetas.

Federal security spokes-man Alejandro Poire an-nounced Thursday that 14suspects linked to the kill-ings had been arrested byWednesday. Those arrestsapparently led authoritiesto the pits.

The suspects belongedto a “criminal cell,” Poiresaid, but he did not specifywhich gang they may have

belonged to. State authorities are

still not sure about the ori-gin of the victims found inthe pits, but suspect atleast some had been ab-ducted from buses.

One man waitingThursday outside the mor-gue in this border city —who refused to give hisname — said his uncle anda cousin left their home-town of Ciudad Valles inthe central state of SanLuis Potosi on March 25.They were traveling bybus to Rio Bravo in Ta-maulipas state but haven’tbeen heard from.

He said they were sup-posed to arrive in Rio Bra-vo on March 26 for a two-week job watering sor-ghum fields.

“They never made it,”he said, adding that hewas afraid to say anythingelse. “Here one is afraid totalk, here we don’t talkabout what happens, butwe are desperate to knowwhat happened to them.”

Most of those outsidethe morgue were desperatefor a shred of evidence —even for confirmation oftheir worst fears.

“I just want to know ifhe is dead or alive so I canhave peace,” said Flor Me-dellin, her eyes watery asshe waited with her hus-band.

Medellin said her 43-year-old brother lastchecked in with family lastSeptember while haulingcattle in Nuevo Leon state,like Tamaulipas a borderstate plagued with drug

gang violence. “They never found the

cattle or the trailer truck.They found no traces ofhim,” Medellin, a 41-year-old laundry manager, said.

“It’s really sad whatwe’re going through,” sheadded.

Medellin said her broth-er often drove on a danger-ous highway in Tamauli-pas connecting Matamorosto the state capital, CiudadVictoria. It goes throughSan Fernando, where thegraves were found at aspot about 80 miles southof Brownsville.

“We think he was inter-cepted and that they stoleeverything from him andwe don’t know what hap-pened after that. One al-ways has hope that he isalive, but all we want is toknow what happened tohim,” said Medellin’s hus-band, Felipe Valadez.

By Thursday, investiga-tors had identified a fewvictims of the latest kill-ings as Mexicans, nottransnational migrants.They did not say if theywere connected to 12 offi-cial missing-person re-ports from the buses.

Although federal au-thorities launched an of-fensive in the region inNovember seeking to re-gain control of territoryfrom the warring Gulf andZetas cartels, criminalshave become so brazenthey apparently kidnappedthe bus passengers in astretch of open desert thatlocals say lays betweentwo military checkpoints.

Reyna Guzman, 42, waits in front of the morgue in Matamoros, Mexico, to find out if her missing 16-year-old son is one of the 72 bodiesfound near the city of San Fernando, on Friday. Investigators uncovered 13 more bodies in mass graves in Tamaulipas, where 59 deadwere exhumed earlier this week, officials said.

Photo by Alexandre Meneghini | AP

Mexico finds 72 more bodiesBy OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Miguel Angel Muñoz, 56,passed away Thursday,April 7, 2011.

Visitation hours will beheld Sunday, April 10, 2011,from 6 to 9 p.m. with a ros-ary at 7 p.m. at Rose Gar-den Funeral Home.

The funeral processionwill depart Monday, April11, 2011, at 9:45 for a 10 a.m.funeral Mass at Our Ladyof Lourdes CatholicChurch. Committal servic-es will follow at ZapataCounty Cemetery.

Funeral arrangementsare under the direction ofRose Garden Funeral

Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez,funeral director, 2102 High-way 83, Zapata.

Miguel Angel Muñoz

Tomas Salinas, 84,passed away Sunday, April3, 2011, at Laredo MedicalCenter.

Mr. Salinas is precededin death by his parents:Antonio Salinas and Ale-jandra Rangel Salinas;and a sister Adelina S.Coronado.

Mr. Salinas is survivedby his wife, Juanita A. Sa-linas; brother, Israel Sali-nas; sister, Marta (Abel)Lozano; and by numerous

nephews, nieces andfriends.

A chapel service washeld at Rose Garden Fu-neral Home on Wednes-day, April 6, 2011, at 10a.m. Committal servicesfollowed at Zapata CountyCemetery.

Cremation arrange-ments were under the di-rection of Rose GardenFuneral Home, Daniel A.Gonzalez, funeral director,2102 Highway 83, Zapata.

Tomas Salinas

“We will be forwardingthem (that money)promptly,” he said.

DiscussionCounty commissioners

are slated to discuss thesettlement in closed ses-sion at Monday’s regularmonthly meeting. Themeeting is slated to startat 9 a.m.

When commissioners re-convene in open session,they will vote to approve,or authorize legal counselto respond to, the settle-ment, which would releaseboth parties of any obliga-tions with each other,Cruz said.

On March 23, countycommissioners voted tostop funding the EconomicDevelopment Center andordered the nonprofit tovacate county offices with-in 30 days.

No agreementCommissioners took the

action after a proposedmemorandum of under-standing fell through be-tween the center and thecounty. The documentwould have allowed thecounty to appoint at leastfive members, or a major-ity, of the center’s board ofdirectors.

It would also have giventhe county oversight of thecenter.

Peggy Umphres Moffett,president and executive di-rector of the center, had

said she supported thememorandum of under-standing. But she said itthreatened the organiza-tion’s status as a nonprof-it.

On the other hand, com-missioners contended thatthe document was justi-fied because the countygives the center $80,000 ayear.

In late March, Umphressaid she was applying forgrant money that wouldfund the center’s oper-ations. County officials,meanwhile, said theymight consider establish-ing an economic develop-ment department for thecounty.

(Nick Georgiou may bereached at 728-2582 or nge-orgiou@lmtonline.com)

COUNTY Continued from Page 1A

On March 23,countycommissionersvoted to stopfunding theEconomicDevelopmentCenter andordered thenonprofit tovacate countyoffices within30 days.

Kathleen Soliz Hernandez, 24, of Austin, passed away peacefully earlyTuesday morning with her family at her side. She was born in Corpus Christi onSeptember 3, 1986, to Ricardo and Yvette Soliz. She spent her childhood inHebbronville and Zapata before moving to Austin in the eighth grade. On December7, 2001, Kathy was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, while a freshmanat Bowie High School. She graduated with honors in 2005 and was preparing toattend Texas A&M University when she relapsed in July 2005. In August 2007, whilein remission, she married Heriberto Hernandez. She loved Herbie very much andenjoyed a brief sense of normalcy before a relapse in October 2007 and June 2009.

From the time she was very young, Kathy was a self-described “tree hug-ger” and was often referred to as “mother nature” by her family. She was an avidreader, loved intellectual debates and conversation and was passionate about ani-mals. Kathy loved art, museums and independent films. She intended to pursue acareer in mental health and had a desire to provide assistance to those experiencinghealth related trauma.

The courage and grace she demonstrated during her illness endeared herto her family, friends, caregivers and even those she’d never met. An inspiration toall, Kathy never lost her fighting spirit or her sense of humor. Her perseveranceserved as affirmation of a greater good and the incredible strength of the humanheart. Kathy's life will be defined by her indomitable spirit, rather than her illness.Kathy's compassion and love for life grew inside of her since the day she was bornand provided strength to all who loved her. Kathy made those around her better peo-ple. While Kathy today is in the presence of love and compassion on a level we can-not comprehend, from the day she entered our lives she allowed us to discover thebetter angels in each of our souls.

The family would like to express gratitude to all of the family, friends, andcaregivers who supported Kathy throughout her battle. Kathy always said that thedoctors and nurses made her experience bearable. Staff from the Dell Children’sHospital Green Unit/Four North were particularly special to Kathy, as was Dr. DonaldWells, who was like a father figure to her.

She is survived by her husband, Herbie and his family; her parents, Ricardoand Yvette; sister Michelle Huerta Martinez, and her husband Eddie of Zapata; broth-er Ricky Soliz of Austin; grandparents Guadalupe and Yolanda Canales ofHebbronville; grandmother Beatrice Soliz of Hebbronville; aunts: Sylvia Martinez andher husband Jay of Zapata, Laura Canales and husband Hector Dominguez ofHebbronville, Judy Diaz and her husband Jose of Houston, Jessica Guerrero ofHouston; uncles: Victor Canales of Austin, Loreto Canales of Hebbronville, GilbertoSoliz of Austin, Michael Soliz and his wife Nora of Austin, Jose Soliz of Premont,Arnoldo Soliz, Jr. and his wife Leticia of LaPorte, Rene Soliz of Humble; her dogsKody and Pistol; and many beloved cousins.

The family will welcome visitors at the Angel Funeral Home, 1600 South 1st,Austin, on Saturday, April 9, 1:00 -2:00 p.m. with a procession following to San JoseCatholic Church, 2345 Oak Crest Ave, Austin, where a funeral Mass will be celebrat-ed at 2:00 p.m. Please don't wear colors of mourning - Kathy loved springtime andwould want you to share happy memories of her. Please consider a donation inKathy’s honor to The Marrow Match, P.O. Box 15705, San Antonio, TX 78212.

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011

market.

VarietyProducts include every-

thing from citrus, herbs,nopal-based goods, bakedgoods, lavender-basedproducts from the HillCountry, a variety of oliveoils from the Texas OliveRanch in CarrizoSprings, birdhouses andeven locally-handmadenatural soap in Laredo.

“We’re really lookingfor local growers,” espe-cially those who are will-ing to participate consis-tently, Hrncir stated. Thefreeze in February wasdetrimental to growingconditions, so though ithad a successful turnout,the market didn’t have asmany produce vendorsthe last time around as inprevious months.

“We’ve still maintainedan okay reputation, butwe would like to keep it.”

Monthly feeFor dedicated growers,

there is a one-time $25 feeand a $20 monthly partic-ipation fee after that.Vendors and shoppersalike have access to freeparking at the El Metrobus depot. The deadlineto notify Hrncir is atleast three to four daysbefore the market so as toinclude vendors in theplaza layout. In addition,growers must pass the ad-visory committee’s in-spection of growing con-ditions.

“We do inspect theirland and check theirsources of the water …(The produce) has to benatural, no pesticides. Itdoesn’t have to be orga-nic, but we would preferthat it’s organic,” ex-plained Hrncir.

Hrncir and the rest ofEl Centro de Laredo arededicated to helping pro-mote community accessto local produce and thegrowers who dedicate

their livelihood to culti-vating it. Currently, theyare taking an initiative toget people ages 18-46 in-volved with the YoungFarmers Grant Program,part of the Texas Depart-ment of Agriculture.

“We’re trying to helppeople write grants to getseeds, fertilizer, soil, foracquisition of land,” ex-plained Hrncir. Thegrants would matchfunds raised by thosewho qualify.

Due in MayThe grant application

deadline is in May andthose who wish to claim abooth selling fruits, vege-tables or herbs at April’sfarmer’s market must no-tify Hrncir by April 13.Interested parties are en-couraged to contact heras soon as possible re-garding either of these at956-286-0642 or laredofar-mersmkt@att.net.

(Erica Matos may bereached at 728-2567 orematos@lmtonline.com)

MARKET Continued from Page 1A

“We do inspecttheir land andcheck theirsources of thewater … (Theproduce) hasto be natural,no pesticides.It doesn’t haveto be organic,but we wouldprefer that it’sorganic,” LAREDO FARMER’SMARKET MANAGER ALLIHRNCIR

the district’s $44 millionbudget.

Garcia said the an-nouncement of the cutsThursday will eliminate$50,000 per person whenbenefits and insurancecosts are factored in.

According to Garcia, thepre-K-3 program was oneof the first to go in deter-mining how to cope withthe budget shortfalls dueto the unavailability ofgrant funding.

“I’m personally going togo meet with (the affectedemployees) and explainthis to them and handthem the letter,” she said.“I think I should be theone giving it to them. Iknow so many of them,

and even if I didn’t, it’sjust the right thing to do. Idon’t want them to walkaway thinking we don’tcare about them, thatwe’re insensitive to theirneeds.”

Trustees also approvedthe early separation incen-tive program at Thursday’smeeting, which would pro-vide additional cuts to thedistrict’s already strappedbudget.

In an interview withGarcia last week, five tosix teachers showed inter-est in an informal surveyin receiving 15 percent oftheir base salary if they re-signed from the district.

Garcia will be sendingout a letter today to all eli-

gible full-time employees. However, there is a par-

ticipation cap on thebuyout program, whichcould save the district $1.6million.

No more than 20 teacherpositions, instructional as-sistants and secretariesand no more than three ad-ministrative positions maybe cut if the eligible em-ployees take part in theearly incentives.

Eligibility requires pro-fessional employees to holdproper certification, be ingood standing and havecompleted three years withthe school district.

Paraprofessional employ-ees must be in good stand-ing and have completed

three years with ZCISD.Yvette Venegas, a pre-K-3

teacher employed at Fideland Andrea R. VillarrealElementary School, saysthe way the district is deal-ing with the projected bud-get shortfall is “confus-ing.”

“I don’t understand,” Ve-negas said. “I guess if theywould explain the reason-ing behind their decisions,that would be a lot betterthan just not knowing. Wejust don’t know why. Whatwas it that they looked at?”

(Denise Blaz may bereached at 728-2547 ordblaz@lmtonline.com)

SCHOOLS Continued from Page 1A

WASHINGTON — Thefederal governmentlurched toward a shut-down for the first time in15 years Friday night asPresident Barack Obamaand congressional leadersgroped for a last-minutecompromise to cut tens ofbillions in federal spend-ing and end the impasse.

Republicans placed theHouse on standby for alate-night vote in case a de-cision was made to pass astopgap bill to keep thegovernment running for afew days to allow moretime for negotiations.

The administrationreadied hundreds of thou-sands of furlough noticesfor federal workers andwarned that services fromnational parks to tax-sea-son help centers would beshuttered without a dealby midnight.

“We know the wholeworld is watching us to-day,” said Senate MajorityLeader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,during a day that featured

incendiary, campaign stylerhetoric as well as intensenegotiation.

Into the night, the twosides were still swappingproposals of the Capitoland President Barack Oba-ma was on the phone fromthe White House withHouse Speaker JohnBoehner, R-Ohio.

In a Capitol short onnews but long on rumors,House Republican leaderscirculated an early eveningupdate to the rank and file:“We’d like to clear up some

confusion and relay therehas not yet been a dealreached, the negotiationsare ongoing."

“I was born with a glasshalf full,” Boehner told re-porters.

Reid, Obama and Boehn-er all agreed a shutdownposed risks to an economystill recovering from theworst recession in decades.

But there were disagree-ments aplenty among theprincipal players in anearly test of divided gov-ernment — Obama in the

White House, fellow Demo-crats in control in the Sen-ate and a new, tea party-fla-vored Republican majorityin the House.

Hours later, officialssaid the talks centered onspending cuts in the rangeof $38 billion to $40 billion.But they stressed therewas no accord on either anoverall total or the compo-sition of the reductions.

For much of the day,Reid and Boehner dis-agreed about what the dis-agreement was about.

Inaction could close government

Justin Castro, a National Park Service employee, is pictured during an interview at his jobsite, the Oklaho-ma City National Memorial, in Oklahoma City. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders gropedfor a last-minute compromise Friday to cut tens of billions in federal spending and end the impasse.

Photo by Sue Ogrocki | AP

Editor’s note: For the lateston the federal budget situa-tion, go to www.lmtonline-.com.

By DAVID ESPOASSOCIATED PRESS

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Golf used to be Tiger Woods andeverybody else.

About the only thing they had in common was howthey described fair-to-middling rounds afterward, howa handful of near-misses could have changed every-thing. The difference, of course, was that Woods wouldgo out the next day, and the next, and make almost ev-erything in sight.

Now he not only sounds like everybody else, heplays like everybody else, too.

“I hit a lot of beautiful putts today and they werejust skirting the edge. So hopefully,” Woods said afteran opening round 71 at the Masters, “those will startgoing in.”

Something wrongNo one knows exactly what went wrong with his

game since a stunning fall from grace some 16 months

GOLF

Tiger Woods reacts after he misses a birdie putt on the 16th holeduring the first round of the Masters golf tournament Thursdayin Augusta, Ga.

Photo by David J. Phillip | AP

A fallenNo. 1

Woods just anothertalent these days

By JIM LITKEASSOCIATED PRESS

See WOODS PAGE 2B

SAN FRANCISCO —The jurors who will de-cide Barry Bonds’ fate fil-ed back into the court-room with their firstquestion Friday, and itwas one that had to makeprosecutors happy.

“We request the follow-ing,” U.S. District JudgeSusan Illston said, read-ing their note aloud. “Thefull written transcript ofthe Steve Hoskins-GregAnderson digital tape re-cording from 2003.”

In that secretly record-ed conversation at theSan Francisco Giantsballpark, the slugger’sjust-fired business part-ner and his then-personaltrainer discuss steroids,

injections and drug test-ing. Prosecutors used thetape in an attempt to con-vince jurors that thegreatest home-run hitterin major league historyhad to know he was tak-ing performance-enhanc-ing drugs.

That request and an-other one later, to hearthe testimony of SteveHoskins’ sister, Kathy,were the two momentsthe jury reached out fromits first day of delibera-tions. Each question in-volved some of the prose-cution’s best evidence

MLB

Bonds’ jurorshear

recordingBy RONALD BLUMASSOCIATED PRESS

See BONDS PAGE 2B

BARRY BONDS:Slugger’s trialcontinues on.

DALLAS — Late on a school night,in a game already delayed because oflightning, Richardson Lake High-lands High School came to bat in thetop of the fifth inning leading DallasSamuell by around 30 runs.

Then they scored another 20 or so.

The final score was either 53-0, likethe scoreboard read, or 57-0, like thewinning coach tallied it up. Worseeven than the 56-7 Highlands winover Samuell in football this past sea-son.

It was the most lopsided prep base-ball game in state history.

The game has gone beyond justanother blowout between a suburbanprogram stocked with kids whoseparents can afford out-of-seasontraining and a school struggling tofield a team in a low-income neigh-

borhood. It’s already led to a change in the

mercy rules in the local school dis-trict. Administrators hope it willbring attention to an often-ignorednational rule that offers an easy wayto end obvious mismatches.

Most of all, it reignited the discus-sion about sportsmanship in highschool athletics, raising questionsabout how to handle being on eitherend of such a game.

High school baseball has come to the forefront in Dallas due to a recent lopsided game that has brought sportsmanship back into thelight.

Photo by Billy Calzada | San Antonio Express-News

On an uneven fieldLake Highlands at center

of one-sided blowoutsBy JAIME ARON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See BASEBALL PAGE 2B

The Zapata High track and fieldteam competed at the 32-3A districtmeet earlier this week. As has beenthe case more often than not, coachMike Villarreal’s team blazed thecompetiton.

Marlena Garcia and JazmineGarcia went 1-2, respectively, in the3200 run, as Marlena broke a 25-

year-old mark with an 11:50 per-formance.

The win marked a three-peat forMarlena in the 3200. Jazmine, afreshman, finished second, but pre-sented a season-best mark of 11:54.

The girls are currently rankedfirst and second, respectively, in Re-gion IV-AAA.

The Hawks had five other ath-letes who fared well and will bejoining Marlena and Jazmine in Ca-

lallen for regionals:Rafael Benavidez: Third place,

3200 meter run.Kristina De Leon: Second place,

triple jump; third place, high jump.Jorge Guerra: Second place, dis-

cus.Brandi King: First place, high

jump (undefeated all season long inthe event).

Andrew Magee: First place, triplejump; first place, long jump.

TRACK AND FIELD

ON TO REGIONALS

Jazmine Garcia, left, and Marlena Garcia both dominated the 3200 meter run at the district 32-3A meet earlier this week.

Courtesy Photo

Zapata track team thrives at district meetBy DENNIS SILVA IITHE ZAPATA TIMES

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011

TraditionLake Highlands coach

Jay Higgins is among thedean of baseball coaches inTexas. His school opened in1963, and he arrived in1967, making this his 44thseason. Last season, hemade his 25th trip to thestate playoffs, having gottenas far as regional finalstwice. Also last year, hewas inducted into the Tex-as High School BaseballCoaches Association’s Hallof Fame.

He showed up to the Sa-muell game with 783 wins.Although his Wildcats ar-rived at Pleasant GroveField sitting at 0-5, havingdropped three games by asingle run and going down11-1 in another, therewasn’t much doubt histeam would win.

Once upon a time, Sa-muell High was pretty goodat baseball — state champsin 1965, the only suchcrown for a Dallas school.But these days, the schooldoesn’t have enough play-ers to field a junior varsityor freshman team. Samuellwon only about threegames a year when itplayed in Class 4A and thisseason was forced to join5A, the biggest classifica-tion.

Still, first-year coachMike Pena was 1-0 when hearrived for the home gameagainst Lake Highlands.His Spartans had won 18-7over a smaller-divisionschool that hasn’t beatenanyone this season.

Neither coach returnedcalls to talk about the

game. However, by all ac-counts, Higgins tried to dothe right thing. Once histeam was comfortablyahead, Higgins pulled somestarters and emptied hisbench. He let his hittersswing away, but told themnot to take more than onebase. They didn’t steal.

According to a communi-ty newspaper in Lake High-lands, the Wildcats had 44hits — 38 singles, five dou-bles and a triple. Theydidn’t have a single homerun.

Samuell, meanwhile,didn’t have a hit. Two guysreached on errors, so itwasn’t a perfect game.

“We did everything possi-ble,” Higgins told The Dal-las Morning News. “Thenational federation, whichis the rule book we go by,says you have to play fiveinnings before the game isconsidered official. That’swhat I was worried about ifyou stop after three inningsand somebody comes backand says, ‘Well, you guysdidn’t play an officialgame.”’

While Texas coaches fol-low the rule of ending anygame when a team is up by10 runs after five innings,or 4 1/2 if the home team isahead, there is another pro-vision that can apply. Rule4, Section 2, Article 4 of theNational Federation of

Baseball Rule Book — usedin Texas and most states —says a game can be endedearly with the agreement ofboth coaches and the um-pire.

“It’s not ever been usedto my knowledge,” saidMark Cousins, interim ath-letic director for the Uni-versity InterscholasticLeague, the organizationthat oversees public highschools in Texas, and a for-mer associate director incharge of baseball. “Wedon’t necessarily publicizethe rule, but it’s been inthere for a number ofyears.”

Elliot Hopkins is thebaseball rules editor andnational interpreter for theNational Federation ofState High School Associ-ations. He said it was irre-sponsible that coacheswouldn’t be more versed ingame-ending procedures,but the umpires should’veknown the rule — or donesomething.

“We don’t put commonsense in the rule book, butwe hope they use it. Nor dowe legislate integrity, buthopefully they use that aswell,” Hopkins said. “Witha game like this, you worrythat a kid wouldn’t want tocontinue. He might say, ’Wejust got smoked. I’m done.’Nobody wants any of thatto happen.”

It didn’t. All 17 Samuellplayers returned for prac-tice the next day.

An opportunity for thebetter

The Lake Highlandscampus is four miles fromCovenant School, whichdrew headlines two yearsago when its girls basket-ball team beat the girlsfrom Dallas Academy 100-0.The winning coach wasfired.

Darlene Wolf Mooredoesn’t recall that game be-ing mentioned in thestands as Lake Highlandswas routing Samuell. Herson, Ben Wolf, is a seniorand the starting left fielder,and she is a staunch sup-porter of the Wildcats.

“It was nice to win, butthat’s not the way anyonewants to win,” she said ofthe March 8 baseball game.“It was somewhat uncom-fortable. We would’ve likedfor it to end sooner.”

As far as she knows, noparents or fans asked Hig-gins to end it. Instead, theLake Highlands fans begancheering for the Samuellkids, she said.

“When a popped ball wasgoing to the outfield, wewere saying, ‘Get it, get it,”’Moore said. “When theywould miss a fly ball, we’d

groan, ’Ohhhhhhhhh.’ Wewere disappointed. ... Theykept on coming out everyinning. It couldn’t havebeen easy. It sure did makeyou admire their gumption,their stamina, their dedica-tion to their team.”

Higgins did try to stopthe bleeding by orderinghis players to go one baseat a time.

What else could he havedone?

Some coaches let kids ex-periment at a new position,but that risks injury. Somecoaches let kids bat fromthe other side of the plateor simply bunting back tothe mound and not run-ning out hits, but that’sakin to giving up

Hopkins has some otherideas. Different. More con-structive.

“Tell the other coach,’We’ll take the win, youtake the loss. Now, youwant my help? We’ve got 30or 45 minutes left. Let’s dosome drills, let’s practicesome scenarios,”’ he said.

“The young coach wouldcome away with respect forthe older coach and have abasis for mentoring. Thekids would learn how to doa hook slide, or get rid ofthe hitch in his giddy-upand have more control. Theumpires would get to teach,which would make themfeel a whole lot better than

being part of a lopsidedgame. Fans get to listenand watch and learn, andbe part of something that isreally good.”

But, for a wayward pro-gram like Samuell, thismight not be a one-timething.

“So? If it’s 24 games and24 clinics, you’d like tothink they’re getting better,as coaches and players,”Hopkins said. “Maybethey’ll go tell their friends,’This guy taught me how tothrow a slider,’ and a fewmore kids come out. Even-tually, they can build a pro-gram.”

Hopkins recalled howspecial-needs players some-times get into a basketballgame and make a layup orscore a touchdown in foot-ball. There was that collegesoftball game three yearsago where two players car-ried an opponent aroundthe bases after she blew outa knee during a home-runtrot.

He doesn’t recall anysuch heartwarming storyin baseball.

“Playing high schoolsports is supposed to be agood experience. Kids havefun, play for their team,wear their school colors,learn time-managementskills, respect for authority,all of that,” he said. “Wedidn’t see any of that inthis contest. Everyone in-volved failed those kids. Allthe adults let those kidsdown. It doesn’t meanthey’re bad people. We justneed to do better and bebetter. And we have an op-portunity do it.”

BASEBALL Continued from Page 1B

He said it was irresponsible that coaches wouldn’t be more versed ingame-ending procedures, but the umpires should’ve known the rule — ordone something.

ago, perhaps least of all,Woods. Think back to ayear ago here, when hewas first slinking back in-to the game after monthsin hiding and a series ofbotched apologies. Woodsfinished tied for fourth,watched rival Phil Mickel-son slip into a green jack-et, then moved onto thenext major and came evencloser to winning anotherU.S. Open himself. Every-thing went downhill afterthat.

On Thursday, just asWoods was finishing up athree-putt bogey at No. 10,Mickelson was gettingready for the short walkfrom the practice puttinggreen to the first tee.

Leading the way, hiscaddie, Bones Mackay, waswearing white coverallswith the coveted No. 1 onthe left side of his chest,and the roar built slowlyas fans on both sides ofthe roped-off walkwayhowled and leaned in for alook at the defendingchampion. Lefty strode in-to the maelstrom, wavingawkwardly with his glovedright hand and wearingthat goofy smile, soakingin the unqualified adula-tion that Woods once en-joyed and would probablykill to have again.

Tough by any meansBy any measurement,

Mickelson probably hadthe tougher year of thetwo, even with the Mas-ters win. Just as his wifeand mother were recover-ing from bouts of breastcancer, Mickelson was af-flicted with psoriatic ar-thritis, a setback that re-quired him to balance hismedication, diet and con-ditioning routine and costhim the entire second halfof the season. Despite adozen chances to supplantWoods as No. 1 in theworld, he came away emp-ty-handed.

Somewhere in the mid-dle of that slide, Mickelsontalked candidly about howhard it was to concentratefully on golf, an admissionof vulnerability that onlywon him more fans andthe kind of thing youwould never hear fromWoods. Long a fan favor-ite, after a victory inHouston last week, Mickel-son came here as the bet-ting favorite as well, a spotWoods owned the previous

12 years. Both Mickelson,currently ranked third,and Woods, seventh, couldget the top spot in worldrankings with a win here.

“It would really mean alot if he was No. 1 when Ipassed him,” Mickelsonsaid Tuesday in a pre-tour-nament interview. “Thatwould really be cool.

“But he and I both,”Mickelson added, “havesome work to do on ourgames.”

The biggest change inWoods, outwardly at least,was hiring new swingcoach Sean Foley. Signs ofprogress have been fewand far between, whichmight explain why, whenWoods rifled his tee shotinto the rough right of thethird fairway and arriveda few minutes behind it,half the spectators encir-cling his golf ball were em-boldened enough to sug-gest how he should hit thenext shot.

“Punch out sideways,”one called out.

“Hit the stinger,” anoth-er said.

What remains?Woods’ caddie, Steve

Williams, fixed the crowdwith a stare, asked forquiet and then patientlytold a camera crew andspectators near the end ofthe clearing to move toone side or the other.

Afterward, when some-one asked Woods, “Do youwalk away thinking whatcould have been?” heblinked.

“No,” Woods replied.“I’m very pleased. I’mright there in the ball-game. I’m only six backand as I said, we’ve got alot of golf left.”

Pushing the sametheme, another reporterasked, “What do you dowhen putts don’t go in? Doyou go to the practicegreen and work on it?”

“Today is one of thosedays where I hit beautifulputts,” Woods said. “I washitting my lines and theyjust weren’t going in.That’s fine.”

Dozens of other guyscame off Augusta Nationalon Thursday and said al-most the same thing. Nonewas as good, or likely willbe as good, as Tiger Woodswas once. It seems fair tostart asking whetherWoods will ever be thatgood again, too.

WOODS Continued from Page 1B

NEW YORK — TampaBay slugger Manny Rami-rez tested positive for abanned substance for thesecond time and informedMajor League Baseball onFriday that he is retiringrather than face a 100-game suspension.

A person familiar withthe events that led to theannouncement confirmedto The Associated Pressthat Ramirez tested posi-tive for a performance-en-hancing drug. The personspoke on condition of ano-nymity because the natureof Ramirez’ issue withMLB’s drug policy was notpublicly disclosed.

The commissioner’s of-fice announced Ramirez’sdecision in a statement,but provided few details.Ramirez previously serveda 50-game suspension forviolating the drug policywhile he was with the LosAngeles Dodgers and sec-ond-time offenders get dou-ble that penalty.

“Major League Baseballrecently notified MannyRamirez of an issue underMajor League Baseball’sJoint Drug Prevention andTreatment Program,” thestatement said.

“Rather than continuewith the process under theProgram, Ramirez has in-formed MLB that he is re-tiring as an active player. IfRamirez seeks reinstate-ment in the future, the pro-cess under the Drug Pro-gram will be completed.”

MLB said it would haveno further comment.

“The Tampa Bay Rayswere informed today bythe Commissioner’s Officethat Manny Ramirez hasdecided to retire after be-ing informed of an issueunder the Drug Program,”the Rays said in a state-ment. “We are obviouslysurprised and disappoint-ed by this news.”

The 38-year-old outfield-er-designated hitter left theteam earlier this week toattend to what the Rayscalled a family matter.

Ramirez played in onlyfive games for the Rays,with one hit in 17 at-bats.

The 12-time All-Staragreed to a $2 million, one-

year contract with the de-fending AL East cham-pions in the offseason, hop-ing to re-establish himselfas one of the game’s fearedhitters.

Ramirez struggled withinjuries but still hit .298with nine homers and 42RBIs in 90 games for theDodgers and White Soxlast season. He’s a career.312 hitter with 555 homeruns in 18-plus seasons, in-cluding some of his bestwith the Cleveland Indiansand Boston Red Sox.

The Rays, winlessthrough their first sixgames, hoped the Mannythey signed this seasonwould be the same Mannywho was MVP of the 2004

World Series when he waswith the Red Sox.

At his best, Ramirezwas one of the game’sgreat hitters, finishing inthe top five in MVP votingfour times. He led theAmerican League with a.349 batting average in2002, finished second thefollowing year, and had anAL-best 43 home runs in2004.

At his worst, Ramirezwas criticized for his lack-adaisical nature, particu-larly in the outfield. Morethan once, managers andteammates complainedthat Ramirez didn’t seemto care about playing de-fense or wouldn’t hustledown the line after a hit.

Slugger Ramirez retiresBy DAVE SKRETTAASSOCIATED PRESS

The Tampa Bay Rays’ Manny Ramirez (24) grounds out to shortstop during the second inning againstthe Baltimore Orioles, Friday, April 1, 2011, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Orioles catcher Matt Wieters, left,looks on.

Photo by Chris O’Meara | AP

against the home run king. The panel worked about

seven hours, includinglunch and breaks, beforeadjourning until Monday.

Illston refused to give ju-rors the full transcript ofthe Hoskins-Anderson tape,because one wasn’t placedin evidence during the trialthat began March 21. Butshe allowed them to rehearthe portions of the record-ing that were first playedfor them on March 23 andreplayed Thursday duringthe prosecution’s closing.

“Everything that I’vebeen doing at this point,it’s all undetectable,” An-derson said on the tape.

“See, the stuff that I have ...we created it. And youcan’t, you can’t buy it any-where. You can’t get it any-where else.”

Anderson, who was sentto prison March 22 becausehe refused to testify in theBonds case, was releasedFriday because the trialwas over.

Even without taking thewitness stand he was a bigpresence in the courtroom.On the recording, made byHoskins, Anderson talks ofinjecting Bonds. Andersonsays he doesn’t use onespot, “I move it all over theplace” in order to avoidcysts.

Both the prosecution anddefense played portions ofthe recording during thetrial, but only the prosecu-tion showed jurors a tran-script that allowed them tofollow the often-muffledsounds. Assistant U.S. At-torney Jeffrey Nedrowhanded out transcriptsagain Friday while the gov-ernment portion wasplayed back. When the de-fense portion was replayed,most of the jurors still werelooking down at the prose-cution transcript. Theywere not allowed to takethe transcript to the juryroom.

While the prosecution al-

so read along, Bonds andhis lawyers focused on thejurors, trying to pick upany signals.

The 46-year-old formerMVP, dressed in a darksuit, white shirt andstriped tie, seemed morefidgety than he had beenduring the trial.

Illston told the jury lateFriday that Kathy Hoskins’testimony will be read backto them when deliberationsresume Monday.

Hoskins was Bonds’ per-sonal shopper and claimsto have seen Anderson in-ject him with an unknownsubstance in the navel in2002.

BONDS Continued from Page 1B

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I took the copier to an of-fice-supply store to seewhat was wrong and if itcould be fixed. I questionedthe repairman about whatthe problem was. Helaughed and said all hecould find was a big gob ofcat hair. I sure wasn’tlaughing when I was hand-ed a bill for $80. When I gothome, I got a big towel anddraped it over the machine.Lizzie can still lie and sleepon the copier, and I don’thave to worry about anoth-er big bill for repair. —Carole F. in Warriors Mark,Pa.

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4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Baseball SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011

MIAMI — The FloridaMarlins begin their firsttrip of the season Friday,and manager Edwin Ro-driguez is taking a laptopto monitor his website.

Rodriguez enjoys com-puters as a hobby andbuilt the site himself.

It’s in Spanish and di-rected primarily at friendsand fans in his nativePuerto Rico.

The site — eldirigente-.com — has been up for acouple of months. “El diri-gente” is Spanish for “themanager.”

“I had a lot of fans andfriends in Puerto Ricoasking me how thingswork in the big leaguesfrom the manager’s stand-point — how spring train-ing is run, all those ques-tions,” Rodriguez said.

With a chuckle he added,“I have some experiencebuilding and keeping awebsite.

“So I said, let’s buildone so I don’t have to an-swer a hundred ques-tions.”

Rodriguez does answerquestions on the site,which he said deal morewith the administrativepart of the job than withgame strategy.

He said he spends 30minutes to an hour on hissite every morning, andhe hopes to write a weeklycolumn on how things aregoing with the Marlins.

Because of time con-straints, he has not yetbranched out into an Eng-lish version.

Rodriguez became thefirst Puerto Rican-bornmanager in major leaguehistory when he took overthe Marlins last June.

Florida Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez (36) watches during theseventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, Monday, March 28,in Jupiter, Fla.

Photo by Carlos Osorio | AP

Marlins’ managerembraces website

By STEVEN WINEASSOCIATED PRESS

OMAHA, Neb. — Col-lege baseball teams arehitting half as many homeruns and averaging a runless per game halfwaythrough the season.

Blame — or credit —the new metal bats put in-to play this year.

The average Division Iteam is hitting 0.47 homeruns a game and scoring5.63 runs, compared with0.85 home runs and 6.98runs at a comparable pointlast season.

The NCAA researcheddata through Sunday’sgames and released thefindings Thursday.

Coaches Mike Fox ofNorth Carolina and MarkMarquess of Stanford saidthe numbers support theiranecdotal evidence — andthey’re not happy about it.

“I didn’t see what waswrong with the bats lastyear,” Fox said. “I thoughtlast year there were greatpitching performances,and if you could pitch, youcould beat the hitter. Therewere just enough homeruns to keep it interest-ing.”

If the trend continues,Marquess fears losingfans.

“I’m a little concernedit’s too much,” the 35th-year Cardinal coach said.“I was concerned about

making any change whenwe’re doing so well as faras the popularity of collegebaseball. I’ve been at this along time, and it’s neverbeen as popular as it isnow.”

College baseball officialsgradually have been tak-ing pop out of bats formore than a decade. Theturning point was the 1998College World Series,when there were a record62 home runs in 14 games.Southern California’s 21-14championship-game winover Arizona State fea-tured seven home runs

and 39 hits. The new metal bats are

designed to perform morelike wood.

They have shrunkensweet spots designed to de-crease the exit speeds ofthe ball off the bat, mean-ing lower power numbersand ERAs.

Among the NCAA’s oth-er findings, comparingmidseason 2010 to thisyear: The overall battingaverage has dropped from.301 to .279; ERA from 5.83to 4.62; and the number ofshutouts has jumped from277 to 444.

Advocates argue thatthe reduced speed withwhich the ball exits thebat makes the game saferfor pitchers and infielders.

They also say keepingthe offense in check speedsup games and restores in-tegrity to the game.

Jeff Hurd, chairman ofthe NCAA baseball rulescommittee, said he’s re-ceived generally positivefeedback about the newbats from coaches.

Marquess said the factcollege baseball doesn’tuse wooden bats is part ofthe game’s appeal.

A whole new swing

Mississippi’s State’s Jaron Shepherd bunts in the first inning against Southern Mississippi during acollege baseball game Tuesday night in Pearl, Miss.

Photo by Rogelio V. Solis | AP

Metal bats playinto NCAA ball

By ERIC OLSONASSOCIATED PRESS