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THREE’S COMPANYLADY HAWKS VOLLEYBALL WANTS DISTRICT THREE-PEAT, 1B

U.S. Customs and BorderProtection officers announcedthe confiscation of the largestcounterfeit seizure in moneta-ry value in the port’s historyFriday morning.

Approximately 1,120 LouisArden and Audemars Piguetreplica watches and more than3,000 watches used to mask thetransportation of the counter-feit items were seized.

Joe Uribe, Laredo port of en-try assistant port director, saidhad the 1,120 watches beengenuine, they’d be worth an es-timated $28.7 million.

The seized watches variedin aesthetic authenticity, withsome displaying plastic face-plates meant to resemble Au-demars Piguet’s trademarkedbrushed and polished surfacesthat display hexagonal screwsencircling the brushed bezel.

Uribe said though the batchhad no Audemars Piguet mark-ings and were not made of thesame quality materials, Aude-mars intellectual propertyrights are protected via thefaceplate’s trademarked de-sign.

Items that infringe on trade-mark, copyrights and patentsare considered theft of intellec-tual property, said NancyBecker, Laredo field operationsacting director.

On a national level, Beckersays the production and trans-portation of counterfeit items“threaten America’s economicvitality and international se-curity.

“Trading these illicit goodsfunds criminal activities andelicits crime. To protect both

ON THE BORDER

Huge seizure by CBP

Import Specialist Enforcement Team at U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Laredo Port of Entry display a shipment ofcounterfeit watches combining a value of $28.7 million on Friday afternoon at the World Trade Bridge conference roomduring a press conference. CBP seized 10 boxes containing 1,120 watches on June 29..

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

Counterfeitwatchesfound

By STEPHANIE IBARRATHE ZAPATA TIMES

See SEIZURE PAGE 10A

During County Judge RosalvaGuerra’s term from 2006 to 2010,Commissioners Court went frommeeting twice a month to once.

On Monday, commissionerswill consider adding anothermeeting to the monthly docket asa way to streamline county pay-ments, as well as to pre-approvepayments before invoices arebrought to the court.

The commissioners meet regu-larly on the second Monday of ev-ery month. If approved, the mea-sure would add a meeting on the

ZAPATA COUNTY

Courtmulls

monthlymeets

By JJ VELASQUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See COMMISSIONERS PAGE 10A

MEXICO CITY — The official count in Mexico’s presi-dential election concluded on Friday with results showingthat former ruling party candidate Enrique Peña Nietowon by a 6.6 percentage-point margin, almost exactly thesame lead as a vote-night quick count gave him.

The final count by the country’s electoral authority,which included a ballot-by-ballot recount at more thanhalf of polling places, showed Peña Nieto getting 38.21 per-cent of votes in Sunday’s election. Leftist Andres ManuelLopez Obrador, got 31.59 percent.

Lopez Obrador said he will file a formal legal challengeto the count in electoral courts next week, based on theallegation that Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary

Party, or PRI, engaged in vote-buying that illegally tiltedmillions of votes. PRI officials deny the charge.

“Rivers of illicitly obtained money were used to buymillions of votes,” Lopez Obrador told a news conferenceFriday. He also claimed that the recount of ballots at morethan half of polling places had not been carried out asthoroughly as promised.

Josefina Vazquez Mota of the conservative National Ac-tion Party got 25.41 percent of votes cast, and the smallNew Alliance Party got 2.29 percent, barely passing thetwo-percent barrier needed to preserve the party’s placeon future ballots.

Almost 2.5 percent of ballots where voided; while somevoters in Mexico void their ballots as a form of protest,

PRESIDENTIAL VOTE

A man protests against major Mexican TV network Televisa in frontof the Democratic Revolution Party headquarters where AndresManuel Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate, gave a news confer-ence, in Mexico City, on Friday.

Photo by Alexandre Meneghini | AP

Mexico confirms Peña Nieto winBy ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See PEÑA NIETO PAGE 10A

A routine traffic stop in Lope-ño, off U.S. 83, landed a Zapatateenager in jail and yielded morethan 1,600 pounds of marijuanaFriday morning.

For now, Mario Alberto Esqui-vel, 19, is facing a possession ofmarijuana charge, a second-de-gree felony punishable with twoto 20 years in prison and a$10,000 fine. However, Zapata

LOCAL CRIME

Deputiesfind poton truck

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See BUST PAGE 10A

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012

SATURDAY, JULY 7The Red Cross will host “Learn

How the Red Cross Helps Communitiesduring Disaster” today from 10 a.m. to1 p.m. at the Laredo Public Library’sMultipurpose Room, 1120 E. CaltonRoad. Find out how to connect with lo-cal Red Cross staff and volunteers.There will be refreshements and doorprices. The event is free and open toeveryone. For more information, contactIsela Sanchez at 956-726-4778 or ise-la.sanchez@redcross.org.

The Texas A&M International Uni-versity Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetariumwill show “Earth, Moon, and Sun” at 5p.m., “Seven Wonders” at 6 p.m. and“2012: Ancient Skies Ancient Mysteries”at 7 p.m. General Admission is $4 forchildren and $5 for adults. Premiumshows are $1 more. For more informa-tion, call 956-326-3663.

MONDAY, JULY 9The Zapata Commissioners Court

will have its regular meeting today at 9a.m.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11The Texas A&M International Uni-

versity Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetariumwill show “Attack of the Space Pirates”at 4 p.m. and “Star Signs” at 5 p.m.General admission is $3. For more in-formation, call 956-326-3663.

The American Cancer Society andDoctors Hospital will offer I Can Copetoday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at DoctorsHospital’s Women’s Center ConferenceRoom. I Can Cope is a series of classesthat helps patients meet the challengesof cancer by clarifying cancer facts andmyths. Classes are free and open tothe public. To RSVP or for more infor-mation, call Diana Juarez at 723-9682.

SATURDAY, JULY 14The Laredo Specialty Hospital’s

free CEU seminar for Parkinson’s dis-ease is today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.There will be a lecture and hands-ontraining. Seminar has approved CEUsfor PTs and OTs. Breakfast and lunchwill be provided. Certificates of comple-tion will be given at the end of theseminar. Space is limited. To reserve aspace, contact Nick Nilest at 956-764-8381 or nicknilest@ernesthealth.com.

The Texas A&M International Uni-versity Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetariumwill show “IBEX: Search for the Edge ofthe Solar System” at 5 p.m., “ViolentUniverse” at 6 p.m. and “2012: AncientSkies, Ancient Mysteries” at 7 p.m.General admission is $4 for childrenand $5 for adults. Premium shows are$1 more. For more information, call956-326-3663.

MONDAY, JULY 16The Area Health Education Center

is hosting the Youth Health ServiceCorp Training for high school studentsinterested in a health care-related fieldfrom 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UT Health Sci-ence Center Laredo Campus. The eventprovides hands-on activities that high-lights health careers and motivates stu-dents to pursue a higher education. Formore information, call AHEC at 956-712-0037 or mrgbaheccoord@stx.rr.com.

SATURDAY, AUG. 11The Back To School Kids Fishing

Tournament takes place today.

MONDAY, AUG. 27First day of school for Zapata

County Independent School District.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 21The Sun Country Fishing Tourna-

ment begins and runs through Friday,Sept. 28, at Falcon Lake.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 22The Bud Light 2012 San Antonio

Division tournament takes place at Fal-con Lake.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18The Anglers Quests tournaments

begin, to run through Sunday, Oct. 21.

SATURDAY, OCT. 27The Bass Champs South Region

Championship takes place today andSunday, Oct. 28.

SATURDAY, NOV. 17The Bud Light Tournament Fall

2012 San Antonio Division tournamentreturns to Falcon Lake.

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

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, July 7,the 189th day of 2012. Thereare 177 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On July 7, 1937, the SecondSino-Japanese War erupted in-to full-scale conflict as Imperi-al Japanese forces attacked theMarco Polo Bridge in Beijing.(The end of the fighting coinci-ded with the conclusion ofWorld War II.)

On this date:In 1846, U.S. annexation of

California was proclaimed atMonterey (mahn-tuh-RAY’) af-ter the surrender of a Mexicangarrison.

In 1865, four people werehanged in Washington, D.C.,for conspiring with JohnWilkes Booth to assassinatePresident Abraham Lincoln.

In 1887 (New Style calen-dar), artist Marc Chagall wasborn in Vitebsk (vee’-tehpsk)in present-day Belarus.

In 1898, the United Statesannexed Hawaii.

In 1919, the first Transconti-nental Motor Convoy, in whicha U.S. Army convoy of motori-zed vehicles crossed the Unit-ed States, departed Washing-ton, D.C. (The trip ended inSan Francisco on Sept. 6,1919.)

In 1930, construction beganon Boulder Dam (later HooverDam).

In 1941, U.S. forces took uppositions in Iceland, Trinidadand British Guiana to forestallany Nazi invasion, eventhough the United States hadnot yet entered the SecondWorld War.

In 1952, the Republican Na-tional Convention, which nom-inated Gen. Dwight D. Eisen-hower for president and Sen.Richard Nixon for vice presi-dent, opened in Chicago.

In 1969, Canada’s House ofCommons gave final approvalto the Official Languages Act,making French equal to Eng-lish throughout the nationalgovernment.

In 1981, President RonaldReagan announced he wasnominating Arizona JudgeSandra Day O’Connor to be-come the first female justiceon the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1983, 11-year-old Saman-tha Smith of Manchester,Maine, left for a visit to the So-viet Union at the personal in-vitation of Soviet leader YuriV. Andropov

In 1987, Lt. Col. OliverNorth began his long-awaitedpublic testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing, telling Con-gress that he had “never car-ried out a single act, not one,”without authorization.

Ten years ago: Afghani-stan’s vice president, AbdulQadirwas buried with full mil-itary honors a day after beingassassinated. Texas Gov. RickPerry saw by helicopter thedevastation days of torrentialrain had brought to centraland southern Texas. LleytonHewitt crushed David Nalban-dian in straight sets in theWimbledon final to win hissecond Grand Slam title.

Today’s Birthdays: Musi-cian-conductor Doc Severinsenis 85. Pulitzer Prize-winningauthor David McCullough is79. Rock star Ringo Starr is 72.Singer-musician Warren Entn-er (The Grass Roots) is 69. Popsinger David Hodo (The Vil-lage People) is 65. Olympic sil-ver and bronze medal figureskater Michelle Kwan is 32.

Thought for Today:“Nothing ever comes to one,that is worth having, except asa result of hard work.” —Booker T. Washington, Ameri-can educator and author (1856-1915).

TODAY IN HISTORY

FORT HOOD — Less than two months be-fore the high-profile murder trial of the Ar-my psychiatrist charged in the 2009 FortHood shooting rampage, defense attorneysFriday continued questioning the juryscreening process but received access tosome documents.

At the pretrial hearing, the judge, Col.Gregory Gross, gave Maj. Nidal Hasan’s at-torneys access to some government docu-ments, including background information onhundreds of Fort Hood soldiers who didn’tend up in the jury pool. However, Gross de-nied a defense request for the same informa-tion on those from other Army posts whocould be eligible to be jurors.

The court-martial is to start Aug. 20 on theTexas Army post. Hasan, an American-born

Muslim, faces the death penalty if convictedof 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32counts of attempted premeditated murder inthe November 2009 shootings.

Jurors must be of Hasan’s rank or higher,and they will be brought from Fort Hood andArmy posts across the country. Death penal-ty cases in the military require at least 12 ju-ry members, more than in other cases. Andunlike other trials, their verdict must beunanimous in finding guilt or assessing asentence.

Hasan’s attorneys on Friday also said theywant to interview Fort Hood’s commandinggeneral and staff judge advocate separatelyabout their initial screening process for po-tential jurors. Gross is allowing defense at-torneys to question the officials together, buta separate interview for the staff judge ad-vocate is being considered.

AROUND TEXAS

This undated photo shows Nidal Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood killings. A military judge was to decide Friday whetherto further delay the trial of Hasan.

Photo by Bell County Sheriff’s Department via The Temple Daily Telegram | AP

Lawyers eye jurorsBy ANGELA K. BROWN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ex-South Texas deputyadmits to drug conspiracy

SAN ANTONIO — A formerBexar County deputy has plead-ed guilty to charges related towhat prosecutors say was a con-spiracy with a fellow jailer toprotect drug shipments in ex-change for money.

Hector Franco pleaded guiltyFriday to a conspiracy count andtwo of trying to distribute co-caine. The plea deal with prose-cutors would call for five yearsin prison followed by five yearson parole.

Man chased by person ingorilla costume hit by car

SAN ANTONIO — Police saya man fled a tropical-themed SanAntonio nightclub and was hitby a car as a person in a gorillacostume who’d heard him threat-en suicide chased after him.

The incident happened in thepre-dawn hours Friday outsideCoco Bongo, a bar near San An-tonio International Airport.

Family of 20 flees Mexico,seeks asylum

EL PASO — Twenty membersof a family of Mexican business-men and politicians are seekingasylum in the U.S. after two wererecently murdered in their smallnorthern Mexican town.

They fled after unknown gun-men killed Rodolfo Porras onJune 17. His son, Jaime, was fa-tally shot two days later.

Rodolfo’s brother, Hector, saysthey were targeted by extortion-ists linked to the ruling local po-litical party. He says Rodolfo waskilled when they reported thethreats.

Texas man says he regretskilling his nagging wifeTYLER — A retired East Tex-

as dentist says he regrets fatallyshooting his wife of 26 years.

Dr. Bobby Nichols said on Fri-day that he misses and loved hiswife. He said, "We just got in afight and I screwed up and killedher with a gun."

Fort Worth crime lab toresume DNA testing

FORT WORTH — The FortWorth police crime lab will re-sume DNA testing a decade afterquestions were raised aboutwhether its tests were valid.

The lab stopped DNA tests inOctober 2002 after prosecutorsdid not seek the death penalty ina capital murder case due to con-cerns raised about one of thelab’s scientists. An investigationlater found widespread problemsat the lab.

ICE deports El Salvadorman wanted for homicide

SAN ANTONIO — Immigra-tion authorities say they have de-ported an El Salvador man want-ed in his home country for hom-icide and aggravated assault.

U.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement says in a statementFriday that Carlos Alberto To-bar-Guevara was deportedThursday.

— Compiled from AP reports

George Zimmerman leavesFla. jail on $1M bond

ORLANDO, Fla. — Neighbor-hood watch leader George Zim-merman was released from jailFriday for a second time whilehe awaits his second-degree mur-der trial for fatally shootingTrayvon Martin.

Zimmerman left the SeminoleCounty Jail a day after CircuitJudge Kenneth Lester granted a$1 million bail with strict condi-tions.

Midwest can’t get relieffrom oppressive heat

DETROIT — The NationalWeather Service said the record-breaking heat that has baked thenation’s midsection for severaldays was slowly moving into themid-Atlantic states and North-east. Excessive-heat warnings re-mained in place Friday for all ofIowa, Indiana and Illinois as wellas much of Wisconsin, Michigan,

Missouri, Ohio and Kentucky.

Conn. family selling LouGehrig’s home run ballNEW HAVEN, Conn. — The

84-year-old baseball has been sit-

ting in Elizabeth Gott’s drawerfor years, but now she’s hoping itwill pay off her son’s medicalschool debt.

New York Yankees sluggerLou Gehrig smashed the ballduring the 1928 World Series.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

In this June 29 photo, George Zimmerman, left, appears before Circuit JudgeKenneth R. Lester Jr. during a bond hearing in Sanford, Fla. A Florida judge onThursday granted Zimmerman bond for a second time. Bail was set at $1 million.

Photo by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel | AP

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

CONTACT US

SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012 Local THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

ASSAULTAn assault was reported at

12:02 a.m. June 30 at the FalconMotel, 106 S. U.S. 83

An assault was reported at12:22 a.m. July 1 at Seventh Streetand Guerrero Avenue.

An aggravated assault withdeadly weapon was reported at4:08 p.m. Thursday in San Ygnacio.

BURGLARYA burglary of a vehicle was

reported at 8:45 a.m. June 28 inthe 400 block of Miraflores Avenue.

A burglary of a building wasreported at 11:06 a.m. Monday inthe 200 block of Sixth Street.

A burglary of a habitationwas reported at 5:55 p.m. Mondayat Tierra Blanca Ranch in southernZapata County.

TERRORISTIC THREATA person threatened to

harm a family member at 11:36p.m. July 1 in the 1800 block ofVilla Avenue. A terroristic threat re-port was filed.

THEFTA misdemeanor theft was

reported at 3:35 a.m. June 28 atthe Family Dollar at Ninth Avenueand U.S. 83.

A theft was reported at 7:14p.m. June 28 in the 1800 block ofBrazos Street.

RECKLESS DRIVINGA reckless driving incident

was reported at 11:18 p.m. June 29in the intersection of Fifth Avenueand U.S. 83.

THE BLOTTER

AUSTIN — Texas ranksworst in the nation inhealth care services anddelivery, according to anannual scorecard issuedby the federal Agency forHealth Care Research andQuality.

In nine out of 12 cate-gories, Texas rated weakor very weak. The onlyarea where Texas earnedthe above average rank-ing of “strong” was inmaternal and child healthcare measures. Out of apossible 100 points, Texasearned 31.61, while Min-nesota, the highest rank-ing state, scored 67.31.

The agency identified155 areas where it couldcompare the quality ofhealth services across thecountry, such as infantmortality and obesityrates. Researchers usedthat data to generate bothnational and regional av-erages for each area, andthey then compared eachstate to the national andregional averages to gen-erate a score.

The report is designedto help politicians, policymakers, private insurersand state and federalagencies identifystrengths and weaknessesin state health care pro-grams.

Stephanie Goodman,spokeswoman for the Tex-as Health and HumanServices Commission,said Thursday that the re-port goes far beyond whatstate agencies control, butshe said it demonstratesthe need to improve ac-cess to preventive healthcare.

“Late last year Texasreceived approval for anew effort that will helpfund innovative local pro-jects,” she said. “Hospi-tals and other health careproviders have come to-gether to form regionalpartnerships, and they’llsoon be sending the statetheir plans for makingbetter use of Medicaidfunds to expand access topreventive services andreduce the need for ex-pensive emergency roomcare.”

Texas scored particu-larly poorly in the homehealth care category, withthe study finding that thestate provided little sup-

port to the elderly anddisabled who chose to liveat home. Texas alsoranked weak or veryweak in preventive, acuteand chronic care delivery.

The state’s scoresslipped from last year intreating cancer and dia-betes patients.

The Texas Medicaidlaw for the disabled andpoor offers one of themost limited health careprograms in the nation,and more than 25 percentof Texans do not havehealth insurance of anykind, which is the highestuninsured rate in the na-tion.

The poor state of theTexas health care systemhas particular relevanceas state lawmakers beginto consider how to re-spond now that PresidentBarack Obama’s federalhealth care overhaul hasbeen upheld by the U.S.Supreme Court.

Republicans, who con-trol every statewide office

and represent a majorityin the Legislature, haverejected the new federallaw, which calls for al-most every eligible U.S.citizen to get health in-surance. Some havepledged to block any ef-fort to expand Texas Med-icaid, which is a jointstate and federal pro-gram, in order to getmore people insured.

Last year, Texas law-makers underfundedMedicaid by more than $4billion and that bill willcome due when they meetagain next year. Top offi-cials have estimated thatthe Legislature will needto find at least $10 billionin new funding for Medi-caid at a time when Gov.Rick Perry has pledgednot to increase statespending.

Democrats have calledon the state to close taxloopholes to raise moremoney for both healthcare and education pro-grams.

Texas health care ‘worst’By CHRIS TOMLINSON

ASSOCIATED PRESS “Late last year Texas received approval for a neweffort that will help fund innovative local projects.” TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION SPOKESWOMAN STEPHANIE GOODMAN

The U.S. Department ofHomeland Security (DHS)has awarded Zapata Coun-ty $441,999 under OperationStonegarden, an initiativeto fund the enhancement oflocalized law enforcementborder security operations,according to a Monday an-nouncement.

These funds will supportthe Zapata County Sheriff ’sOffice’s efforts to coordi-nate with other local, stateand federal law enforce-ment agencies to saturatespecific areas of interestwith law enforcement pres-ence.

“Especially during thisera of budget cuts, grantslike these are crucial in-vestments in our regionand its future,” said Rep.Henry Cuellar, rankingmember of the Committeeon Homeland Security’sSubcommittee on Border

and Maritime Security.“These Operation Stone-garden funds will help ourlocal law enforcementmembers continue theirgood work to keep our bor-der strong and maintainthe safety of our bordercommunities.”

In fiscal year 2012, DHSawarded $46,600,000 ingrants nationally, including$15,688,632 in grants to Tex-as. Zapata County beganreceiving Operation Stone-garden funds in 2008, andsince that time has re-ceived a total of $5,788,249in Operation Stonegardenfunds.

In past Stonegarden op-erations, the Zapata CountySheriff ’s Office participat-ed in joint ventures to in-crease visibility and patrolto decrease criminal activ-ities along the border inpursuit of strengthening anelevated level of homelandsecurity.

Zapara getsfederal grant

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The Texas A&M InternationalUniversity Lamar Bruni VergaraScience Center Planetarium willtake a look at “Ancient Skies, An-cient Mysteries” with shows todayand Sunday.

The film looks to the heavens andhow ancient cultures worked to in-terpret and understand the sky’smovements and patterns. Some de-veloped calendars, some predicted

the future, and some worshippedwhat they considered magical ob-jects in the sky.

Other shows this weekend are“Earth, Moon and Sun” at 5 p.m.,“Seven Wonders” at 6 p.m. and pre-mium showings of “Ancient Skies,Ancient Mysteries,” at 7 p.m.

General admission is $4 for chil-dren and $5 for adults. Premiumshows are $1 more.

Session II of the planetarium’ssummer offering of an “Intro to Ro-

botics Workshop” for ages 6-10 willbegin Friday, July 20.

Family Movie Day is scheduledSaturday, July 21, and will featureshowings of the animated feature“Bolt” at noon, 2, 4 and 6 p.m.

For more information on planeta-rium programs, call 956.326.3663 orvisit tamiu.edu/planetarium.

University summer hours are 8a.m. through 6 p.m. Monday-Thurs-day and from 8 a.m. through noonon Fridays.

‘Skies’ on tap at TAMIUSPECIAL TO THE TIMES

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012

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

AUSTIN — Gov.Rick Perry ispredictablytorqued about

the U.S. Supreme Court’sOK of Obamacare. I, too,am unhappy about someparts of the ruling, butI’m just a guy who typesfor a living. Perry is theGreatest State Ever’s gov-ernor for life (excitingplans are being made forthe upcoming Jubilee)and was a leading presi-dential contender until hedecided to run.

Perry was not shyabout venting in the wakeof the June 28 SupremeCourt ruling.

“I am more concernedthan ever about the direc-tion of our country,” hetold supporters in anemail. “The court’s deci-sion, dressed up in lega-lese, is simply a betrayalof our constitutional lib-erties.”

Not only that, Perrywrote, the high courtruled you can be taxed“for not purchasing an in-surance product.” (I’mwith you, governor, andI’m joining the pitchforkbrigade when the feds or-der me to buy auto insur-ance from that annoyingFlo lady on TV.)

“In other words, youcan be fined for exercis-ing freedom,” our gover-nor wrote. “If you’re mad,please know I share youranger.”

At this point, we prob-ably should get somebodyto work with our gover-nor on the difference be-tween being mad (mental-ly disturbed, deranged, in-sane, demented) andbeing angry (feeling orshowing anger or strongresentment).

“Yesterday,” Perry, madand/or angry, wrote a dayafter the decision, “wepaid the highest price yetfor surrendering our ma-jority for a few shortyears.”

And, as usual, our gov-ernor has a plan of ac-tion. It involves yourmoney. He wants you tosend him some of it.

“Well, I say it’s time totake our country back,”he wrote. “If you agree, Iask for a contribution of$250, $100, $50 or $25.”

I like the way hethinks, so much so that Imay adopt his strategy.Pending approval frommy bosses, I’m thinkingabout ending my columnswith Perry’s words: ”Ifyou agree, I ask for a con-tribution of $250, $100, $50or $25.”

What, one might ask,does our governor plan todo with the money he col-lects in response to hispitch?

“I’m not on the ballotthis November,” he wrote,now comfortable with therejection of his attempt toget on it, “but I will becampaigning like I am be-cause we can’t afford fourmore years of a president

who wants to abridge ourfreedom on the altar ofbureaucracy.”

Perry says he wouldspend your money on re-pealing “every last wordof Obamacare, and toreinstitute both a loveand respect for the 10thAmendment of the Consti-tution of the UnitedStates.”

It’s uncertain howmuch that would cost.Sounds expensive. Andyour money could helpPerry take the campaignto other states, maybesome in which it couldhelp for him to havefriends should he decideto run for president againin 2016.

Another Perry note:This week, he appointedAustin lawyer James L.“Jim” Bayless to thethree-member Texas StateCemetery Committee.Bayless replaces MikeMcKinney, longtime lob-byist for the WholesaleBeer Distributors of Tex-as, who died in Februaryand now is buried in thecemetery.

Bayless brings an im-pressive resume, includ-ing a degree from SMU’sDedman School of Law. Ithink it’s great that wehave a cemetery commit-tee member educated at aplace named for a Ded-man.

If you agree, I ask for acontribution of $250, $100,$50 or $25.

Nonsense out of theway, let’s talk about myFourth of July column inwhich I joked that the keymoment in the Revolu-tionary War came whenthe Brits agreed to marchin straight lines, wear redcoats and bang drumswhile the colonists slith-ered around and hid be-hind rocks.

Two readers with goodcomedy memories told methat was a Bill Cosbyjoke. They are correct. It’son a recording of a 1963Cosby performance. I’vebeen using the line foryears and have no specificmemory of its genesis. Icould’ve heard it directlyfrom Cosby a half-centuryor so ago or I could’vepicked it up from a fellowamateur who heard itfrom Cosby.

Either way, the columnshould have attributed theline to Cosby. My thanksto the two readers whopointed this out and myapologies to Mr. Cosby,who, to the best of myknowledge, has neverused any of my lamelines.

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

If you agreewith Perry,

pay him“KEN HERMAN

OTHER VIEWS

The Zapata Times doesnot publish anonymousletters.

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

We want to assure our

readers that a letter iswritten by the personwho signs the letter. TheZapata Times does not al-low the use of pseudo-nyms.

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

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

In the days following theSupreme Court ruling onObamacare, a consensus de-veloped to explain the moti-vation of Chief Justice JohnRoberts in the landmark de-cision. Roberts’ vote withthe four liberal justices onthe court and the opinionhe authored for the major-ity was as much informedby politics as jurisprudence.

On the left, New YorkTimes columnist ThomasFriedman wrote that Ro-berts “was inspired by asimple noble leadership im-pulse at a critical juncturein our history — to pre-serve the legitimacy and in-tegrity of the SupremeCourt.” The New Yorker’sJonathan Chait comment-ed, “Striking down the lawat this moment would havebrought the Court to a tip-ping point.” By abandoninghis conservative philosophy,Roberts “averted an imme-diate crisis of legitimacy.”

On the right, WashingtonPost columnist MichaelGerson said, “Roberts’ de-sire to defer, particularly ona divisive issue in the mid-

dle of a presidential elec-tion, is the right tendency,the correct Burkean in-stinct.” Charles Krautham-mer, his colleague at thePost, summarized Roberts’thinking this way: “Law up-held, Supreme Court’s repu-tation for neutrality main-tained.”

Perhaps. Such analysesgo a long way in explainingthe Roberts ruling’s legalis-tic contortions.

But for the chief justice’snewfound admirers, espe-cially the progressive oneswho only a few weeks agoconsidered Roberts to be aright-wing automaton, it’sworth considering a differ-ent explanation. If a chiefjustice renders decisions ac-cording to a political ba-rometer rather than the let-ter of the law, perhaps he’seven wilier than the con-ventional wisdom gives himcredit for being.

After Bush vs. Gore andCitizens United, a SupremeCourt ruling that struckdown the Affordable CareAct could have generated abacklash that would havepropelled Democrats andPresident Obama throughNovember. By casting the

decisive vote to uphold Oba-macare, Roberts has giventhat impetus to Republicansand challenger Mitt Rom-ney. Rather than taking onefor the country, as Fried-man put it, maybe Robertswas giving one to fellowconservatives — and doingso prior to a presidentialelection that may well de-termine the fate of four Su-preme Court nominations.

Justices Antonin Scalia,Anthony Kennedy, StephenBreyer and Ruth BaderGinsburg are all 73 or older.Ginsburg has also beentreated for pancreatic can-cer. Either way it was decid-ed, this decision was boundto highlight the power ofpresidential appointments.By conceding the Obama-care battle — in effect,throwing it — Roberts mayhave enhanced the pros-pects of victory in the warfor conservative control ofthe court.

Or perhaps the Robertsruling is just a bad decision— a train wreck of politicaland judicial forces. In onesection Roberts writes,“The Affordable Care Actdoes not require that thepenalty for failing to com-

ply with the individualmandate be treated as atax” and, therefore, the An-ti-Injunction Act does notapply. Pages later, he holdsthat it “may for constitu-tional purposes be consid-ered a tax,” elsewhere thatit “may reasonably be char-acterized as a tax,” andelsewhere still that “no onewould doubt that this lawimposed a tax.”

Roberts compares the in-dividual mandate to a taxCongress might impose onhomeowners who fail tocomply with a hypotheticallaw requiring them to pur-chase energy-efficient win-dows. As with government-mandated health care, thewindows analogy appeals toliberal sensibilities.

But imagine a differentCongress imposing a tax onhomeowners who fail tocomply with a hypotheticallaw requiring them to keepand bear arms as a necessi-ty of securing a free state —a concept that is actuallyenshrined in the Constitu-tion. Maybe then, some ofits enthusiasts might recog-nize the Roberts decision’sintellectual muddle and thepolitical peril it contains.

COLUMN

Did Roberts get tricky?By JONATHAN GURWITZ

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

WEST PALM BEACH,Fla. — I had no idea howinspired I’d feel about Flor-ida’s new “inspirationalmessage” law.

The law, which went intoeffect this week, allows stu-dent volunteers to deliveran “inspirational message”at public school assemblies.

“School personnel maynot participate in, or other-wise influence any studentin, the determination ofwhether to use prayers of

invocation or benediction,”the new law says.

Get it? Our extremelyholy state legislature andgovernor have imaginedthat they’ve pulled a Jesusout of the hat by callingprayers “inspirationalmessages” and therebyskirting long-establishedconstitutional land mines.

They went as far as mak-ing sure the law says that“this act is not intended toadvance or endorse any re-ligion or religious belief.”

Even though it clearlydoes.

The Florida chapter ofAmericans United for Sep-aration of Church andState wrote a letter to Gov.Rick Scott, asking him notto sign the inspirationalmessage bill into law.

Scott ignored the letter.It doesn’t matter. Theschool-prayer law has al-ready been pronounced asymbolic heap of nothing.

“We are highly recom-mending that no school doanything to enact this leg-islation,” said Wayne Blan-ton, the executive directorof the Florida School

Boards Association. “Wedon’t need to go there,” hesaid.

But state lawmakers ap-parently do.

They need to imaginethat they’re inspiring Flor-idians with their Christiangodliness.

In the end, it’s bound tolead to a lot more prayer —even if it’s just praying thatwe elect a more inspira-tional bunch the next time.

(Frank Cerabino writesfor The Palm Beach Post.E-mail: frank(underscore)cerabino@pbpost.com.)

Prayer rule law not inspiringBy FRANK CERABINO

COX NEWSPAPERS

SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012 State THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

DALLAS — This washardly a joyride for BobRussell.

But nearly 42 years aftersomeone stole his 1967 Aus-tin Healey 3000 from a Phi-ladelphia apartment com-plex, the Southlake sleuthis back in the driver’s seat.

“That was quite theknockdown-dragout,” Rus-sell said of the decades-longsearch that finally turnedup his British sports car ata California car dealershipin mid-May.

Russell, 66, a retiredsales manager, spent yearssurfing the Internet look-ing for his car and eyeingsimilar Healeys on theroad.

Still, he didn’t hold outmuch hope of ever findingthe vehicle he paid a friend$3,000 for back in 1968, onlyto find it stolen the morn-ing after taking his futurewife out on their seconddate.

“The fact that the carstill exists is improbable,”he said. “It could have been

junked or wrecked.”Instead, it was listed for

sale by a dealer in an on-line auction, which iswhere a restless Russellcame across it when herolled out of bed a fewweeks ago and wanderedonto eBay.

“Ever since eBay showedup, I’d check it periodical-ly,” Russell said. “I checkedit on Friday, May 11, andthere it was.”

He immediately calledthe dealer, the Beverly HillsCar Club, and sounded thealarm.

“I hate to sound indeli-cate,” Russell told the un-suspecting dealer, “butyou’re selling a stolen car.”

The last bid on the vehi-cle was $19,700, whichdidn’t meet the reserve,Russell said, and the cardidn’t sell.

Russell said the car’s ve-hicle identification numbermatched that of his Healey.In addition, he still had theoriginal key and car title,as well as signed affidavitsfrom friends, including theoriginal owner, indicatingthat Russell had never sold

the auto.But one legal roadblock

remained: He didn’t have acopy of the stolen-car re-port he filed back in 1970.

So the two sides stalled,with the dealer telling Rus-sell it bought the car froma man who claimed it hadbeen in his family since1970, Russell said.

“Well,” Russell respond-ed, “the car was stolen in1970, so you can draw yourown conclusion. They ei-ther stole it or bought itfrom the guy who stole it.”

The dealer did not re-turn a call for comment.

After four weeks of hag-gling with the dealer,which initially offered tosell the car back to him forabout $24,000, Russell askedlaw enforcement agenciesin Philadelphia and LosAngeles for help, he said.

Turns out the originalstolen-car report he filed inPhiladelphia wasn’t show-ing up at the NationalCrime Information Centerbecause one VIN letter wasentered incorrectly into theFBI’s computerized indexof crimes.

Bob Russell, right, and his wife, Cyndy, pose in front of their 1967 Austin Healy, outside their Southlakehome on Thursday. The car was stolen from Russell more than 40 years ago.

Photo by Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News | AP

Retiree recovers carafter 42-year search

By JAMES RAGLANDTHE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

WESLACO — The 1,316 solar panels atWeslaco’s southern wastewater treatmentplant gleamed in the heat June 27 — theirsecond day on the job. When the panelswere officially plugged in last week, thefacility went from being an energy con-sumer to a self-supporting energy gener-ator.

Payback“We did see the meter turn backward

here — when you’re producing more en-ergy than you’re using and your energycompany will pay you back,” said EricKay, technician specialist and masterelectrician with Meridian Solar, which in-stalled the panels.

That result was exactly what city lead-ers were aiming for when they secured a$1.8 million grant from renewable energystimulus funds to build the solar energysystem. The panels will absorb enoughenergy to power the entire plant — sav-ing $75,000 per year — and still feed extrainto the power grid.

“Over 26 years we’ll get (the grant)money back,” City Manager Leo Olivaressaid. “We’re running our plant and alsomaking electricity.”

Recoup in savingsThe city spent $412,000 as a match for

the project, money it can expect to recoupin savings in about five to six years. MarkBegert, executive director at Meridian,said the system will produce 397,289 kilo-watt hours during its first year, the equiv-alent of powering about 35 homes for ayear, according to data from the U.S. En-ergy Information Administration.

“I would say that it’s one of the 10 big-gest systems in Texas,” Begert said.“Probably one of the top five municipallyowned ground-mount systems.”

The system is now powering the plantwith 20 to 50 kilowatts extra per day. It’stypical for systems to lose some 0.5 per-cent of productivity each year and last atleast 30 to 40 years, Begert said.

Large consumer“It’s important to note that water treat-

ment plants are one of the largest con-sumers in a city’s infrastructure, so touse renewable energy for a consumer hoglike a water treatment plant is very clev-er and something we’re seeing all acrossthe United States,” he said.

Those involved in the project alsonoted that the plant now has three pos-sible energy sources: traditional electric-ity from the grid, on-site solar power anda backup generator. That diversificationcan provide an extra buffer if the utilityitself is ever in a bind.

“If you have a day like yesterday —which set a new record for June powerdemand — we have a diesel generatorhere that is capable of powering theplant, so to prevent rolling blackouts youcould put solar energy back on the grid,”Kay said.

For Weslaco, the push for solar beganwhen the city realized money was avail-able for green systems and began to ex-plore the possibility of making its down-town municipal headquarters sun-power-ed.

Started small“It started as a roof project for City

Hall, but then we realized we could do amore ambitious project,” Olivares said.“It morphed into something bigger.”

The wastewater treatment plant was asite with land to spare and a 2.5 million-gallon-per-day treatment system to self-power, said Public Utilities Director Da-vid Salinas.

He said the city hoped to launch a web-site that would educate the public on howthe system worked. Weslaco has tried tostep up its environmental efforts recentlywith city energy audits and campaigns toexpand litter prevention and recycling.

“We have a very ‘green’ culture here,”the city manager said.

Those in the industry called grants forsustainability projects one reason why so-lar endeavors seemed to be on the rise.

“It’s only economical if you get agrant,” Salinas said. “If you pay for ityourself it takes too long.”

The State Energy Conservation Office’sDistributed Renewable Energy Technolo-gy Program distributed the federal stimu-lus funds for Weslaco’s solar project. Itwas one of 45 Texas cities that receivedmoney from the program, 30 of them forsolar projects, according to the office’swebsite.

Texas wastewaterplant goes solar

By ELIZABETH FINDELLTHE MONITOR

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES National SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012

NEW YORK — Scoreone for girl power.

A 14-year-old Maine bal-let dancer who led a cru-sade against altered pho-tos in Seventeen magazinenow has a promise fromtop editor Ann Shoket toleave body shapes alone,reserving Photoshop forthe stray hair, clothingwrinkle, errant bra strapor zit.

And when Shoket orher staff do manipulateimages, she vowed in theAugust issue, they’ll postbefore and after shots onthe magazine’s Tumblrpage for full transparency.

Shoket’s promises areincluded in a “body peacetreaty” that also commitsthe magazine to alwaysfeature healthy girls andmodels regardless of cloth-ing size.

The young activist, Ju-lia Bluhm, said Fridayfrom her summer campshe’s “really excited.”

“I didn’t think it wouldget this big,” she said.

Julia and her mom, Ma-ry Beiter, sat down withShoket in New York inearly May to discuss thethousands of signatures onthe Waterville girl’s onlinepetition at Change.org. Ju-lia declared victory afterShoket’s announcement,ending with more than84,000 signatures.

Now, two of her fellowbloggers from SPARKSummit, a group of girlsand young women tryingto end the sexualization ofgirls in the media, are tar-geting Teen Vogue tomake the same commit-ment. They’ve collectedmore than 15,000 signa-tures since Tuesday.

Shoket did not identifyJulia by name in her full-page declaration, which al-so denied the magazine ev-er changed the shapes ofbodies and faces. She hadno further comment Fri-day.

The editor did cite thesupport of the NationalEating Disorders Associ-ation. The group’s presi-dent, Lynn Grefe, laudedthe effort as a first stepbut said far more must bedone to promote positivebody image and a more at-tainable standard of healthand beauty in magazinesand other media.

“I’m not saying it’s a to-tal victory,” Grefe said.“Seventeen, Teen Vogue,Vogue, Cosmo, every mag-azine still has ads for diet

products and other thingsthat we find problematic,but in terms of the Pho-toshopping stuff, I believethat Ann is sincere andwants to really educate theconsumer and work withthe girls and show themwhat has been Photosh-opped and how to recog-nize that.”

Julia’s mother also waspleased but agreed: “Cer-tainly there’s probablymore that they could do,but these things probablycome in stages, and some-thing is something. Some-thing is good. It opens thedoor. That’s always the big-gest hurdle.”

Julia had asked Seven-teen to run at least one un-altered photo spread amonth, saying Seventeenand other magazines putpressure on girls to emu-late perfect-looking modelswithout realizing imageshave been doctored. Ma-nipulated images, Grefesaid, contribute to eatingdisorders, depression andlow self-esteem amonggirls as young as 8.

Grefe noted that 40 per-cent of newly identifiedcases of anorexia are ingirls and young women 15to 19 years old. She citedresearch showing morethan half of teen girls andnearly one-third of teenboys use unhealthy weightcontrol behaviors, such asskipping meals, fasting,smoking cigarettes, vomit-ing and taking laxatives.

Girls who diet frequent-ly are 12 times as likely tobinge as girls who don’tdiet, Grefe said, notingthat most fashion models

are thinner than 98 per-cent of American women.

Izzy Labbe, a 13-year-oldfrom Waterville who col-laborated with Julia onthe Seventeen petition,was thrilled at Shoket’s re-sponse but agreed shecould have gone further.

Audrey Brashich, a for-

mer teen model and editorof the now-defunct teenmagazine YM, said theSeventeen pledge has farmore potential for immedi-ate, tangible changes inthe minds of girls than avow from Vogue editorsaround the world to banmodels under 16.

Mag: All shapes greatBy LEANNE ITALIEASSOCIATED PRESS

In this May 2 photo, Julia Bluhm of Waterville, Maine, holds up a copy of “Seventeen” magazine.Bluhm urged editors to publish one spread a month of model photos that have not been altered.

Photos by Leanne Italie | AP

In this May 2 photo, Julia Bluhm holds petitions to “Seventeen”magazine as she leads a protest outside Hearst Corp. head-quarters in New York. Bluhm delivered the petition of about25,000 names to the magazine.

CLEVELAND — TheRock and Roll Hall ofFame and Museum has un-veiled a memorial honor-ing a late Cleveland news-paper reporter known forcovering the institution,rock music and the indus-try.

The Plain Dealer re-ports the bronze statue ofits former rock reporterJane Scott features her sit-ting on an oak bench whilewearing her signature red

eyeglasses and holding anotebook.

The statue is by sculptorDavid Deming. It was un-veiled in the Hall’s lowerlobby on Thursday. Scott’sfamily and friends werethere.

Scott retired from thePlain Dealer in 2002 after50 years there. She diedlast year at age 92.

Scott’s family has donat-ed some of her belongingsincluding 4,000 LP recordsand 300 notebooks to theHall’s library and archives.

Hall of Famestatue honorsrock writerASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS — Ac-tress Tempestt Bledsoesays she’s thrilled to be re-turning to network televi-sion on a show that por-trays “a positive black fam-ily” similar to thelong-running hit sitcomshe was a part of for rough-ly eight years — “The Cos-by Show.”

“That show was mychildhood,” said Bledsoe,who played middle childVanessa in the show thatalso starred Bill Cosby,Phylicia Rashad, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Lisa Bonetand Keshia Knight Pul-liam. “It did so manythings. It greatly influencedthe kinds of projects I did.It helped form my core val-ues, like my work ethic.”

Bledsoe and actor Antho-ny Anderson spoke Fridayat the Essence Music Fes-tival about a new showthey’re starring in, “Guyswith Kids,” which pre-mieres this fall on NBC.

In an interview aftertheir public appearance,the co-stars told The Asso-ciated Press they werethrilled the show will spot-light a “positive black fam-ily on network television.”

“We just don’t have thatright now, not on networktelevision,” said Anderson,who has two children of hisown. “Like the Cosby Show,this will be an opportunityto see the love, support, hu-mor and beauty of a blackfamily on TV.”

The show, produced byJimmy Fallon, is aboutthree 30-something newdads trying to hold on totheir youth. “Guys WithKids” will also star Jamie-Lynn Sigler of “The So-pranos” and actors ZachCregger and Jesse Brad-ford. One of the charactersis a single dad, another is aworking father and Ander-son’s character is a stay-at-home dad raising fouryoung sons.

Bledsoe, who plays An-derson’s working wife,chuckled as she spoke

about his character’s dailychallenges wrangling thechildren, including a set oftwins under the age of two.

“There’s nothing fun-nier,” Bledsoe said. “Thisrole was tailor-made forAnthony.”

Anderson said he wasdrawn to the role for sever-al reasons, including hisstrong feelings about theimportance of having a fa-ther figure and the fact hischaracter “chooses” to stayat home with his childrenrather than being forced todo so because he lost hisjob.

He said he also recog-nized that in these tougheconomic times that moredads are choosing to stayhome in part because ofchild care costs.

“A lot of them get funnylooks because it’s not whatpeople are used to seeing,and this show reflects thisnew dynamic in the Amer-ican family,” he said.

Other celebrities appear-ing at the festival includedactor Russell Hornsby, whoplayed on “LincolnHeights” and currentlystars in the NBC supernat-ural drama “Grimm”; BernNadette Stanis, who playedThelma on the hit 1970sshow “Good Times”; come-dian and “Think Like aMan” author Steve Harvey;and Malik Yoba, who starson the SyFy network’s dra-ma “Alphas.”

On Saturday, Essenceplanned to screen Viola Da-vis’ newest film, “Won’tBack Down.”Also stars

The movie also starsMarianne Jean-Baptiste,who is known for her rolein “Without a Trace.”

Later Friday, singer and“Desperate Housewives”actress Vanessa Williamswas to participate in a dis-cussion with her mother,Helen, about relationships.

Bledsoe back in‘positive’ show

By STACEY PLAISANCEASSOCIATED PRESS

LAREDO07/07 — Venta de libros

usados de 8:30 a.m. a 1p.m. en First United Metho-dist Church, 1220 avenidaMcClelland. Libros de pastadura a 1 dólar; libros pastasencilla a .50 centavos; li-bros infantiles a .25 centa-vos y revistas a .25 centa-vos.

07/07 — Planetario La-mar Bruni Vergara de TAMIUpresneta “Earth, Moon, andSun” a las 5 p.m., “SevenWonders” a las 6 p.m. y“2012: Ancient Skies AncientMysteries” a las 7 p.m. Cos-to: 4 dólares para niños y 5dólares para adultos.

07/08 — La ArrolladoraBanda Limón se presenta alas 9 p.m. en Casa BlancaBallroom.

07/09 — Hoy es la Jun-ta de la Corte de Comisiona-dos del Condado de Webb alas 9 a.m. en el Palacio deJusticia (Courthouse) delCondado de Webb, 1000 ca-lle Houston.

07/11 — The Texas A&MInternational University La-mar Bruni Vergara Planeta-rium will show “Attack of theSpace Pirates” at 4 p.m. and“Star Signs” at 5 p.m. Gene-ral admission is $3. For mo-re information, call 956-326-3663.

0712 — Laredo TheaterGuild International (LTGI)presenta “Cinderella” en elCenter for the Fine and Per-forming Arts de TAMIU, a las8 p.m. Costo: 20 dólares,general; 10 dólares, adultosmayores y estudiantes conidentificación; 5 dólares, ni-ños de 10 años y menores.Otras funciones el 13 de ju-lio y el 14 de julio a las 8p.m. y el 15 de julio a las 3p.m.

07/14 — Seminario gra-tuito sobre la enfermedad deParkinson, de 8 a.m. a 5p.m. en Laredo SpecialtyHospital. Habrá una confe-rencia y entrenamiento. Seproveerá desayuno y comida,así como certificado. Espaciolimitado. Reserve al (956)764-8381 o escriba a nickni-lest@ernesthealth.com.

07/14 — Planetario La-mar Bruni Vergara de TAMIUpresenta “IBEX: Search forthe Edge of the SolarSystem” a las 5 p.m., “Vio-lent Universe” a las 6 p.m. y“2012: Ancient Skies, An-cient Mysteries” a las 7 p.m.Costo: 4 dólares (niños), 5dólares (adultos).

07/18 — Décimo-quintoConcierto anual Supply OurStudents (S.O.S.) a las 6p.m. en Estadio Uni-Trade.Se producirá en vivo el pro-grama ‘Live Johnny CanalesShow’ y participarán 12 ban-das populares de Tejano, in-cluyendo Signo y Solido.Costo: 3 artículos escolarespor persona.

07/18 — Laredo TheaterGuild International (LTGI)presenta “Cinderella” en elCenter for the Fine and Per-forming Arts de TAMIU, a las8 p.m. Costo: 20 dólares,general; 10 dólares, adultosmayores y estudiantes conidentificación; 5 dólares, ni-ños de 10 años y menores.

07/19 — Laredo TheaterGuild International (LTGI)presenta “Cinderella” en elCenter for the Fine and Per-forming Arts de TAMIU, a las8 p.m. Costo: 20 dólares,general; 10 dólares, adultosmayores y estudiantes conidentificación; 5 dólares, ni-ños de 10 años y menores.

07/20 — 10th AnnualSister Cities Festival, takingplace at the Laredo EnergyArena from Friday, July 20 –Sunday, July 22, 2012.

07/20 — Laredo TheaterGuild International (LTGI)presenta “Cinderella” en elCenter for the Fine and Per-forming Arts de TAMIU, a las8 p.m. Costo: 20 dólares,general; 10 dólares, adultosmayores.

Agendaen Breve

MÉXICO — El conteofinal oficial de las eleccio-nes mexicanas confirmóel viernes el triunfo deEnrique Peña Nieto, perosu principal contendienteno admitió su derrota yafirmó que impugnará enlos próximos días por loque reclama fue comprade votos y falta de recuen-to del sufragio.

El cómputo oficial de laelección presidencial deMéxico dio la victoria alcandidato del Partido Re-volucionario Institucionalque volverá al poder des-pués de una pausa de 12años. Pero la consistenciaentre los resultados finali-zados el viernes y los quefueron anunciados el do-mingo, día de la elección,no calmó sospechas y de-nuncias entre los parti-dos.

El candidato AndrésManuel López Obrador,que se colocó en un se-gundo lugar con seis pun-tos menos que el triunfa-dor, dijo que denunciarálas elecciones ante los tri-bunales electorales la pró-xima semana para “lim-piar la elección”.

“Se usó dinero a rauda-les de procedencia ilícitapara comprar millones devotos”, dijo López Obra-dor el viernes en rueda deprensa. Dijo que el Insti-tuto Federal Electoral no

llevó a cabo un recuentojusto como había prometi-do el miércoles cuandoautoridades anunciaronque se contarían de nuevomás de la mitad de los vo-tos ante inconsistenciasdetectadas en las actas.

“Se negó en muchaspartes la apertura de pa-quetes”, dijo López Obra-dor.

El tribunal federal es elórgano encargado de vali-dar al ganador luego deanalizar y desahogar lasdiversas impugnacionesque se hagan y tiene co-mo plazo hasta septiem-bre para declarar presi-dente electo.

Según el conteo final,Peña Nieto conquistó un38,21% de la votación, se-guido de López Obrador,con 31,59% de los sufra-gios. La candidata del ofi-cialista Partido AcciónNacional (PAN), JosefinaVázquez Mota, se mantu-vo en la tercera posicióncon 25,41% de la votacióny Gabriel Quadri, del mi-noritario Nueva Alianza,en cuarto lugar con2,29%.

Las impugnaciones an-te el tribunal federal elec-toral podrán presentarseuna vez que certifiquen elcómputo final el domingo.

De validarse los resul-tados, el PRI volverá a lapresidencia tras 12 añosde que por primera vez laperdiera a manos delPAN.

Institutoconfirmaresultado

POR ADRIANA GOMEZ LICONASSOCIATED PRESS

Tamaulipas se pintó deazul, o al menos seis de susocho distritos electorales.

El Partido Acción Nacio-nal (PAN)prácticamen-te arrasó conlas Diputacio-nes Federalesy las Senadu-rías, derro-cando al Par-tido Revolu-cionario

Institucional (PRI) que du-rante décadas ha dominadolos procesos electorales enesa entidad mexicana.

En el Senado, a Tamauli-pas lo representarán dospanistas, Francisco JavierGarcía Cabeza de Vaca yMaki Esther Ortiz Domín-guez.

En cuanto a la Diputa-ción Federal, por el DistritoI, que incluye a Nuevo La-redo, Nueva Ciudad Gue-rrero, Ciudad Mier, MiguelAlemán y Ciudad Camargo,el representante será Glafi-ro Salinas Mendiola.

La última vez que un re-presentante del PAN ganóel cargo para el Primer Dis-trito, que se prolonga portres años, fue del 2000-2003con Arturo San MiguelCantú.

Salinas, según conteospreliminares, obtendría eltriunfo por dos votos a uno.

En declaraciones a mediosde comunicación, aseguróque se trabajará unidos.

“Sé cómo resolver pro-blemas. Nos vamos a for-mar un equipo. Tenemosque hacer mucho”, asegu-ró.

En las cifras más recien-tes dadas a conocer, el PANobtuvo el triunfo en el Dis-trito I (cabecera Nuevo La-redo) con 73,795 votos; en elDistrito II (cabecera enReynosa) 60,372; en el Dis-trito III (cabecera Río Bra-vo) 75,346 votos; en el Dis-trito 4 (cabecera en Mata-moros) 56,493; en el DistritoVII (cabecera Madero)61,276 votos; y en el DistritoVIII (cabecera Tampico)71,698 votos.

Los dos distritos dondeel PAN no se colocó a la de-lantera, y que los ganó elPRI fueron, el Distrito V(cabecera Ciudad Victoria)65,683 votos; y, Distrito VI(El Mante) 56,711.

El Presidente del ComitéDirectivo Estatal del PAN,José Alberto López Fonse-ca, agradeció a la “ciudada-nía tamaulipeca por haberejercido su derecho al votoy, con ello, hacer valer lavoluntad del pueblo, a finde elegir a los candidatosde su preferencia”.

Se trato de una ‘jornadaejemplar’ según varios re-presentantes políticos, in-cluido el Gobernador deTamaulipas, Egidio TorreCantú.

“Nuestra obligación estrabajar con todos los ta-maulipecos y para todos lostamaulipecos (…) lo que lostamaulipecos digan, es loque nosotros hacemos”,sostuvo.

Datos del Instituto Fede-ral Electoral indican queen el proceso del domingoparticipó el 63.17% del pa-drón electoral a nivel na-cional y el 58.49 en Tamau-lipas.

TriunfaPAN

POR MELVA LAVÍN-CASTILLOTIEMPO DE ZAPATA PAN obtuvo el triunfo en el

Distrito I con 73,795 votos; en elDistrito II con 60,372; en elDistrito III con 75,346 votos; en elDistrito 4 con 56,493; en elDistrito VII con 61,276 votos; y enel Distrito VIII con 71,698 votos.

SALINAS

WASHINGTON — La Comi-sión Agraria de la Cámara deRepresentantes presentó el jue-ves su propuesta para una ini-ciativa agrícola y alimentariade largo plazo que reduciría elgasto en 3.500 millones de dóla-res anuales, casi la mitad deri-vada de recortes al programafederal de cupones de alimen-tos.

La iniciativa legislativa con-sidera reducir las proyeccio-nes del gasto actual en cupo-nes de alimentos en 1.600 mi-llones de dólares anuales,cuatro veces la cantidad de losrecortes incorporados en elproyecto de ley agrícola de me-dio billón de dólares durantecinco años que aprobó en ju-nio el Senado.

Los cupones de alimentos,conocidos formalmente comoel Programa Asistencial deNutrición Suplementaria, seperfilan como el punto de ma-yor controversia cuando co-mience el miércoles la vota-ción sobre la iniciativa en laComisión Agraria y cuando seremita a debate en el pleno dela Cámara de Representantes.

Con seguridad, los conser-vadores en la Cámara de Re-presentantes, que encabezanlos republicanos, exigirán ma-yores reducciones al programade cupones de alimentos, queconforma casi 80% del gastoanual por aproximadamente100.000 millones de dólares enconformidad con la iniciativade ley agrícola.

También con seguridad losdemócratas en el Senado seopondrán a mayores recortes aun programa que contribuye ala fecha a alimentar a 46 millo-nes de personas, uno de cadasiete estadounidenses.

“Es irresponsable e inhuma-no quitar recursos a este pro-grama”, señaló Rosa DeLauro,defensora en la cámara baja delos cupones de alimentos.

Buscanreducir

cupones,subsidios

POR JIM ABRAMSASSOCIATED PRESS

CD. VICTORIA, México— En Tamaulipas se re-gistran cerca de 1.000 ac-cidentes al año provoca-dos en su mayoría porerror humano.

Pero además, son losaccidentes viales la prin-cipal causa de muerte en-tre la población menor de15 años, informó el Conse-jo Estatal de Prevenciónde Accidentes (COEPRA)dependiente de la Secreta-ría de Salud en Tamauli-pas.

En lo que va del año elCOEPRA ha registro másde 300 accidentes, de loscuales 91 fueron por vehí-culo de motor, le siguen39 peatones lesionados en

accidentes automovilísti-cos.

“Esto coloca a este tipode percances como la se-gunda causa de muerteentre los jóvenes de 15 a35 años de edad”, indicaun comunicado de prensadel Gobierno de Tamauli-pas.

En el 2012 también sehan presentado 39 ahoga-mientos por sumersión,cinco envenenamientosaccidentales, cuatro caí-das y cuatro exposicionesal fuego.

Debido a la cercaníadel periodo vacacional deverano, la COEPRA estáinsistiendo en su mensajepara evitar accidentestanto en la vía pública co-mo en el hogar.

El comunicado estimaque cerca de 50% de losaccidentes mortales estánasociados con el consumodel alcohol, lo que influyenegativamente en la con-ducción, reduce el campovisual, pérdida de los re-flejos, disminución de lacapacidad de reacción yhace más difícil el cálculode las distancias y la velo-cidad.

Otros accidentes quereporta el COEPRA sonlas caídas de ciclistas ymotociclistas, por no con-siderar los señalamientosde tránsito y no tomar lasdebidas precauciones alconducir; caídas en caba-llo, accidentes en trans-portes de agua, tranvía oaéreo.

“La posibilidad de quese presente un accidenteestá más cerca de lo quepensamos si no se tomanlas medidas preventivasnecesarias para evitarlo,como usar el cinturón deseguridad al conducir, nomanejar en estado deebriedad, utilizar la sillaporta infantes, no utilizarel celular al conducir, en-tre otras recomendacio-nes”, agrega el comunica-do de prensa.

Concluye insistiendoque en el hogar se debencuidar las instalacioneseléctricas, reparar los des-perfectos en escaleras, nodejar que los niños jue-guen en las azoteas y so-bre todo cuidar las activi-dades que realizan.

Autoridades de salud están enviando el mensaje para que las personas busquen conducirse con precaución dentro y fuera del ho-gar, sobre todo con las vacaciones de verano a la vuelta de la esquina.

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

CIFRA ALARMANTETamaulipas busca prevenir accidentes

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 7 DE JULIO DE 2012

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES National SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012

WOLFEBORO, N.H. — Achorus of prominent con-servative voices is worryingaloud that Republican can-didate Mitt Romney’s play-it-safe strategy is jeopardiz-ing his chance to win thepresidency.

As President BarackObama’s campaign intensi-fies criticism of Romney’sbackground, influential Re-publicans — right-leaningleaders in business and themedia — charge that Rom-ney’s message on the econo-my and other issues isshort on detail and mud-dled at best.

Romney dismissed thenegative attention as hefaced reporters Friday torespond to another weakfederal jobs report.

“I don’t say much to crit-ics,” he said.

In an editorial Thursday,The Wall Street Journalsaid the Romney campaignis “slowly squandering anhistoric opportunity.”

“The Romney campaignthinks it can play it safeand coast to the WhiteHouse by saying the econo-my stinks and it’s Mr. Oba-ma’s fault,” the newspapersaid. “We’re on its emaillist and the main dailymessage from the campaignis that ‘Obama isn’t work-ing.’ Thanks, guys, butAmericans already knowthat. What they want tohear from the challenger issome understanding of whythe president’s policiesaren’t working and how Mr.Romney’s policies will dobetter.”

The harsh critique

comes as Romney nears theend of a weeklong vacationat his New Hampshire lake-side home, where he hasbeen almost totally out ofthe public eye, except for abrief Fourth of July appear-ance. Polls show Obamaslightly leading Romney na-tionally and in severalstates that are critical inthe hunt to reach the 270electoral votes needed towin the Nov. 6 election.

Romney has consistentlycriticized Obama’s handlingof the economy, health care,domestic spending and for-eign policy, but he has of-fered few specific prescrip-tions for what he would dodifferently. The strategy isreflective of a campaignthat hopes to make the elec-tion a referendum on Oba-ma — in particular hishandling of the economy —as economic indicators sug-gest the pace of the nation’srecovery is slowing.

“I put out 59 steps forhow I’d get the economy go-ing. And I don’t think I’veseen any from the presidentthat show what he’s plan-ning on doing,” Romneysaid Friday from a localhardware store not far fromhis vacation home. “I’velaid out my 59 steps. Take alook at them. I think you’llfind them very specific.”

The federal governmentreleased a June jobs reporton Friday that could havemajor political ramifica-tions with the election fourmonths away.

U.S. employers added on-ly 80,000 jobs in June, athird straight month ofweak hiring that shows theeconomy is struggling. TheLabor Department says the

unemployment rate was un-changed at 8.2 percent.

The economy has addedjust 75,000 jobs a month inthe April-June quarter.That’s one-third of 226,000 amonth created in the firstquarter. Job creation is alsotrailing last year’s pacethrough the first sixmonths of 2012.

Despite the numbers,conservatives say Romneystill needs to better explainhis plans. There is concernthat Democrats are success-fully weakening Romney’sbusiness career at BainCapital, a private equityfirm that invested in com-panies who helped shiftAmerican jobs overseas insome cases.

“Adopting a prevent de-fense when it’s only the sec-

ond quarter and you’re noteven ahead is dubiousenough as a strategy,” Wil-liam Kristol, editor of theconservative Weekly Stan-dard, wrote Thursday.

The Romney campaignsays the former Massachu-setts governor has been la-ser-focused on the economysince he launched his cam-paign a year ago. And theysuggest their critics aremisguided.

“I think they have to rec-ognize that we’re in a cam-paign mode where simple,tough, declarative sentencesare required, that this isnot a campaign to be wonon nuance but to be won onmaking sharp distinctionswith the failure of the Oba-ma administration econom-ically, the loss of jobs and

the pain that Americansacross the country are feel-ing,” former New Hamp-shire Gov. John H. Sununu,a key Romney surrogate,said on CNN.

Conservative critics in-clude media mogul RupertMurdoch, who took to Twit-ter recently and chargedthat Obama’s Chicago-based team “will be hard tobeat unless he drops oldfriends from team andhires some real pros.Doubtful.”

Murdoch, the CEO ofNews Corp., which ownsThe Wall Street Journaland Fox News, has alsojabbed Romney for playingit safe.

Some of Romney’s long-time political advisers goback to his days as Massa-

chusetts governor. Andthere is no sign of a majorshakeup among his seniorstaff, despite the addition ofsome communications staff-ers who will be taking onmore responsibility in somecases.

“Governor Romney re-spects the team that he hasand he has full confidencein them,” said spokeswo-man Gail Gitcho.

The criticism has inten-sified in the days since theRomney campaign offeredseemingly contradictorymessages on the SupremeCourt’s health care ruling.The court ruled that the so-called individual mandatein Obama’s signature law isconstitutional, in part, be-cause of the federal govern-ment’s taxing authority.

Republicans seized onthe explanation and ac-cused Obama of raising tax-es. But that raised ques-tions about Romney’shealth care overhaul inMassachusetts, which alsoforces people to purchasehealth insurance.

A day after a Romney se-nior adviser declared thatthe mandate was not a tax,Romney went on TV to sayit was.

Romney on Friday re-fused to address the appar-ent contradiction directlywhen asked.

“I’ve spoken about healthcare from the day wepassed it in Massachu-setts,” he said. “And peoplesaid, ‘Is this somethingyou’d apply at the federallevel?’ And I said, No. I saidthe right course for the fed-eral government is to allowstates to create their ownplans.”

GOP critics attack Romney’s safe approachBy STEVE PEOPLESASSOCIATED PRESS

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney drives his boat out of his vacation home in Wolfeboro,N.H., on Thursday. Voices in the GOP have criticized him for a “safe” approach to campaigning.

Photo by Charles Dharapak | AP

NEW YORK — RupertMurdoch has never beenshy about voicing a politi-cal opinion, using hisworldwide empire of televi-sion and newspaper outletsto promote conservativecauses. Now, with a raft ofcomplaints about Republi-can Mitt Romney, the bil-lionaire media baron is sig-naling that he intends toboost his visibility in U.S.politics_even if it comes atthe expense of the manconservatives hope can de-feat President Barack Oba-ma.

Murdoch is the founderand CEO of the globalmedia conglomerate NewsCorp. which owns severaloutlets popular with con-servatives in the U.S., in-cluding Fox News Channel,the Wall Street Journaland the New York Post. Un-til now, Murdoch has beenfar less influential in U.S.politics than he has in hisnative Australia and untilrecently in England, wherea phone hacking scandalinvolving several Murdoch-owned newspapers hasshaken his status as a fear-some power broker.

The hacking scandalforced the departure ofmany Murdoch’s deputies,peeling away a protectivelayer around him while al-so liberating him to takesuch risks as openly criti-cizing Romney, some whoknow him say.

Murdoch, 81 and a natu-ralized U.S. citizen, choseto launch his critique ofRomney on Twitter, the so-cial networking site whereinformation is exchangedin 140-character blastsknown as tweets.

“When is Romney goingto look like a challenger?Seems to play everythingsafe, make no news exceptburn of Hispanics,” Mur-doch tweeted from his iPadon June 24. “Easy for Rom-ney to spell out restorationof the American dreamand bash incompetent ad-ministration. But not aword!” he said later thatday. “Tough O Chicagopros will be hard to beat

unless (Romney) drops oldfriends from team andhires some real pros.Doubtful,” Murdoch tweet-ed on July 1.

On Monday, Murdochappeared to acknowledgehis tweets might be caus-ing consternation for theRomney campaign. “Rom-ney people upset at me! Ofcourse I want him to win,save us from socialism, etcbut should listen to goodadvice and get stuck in!”

The Wall Street Jour-nal’s editorial page fol-lowed Murdoch’s leadThursday, unleashing asurprisingly harsh attackon the Romney campaign’sresponse to the SupremeCourt’s affirmation of Pres-ident Barack Obama’shealth care law. NewsCorp. purchased the Jour-nal in 2007 and the paper’seditorial page is viewed asan authoritative voiceamong conservatives.

The Journal respondedto mixed messages fromthe Romney campaignabout whether the man-date to buy health insur-ance constituted a tax asthe court suggested, callingthe confusion “politicallydumb.” The paper alsourged Romney to shed staffand offer more detailedpolicy proposals. And itdinged him for playing intoDemocrats’ “rich-guy” car-icature by jet-skiing thisweek at his New Hamp-shire lakeside retreat.

“Mr. Romney promisedRepublicans he was thebest man to make the caseagainst President Obama,whom they desperatelywant to defeat. So far Mr.Romney is letting themdown,” the Journal said.

The former Massachu-setts governor couldn’teven catch a break in TheWeekly Standard, a conser-vative magazine Murdochlaunched. “Is it too muchto ask Mitt Romney to getoff autopilot and actuallythink about the race he’srunning?” asked Bill Kris-tol, the magazine’s editor.

Romney advisers havetaken note of Murdoch’spublic comments, thoughthey decline to discussthem publicly.

Murdoch stepsup profile inUS politicsBy BETH FOUHY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — What the $?&(! isgoing on with our politicians?

The mayors of New York and Phi-ladelphia and the governor of NewJersey let loose with a few choicevulgarities over the past two weeksin otherwise G-rated public settings,including a town-hall meeting and aCity Hall event.

And all three men knew full wellthe microphone was on.

While foul language has been ut-tered in politics before, the bluestreak is making some wonderwhether it reflects the coarsening ef-fects of pop culture in this reality-TV era of “Jersey Shore” and “TheReal Housewives,” a decline in pub-lic discourse, a desire by politiciansto come across as average Joes, orjust a really hot summer.

First there was famously bluntNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christiebranding a lawmaker “one arrogantS.O.B.” at a town hall last month(and using some stronger epithets indiscussing his passion for the mu-sic, though not the politics, of BruceSpringsteen in an interview publish-ed in The Atlantic this month.)

Then New York Mayor MichaelBloomberg, apparently having trou-ble stomaching a slew of puns in hisprepared remarks for Tuesday’s con-testant weigh-in at City Hall beforethe Fourth of July hot dog-eatingcontest, chuckled, “Who wrote thiss---?” to guffaws from the crowd.

Then it was Philadelphia MayorMichael Nutter’s turn on Thursdayat a news conference at which hediscussed a shooting a few blocks

from the center of the city’s JulyFourth celebration. He said hewasn’t going to let the city’s imagebe harmed by “some little ass---- 16-year-old.”

“My sense is: Because they wantto appear to be in tune with popularculture, politicians feel free to ex-press themselves in profane ways,”said Rutgers University political sci-entist Ross K. Baker. “I honestly dobelieve that, in aping the coarsenessof popular culture, people in publiclife are really dragging us into a dis-course of fang and claw.”

President Harry S. Truman wascriticized for his use of such saltylanguage as “hell” and “damn.” Andmany Americans were shocked byRichard Nixon’s liberal use of pro-fanities on the Watergate tapes,which made “expletive deleted” apop-culture catchphrase.

In more recent years, George W.Bush was caught on what he didn’trealize was a live microphone de-scribing a reporter as a “major-league ass----,” and Vice PresidentDick Cheney hurled the F-word atVermont Sen. Patrick Leahy.

In 2010, Vice President Joe Bidenwas heard using the F-word on livetelevision in a whispered congratu-lation to President Barack Obama atthe signing of his health care bill.

The seeming proliferation of polit-ical swearing reflects changes inboth social norms and the medialandscape, said Robert Thompson,director of the Bleier Center for Tel-evision and Popular Culture at Syra-cuse University. Offhand remarksthat might once not have been re-ported now get captured on videoand posted online.

“Politics has been nasty” foryears, Thompson said. “The differ-ence is we now have media thatshow this stuff.”

Nutter, who has used vulgaritiesbefore in response to street violence,has described his language as an“honest, clear, direct response.”

Christie has built his political ca-reer on his brash style. His warningto people to “get the hell off thebeach” as Hurricane Irene ap-proached last year appeared in bigfront-page headlines around thestate.

As for the lawmaker who was thetarget of the Republican governor’ssalty remark last month, he’s notcomplaining.

“He actually gave me national at-tention,” Democratic state Sen. PaulSarlo said. “The term is more of aninsult to my mom, who is not politi-cally involved.”

Still, Sarlo saw the comment asunbecoming of a governor who hasbeen mentioned as a possible vicepresidential contender.

The biggest problem with politi-cal figures using bad language isthat it crowds out whatever theywere actually trying to say, said eti-quette expert Lizzie Post of the Emi-ly Post Institute. “The words we’refocusing on are probably not theones they want us to,” she said.

And what of the average citizenspoliticians are trying to reach — or,perhaps, emulate?

Kristina Klimovich, for one,doesn’t like to hear them swear. “Ithink there’s always a line, and as apublic servant there are certainstandards they have to adhere to,”said Klimovich, of New York.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a crowd on March 29 in Manchester, N.J. Last month, Christie branded a lawmaker “one ar-rogant S--” at another town hall meeting.

Photo by Mel Evans | AP

What did that politician say?By JENNIFER PELTZASSOCIATED PRESS

SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

SAN FRANCISCO —Facebook and Yahoo haveagreed to settle a patentdispute, averting a poten-tially lengthy battle overthe technology runningtwo of the Internet’s mostpopular destinations.

In dropping the law-suits, the companiesagreed to license their pat-ents to each other. Theyare also agreeing to an ad-vertising alliance that ex-pands their existing part-nership.

The advertising alliancecould help Yahoo recoversome of the revenue that ithas been losing as marke-ters shift more of theirspending to a larger andmore engaged audience onFacebook’s online socialnetwork.

Friday’s settlement in-volves no exchange ofmoney and comes after amonths-long patent squab-ble between the two Inter-net icons.

The truce ends a con-flict provoked by Yahoo’sshort-lived CEO, ScottThompson, who wasdumped from the job twomonths ago after misinfor-mation on his official biog-raphy raised questionsabout his integrity.

Under Thompson, Ya-hoo filed the patent law-suit in March, wielding itas a weapon against acompany that Thompsonbelieved had been prosper-ing from the ideas of itsolder rival. The complaintalleged that Facebook in-fringed on 10 Yahoo pat-

ents covering Internet ad-vertising, privacy controlsand social networks. Ya-hoo Inc. added two morepatents to the lawsuit later.

But Thompson’s attackon Facebook Inc. quicklyturned into a public-rela-tions disaster. Much of thetechnology industry railedagainst Yahoo’s tactics.Critics viewed the lawsuitas a financial shakedownby a desperate companywhose well of innovationhad run dry.

New York venture capi-talist Fred Wilson summedup the enmity toward Ya-hoo in an acerbic blog postthat ended with this de-nouement: “I am writingthis in outrage at Yahoo. Iused to care about thatcompany for some reason.No more. They are dead tome. Dead and gone. I hatethem now.”

When Yahoo replacedThompson in May with in-terim CEO Ross Levin-sohn, it opened the doorfor the company to settle

the dispute under a re-shuffled board of directors.Six of Yahoo’s 11 directorsjoined the board after Ya-hoo sued Facebook onMarch 12.

Yahoo’s legal assaulthad exposed Facebook’svulnerability to patentclaims as it prepared tocomplete the biggest ini-tial public offering of stockby an Internet company.

Facebook insulated it-self by buying 750 patentsfrom IBM Corp. andspending $550 million toacquire an additional 650patents that one of its big-gest shareholders, Micro-soft Corp., had purchasedfrom AOL Inc. Armedwith its own arsenal of in-tellectual property, Face-book signaled that itwasn’t backing down andfiled its own lawsuitagainst Yahoo in April forpatent infringement.

With the agreement, Ya-hoo and Facebook revertto the amicable relation-ship that they had been

fostering before the law-suit. And it appears theantagonism is dissolvinginto a partnership thatcould benefit both compa-nies.

Yahoo already has beentying many of its servicesand content to Facebookbefore the lawsuit was fil-ed. Now it plans to cross-pollinate some of its adver-tising.

Although it has beengrowing at a robust clip,Facebook is still trying towin over skeptical inves-tors. Doubts about thecompany’s revenue poten-tial have weighed on Face-book’s stock, which has re-mained well below its IPOprice of $38. The stockgained 26 cents, or nearly1 percent, to close Fridayat $31.73.

Yahoo is trying to snapout of a long-running fi-nancial funk brought upby Facebook’s success andGoogle Inc.’s dominance ofInternet search and adver-tising.

As revenue fell, Yahoohas gone through four full-time CEOs in five years inhopes of engineering aturnaround. The foibleshave depressed Yahoo’sstock, frustrating share-holders still angry about asquandered opportunity tosell the entire company toMicrosoft in May 2008 for$47.5 billion, or $33 pershare.

The stock dipped 7 centsto close at $15.78.

The Facebook pactcould improve Levinsohn’schances of being anointedas Yahoo’s permanentCEO.

Yahoo, Facebook in allianceBy BARBARA ORTUTAY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Yahoo and Facebook have agreed to settle a patent dispute on Fri-day, averting a potentially bitter battle over the technology run-ning two of the Internet’s most popular destinations.

Photo by Paul Sakuma | AP

NEW YORK — Investorsabandoned stocks Fridayafter the U.S. governmentreported that only 80,000jobs were created in June,the third straight month ofweak hiring.

The Dow Jones industri-al average fell 124.20 pointsto close at 12,772.47. Theloss wiped out the Dow’sgain for the week.

The reluctance of U.S.employers to add jobsshows that the economy isstill struggling three yearsafter the recession official-ly ended. An average of just75,000 jobs were created ev-ery month in the April-June quarter, far below the226,000 created everymonth in the first threemonths of the year.

“It shows the U.S. econo-my is losing momentum,”said Sharon Stark, chiefmarket strategist at thebrokerage firm SterneAgee. “It’s a sign of every-one waiting to see what’snext.”

Of the 30 stocks in theDow average, only five rose,including McDonald’s andAT&T. The world’s largestproducer of aluminum, Al-coa, and Caterpillar, theconstruction equipmentmaker, were among thehardest-hit Dow stockswith declines of about 3percent each. Materials andindustrial companies arethe most likely to suffer ifthe economy weakens.

The anemic jobs reportled investors to shift moneyinto low-risk assets. Theprice of the 10-year Treasu-ry note rose, sending itsyield down to 1.55 percentfrom 1.60 percent lateThursday. The dollar roseagainst the euro.

The sluggish growth inAmerican jobs comes at atime when the global econ-omy is also losing pace.Central banks in Europeand China took actionThursday to prop up theirsliding economies.

The new signs of eco-nomic sluggishness aroundthe world sent commoditiesprices lower.

US stocksplunge after

June jobs reportBy PALLAVI GOGOIASSOCIATED PRESS

LAREDO — Carlos Z.“Chale” Cavazos Jr., 44,passed away on Wednes-day, June 27, 2012 in Cor-pus Christi, Texas.

Mr. Cavazos is precededin death by his father, Car-los Z. Cavazos; maternalgrandparents: Ruben andTrinidad Salazar; paternalgrandparents: Antonioand Bertha Cavazos; andan uncle Hector V. Cava-zos.

Mr. Cavazos is survivedby his daughters: GenevaE. (Javier) Villarreal, TaraC. Cavazos and Carly Ca-vazos; mother, Norma (Ig-nacio) Arce; brother, LuisH. (Nora L.) Cavazos; ne-phews: Luis D. “Danny,”and Esteban and MarcoCavazos; maternal auntsand uncles Ruben E. (Ir-ma) Salazar, Noelia (Ro-berto) Villarreal, Nilda(John) Albright, Heberto J.(Blanca) Salazar and Ma-ria Del Carmen (Francis-co) Davila; friend, Michael(Connie) Mungia and fam-ily; paternal aunt JuanitaI. Cavazos; and Cavazosaunts and uncles; and bynumerous cousins andmany friends.

Honorary pallbearerswere: Luis Daniel Cavazos,Mitchell Mungia, Marco L.Cavazos, Armando Yrue-gas, Edgar Vasquez, JorgeVasquez, Ricardo Verduz-co, Francisco S. Davila,Robert Villarreal Jr., RoyVillarreal, Robert J. Al-bright and Joey Aguilar.

Pallbearers were: Ruben

E. Salazar, Heberto J. Sala-zar Sr., Luis E. Cavazos,Heberto J. Salazar Jr.,Juan H. Salazar, MichealMungia, Felipe Alemanand Luis H. Cavazos.

Visitation hours wereSunday, July 1, 2012, from6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a ros-ary at 7 p.m. at Rose Gar-den Funeral Home. The fu-neral procession departedMonday, July 2, 2012, at9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. fu-neral Mass at Our Lady ofRefuge Mission in SanYgancio, Texas. Committalservices followed at Pante-on Del Pueblo Cemetery inSan Ygnacio, Texas. Fu-neral arrangements wereunder the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome Daniel A. Gonzalez,funeral director, 2102 N.U.S. 83, Zapata, TX.

CARLOS Z. ‘CHALE’ CAVAZOS JR.

WASHINGTON — The Americanjob machine has jammed. Again.

The economy added only 80,000jobs in June, the government saidFriday, erasing any doubt that theUnited States is in a summer slumpfor the third year in a row.

“Let’s just agree: This numberstinks,” said Dan Greenhaus, chiefglobal strategist at the investmentfirm BTIG.

It was the third consecutivemonth of weak job growth. FromApril through June, the economyproduced an average of just 75,000jobs a month, the weakest quartersince July through September 2010.

The unemployment rate stayed at8.2 percent — a recession-level fig-ure, even though the Great Reces-sion has technically been over forthree years.

The numbers could hurt Presi-dent Barack Obama’s odds for re-election. Mitt Romney, the presumedRepublican nominee, said theyshowed that Obama, in three and ahalf years on the job, had not “got-ten America working again.”

“And the president is going to

have to stand up and take responsib-ility for it,” Romney said in Wolfebo-ro, N.H.

Obama, on a two-day bus tourthrough the contested states of Ohioand Pennsylvania, focused on pri-vate companies, which added 84,000jobs in June.

“Businesses have created 4.4 mil-lion new jobs over the past 28months, including 500,000 new man-ufacturing jobs,” the president said.“That’s a step in the right direc-tion.”

The Labor Department’s reporton job creation and unemploymentis the most closely watched monthlyindicator of the U.S. economy. Thereare four reports remaining beforeElection Day, including one on theFriday before Americans vote.

No president since World War IIhas faced re-election with unemploy-ment over 8 percent. It was 7.8 per-cent when Gerald Ford lost to Jim-my Carter in 1976. Ronald Reaganfaced 7.2 percent unemployment in1984 and trounced Walter Mondale.

Patrick Sims, director of researchat the consulting firm HamiltonPlace Strategies, said that “time hasrun out” for unemployment to fallbelow 8 percent by Election Day.

That would require an average of

219,000 jobs a month from Julythrough October — more like theeconomy’s performance from Janu-ary through March, when it aver-aged 226,000 per month.

Few economic analysts expectanything close to that.

“The labor market is treading wa-ter,” said Heidi Shierholz, an econo-mist at the Economic Policy Insti-tute. She called it an “ongoing, se-vere crisis for the American workforce.”

The Labor Department report putinvestors in a sour mood.

The Dow Jones industrial averagedropped 124 points. Industrial andmaterials companies, which dependon economic growth, were amongthe stocks that fell the most. Theprice of oil fell $2.77 per barrel to$84.45.

Money flowed instead into U.S.Treasurys, which investors perceiveas safer than stocks when the econo-my is weakening. The yield on thebenchmark 10-year U.S. Treasurynote fell to 1.54 percent, from 1.59percent on Thursday.

Investors were already worriedabout a debt crisis that has grippedEurope for almost three years andrecent signals that the powerhouseeconomy of China is slowing.

Job machine jammedBy CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER

AND PAUL WISEMANASSOCIATED PRESS

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012

fourth Monday of themonth.

The extra meetingwould place more atten-tion on expenditures in atime when dwindling oiland gas revenues havesteered the county towardfiscal conservatism.

County officials are inthe midst of producing theannual budget, with publicbudget hearings expectedto come in a matter ofweeks.

“This is coming aboutdue to that,” said Commis-sioner Jose E. Vela, refer-ring to the budget short-fall.

He said it would easethe process of issuing pay-ments but also allow thecourt to more carefully re-view invoices.

County Treasurer Ro-meo Salinas, who recom-mended returning to

twice-monthly meetings,said having a second meet-ing every month would al-low him to issue out pay-ments twice a month in-stead of every 30 days.

Salinas said he believesthe move would also re-duce the length of Com-missioners Court meet-ings.

“I approached (CountyJudge Joe Rathmell) andtold him we needed to goback,” Salinas said.

But he said the addition-al meeting won’t just befor approving invoices. Ad-ditional items could alsobe placed on the agendasfor those meetings.

By law, CommissionersCourt must approve in-voices before the treasurerissues payments.

If commissioners wantto table an item for nextmeeting or need more in-

formation before approv-ing a payment, they won’thave to wait anothermonth to deliberate onthat item, Salinas said.

He said he doesn’t fore-see any additional costs as-sociated with an increasein monthly meetings.

In a potential cost-savingmeasure, the court willconsider consolidating thismonth’s runoff voting pollsto one site, the ZapataCounty Courthouse. Velasaid the county expectslow turnout because onlystate races are on the bal-lot.

Incumbent AdalbertoMejia and Gabriel Villar-real were set for a runoffin the constable, Precinct 1race, but Mejia withdrewfrom the race.

(JJ Velasquez may bereached at 728-2579 or jjve-lasquez@lmtonline.com)

COMMISSIONERS Continued from Page 1A

some also simply makemistakes in marking them.

The final vote count mustbe certified in Septemberby the Federal ElectoralTribunal. The tribunal hasdeclined to overturn previ-ously contested elections,including a 2006 presiden-tial vote that was far closerthan Sunday’s.

Accusations of vote-buy-ing began surfacing inJune, but sharpened earlythis week as thousands ofpeople rushed to grocerystores on the outskirts ofMexico City to redeem pre-paid gift cards worth about100 pesos ($7.50). Many saidthey got the cards from PRIsupporters before Sunday’selections.

Lopez Obrador said mil-lions of voters had receivedeither pre-paid cards, cash,groceries, construction ma-terials or appliances. LopezObrador would not rule outstreet protests, like the onehe led in 2006 to protest al-leged fraud in the presiden-tial elections of that year,which he narrowly lost toPresident Felipe Calderón.

But he said Thursdaythat his challenge of the re-sults would be channeledthrough legal venues, likethe electoral institute andcourts.

“We have acted and wewill continue to act in a re-sponsible way, adhering tothe legal procedure. No-body can say we are violat-ing the law,” Lopez Obradorsaid.

Leonardo Valdes, thepresident of the FederalElectoral Institute, said hedoesn’t see any grounds foroverturning the results.

“I do not see any justifi-cation for rejecting the enti-rety of the election results,”Valdes said. “Rejecting theresults would be like reject-ing the effort of those 50million voters.”

However, he said the in-stitute, Mexico’s chief elec-toral watchdog agency, hadbegun an investigation intothe gift cards, and had re-quested that the PRI andthe grocery store chain thatissued the cards turn over

information.In an interview with the

newspaper Excelsior pub-lished Friday, Calderón said“electoral authorities havean obligation, of course, togive us an answer” aboutthe allegations, adding“what we need, in any case,are legal and institutionalreforms, so that (these)kind of accusations don’tarise again.”

Simply giving away suchgifts is not illegal underMexican electoral law, aslong as the expense is re-ported to electoral author-ities. Giving gifts to influen-ce votes is a crime, thoughis not generally viewed asgrounds for overturning anelection.

While Vazquez Mota isnot challenging the results,she also said Thursday thatcampaign spending viola-tions had marred the vote.

“We need electoral au-thorities to conduct a de-tailed review of campaignspending that obviously ex-

ceeded legal limits, andthat was also associatedwith vote buying,” VazquezMota said. “In this electionthere were clear circum-stances of inequity that hada decisive effect on the voteresults.”

Vazquez Mota said thatwhile the complaintswouldn’t invalidate the elec-tion results, they shouldmotivate changes in elector-al laws to prevent suchpractices in the future.

PRI spokesman EduardoSanchez said Thursday thatthe gift-card event had been“a theatrical representa-tion” mounted by the left.Sanchez claimed support-ers of Lopez Obrador tookhundreds of people to thestores, dressed them in PRIT-shirts, gave them giftcards, emptied store shelvesto create an appearance ofpanic buying, and broughtTV cameras in to create thefalse impression that thePRI had given out thecards.

PEÑA NIETO Continued from Page 1A

Election officials and party representatives recount votes at an elec-toral institute district council in Mexico City on Thursday. Of the143,000 ballot boxes used during last Sunday’s general elections,more than half of the total will be opened and the votes recounted.

Photo by Marco Ugarte | AP

the private industry and consumers, CBPhas made intellectual property rights apriority.”

Uribe noted that trademarks includesuch things as the Nike swoosh, whichaccounted for the port’s single largestcounterfeit goods confiscation in termsof volume in August 2006.

“A total of 15 containers containing172,000 pairs of athletic shoes found to beinfringing on the Nike trademark wereseized. The shoes had a manufacturerssuggested retail price (MSRP) of $14.7million,” said Rick Pauza, CBP spokes-man.

Pauza said the Nike seizure was a partof a national case involving more than 80containers.

According to information provided bythe CBP public affairs officials, watches

were the seventh most-seized commodity,by domestic value, in 2011. Footwearranked at number two.

The load reportedly entered the U.S.via a port in California from Hong Kong.It was destined to exit the U.S. to Mexicovia a Laredo port if the perpetrators hadbeen successful.

Becker said the journey wasn’t uncom-mon, as goods from China accounted formore than 60 percent of total domesticvalue of all intellectual property rightseizures in 2011.

No charges have been filed against thedriver of the truck nor the company be-hind the import.

Becker said the matter remains underinvestigation.

(Stephanie Ibarra may be reached at728-2547 or sibarra@lmtonline.com)

SEIZURE Continued from Page 1A

County Sheriff ’s Office Sgt. Mario Eli-zondo said Friday evening the case couldmerit federal charges based of theamount of contraband seized.

At about 10:30 a.m., deputies conducteda traffic stop on a tractor-trailer near Lo-peño. Elizondo said deputies inspectedthe flatbed trailer and found 1,659 pounds

of marijuana.The contraband had an estimated

street value of $862,000. The vehicle’s ori-gin and destination is still being investi-gated, Elizondo said. No other informa-tion was available as of press time.

(César G. Rodriguez may be reached at728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

BUST Continued from Page 1A

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

You don’t need a weather-man to tell you summerhas arrived, but youdon’t need to step into

the sweltering heat either. Therise of numerous summer campsspells plain enough that the dogdays of summer have arrived,and they offer a plethora of activ-ities for local youths to pass theirdays with.

The local Boys and Girls Clubof Zapata is always full of activ-ities. It is centrally located to al-low the children of Zapata a placeto enjoy indoor games in a coolenvironment.

There are also a slew of All-Star Little League teams from Za-pata advancing through theirsummer seasons and preparingto play in sectional tournaments.

The success of these teams de-pends on the sum of their parts.Players, coaches and parents playa vital role in guiding them tovictory.

The little league players dropthe joysticks and video games tospend their summers playing agame they love. Parents become ataxi service, shuttling their kidsback and forth practice to games.

They commit to hours of prac-tice a day to get ready for the All-Star tournaments. I would like totake this time to also thank thecoaches who volunteer their timeto lead these teams. They shouldbe lauded for their efforts.

Many Little League baseballand softball coaches aren’t mak-ing their first trip to the rodeo —they’ve been volunteering foryears and enjoy what they do.

They come from all walks oflife and truly enjoy coachingtheir teams year in and year out.

When I interviewed Javier Ra-mirez, who coaches Zapata’s All-

See COLUMN PAGE 2B

Zapatasoftballa tributeto effort

“CLARA SANDOVALVAL

The volleyball season will official-ly get under way Aug. 6th whenteams across the state of Texashit the court.

The season could not get here fastenough for the Lady Hawks, who havebeen itching for the upcoming season toarrive after winning back-to-back titlesthe past two years.

The Lady Hawks have been workinghard during the long summer months tomake it three in a row and the teamknows it’s going take everyone doingtheir part during the off-season to realizethat goal.

Expectations are high at Zapata despitehigh profile graduations in May. Newfaces will replace the likes of Estella Mo-lina, Jackie Salinas and Shelby Bigler,who played a big part in the Lady Hawks’run to their district title last year.

On the plus side, Zapata returns All-District hitter Kristina De Leon, who be-came the queen of the court last seasonwith her offensive prowess.

De Leon is expected to produce bigthings for Zapata, but she can’t do italone. Others will have to step up theirgame as well. The lack of a Laredo Boysand Girls Club summer volleyball leaguethis year came as a setback to the LadyHawks, who traditionally made the tripup I-35 to play in the league.

No summer league means it’s going totake coach Rosie Villarreal longer thanusual to determine what’s his the bestcombination on the court and find thatwinning attitude that will be vital in theseason. She will have only three days toevaluate her team before the first scrim-mage of the preseason arrives.

“Not having that league just makes it alittle more difficult time-wise to seewhere we are as a team and who fitswhere better,” she said. “This is just go-ing to make it hard.

“I am going to only have three days in-stead of four weeks, the duration of thesummer league.”

In lieu of the summer league, the Lady

HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL

Building on success

Zapata’s Kristina De Leon, seen in this file photo, is expected to be an important piece of the LadyHawks’ volleyball team when it pursues a district title three-peat this year.

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

Lady Hawks’eyes set onthree-peat

By CLARA SANDOVALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See VOLLEYBALL PAGE 2B

The Zapata junior All-Stars(13-14 years old) little leaguesoftball team made history lastweek when they beat Laredo’sGateway little league All-Starteam to earn their first Dis-trict 34 title.

The accomplishment, whichwas four years in the making,advances Zapata to the section-al tournament that starts Mon-day in Corpus Christi.

The Zapata All-Stars facethe Brownsville All-Stars inthe opening round of the dou-ble elimination tournament,which features five teams: Za-pata, Brownsville, Alice,Kingsville and Corpus Christi.

The winner of the tourna-ment earns a trip to Waco, thesite of the state tournament.

First pitch for Zapata is 8p.m. at National Little LeaguePark in Corpus Christi.

“We really don’t know whatto expect and we know that weare going to be up againstsome good teams,” said Zapata

All-Star coach Javier Ramirez.“Everyone at this tournamentis solid, and so are we.”

Just because Zapata madehistory by making it this fardoesn’t mean they’re ready tohead home yet. The All-Starswant to go out there and puttheir best effort forward.

“This is just a great groupof girls that has worked hardto be where they are today,”Ramirez said. “I am reallyproud of the team, and wewant to continue and it is go-ing to take us playing smart onthe field.”

All five of the sectional tour-nament’s teams emerged fromsimilar tournaments at Zapatato reach Corpus Christi. In afield void of weaknesses, victo-ry will come down to who com-mits the fewest errors.

“At this point of the season,everyone is good,” said Zapatapitcher Selissa Lopez. “It is go-ing to some down to greatpitching, hitting and who canmake less errors on the field.”

LITTLE LEAGUE ALL-STAR SOFTBALL

See SOFTBALL PAGE 2B

Zapata makeshistory, reachesC.C. sectionalsBy CLARA SANDOVAL

THE ZAPATA TIMES

The pace has been pushed forthe girl’s cross country team inZapata as the season approach-es.

The first test for the LadyHawks came in the form of atimed mile to see where theystood. Twelve runners were run-ning a six-minute mile, a greatindication for the season.

“I like for the girls to be atleast 20 seconds away from theirfastest times, and these girls dida great job so early in the sea-son,” said Zapata coach MikeVillarreal. “These girls are 15seconds away from their besttime, so that looks very promis-ing so early.”

The Lady Hawks are one ofthe best cross-country programsin the area and have been a con-stant fixture at the state meet.

When the team only sent oneathlete to state last year, it was adisappointment. They’re focusedon sending the whole team backthis year. Jazmine Garcia hasbecome the face of Zapata cross-country. It isn’t unusual to seeher in front of the pack at anymeet, so now the question iswho is going to follow her lead.

Kathy Peña showed a verypromising timed mile and isright on pace to help supportGarcia on the course.

The fight heats up when look-ing at the next five spots, whicheight girls are battling for.

“That is great that we haveeight girls going out there andpushing each other for thosespots,” Villarreal said. “Every-day everyone is challengingeach other.”

Villarreal also noted the pro-gress of Janette Chapa, who was

last year’s No. 6 runner on theteam.

“She is starting to comealong,” Villarreal said. “Lastyear was only her first year incross country.”

CrossFit trainingIn order to get his team back

to the highest level, Villarrealdecided to incorporate a form of

HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY

Lady Hawks step up the paceduring summer workouts

The Lady Hawks cross country team runs its daily timed mile early in the morn-ing.

Courtesy photo

By CLARA SANDOVALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See CROSS COUNTRY PAGE 2B

Hawks have participated in localcamps, open gyms and the summer’sstrength and conditioning program,but it’s just not the same. The LadyHawks have taken to scrimmagingsome of the local towns around Zapata— they hit the road to Roma this past

week — to experience some competi-tion since open gym can sometimes betaken away.

“Roma wanted to scrimmage, andwe said yes,” Villarreal said. “This is agood way for the girls just to be ingame mode.”

VOLLEYBALL Continued from Page 1B

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012

training that’s been sweep-ing the nation the last fewyears and he’s already seengreat results.

CrossFit training focuseson different muscles of thebody through circuit train-ing.

After the first month ofadding the CrossFit regimeto the Hawks’ usual joggingworkout, positive resultshave started to surface.

“I have really researched

CrossFit training and talk-ed to many coaches to seehow they incorporated intheir cross country pro-gram,” Villarreal said.

In the past, Villarreal al-lowed his cross countryrunners rest after finishingtheir normal runningworkout.

“I have already seen thebenefits and having thegirls 15 seconds away fromtheir best time at this point

of the season is great,” hesaid.

In June, Villarreal want-ed the runners to run fivemiles without worryingabout time as a factor. InJuly, the pace has beenpicked up and time is nowtaken into consideration.

The Lady Hawks areworking toward making atrip to state and knowthese next few months willbe vital to their success.

CROSS COUNTRY Continued from Page 1B

This bodes well for Zapata, as the lo-cal All-Star team is built on a solid de-fense that keeps errors to a minimum.Their victory over Gateway-Laredocame in large part thanks to focused de-fensive play.

As the competition ramps up, so dothe nerves. Zapata will have to make itso it doesn’t get rattled by Brownsville

on the field.Zapata has all the tools tosucceed: pitching, batting and defense.The potential for a great run at section-als is there, so long as they don’t comeout star struck in the opening game.

“We have to do our job on the moundas pitchers and we need to hit the ball,”Lopez said. “We just need to come andplay hard from the start.”

SOFTBALL Continued from Page 1B

Star junior softball team, I could hear hispassion for the sport in his voice.

Ramirez had been coaching little leaguersfor more than 20 years. He started with hisson, who is now 23 years old.

Ramirez gradually moved over to softballbecause his daughter, Norma Ramirez, wasalso showing an interest in the diamond.Naturally, he wanted to teach her the funda-mentals of the game.

The past four years, Ramirez and the All-Star team had been attempting to get pastthe Laredo All-Star teams, and they were fi-nally able to accomplish that goal this yearwhen they beat Gateway in the champion-ship.

As the game was winding down, Ramirezthought back to all the times his girls weresent home in years as the opposing teamcelebrated its victory.

This year, it was the Zapata All-Stars do-ing the celebrating. But, like a true coach,Ramirez postponed his cheer to check onGateway’s catcher Roxy Galvan, who hadbeen injured during the game.

“Once we knew that Roxy was going to beOK, that is when I started celebrating,” Ra-mirez said. “Winning that game was one ofthe best things that has happened to mewhile coaching the All-Stars.

“This is the first time in history that wehave come this far, and it feels great be-cause these girls have been out here in thehot sun practicing hard and we were finallyable to come home with a championship.”

Thank you, Zapata County Little Leaguecoaches for your dedication to the youth ofZapata and volunteering your time.

(Clara Sandoval can be reached at sand-oval.clara@gmail.com)

COLUMN Continued from Page 1B

LAS VEGAS — LeBronJames won a champion-ship. Deron Williams be-came nearly $100 millionricher. Kobe Bryant gotSteve Nash as his back-court partner.

See, it hasn’t been allbad news for the U.S. men’sbasketball players.

But overall it’s been arough year so far, and theimpact will be obvious Fri-day when the Americansopen training camp withabout three weeks untiltheir Olympic opener.

The Americans plannedto arrive with their 12-mansquad already selected,keeping the focus entirelyon the road to London. In-stead, their plans, just liketheir roster, have beenwrecked by injuries.

When practice opens onthe campus of UNLV, thetop priority will be deter-mining who among theplayers still standing getthe last available spots. TheAmericans will finally se-lect their team Saturdaynight.

“We would have alreadymade the decision if itwasn’t for the injuries andthe length of the NBA sea-son,” U.S. coach Mike Krzy-zewski said. “We have a

pretty good idea of whowill be on the team, but thelast one or two spots,you’re not sure of, so youwant to see the guys phys-ically and talk to them.”

“They’re not trying out;all of them are goodenough to be on the team.It’s where are they at rightnow, and how do they com-plement the nine or 10 guysthat you already prettymuch know are already onthe team?”

Krzyzewski said theAmericans were deepernow than the squads he ledto gold medals in the 2008Olympics and 2010 worldbasketball championship,and the team has neededevery bit of that depth.

NBA All-Stars DwightHoward, Derrick Rose,Dwyane Wade and ChrisBosh, who would havemade up one-third of theteam, all have been lost toinjuries. Lamar Odom, whostill had a shot despite hismiserable NBA season, opt-ed not to play. Anthony Da-vis’ health is uncertain af-ter the No. 1 pick sprainedan ankle working out withthe New Orleans Hornets.

All the injuries forcedthe Americans to scraptheir plans to name their12-man roster June 18.They’ve lost some of theirsize and explosiveness, fi-

guring they still have plen-ty left to defend theirOlympic title.

“While it is unfortunateto have lost the players wehave, Coach Krzyzewskiand I remain extremelyconfident with the group ofplayers we’ll have at ourtraining camp in Las Ve-gas. We believe that we willstill have an outstandingcollection of talent and thatultimately we will have an-other team that all Ameri-cans will be excited aboutand proud of,” USA Basket-ball chairman Jerry Colan-gelo said in a statementthis week announcingOdom’s withdrawal.

The Americans are leftwith five players from Beij-ing: James, Bryant, ChrisPaul, Carmelo Anthonyand Williams, who agreedthis week to a five-year ex-tension with the Nets thatwill pay him about $98 mil-lion. Kevin Durant, RussellWestbrook, Tyson Chand-ler and Kevin Love returnfrom the young squad thatwon gold in Istanbul twosummers ago.

Blake Griffin wouldseem to have a good chanceif he’s recovered from someknee trouble that slowedhim in the playoffs, be-cause the Americans coulduse his size. Beyond that,questions remain.

Is Davis healthyenough and talentedenough to overcome his in-experience?

Is there room forAndre Iguodala as a defen-sive specialist?

Does Wade’s absenceopen a spot for a scorersuch as Eric Gordon orJames Harden off thebench?

Can Rudy Gay be ananswer at power forward?

Krzyzewski didn’t wantto make any assumptionsuntil he had his players onthe floor.

“We’re hoping that ev-eryone that we have on theroster now is able to playand wanting to play,” hesaid. “You don’t know thatuntil you actually get to Ve-gas, because there’s always

concerns on my part for in-juries, family matters andcontractual stuff. Over theseven years I’ve done it,those three things haveeliminated certain guysfrom being on the team.”

The Americans will an-nounce the roster duringan NBA TV special Satur-day night. They will trainagainst a select team ofyoung players each day ofcamp before playing an ex-hibition against the Domin-ican Republic on July 12.

Though no longer as tal-ented, perhaps the Ameri-cans will be more focusedafter their run of bad luck.Colangelo has said thetoughest task for the Amer-icans might be regainingthe edge they had fouryears ago, when they were

trying to get back to thetop of the basketball world.Maybe being a little weakerwill make them sharper.

“If you don’t prepare andhave the proper mindset todo this, you’re going to bemore susceptible to losing,”Krzyzewski said. “I don’tthink any of the guyswould do it or need to do,but sometimes you can as-sume based on being a lit-tle bit tired or being dis-tracted by the season thatyou just had or the factthat we’ve won, we’ve wonthe last two major competi-tions, the worlds and theOlympics.

“You still have to takethe necessary steps to winthis one and that’s our jobas a coaching staff to makesure that we do that.”

Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of Team USA’s Olympic basketball team, has a tough task ahead of him ashe fills the final roster spots on the nation’s Olympic team in the coming days.

Photo by Isaac Brekken | AP

U.S. men’s Olympicteam set for camp

By BRIAN MAHONEYASSOCIATED PRESS

WIMBLEDON, England — For RogerFederer, it’s Wimbledon final No. 8.

For Andy Murray, it’s No. 1 — and thefirst for a British man since 1938.

Federer, a 16-time Grand Slam cham-pion, beat defending champion NovakDjokovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 Friday under theclosed roof at Centre Court to reach amodern-era record eighth final at the AllEngland Club. He is now one victoryfrom equaling Pete Sampras’ record ofseven titles.

“I have one more match to go. I’maware of that,” said the 30-year-old Feder-er, who is 6-1 in Wimbledon finals. “Still,it’s always nice beating someone like No-vak, who has done so well here last year,the last couple years.”

The next challenge will come Sundayagainst Murray, who is the first Britishman to even reach the Wimbledon finalsince Bunny Austin 74 years ago. Murray,also trying to become the British man towin the Wimbledon title since Fred Perryin 1936, beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-4,3-6, 7-5 in the second semifinal.

If Federer does win Sunday in his 24thGrand Slam final, he would also take theNo. 1 ranking from Djokovic and equalSampras’ record of 286 weeks as the top-ranked player.

“There’s obviously a lot on the line forme in terms of winning here, the all-timeGrand Slam record, world No. 1,” Federersaid. “I’m also going into that match withsome pressure, but I’m excited about it.That’s what I play for.”

Federer and Djokovic went for win-ners on almost every point. But it wasFederer who got the key points whenthey mattered in the third set.

“It’s hard to fire bullets the wholetime, so you try to also find some range.If he tees off first, it’s hard to defend ob-viously,” said Federer, now 1-0 againstDjokovic on grass. “It’s just not as easy to

take that many balls out and come upwith amazing shots time and time again.That’s why I kept on attacking.”

At 4-4, Djokovic had his chance withonly his third break point of the match.Federer held with three service winners.

Moments later, while serving to stay inthe set — and, essentially, the match—Djokovic gifted Federer a pair of breakpoints by blasting an overhead long withmuch of the court open. He saved one,but Federer’s overhead smash on the sec-ond gave the Swiss great the third set,and put him on the way to the final.

“(I) had unfortunately a bad servicegame on 5-4, and obviously he uses hisopportunities when they’re presented,”said Djokovic, who had reached the lastfour major finals. “So you have to be al-ways consistent. I wasn’t.”

The win improved Federer’s semifinalrecord at the All England Club to 8-0. Hisonly loss in the final came in 2008, whenRafael Nadal beat him 9-7 in the fifth set.

“I hope I can keep my nerves,” said Fe-derer, looking toward the final. “I’m sureI can. Then hopefully win the match. Butwe’ll see about that.”

William Renshaw and Arthur Gore al-so played in eight Wimbledon finals butthat was when the defending championreceived a bye into the following year’s ti-tle match.

Federer ties recordwith eighth final

Roger Federer returns against Novak Djokovicduring a semifinals match at the All EnglandLawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon,England, on Friday.

Photo by Anja Niedringhaus | AP

By CHRIS LEHOURITESASSOCIATED PRESS

OFF TO SECTIONALS

Photo by Cuate Santos | Laredo Morning TimesZapata Little League All-Stars catcher Victor King (33) gets a hit in the first inning of the championshipgame against Laredo’s American Little League All-Star team Monday at Slaughter Park. Zapata won thegame, 15-7, to advance to sectionals where it will face Brownsville on Monday.

DENNISTHE MENACE

PARDON MY PLANET

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES | HERE’S HOW TO WORK IT:

JUDGE PARKER

REXMORGAN M.D.

FOR BETTER OR WORSE

HINTS | BY HELOISE

SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

Hey, Heloise: When my oldmicrowave broke, I won-dered what I could do withthe GLASS PLATE ANDTURNTABLE — it seemedlike they would be good forsomething. After they sat inmy basement for a year, I fi-nally came up with the per-fect use: a plate for a heavypotted plant. The lip of theplate protects the floor or ta-ble below from overwatering.

The turntable allows meto easily spin the plant sothat all sides can get equalsunshine. Now my plantgrows straight instead ofbending in one direction to-ward the light. I can’t waitfor my current microwaveoven to break so I can haveanother! — Charles W.,Plainfield, N.J.

A great use! Readers, whatother uses do you have for amicrowave plate? Send yourhint to Heloise(at)He-loise.com, or fax to 210-HE-LOISE (435-6473). — Heloise

PET PALDear Readers: Carol in Mi-

chigan sent us a picture ofher 1-year-old, black-and-white short-haired cat, Calli,hiding in a box of shreddedpaper. She is inviting Carolto play hide-and-seek! Canyou spot Calli? To try to findCalli, visit www.Heloise.com,and click on “Pets” on theleft-hand side of the page. —

HeloiseHEY, LOOK ME OVERDear Heloise: There is one

rule that needs to be madewhen dressing: Where canyou see yourself, your wholeself? If possible, there shouldbe a full-length mirror in thebathroom, if not in the bed-room, where you can seeyourself — not only fromwaist up, but from waistdown. — Inez S. in Wiscon-sin

LOTIONS AND POTIONSDear Heloise: Cosmetics

and lotions are expensive,and there is always some leftin the bottom of the bottle. Icut open the bottle to get tothe last of the product, but itwould dry out before I coulduse it all up.

I bought the little storagejars you can get for travel.After I cut open the almost-empty bottle, I scrape out theproduct and put it in one ofthese jars. It keeps fine untilI can use it! Thank you forall of your helpful hints — Ikeep the ones I need in anotebook for easy reference.— Susan, via email

“HELOISE

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Sports SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2012

LAS VEGAS — The leg-ends of Amarillo Slim, Ben-ny Binion and GentlemanJack Keller will be in theair, and several recentchampions will be in theseats when play begins inthe marquee Main Event ofthe 2012 World Series of Po-ker.

The four most recentwinners — Peter Eastgateof Denmark, Joe Cada ofMichigan, Jonathan Duha-mel of Canada and PiusHeinz of Germany — willhave the proverbial chipand a chair when the$10,000 buy-in No LimitTexas Hold’em WorldChampionship begins thisweekend in Las Vegas,event spokesman Seth Pa-lansky said.

Amateurs, celebritiesand pros from dozens ofcountries begin 10 days ofplay at noon Saturday, withopening rounds continuingSunday and Monday.

The tournament fieldwill narrow until July 16,when a final table of nineplayers will emerge with achance to share in a prizepool topping $60 million.They’ll resume play Oct.

28, with a winner to becrowned late Oct. 30 orearly Oct. 31.

The number of entrantsdetermines the size of theprize. This year’s winnercould take home almost $9million and a covetedchampionship bracelet likethe one awarded to JohnnyMoss in the event that Bi-nion started with one tableof invited players at his Bi-nion’s Horseshoe casino in1970.

The tournament, nowowned by Caesars Enter-tainment Inc., moved in2005 to the Rio All SuiteHotel & Casino.

Palansky said other pastwinners who’ll play thisyear include Poker Hall ofFamer Phil Hellmuth and2003 champ Chris Money-maker.

They’ll be trying to top afield of perhaps 7,000 play-ers to become repeat cham-pions. No one has donethat since Johnny Chanwon in back-to-back years,1987 and 1988, in tourna-ments attracting fewerthan 170 players — most ofwhom he had faced before.

Since then, a poker play-ing boom made card-deal-ing terms like “flop,”“turn,” and “river” widely

known to television audi-ences. Fields at the WorldSeries of Poker have ex-ploded.

“The odds of a repeatnow, because of the fieldsize, are very long,” Palan-

sky said.The largest field for the

WSOP Main Event was justunder 8,800 players in 2006,when Jamie Gold wonabout $12 million. Heinz, atage 22, topped a field of

more than 6,800 to win alittle more than $8.7 mil-lion in 2011. Players lastyear hailed from 85 nationsand ranged in age from 21to 91. More than 240 werewomen.

Thomas “Amarillo Slim”Preston Jr., died in April.Keller, winner of the 1984main event, died in 2003.Binion died in 1989. Each isa member of the Poker Hallof Fame.

Shuffle up and deal, it’s hold’em time

The 2010 World Series of Poker champion Jonathan Duhamel poses with his winnings on Nov. 8, 2010, in Las Vegas.

Photo by Isaac Brekken | AP

By KEN RITTERASSOCIATED PRESS

When it’s time to lineup to march into the stadi-um for the opening cere-mony of the London Olym-pics, Zach Railey willmake sure little sisterPaige is at his side.

It’s the moment the sail-ing siblings from Clearwa-ter, Fla., have been waitingyears for.

“It will sink in for uswhen we walk in togetherat the opening ceremony,”Zach Railey said. “That’swhat we’ve alwaysdreamed about, a brotherand sister standing next toeach other walking in. It’sa dream come true.”

Zach Railey, 28, knowsthe drill. He made hisOlympic debut at Beijing,winning the silver medalin the Finn class.

Paige didn’t make thoseOlympics. She flipped herboat in the trials and lostto Anna Tunnicliffe, whowent on to win the goldmedal in the Laser Radialclass.

“It was incredibly excit-ing for me to go in 2008,but it was also incrediblydisappointing for Paige.”Zach Railey said. “Wethink of ourselves as ateam. So we were success-ful in me going, but wewere unsuccessful in Paigegoing. That’s always beenwhat it’s about, the two ofus going together and thetwo us being successful atthe Olympics. We learnedfrom that experience in2008 and we came backand didn’t let it beat us,and now we’re going in2012 and we can’t wait.”

Both are strong medalscontenders, although ZachRailey has the difficulttask of being in the sameclass with British star BenAinslie, who will be tryingfor his fourth straightOlympic gold medal andfifth medal overall.

“We’ve always been akey support system forone another, so to go to theOlympics together is oneof the best things in theworld,” said Paige Railey,25. “We’re going to do ev-erything we can to bethere for one another andbring home those medalsfor the country.”

The Raileys grew up asself-described water rats.Sailing just happened tobe the sport they excelledat.

“We were pretty muchthose tan little hippie ba-bies with bleach-blondhair running around withtheir mom down at thebeach,” Paige Railey said.

“It just seemed like a nat-ural thing for us to go intoa sport that was associatedwith the water. Our wholelife was based around thewater.”

When Zach was 8, theirfamily dentist suggestedthat his mother, Ann, en-roll him in a summer sail-ing program. Three yearslater, it was Paige’s turn.They both fell in love withthe sport and began win-ning regattas.

“You look back to whenwe were 14, 15, 16 yearsold, we were travelingaround together, we weregoing to the gym together,we were going through thesame experiences,” ZachRailey said. “We experi-enced the ups and downstogether. You form a rela-tionship outside of just be-ing a brother and sister.That is what has broughtus together, closer thanjust having a family rela-tionship, is that we alsohave an athletic relation-ship.

“When you understandthe time and the commit-ment that goes into it, youwant each other to dowell,” he said.

That’s what made it sodifficult when, on thesame day in October 2007,Zach Railey qualified forthe Beijing Olympics andPaige didn’t. While Zachwon his trials — only oneboat per class per countryqualifies for the Olympics— Paige’s chances endedin a split second when shecaught her life jacket inthe boom and flipped herboat.

“Not only was that arace for the Olympicberth, but it was verywidely known around theworld that whoever wonthat event was going to bea medal contender at theOlympics,” Zach Raileysaid.

Sure enough, Tunni-cliffe won the gold medal.Tunnicliffe then moved in-to the women’s match rac-ing class and will be seek-ing her second gold medalat Weymouth on the Eng-lish Channel.

“It was so gut-wrench-ingly disappointing,” ZachRailey said. "It was anemotional, emotional,emotional time for ourfamily. But I think that ourfamily is so close andwe’re incredibly strongand we support each other,that we got through it. Butit was tough, it was really,really tough. It was toughon all of us. I can tell youit’s much better this timearound with both of us go-ing.”

Sailingsiblings set forport Olympics

By BERNIE WILSONASSOCIATED PRESS

DAYTONA BEACH,Fla. — There’s a new fa-vorite at Daytona Interna-tional Speedway, and it’snot Hendrick Motor-sports or Richard Chil-dress Racing.

Roush Fenway Racinghas become the team tobeat at restrictor-platetracks, with drivers GregBiffle, Carl Edwards andMatt Kenseth enjoyingthe turnaround as theyprepare for Saturdaynight’s 400-mile SprintCup race at Daytona.

Jack Roush’s team wonthe last two Cup races atDaytona and has 17 top-five finishes at the famedsuperspeedway since July2008. That’s an impressivestretch for an organiza-tion whose drivers re-member coming to Dayto-na as mostly also-ransnot too long ago.

“When we talked aboutrestrictor-plate races fiveor six years ago, we’dcome in after practiceand say, ‘Man, this car isslow,’ and then say, ‘It’lldraft fine. Once the racestarts, none of that mat-ters,”’ Edwards said. “Iguess we didn’t reallytake it seriously to the ex-tent that maybe some ofthe other teams did. Wedidn’t really, really focuson these races and itseems like there’s been avery active effort to goout and be better at thesetracks.”

Strong results followed.David Ragan notched

his first Cup victory last

July at Daytona, withteammate Kenseth finish-ing second. Edwards andBiffle swept the front rowfor in Daytona 500 quali-fying in February, andKenseth capped Roush’sresurgence with his sec-ond victory in the “GreatAmerican Race.” Bifflefinished third and Ed-wards was eighth.

They were nearly asgood at Talladega, whereKenseth finished fourthand Biffle fifth.

Kenseth kept thingsrolling Friday by winningthe pole for Saturday’srace. Biffle qualified fifth,and Edwards was 13th.

It’s a welcome changefor the Roush drivers.

“We used to come hereand we’d be slotted be-tween 15th and 30th allthe time,” Biffle said.

“That was a little frus-trating because we were agood company, we hadfast cars everywhere andthen we’d come here andwe’d struggle a little bit.We’re found some speedsecrets. I don’t think wehave the best cars, butwe’re certainly right atthe top, on a pretty levelplaying field, with ... allthose (top plate-racing)guys.”

Roush needed 13 sea-sons at the Cup level towin its first plate race —Jeff Burton won the Julyrace at Daytona in 2000 —and had to wait two dec-ades to claim its firstDaytona 500 with Kensethin 2009. In the six Cupraces at Daytona since,Roush drivers have had adozen top-10s.

Edwards has five of

those. Kenseth has four,and Biffle two.

Kenseth credited DougYates, saying the well-re-spected engine builderhas been the difference-maker in a series thatmaintains strict stan-dards on car chassis.

“A decade ago was a lotdifferent with the ruleson the cars,” said Ken-seth, who announced lastweek that he is leavingRoush at the end of theseason. “I think the carsare just incredibly closeto being the same at theseplate races. Horsepowerand aerodynamic dragare the two things thatmake your cars go fast orslow when you come toDaytona and Talladega.And Doug Yates does agreat job with all thatstuff.”

Kenseth wins pole at DaytonaBy MARK LONG

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Matt Kenseth, right, laughs with Carl Edwards, left, after winning the pole position for the NASCARSprint Cup Series at Daytona International Speedway, on Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Photo by Terry Renna | AP

LOS ANGELES — Anthony WayneSmith spent seven years as a menac-ing defensive end for the Oaklandand Los Angeles Raiders whose mis-sion was to put quarterbacks on theturf.

Authorities believe that penchantfor a game of violence turned intosomething more sinister shortly afterSmith departed professional football.

Already awaiting retrial for a mur-der four years ago, Smith wascharged this week with three addi-tional murders, including the slay-ings of two brothers who prosecutorssaid were kidnapped and robbed bymen posing as police officers.

The most recent charges paint aportrait of a man who authorities sayturned to brazen crime, but leavesthe question of why he needed to af-ter a somewhat successful career.

Smith, now 45, was drafted 11thoverall by the Raiders in 1990 andamassed 57 1/2 sacks and 190 tackleswhile as a defensive end in the NFL.In 1993, Smith had 12 1/2 sacks, help-ing put the Raiders in the playoffs.The team lost in the AFC divisionalround to Buffalo 29-23.

Smith retired in 1998 and accord-

ing to authorities took part in themurders of Kevin and Ricky Nettlesin November 1999.

The siblings were kidnapped froma car wash in Los Angeles by twomen posing as police officers, andthey were later found shot to death,said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswomanfor the Los Angeles County districtattorney’s office. The victims’ bodieswere dumped about eight miles apartfrom one another.

Smith also was charged in theJune 2001 killing of Dennis Hender-son, who, along with another man,was kidnapped in Los Angeles by sev-eral gunmen, Gibbons said. The vic-tims were put in separate cars, andwhile the other man was let go, Hen-derson’s body was found in a rentalcar. Authorities said Henderson wasbeaten and stabbed to death.

Los Angeles police detectives be-gan working on the trio of old mur-ders in April 2011. Several searchwarrants were served and witnesseswere interviewed, said police Cmdr.Andrew Smith. Investigators wouldn’tsay if Smith knew the Nettles broth-ers but said the former NFL playerlived next door to Henderson’s broth-er.

“We believe these were robberies,but we don’t know the motive behind

them,” said Smith, who has no rela-tion to the suspect.

Defense attorney Michael Evansdeclined comment about the newcharges, saying he hasn’t seen theevidence against his client.

In a court filing, prosecutors saidall three victims were tortured. Smithalso faces three counts of kidnapping,and along with special circumstances,is eligible for the death penalty. Prose-cutors will make a decision on wheth-er to seek capital punishment at a lat-er date.

Meanwhile, Smith is jailed await-ing retrial on a murder charge in the2008 killing of Maurilio Ponce. A juryfailed to reach a verdict in April,splitting 8-4 in favor of guilt.

Prosecutors contend Smith luredPonce to an Antelope Valley deserthighway where the mechanic wasbeaten, stomped and shot over a busi-ness deal gone wrong.

Evans argued at trial that therewas no physical evidence linking hisclient to the crime and Smith had noreason to kill Ponce.

Smith will be retried with a co-de-fendant. A third man, Eric Honest,was convicted of second-degree mur-der in April and is awaiting sentenc-ing.

Smith’s next court date is July 17.

Ex-Raider faces murder chargesBy GREG RISLING

ASSOCIATED PRESS