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Classrooms teachers and li-brarians in the Zapata CountyIndependent School District willreceive salary increases plus aone-time $1,000 “retention incen-tive” payment, the district’sboard of trustees decided Tues-

day.All other full-time district em-

ployees also will receive the one-time payment.

The salary increases are inline with the district’s step pro-gram.

Board members extended Su-perintendent Norma Garcia’scontract after an evaluation in

executive session. They also ap-proved a salary increase and theone-time payment for her. Nei-ther board members nor admin-istrators stated what Garcia’ssalary increase would be duringthe meeting.

Among other actions takenduring the meeting:

Approval of the purchase of

two vehicles for the child nutri-tion program and two buses forthe transportation department.

Class size waivers from 22:1for two schools, Benavides Ele-mentary (third grade) and Zapa-ta South Elementary (kindergar-ten).

ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

$1,000 paymentTeachers, librarians get ‘retention incentive’ payment

By RICARDO R. VILLARREALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See BOARD PAGE 9AMEXICO CITY — An au-

topsy carried out on the bodyof drug cartel leader Heriber-to Lazcano before his bodywas stolen shows he died ofsix gunshot wounds, includ-ing two to the head, accordingto a forensic report released

Thursday.The Coahuila

state prosecu-tors’ office saidthe autopsy de-termined Lazca-no died of braininjuries, hemor-rhaging, shockand blood loss.

Lazcano, known as “El Laz-ca,” was a founder and one oftwo top leaders of the brutalZetas drug cartel and was oneof Mexico’s most-wanted druglords.

The head wounds stoodout, given navy reports indi-cating Lazcano was shot at adistance of as much as 300yards by marines during aconfrontation in northernCoahuila state Sunday.

The autopsy report saidLazcano was shot once in theside or top of the skull andonce in the back of the head.The four other wounds werein the buttocks, chest andarm.

Masked men stole his bodyfrom a funeral home earlyMonday. State forensic ex-perts performed the autopsyat the funeral home Sundayevening, before the body wasstolen.

Theft reveals hisimportance

Mexico’s navy said its per-sonnel had no idea they hadkilled the leader of the coun-try’s most-feared drug carteluntil after his body was sto-len. By law, military person-nel in Mexico cannot keep orexamine suspects or corpses,but must turn them over to ci-vilian prosecutors. In areaswhere morgues are in shortsupply, medical examinerssometimes perform autopsiesat funeral homes.

The navy says Lazcano waskilled after marines tried tosearch a group of suspiciousmen in a truck outside a base-ball stadium, after receiving atip there were armed men inthe area. The men fired whenthe marines stopped thetruck. One suspect diedwhere the truck was stopped,but the man later identifiedas Lazcano fled across a field,where he was reportedly cutdown by marine fire.

MEXICO VIOLENCE

2 shotsto headkilled

LazcanoASSOCIATED PRESS

LAZCANO

LAREDO — Soon, ZapataCounty Sheriff ’s Office will haveaccess to a Department of PublicSafety Crime Lab to examineDNA and ballistic evidencethat’s closer to home.

In Laredo, local law enforce-ment and politicians brokeground Tuesday on Laredo’sown DPS Crime Lab. The 81stTexas Legislature approved the$6.1 million for the 17,143-

square-foot facility.State Rep. Richard Raymond,

who helped secure the moneyfor the future state-of-art build-ing, says the one thing peoplecare about the most is publicsafety. Once built, the facilitywill be an important part ofhelping prosecutors and locallaw enforcement, he said.

“When a crime occurs andthere are victims … that familyand those victims deserve for usto proceed swiftly, in a just fash-ion,” Raymond said.

On the federal side, U.S. Rep.Henry Cuellar helped secure$250,000 in funding for lab equip-ment, including firing rangeequipment to provide safe andsecure testing of firearms and awalk-in freezer for storage andpreservation of DNA samples.

Having tools and technologyat reach helps law enforcementand prosecutors to seek justicequicker, Cuellar said.

“You have to provide the jus-tice. You can’t just be waitingfor that evidence to be brought

… to Webb County,” he added.Isidro “Chilo” Alaniz, district

attorney for Webb and Zapatacounties, talked about the kill-ing of 21-month-old DevianBluntson and 6-year-old JaydenThompson allegedly at thehands of Demond Bluntson, whois behind bars facing capitalmurder charges in Laredo.

“This crime lab could’ve notcome in a better time as westart preparing for the case,” he

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY CRIME LAB

FIGHTERS AGAINST CRIME

Federal, state and local officials and law enforcement authorities along with TxDOT officials were on hand for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Department of Pub-lic Safety Laredo Criminal Laboratory next to DPS offices in Laredo on Tuesday afternoon.

Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times

$6.1M crime lab expected to aid area law enforcementBy CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See CRIME LAB PAGE 9A

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012

SATURDAY, OCT. 13The Texas A&M International

University Lamar Bruni Vergara Plane-tarium will show “Planets Quest” at 2p.m.; “Star Signs” at 3 p.m.; “Wondersof the Universe” at 4 p.m.; and “An-cient Skies, Ancient Mysteries,” at 5p.m. It will be Girls and Boys ScoutsDay. Members who wear their uniformswill receive 50 percent off admissionticket. General admission is $4 forchildren and $5 adults. Premiumshows are $1 more. For more informa-tion, call 956-326-3663.

The public art project “InsideOut: Somos Hermanos” is from 4 p.m.to 8 p.m. at the French Quarter’s Ba-zaar, Del Mar Boulevard. The projectuses black and white photographicportraits to discover, reveal and sharethe untold stories and images of peo-ple around the world. Laredoans nextto Nuevo Laredoans will be featured inan effort to promote peace among thesister cities. The cost to participate is$30, which includes converting eachportrait into a large-scale (90 cm x130 cm) black and white poster thatwill be pasted in a public location. Formore information, email giftslare-do@yahoo.com.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17Eric Farnsworth, vice president

of the Council of the Americas andAmericas Society in Washington, D.C.,will speak as part of the InternationalBank of Commerce 2012-2013 KeynoteSpeaker Series, from 7:30 p.m. to 9p.m., at the TAMIU Student CenterBallroom (SC 203). Farnsworth will bepresenting “Reviving Hemispheric Poli-cy: An Agenda for the Next Adminis-tration.” This event is free and open tothe public. For more information, call326-2820 or visit http://freetrade.ta-miu.edu/whtc_services/whtc_speak-er_series.asp.

THURSDAY, OCT. 18The Anglers Quests tournaments

begin, to run through Sunday, Oct. 21.

SATURDAY, OCT. 20The Texas A&M International

University Lamar Bruni Vergara Plane-tarium will show “Ghostbusters” forFamily Movie Day at noon, 2 p.m., 4p.m. and 6 p.m. General admission is$4. For more information, call 956-326-3663.

The U.I.L. marching band con-test is today at the Bill Johnson Stu-dent Activity Complex, 5208 SantaClaudia Lane. The first band takes thefield at 10 a.m. and awards are an-nounced at noon. The public is invited.Tickets are $5 for general admissionand children 5 and under get in free.

FRIDAY, OCT. 26The Area Health Education Cen-

ter will host the 28th Annual Updatein Medicine Conference at the UTHealth Science Center Laredo Campusfrom noon to 6:15 p.m. The conferencewill provide continuing education cred-its to physicians, nurses, social work-ers, dieticians and all communitymembers. For more information, con-tact 956-712-0037 or mrgbahe-cadm.stx.rr.com.

SATURDAY, OCT. 27The Bass Champs South Region

Championship takes place today andSunday, Oct. 28.

The Texas A&M InternationalUniversity Lamar Bruni Vergara Plane-tarium will be host “Our Saturday inSpace: Make-Your-Own-Robot” from 2p.m. to 4 p.m. Space is limited. Entryis $20 and includes a child ticket. Formore information, call 956-326-2463.

The Texas A&M InternationalUniversity Lamar Bruni Vergara Plane-tarium will show “Destination Saturn”at 2 p.m.; “Secret of the CardboardRocket” at 3 p.m.; “Violent Universe”at 4 p.m.; and “2012: Ancient Skies,Ancient Mysteries” at 5 p.m. Matineeshoes is $4 and general admission is$4 for children and $5 for adults. Pre-mium shows are $1 more. For more in-formation, call 956-326-3663.

SATURDAY, NOV. 17The Bud Light Tournament Fall

2012 San Antonio Division tournamentreturns to Falcon Lake.

THURSDAY, MARCH 21The Falcon Slam Bassmaster

Elite Tournament returns to FalconLake. The tournament will run throughSunday, March 24.

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, Oct. 13,the 287th day of 2012. Thereare 79 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On Oct. 13, 1962, Edward Al-bee’s searing four-characterdrama “Who’s Afraid of Vir-ginia Woolf?” opened onBroadway with Arthur Hill asGeorge, Uta Hagen as Martha,George Grizzard as Nick andMelinda Dillon (whose 23rdbirthday it was) as Honey.

On this date:In A.D. 54, Roman Emperor

Claudius I died, poisoned ap-parently at the behest of hiswife, Agrippina (ag-rih-PEE’-nuh).

In 1307, King Philip IV ofFrance ordered the arrests ofKnights Templar on chargesof heresy.

In 1775, the United StatesNavy had its origins as theContinental Congress orderedthe construction of a navalfleet.

In 1792, the cornerstone ofthe executive mansion, laterknown as the White House,was laid during a ceremony inthe District of Columbia.

In 1843, the Jewish organi-zation B’nai B’rith (buh-NAY’brith) was founded in NewYork City.

In 1845, Texas voters rati-fied a state constitution.

In 1932, President HerbertHoover and Chief JusticeCharles Evan Hughes laid thecornerstone for the U.S. Su-preme Court building inWashington.

In 1944, American troopsentered Aachen, Germany,during World War II.

In 1960, John F. Kennedyand Richard Nixon held thethird televised debate of theirpresidential campaign (Nixonwas in Los Angeles, Kennedyin New York).

In 1972, a Uruguayan char-tered flight carrying 45 peoplecrashed in the Andes; 16 survi-vors who resorted to feedingoff the remains of some of thedead in order to stay alivewere rescued more than twomonths later.

In 1981, voters in Egypt par-ticipated in a referendum toelect Vice President Hosni Mu-barak (HAHS’-nee moo-BAH’-rahk) the new president, oneweek after the assassination ofAnwar Sadat.

In 2010, rescuers in Chileusing a missile-like escapecapsule pulled 33 men one byone to fresh air and freedom69 days after they weretrapped in a collapsed mine ahalf-mile underground.

Ten years ago: Serbia’sfirst presidential electionssince the ouster of SlobodanMilosevic failed because of alow voter turnout.

Today’s Birthdays: For-mer British Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher is 87. Sing-er-musician Paul Simon is 71.Actor Demond Wilson is 66.Singer-musician Sammy Ha-gar is 65. Sen. Maria Cantwell,D-Wash., is 54. Former WhiteHouse press secretary AriFleischer is 52. Actress KellyPreston is 50. Classical singerCarlos Marin (Il Divo) is 44.Olympic silver-medal figureskater Nancy Kerrigan is 43.Classical crossover singerPaul Potts (TV: “Britain’s GotTalent”) is 42. Actor SachaBaron Cohen is 41. Olympicgold medal swimmer IanThorpe is 30.

Thought for Today:“There are some things onecan only achieve by a deliber-ate leap in the opposite direc-tion. One has to go abroad inorder to find the home one haslost.” — Franz Kafka, Aus-trian author (1883-1924).

TODAY IN HISTORY

DALLAS — A Dallas woman who beat her2-year-old daughter and glued the toddler’shands to a wall was sentenced Friday to 99years in prison by a judge who described hisdecision as a necessary punishment for abrutal, shocking attack.

Elizabeth Escalona did not immediatelyreact as State District Judge Larry Mitchellpronounced the sentence at the end of a five-day hearing. Prosecutor Eren Price, whooriginally offered Escalona a plea deal for 45years, had argued that she now thought the23-year-old mother deserved life.

Mitchell said his decision came down toone thing.

“On Sept. 7, 2011, you savagely beat yourchild to the edge of death,” Mitchell said.“For this you must be punished.”

The beating left Jocelyn Cedillo in a comafor a couple of days.

Escalona’s other children told authoritiestheir mother attacked Jocelyn due to pottytraining problems. Police say she kicked herdaughter in the stomach, beat her with amilk jug, then stuck her hands to an apart-ment wall with Super Glue.

Jocelyn suffered bleeding in her brain, afractured rib, multiple bruises and bitemarks, a doctor testified. Some skin hadbeen torn off her hands, where doctors alsofound glue residue and white paint chipsfrom the apartment wall.

Escalona pleaded guilty in July to onecount of felony injury to a child.

Price said Escalona would be eligible toapply for parole in 30 years.

Mitchell could have sentenced Escalona toanywhere from probation to life in prison.

AROUND TEXAS

In a Thursday photo, the words on an overhead display written by prosecutor Eren Price, left, are shown in court as an emo-tional Elizabeth Escalona, 23, responds to a line of questioning during the sentencing phase of her trial in Dallas. Escalonawas sentenced Friday to 99 years in prison for beating her toddler and gluing the child’s hands to a wall.

Photo by Tony Gutierrez | AP

Mom gets 99 yearsBy NOMAAN MERCHANT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Senator hospitalized ingrave condition

AUSTIN — A campaign offi-cial says state Sen. Mario Galle-gos Jr. is hospitalized in gravecondition near Houston for un-disclosed reasons. Campaign con-sultant Harold Cook says Galle-gos is surrounded by his family,who asked for privacy.

A Democrat, Gallegos has rep-resented Houston’s Senate Dis-trict 6 since 1995. Before that heserved two terms in the House.

Gallegos faces RepublicanR.W. Bray in the November.

DPS says 3 die inhelicopter crash

FREDERICKSBURG — TheTexas Department of Public Safe-ty says three people are dead af-ter a helicopter crashed in ruralCentral Texas.

The DPS says authorities dis-covered the wreckage and bodiesFriday morning in northeastKendall County. Names of thevictims haven’t been released.

10-year-old boy woundssister, fatally shoots self

HUNTSVILLE — SoutheastTexas authorities say a 10-year-old boy shot and wounded his 15-year-old sister before fatallyshooting himself.

The siblings were taken byhelicopter to a Houston hospitalabout 70 miles to the south. Theboy was pronounced dead. Hissister underwent surgery. Shewas listed Friday in critical butstable condition.

Mass resignations at statecancer agency

AUSTIN — At least seven sci-entific reviewers have resignedin protest from the state’s embat-tled $3 billion cancer-fighting ef-fort over allegations that theagency is charting a new “politi-cally-driven” path.

The scientists, who include aNobel laureate, resigned in let-ters sent to the Cancer Preven-tion and Research Institute ofTexas this week.

TxDOT adding thousandsof left lane passing signs

AUSTIN — Thousands ofsigns are going up to reminddrivers in Texas of “Left Lane forPassing Only” laws on highwayswith 75 mph or higher speed lim-its.

The Texas Department ofTransportation on Friday an-nounced plans to post about 3,400additional signs by next summerin a renewed safety effort.

San Antonio truck wreckspills pinto beans

SAN ANTONIO — A truckerhas spilled the beans.

San Antonio police say nobodyhas been hurt in the one-vehicleaccident early Friday involving atruck hauling 50-pound bags ofpinto beans.

Police say the 18-wheeler ap-parently blew a tire and went offa highway ramp. The truck end-ed up on its side and part of thecargo spilled.

— Compiled from AP reports

Elvis’ Beverly Hills estateup for sale

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The for-mer Beverly Hills home of thelate Elvis Presley and his wifePriscilla is up for sale for a cool$12.9 million.

Real estate website operatorTrulia says the home hit themarket Wednesday.

According to Elvis Presley En-terprises, Presley first rented thehouse before the couple bought itin 1967. It was sold in 1973, thesame year Elvis and Priscilla di-vorced. The estate was formerlyavailable for $25,000 a month.

Portrait Gallery featuresfaces of nation’s poetsWASHINGTON — America of-

ten knows the names but not thefaces of its great poets. Now theNational Portrait Gallery is in-troducing dozens of 20th centurypoets to Washington visitors.

“Poetic Likeness: Modern

American Poets” opens Fridayand will be on view throughApril.

Curator David Ward says hewanted to open a poetry exhibitfor years because it’s a wayAmerica defined itself as a cul-ture. Ward says poetry is the lan-

guage we turn to when some-thing is important.

The show explores biogra-phies of Robert Frost, LangstonHughes, E.E. Cummings, AllenGinsberg, Marianne Moore andothers.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

Endeavour sits in a mall near Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. Endeav-our’s 12-mile road trip kicked off shortly before midnight Thursday as it movedfrom LAX en route to the California Science Center. See story, Page 5A.

Photo by Jae C. Hong | AP

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CONTACT US

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Two men were arrestedand accused of burglariz-ing a pickup after surveil-lance video played a keyrole capturing the men’smovements, according toZapata County sheriff ’s of-ficials.

Just before 9 a.m. Oct. 4,deputies responded to the1800 block of Second Streetfor a burglary call. Accord-

ing to Sgt. Mario Elizondo,deputies obtained privatesurveillance footage ownedby the victim.

Review of the videoshowed two men in the ga-rage area rummaging in-side a pickup, according toElizondo. Through an in-vestigation, detectives

identified the men caughton video burglarizing thehome.

Authorities identifiedthe men as Mario A. Ala-niz, 19, and Mario O. Gar-cia, 23. Justice of the PeaceJose C. Gutierrez issuedarrest warrants for themen. Information on how

the arrest occurred wasnot immediately available.

The men are beingcharged with burglary of avehicle, a Class A misde-meanor punishable withup to a year in jail and/ora $4,000 fine. Alaniz andGarcia remained at the Za-pata Regional Jail as ofFriday evening on a$25,000 bond.

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

Video helps in 2 men’s arrestsBy CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

MARIO GARCIA:Charged with bur-glary of a vehicleon Second Street.

MARIO ALANIZ:Faces up to oneyear in jail, and a$4,000 fine.

ASSAULTAn assault was reported

at 1:32 a.m. Oct. 4 in the 1800block of Delmar Street.

An assault was reportedat 9:34 a.m. Oct. 4 in the 1000block of Glenn Street.

Deputies responded to anassault call at 8:13 p.m. Oct. 4in the 700 block of Villa Avenue.

An aggravated assaultwas reported at 3:13 p.m. Tues-day at Grande and Siesta lanes.

An assault was reportedat 1:02 a.m. Thursday in the2200 block of Carla Street.

BURGLARY

A burglary of a vehiclewas reported at about 8:53 a.m.Oct. 4 in the 1800 block of Sec-ond Street.

A burglary of a vehiclewas reported at 3:52 p.m. Oct. 4in the 1800 block of AlamoStreet.

A burglary of a vehiclewas reported at 7:53 a.m. Thurs-day in the 2300 block of FresnoStreet.

THEFTA theft was reported at

10:56 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Valero,off U.S. 83. The property stolenwas valued at less than $50.

THE BLOTTER

LIONS CLUB MEMBERS DONATE DICTIONARIES

Courtesy photo

Villarreal Elementary third grade students received student dictionaries from the Lions Club. Books were distributed by Jaime A. Gonzalez,Lions Club president, Aurelio Villarreal, secretary/treasurer, and Jose Luis Morales, member.

LAREDO — A quarter of a century milestone ofcancer treatment service was celebrated at Doctor’sHospital on Friday.

Cancer survivors were joined by community lead-ers, physicians and staff to give thanks for the region-al cancer treatment center, which has made it possi-ble for Laredoans and South Texans to receive chemo-therapy and infusion treatments closer to home.

Numerous servicesThe facility, located on the hospital’s west end,

houses clinical programs, research, support and edu-cational services for outpatient radiation therapy.

The regional cancer remains the only cancer pro-gram south of San Antonio to be accredited by theAmerican College of Surgeons Commission on Can-cer.

Cancer centermarks 25thanniversary

THE ZAPATA TIMES

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012

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

In November 2007,Americans had 146.6 mil-lion jobs; now, we havejust 143 million. Then, 66percent of working-ageAmericans had a job orwere looking for one; asof September, that figurewas 63.6 percent, the sec-ond-lowest result inthree decades.

Recent Federal Re-serve statistics highlight-ed a core problem hin-dering our economy: Liq-uid assets held by U.S.corporations total $1.73trillion, up from around$1 trillion a decade ago.That sum and the vastliquid assets held bynon-corporate businessesshow that, instead of in-vesting and expanding,U.S. companies are keep-ing their money on thesidelines.

Tax lawsConsidering all the

regulatory uncertaintythey face and our puni-shing, indecipherable taxcode, who can blamethem?

Were it invested, thisprivate-sector wealthcould kick-start oureconomy. But that’s un-likely to happen undercurrent conditions. Infact, Blue Chip EconomicIndicators said in Augustthat it had found that al-most nine out of 10 topanalysts expect overallU.S. business investmentto drop further this year.Tinkering with tax rateswon’t encourage firms totake more risk and putthis money in play. Weneed to dramaticallychange the tax code sothat investing is not onlyeasier for businesses butbecomes a far better op-tion than not investing.

The current debateover tax policy focuseson whether we shouldraise taxes and, if so,whether to raise them onindividuals making morethan $200,000 a year oron millionaires. We needto talk about the biggerpicture: what it takes toget people and business-es to invest their moneyand create jobs.

Reforming taxesThat is what the

American Business Com-petitiveness tax reform,which I intend to intro-duce in Congress, wouldachieve. Designed tocomplement current con-gressional efforts on taxreform, the ABC tax re-form would replace thebusiness tax structurewith a new form of con-sumption tax. Manymacroeconomists recog-nize consumption taxesas the best tax system forencouraging capital in-vestment and economicgrowth.

Most of the world’sconsumption taxes aresales taxes or value-add-ed taxes (VATs). TheABC tax reform is differ-ent — it would encour-age business investmentby allowing 100 percentexpensing in the currentyear. This means thatcompanies of any size,no matter how they’reorganized, would pay notaxes on any of theirspending for personnel,equipment, property orother expenditure relat-ed to the operation oftheir business in theUnited States.

Expensing — essen-

tially, tax deductions forbusiness investment —is allowed under the cur-rent tax code but is sub-ject to innumerable andever-changing conditionsand limits; what a com-pany can expense de-pends on a firm’s sizeand industry, the type ofasset bought and its cost,the amount of time overwhich the firm can de-duct costs (“deprecia-tion”) and whether thebusiness is entitled to“bonus depreciation”measures.

By replacing this con-voluted system with auniform rule of 100 per-cent expensing, the ABCtax reform would quick-ly spark economicgrowth. Simply put, themore a company investsand expands, the more itreduces the percentageof its income that istaxed.

Substantial changesTo boost growth even

further, non-expensed in-come for all businesseswould be taxed at onelow, globally competitiverate — 25 percent — andall credits, special dealsand loopholes on thebusiness side would beeliminated. Because allbusinesses, whether amom-and-pop grocery ora billion-dollar conglom-erate, would be subjectto the same clear rulesand rate, special inter-ests and big businesswould no longer be ableto manipulate the taxcode.

The ABC tax reformwould have somethingfor everyone. Small busi-nesses would be put onequal footing with corpo-rations, while corpora-tions would profit from alower tax rate and 100percent expensing aslong as they invest herein the United States.Meanwhile, Democratsand Republicans alikeshould support a reformthat levels the playingfield for all businesses,brings certainty andclarity to the tax code,disempowers special in-terests, incentivizes thereturn of money parkedin foreign tax havensand gets the economymoving.

The ABC reformwould also enable moreAmericans to become en-trepreneurs. Right nowit’s difficult for most peo-ple to open a business.It’s hard to scrape to-gether the capital, andthe tax code is nearlyimpossible to compre-hend. But under theABC reform, potentialentrepreneurs would un-derstand their tax bur-den precisely. What’smore, people with a goodidea for a businesswould be encouraged totake risks to realizetheir dream becausethey would be able to ex-pense big initial invest-ments, as would anyfirm that invests in anentrepreneur’s start-up.

Major changesAdjusting current

rates a few percentagepoints one way or anoth-er won’t eliminate thetax system’s structuralinefficiencies and per-verse incentives. Weshould do somethingthat actually works: ad-vance a comprehensiveoverhaul that super-charges economicgrowth and job creation.

Reformingbiz tax mayaid workers

By DEVIN NUNESTHE WASHINGTON POST

OTHER VIEWS

The Zapata Times doesnot publish anonymousletters.

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

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

We want to assure our

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

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

ing or gratuitous abuse isallowed.

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

AUSTIN — Today,a sad tale of in-tercontinentallove interrupted

by Texas law. It involves acouple who’ve seen eachother only once since mar-rying 21 months ago.

For a while, there was arequest for Texas Attor-ney General Greg Abbott’sopinion on the matter.Then I got involved andthe request was with-drawn. I feel bad aboutthat, though the requestseemed destined for anopinion adverse to thecouple.

I’m hoping for a happyreunion, as should you.

Sravan, the groom, mar-ried Sravya, in their na-tive India on Feb. 13, 2011.Sravan, 28, who asked thattheir last names not beused, has lived in Houstonsince going there in 2006for grad school. Since2008, under a temporaryworker visa, he’s been acomputer guy for a beautyproducts company.

After the wedding, Sra-vya, now 25, sought a visaallowing her, as hisspouse, to join him inHouston. The plan wasblocked four months afterthe wedding when U.S. of-ficials in Chennai, India,told her she’d have toprove the marriage is le-gal in Texas. The onlytime they’ve been togethersince the wedding waswhen he visited India inFebruary of this year.

Here’s the hitch aboutthe hitched couple: They

are first cousins, and U.S.officials told Sravya shemust produce a Texas AGopinion stating such mar-riages are legal in Texas.The U.S. State Depart-ment’s Foreign AffairsManual says marriages“considered to be void un-der state law ... cannot berecognized for immigra-tion purposes even if themarriage is legal in theplace of marriage celebra-tion.”

Certain prohibitionsIn a Sept. 25 opinion re-

quest, state Rep. Pete Gal-lego, D-Alpine, wrote thatTexas law says you can’tmarry an ancestor or de-scendant, your brother orsister, your aunt or uncle,or your niece or nephew.

“First cousins, however,are not included in thislist,” Gallego told Abbott.

Happy ending? Not sofast. The National Confer-ence of State Legislaturessays 19 states allow first-cousin marriages and 25states, including Texas,ban such unions. (Sixstates conditionally allowthem, with a common con-dition being that one ofthe cousins not be able toreproduce.)

Texas got on the banned

list through a 2005 amend-ment Rep. Harvey Hilder-bran, R-Kerrville, added toa Texas Family Code over-haul after the big mess atthe FundamentalistChurch of Jesus Christ ofLatter Day Saints com-pound in Eldorado, wherefolks held nontraditional(that’s a nicer word forcreepy, isn’t it?) views onrelationships.

In 2009, Hilderbran toldThe New York Times:“Cousins don’t get mar-ried just like siblingsdon’t get married. Andwhen it happens, you havea bad result. It’s just notthe accepted normalthing.”

It is, however, the ac-cepted normal thingwhere Sravan and Sravyawere wed in a family-ar-ranged marriage. Hilder-bran told me their dilem-ma is “an unintended con-sequence” of hisamendment, which wasaimed at FLDS-like situa-tions, “but it’s not one Ifeel bad about.”

On Tuesday, Gallegosaid the opinion requestwas handled by his staffand he knew very littleabout it. A day later, hesaid he’s withdrawing itbecause “it didn’t gothrough the usual vettingin my office.” You shouldalso know that Gallego istrying to unseat U.S. Rep.Francisco “Quico” Canse-co, R-San Antonio, in adistrict that could includesome cowboys who mightnot cotton to a candidate

trying to help an Indian,first-cousin couple navi-gate our immigrationlaws.

It fell to me to tell Sra-van about Gallego’s deci-sion.

“I cannot express mydisappointment as Ipinned all my hopes onthis opinion,” he told me.“I don’t know what I amgoing to do next.”

‘Heartbroken’Pershant Mehta, Sra-

van’s boss, says the coupleis devastated.

“He has a home here.He has his whole life herein America,” he said. “Ina way, it’s going to bank-rupt him if he is going tohave to start all overagain and go back to In-dia.”

“She is heartbroken,”Mehta said. “He is heart-broken.”

Gordon Quan, Sravan’slawyer, says the only an-swer might be for his cli-ent to move to a statewhere first-cousin mar-riage is legal.

C’mon Texas. We offerall kinds of benefits to for-eigners who choose to dis-obey our laws and livehere illegally. Can’t wefind a way to help a pro-ductive foreigner who ishere legally?

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

COLUMN

Laws keeping couple apart

“KEN HERMAN

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012 National THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

RICHMOND, Va. —Broadening his attack onadministration foreign pol-icy, Mitt Romney accusedVice President Joe Bidenon Friday of “doublingdown on denial” in a dis-pute over security at a dip-lomatic post in Libya thatwas overrun by terroristswho killed the U.S. ambas-sador and three otherAmericans.

“The vice president di-rectly contradicted thesworn testimony of StateDepartment officials,” theRepublican presidentialcandidate said, eager tostoke a controversy thathas flared periodicallysince the attack on Sept. 11“... American citizens havea right to know just what’sgoing on. And we’re goingto find out.”

President Barack Obamahad no campaign appear-ances, leaving it to WhiteHouse press secretary JayCarney to defend Biden’sassertion in a campaign de-bate Thursday night that“we weren’t told” of an offi-cial request for more secu-rity at the site.

The spokesman rejectedRomney’s claim of a contra-diction. Biden “was speak-ing directly for himself andfor the president. He meantthe White House,” Carneysaid.

With his accusation,Romney once again pushedforeign policy to the fore-front of a campaign dom-inated for more than a yearby the economy, which hasbeen painfully slow to re-cover from the worst reces-sion in more than a halfcentury.

The Republican challen-ger was campaigningacross a pair of battle-ground states during theday, first in Virginia, whichhas 13 electoral votes, andthen in Ohio, which has 18electoral votes and whererunning mate Paul Ryanjoined him. It takes 270electoral votes to win theWhite House.

Biden was in Wisconsin,Ryan’s home state, and onewhere polls give Obama anarrow lead despite a de-bate performance last weekthat was so poor it fueled aRepublican comeback na-tionally and sent shuddersthrough the ranks of Demo-cratic partisans.

More than a week later,officials in both parties de-scribe a race that has large-ly returned to the compet-itive situation in effect lastsummer, before the nation-al political conventions andthe emergence of a video-tape in which Romneyspoke dismissively of near-ly half the country pro-pelled the president to sig-nificant gains in the polls.

Now, many of the samesurveys show a very tightrace nationally and in mostof the competitive states, al-though the president holdsa small lead in public and

private surveys in Ohioand Wisconsin.

Still struggling to bluntor reverse Romney’s rise inthe polls, Obama’s cam-paign launched two newads in several of the con-tested states. One showsthe Republican being askedin a “60 Minutes” inter-view if it’s fair that he paidfederal tax of about 14 per-cent last year on income of$20 million, while a $50,000wage-earner paid a higherrate. “I think it’s the rightway to encourage economicgrowth,” he says, and thenarrator adds: “Lower taxrates for him than us. Isthat the way to grow Amer-ica?”

The second commercialappears aimed at recentcomments Romney madesuggesting he might notmake opposition to abor-tion a priority. “Maybeyou’re wondering what tobelieve about Mitt Rom-ney,” it says, then showshim pledging to eliminate

federal funding for PlannedParenthood.

With control of the Sen-ate and all 435 House seatsat stake along with theWhite House, outsidegroups that spent monthsstockpiling money werenow in a race to spend it.

American Crossroads, agroup backed by formerWhite House strategistKarl Rove, announced thisweek it was spending $7.4million in the presidentialrace, while an allied organ-ization, Crossroads GPS,put down $4 million to helpRepublicans in five Senateraces and another $8.1 mil-lion for 11 House cam-paigns — a total of nearly$20 million.

Some candidates seemedto be showing signs of cam-paign fatigue.

In a California Houserace between two Demo-crats, Rep. Brad Shermanseized the shoulder of Rep.Howard Berman during adebate, yanked him toward

his chest and shouted, “Youwant to get into this?” Thetwo men stood nose to nosebefore a sheriff ’s deputymoved between them.

“I should not have donethat,” conceded Sherman,57, on Friday.

Said his 71-year-old rival:“It was like in the eighthgrade, ‘You want to go overto the park on the cornerand fight this out?’”

The Democrats are pit-ted against each other be-cause California advancesthe top two vote-getters in aprimary to the general elec-tion, regardless of party.

In the presidential race,Romney began the cam-paign week with a speechthat criticized the Obamaadministration for showinga lack of leadership aroundthe globe, particularly inthe Middle East.

And he chose to end itwith a direct challenge toBiden’s candor about theattack on the consulate inBenghazi, Libya.

Romney criticizes Biden

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney greets his vice presidential running mate, Rep. PaulRyan, R-Wis., at Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday. Romney accusedVice President Joe Biden on Friday of denial in a dispute over security at a diplomatic post in Libya.

Charles Dharapak | AP

By DAVID ESPO AND KASIE HUNTASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — It’sa surreal sight residentswon’t soon forget: A hulk-ing space shuttle strut-ting down city streets,pausing every so often toget its bearings as itcreeps toward retirement.

Endeavour’s terrestrialjourney began beforedawn Friday when it de-parted from the Los An-geles International Air-port, rolling on a 160-wheeled carrier past dia-mond-shaped “ShuttleXing” signs.

Hundreds of camera-toting spectators, somewith pajama-clad childrenin tow, gaped as the170,000-pound Endeavourinched by with its tail to-wering over streetlightsand its wings spanningthe roadway.

Over two days, it willtrundle 12 miles at a topspeed of 2 mph to its finaldestination — the Califor-nia Science Center, whereit will be the centerpieceof a new exhibit.

After an initial bumpyride and a brief delay, theshuttle pulled off a mas-sive feat of parallel park-ing by backing into ashopping center parkinglot for a layover as crowdscheered on.

“This is unlike any-thing we’ve ever movedbefore,” said Jim Hennes-sy, a spokesman for Sa-rens, the contract mover.

Spectators flocked tothe parking lot in theWestchester neighbor-hood to get a glimpse ofEndeavour, which wasguarded by an entourageof police, private securityand construction crews.

Janet Dion, a familytherapist from nearbyManhattan Beach, mar-veled at the shuttle, its ex-terior weathered by mil-lions of miles in spaceand two dozen re-entries.

“You can sense themagnitude of where it’sbeen,” Dion said, fixatedon the heat tiles that pro-tected the shuttle duringthe return to Earth.

James Nieuwdorp, atechnician for a transit

agency, saw Endeavour’saerial victory lap aroundCalifornia last month andtraveled to see it again be-fore it becomes a museumpiece.

He enjoyed how theshuttle brought strangerstogether. There was “lotof camaraderie — some-thing that’s hard to beseen these days,” he said.

After a nine-hour lay-over, Endeavour hit thestreets Friday afternoontoward the suburb of In-glewood, home of theiconic Randy’s Donutshop. As it rolled pastfront lawns, some home-owners climbed on theirroofs for a better view.

The shuttle will takeanother hours-long breakas crews re-route powerlines, causing temporaryoutages to severalhundred homes. It willlater be transferred to aspecial dolly towed by aToyota pickup truck forthe move over Interstate405. The automaker re-ceived a permit to film acommercial.

Shuffling a five-story-tall shuttle through urbanstreets was an undertak-ing that took a year toplan. Because the 78-footwingspan hangs oversidewalks in some loca-tions, police enforced roll-ing street and sidewalkclosures along the route.

The limited accessfrustrated some business-es that counted on hugecrowds lining the curbs toboost business.

Saturday is typicallythe busiest day for JamesFugate, who co-owns EsoWon Books in South LosAngeles. But with En-deavour expected to passthrough, Fugate bracedfor a ho-hum day in sales.

“We don’t close be-cause we’re slow. That’swhen you pull out a bookto read,” he said.

The baby of the shuttlefleet, Endeavour replacedChallenger, which explod-ed during liftoff in 1986,killing seven astronauts.It thundered off thelaunch pad 25 times, or-bited Earth nearly 4,700times and racked up 123million miles.

Vivianne Robinson Crowds poses in front of the Space ShuttleEndeavour before it is moved through Los Angeles, on Friday.Endeavour’s destination is the California Science Center. The12-mile road trip kicked off shortly before midnight Thursday.

Photo by Mark J. Terrill | AP

Endeavourcreeps to

new homeBy ALICIA CHANGASSOCIATED PRESS

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES National SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012

LOS ANGELES — Ateacher arrested at LosAngeles International Air-port wearing a bulletproofvest and with checkedbags containing knives,body bags, a smoke gre-nade and other weaponsalso had files on his com-puter detailing how to kid-nap and kill people, feder-al authorities disclosedFriday.

In addition, YongdaHuang Harris had files re-vealing he has a “stronginterest” in sexual vio-lence against girls, includ-ing a video titled “School-girls in Cement,” Assist-ant U.S. Attorney MelissaMills said.

One publication was en-titled “Man Trapping” andshowed how to hunt andtrap humans, she said.

The prosecutor detailedthe discoveries during acourt appearance by Har-ris, 28, a Boston Universi-ty graduate who had beenworking in Japan as a ju-nior high school teacher.

The bespectacled Harriswas shackled in handcuffsand wore a white prison-issued jumpsuit, alongwith a blue surgical maskover his mouth due to athroat infection.

Before the detentionhearing, he crossed andrubbed his arms, appear-ing to be cold. He oftenturned and spoke with his

attorney Steven Seiden.U.S. Magistrate Judge

Paul Abrams declaredHarris to be a flight riskand ordered him heldwithout bond until hestands trial.

Harris is charged withone count of transportinghazardous materials, forthe grenade, and couldface up to five years inprison if convicted. He didnot enter a plea.

Seiden said the weap-ons Harris was carryingwere meant for protectionand necessary becauseHarris was once attackedon the streets of Boston.

Seiden described Harrisas scared and timid. Har-ris carried some of theitems to defend himself,Seiden said.

“He may have intereststhat are not of the norm,but that doesn’t mean he’scarrying out any type ofharm to anyone,” Seidensaid.

Seiden also said Harrisdidn’t have any previouspsychological issues.

Harris was arrested onOct. 5 wearing the bullet-proof vest under a trenchcoat along with fire-resist-ant pants and kneepads.His attire attracted the at-tention of law enforce-ment, and when his lug-gage was checked theweapons cache was found,authorities said.

On the computer was adocument with schedulesfor schools in Japan show-ing when students arrivedand left.

Files detailed ways to kill

This photo shows material seized from the luggage of YongdaHuang Harris while trying to enter the United States at Los An-geles International Airport. A detention hearing was held Fridayfor Harris where he was remanded back into custody.

Photo by Los Angeles Police Department | AP

By GREG RISLINGASSOCIATED PRESS

WESTMINSTER, Colo.— A body found in a subur-ban Denver park was iden-tified Friday as that of amissing 10-year-old girl, asanxious parents kept closewatch over their childrenbecause of a potential pred-ator in their midst, author-ities said.

The body of JessicaRidgeway was foundWednesday about 7 milessouthwest of her home. Au-thorities said it was not in-tact, but they did not ex-plain further.

“Our focus has changedfrom the search for Jessicato a mission of justice forJessica,” Westminster Po-lice Chief Lee Birk said.

“All our efforts now arein search of her abductor,”he said. “We recognizethere is a predator at largein our community.”

Ridgeway began a shortwalk from her home toWitt Elementary School onthe morning of Oct. 5 butnever arrived. A massivesearch by hundreds of lawenforcement officers didnot start until hours laterbecause Jessica’s motherworks nights and sleptthrough a call from schoolofficials saying Jessicawasn’t there.

The FBI has warned res-idents that she may havebeen abducted by someonethey know and is askingthem to be alert for peoplethey know who might havesuddenly changed their ap-pearance or uncharacteris-tically missed work or ap-pointments.

“It could be your boss, itcould be your friend, andultimately it could be yourfamily member,” FBIspokesman Dave Joly saidearlier. “We suspect some-one in the communityknows this individual.”

Jim Yacone, FBI specialagent in charge of the Den-ver division, said investiga-tors would continue neigh-

borhood searches. The U.S.Marshals Service, immigra-tions officials and state De-partment of Correctionshave been reviewing regis-tered sex offenders in thearea, he said without elab-orating.

Investigators receivedmore than 1,500 tips fromthe public, roughly 800 ofwhich have been covered,Yacone said. Authorities al-so have searched morethan 500 homes and morethan 1,000 vehicles but stillneed the public’s help.

“We want you to look forchanges of habits, patterns,peculiar absences of thosearound you and report it tolaw enforcement,” he said.

Authorities: Body isthat of missing girl

Police search near an area where a body was found Wednesday inParttridge Park, in Arvada, Colo., during the ongoing search for mis-sing 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway on Thursday. Authorities said Fri-day the body is that of the missing girl.

Photo by Barry Gutierrez | AP

By P. SOLOMON BANDAASSOCIATED PRESS

LAREDO10|13— “Shoot for the

Cure” es a las 8 a.m. en elComplejo de Tiro del Sur deTexas. Costo: 150 dólares.Las ganancias se destinarána pacientes locales con cán-cer de seno. Más informa-ción en (956) 796-2222 o(956) 796-2007.

10|13— Fútbol soccer: elequipo femenil de TAMIU re-cibe a McMurry University alas 12 p.m.; y el equipo va-ronil de TAMIU recibe aMcMurry University a las 3p.m. Ambos particos en laCancha de Soccer Dustdevilde la Universidad.

10|13— Planetario LamarBruni Vergara de TAMIU pre-senta, el Día de los Niñ@sExploradores, con: “PlanetsQuest” a las 2 p.m.; “StarSigns” a las 3 p.m.; “Won-ders of the Universe” a las 4p.m.; y “Ancient Skies, An-cient Mysteries,” a las 5p.m. Niños que acudan por-tando su uniforme recibiránun descuento del 50% en elboleto. Costo: 4 dólares, ni-ños; y, 5 dólares, adultos.

10|13— Caballeros deColón, Concilio 2304 de La-redo, invita al Baile del Díade Colón, a partir de las 8p.m. en el Salón de Baile delLaredo Civic Center. TocaráOnMusicBand. Costo: 15 dó-lares por persona; 150, mesapara 10. Boletos llamando al(956) 206-1098 y 286-8592.

10|13— Festival de Tea-tro Chicano presenta: “ElSombrero” de Carmen Gá-mez; “Tu Amor Secreto” deLaurence Wensel; “Canary inthe Mine” de Ramón Serra-no; y, “Bridges” de Luis E.Flores, a las 8 p.m. en Lare-do Little Theater, 4802 ave-nida Thomas. Costo: 10 dó-lares (adultos); estudiantescon identificación y personasmenores de 14 años, pagan5. Otra función el 14 de oc-tubre, a las 3 p.m. y el 19de octubre a las 8 p.m.

10|13— Primer BaileAnual para la Cura del Cán-cer, a las 8 p.m. en VaqueroCountry Club, 1406 JacamanRd. Un 25% de las ganan-cias se destinarán al “Relayfor Life’ de la SociedadAmericana del Cáncer. Costoen pre-venta: 10 dólares. In-formes en 774-1710.

10|14— El pianista rusoAlexandre Moutouzkine ofre-cerá un rcital en el RecitalHall del Center for the Fineand Performing Arts de TA-MIU, de 3 p.m. a 5 p.m. En-trada gratuita.

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10|17— Olimpiadas Espe-ciales del Área 21 de Texasinvita a la Competencia deBoliche, de 8:30 a.m. a 1p.m. en Jett Bowl North. In-formes en el (956) 712.2144.

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10|17— Misa para losProfesionales al Cuidado dela Salud, por la Fiesta deSan Lucas, a las 7 p.m. enCatedral de San Agustin.Más información en el 796-3657.

10|18— Presentación dela obra “El Moscas y LosPesticidas” de Nephtali DeLeón, a las 6 p.m. en el Au-ditorio del Bill Johnson Stu-dent Activity Complex. Even-to gratuito patrocinado porUISD, EPA y Estudiantes Mi-grantes en Acción.

10|18— LTGI presneta“Blood Wedding” de FedericoGarcía Lorca, a las 8 p.m.en el Teatro del Center forthe Fine and Performing Artsde TAMIU. Costo: 15 dólares;10, para estudiantes y adul-tos mayores. Informes en(956) 319-8610.

Agendaen Breve

BROWNSVILLE — Para TiffanyHartley, el arresto por parte del go-bierno mexicano de un líder de uncartel trajo consigo una muy espe-rada vindicación.

Fue la primera vez que oficialesmexicanos reconocieron que su es-poso, David, murió por miembrosdel cartel.

“Nunca aceptaron eso en dosaños, y para ellos el finalmenteaceptar que David fue asesinadoen México por los carteles, por elcartel de Los Zetas, para mí es in-menso”, dijo ella el 9 de octubre.

Hartley, quien reside en Colora-do, dijo que el anuncio deberá sa-tisfacer a sus críticos: “Las perso-nas quienes pensaron que yo tuvealgo que ver con ello, finalmentese pueden decir, ‘Pero México estáadmitiendo que tuvieron algo quever con lo sucedido’”.

Oficiales mexicanos reportaronel 8 de octubre que fuerzas milita-res capturaron a Salvador AlfonsoMartínez Escobedo, de 31 años deedad, un miembro del cartel deLos Zetas acusado de haber estadoal frente de una serie de crímenes.

Los cargos en su contra inclu-

yen homicidios enmasa y tanto el ho-micidio de DavidHartley en 2010, asícomo del comandan-te de la policía in-vestigando la muer-te de David Hartley.La cabeza del oficialposteriormente fueenviada al EjércitoMexicano dentro deun maletín.

El cuerpo de Da-vid Hartley nuncafue recuperado.

Para cuando ocu-rrió el arresto deMartínez, alias “LaArdilla, el sábado enNuevo Laredo, Méxi-co, había un millóndólares como recom-pensa por su cabeza.

La historia de Tif-fany Hartley de que sicarios mata-ron a su esposo el 30 de septiembredel 2010, mientras ambos vacacio-naban en el Lago Falcón, atrajo laatención internacional acerca deque la guerra de las drogas estabaintensificándose en la frontera deTexas.

Su historia también trajo escep-

ticismo, conforme expertos y críti-cos criminales escudriñaban paraencontrar discrepancias y analiza-ban su lenguaje corporal para sig-nos de deshonestidad.

La Secretaria de Seguridad Na-cional Janet Napolitano dijo pre-viamente que “la especulación esinjustificada” hacia Tiffany Har-tley.

El Alguacil del Condado de Za-pata Sigifredo González dijo queestaba frustrado por la manera enque el gobierno mexicano la trató.

“Ella no fue entrevistada, sinointerrogada”, dijo él.

David Hartley había estado tra-bajando para una compañía de ser-vicios en campos petroleros enReynosa, México, y la pareja se es-taba preparando para regresar aColorado ese Otoño. Ellos pasaronuno de sus últimos días como tu-ristas en la frontera de Texas. Unade las cosas que deseaban ver es laparcialmente sumergida iglesia enAntigua Ciudad Guerrero, en el la-do mexicano del lago.

Unos meses antes, oficiales reci-bieron reportes de “piratas” arma-dos sobre el lago, robando a pesca-dores de EU a punta de pistola.

El Alguacil González dijo el 9 deoctubre que la historia de Tiffany

era, desde el principio, consistentecon esos reportes.

Dijo que su propia investigaciónsobre la muerte dio con cinconombres de sospechosos de miem-bros del cartel. Aunque los nom-bres no incluían al de Martínez,dijo que Martínez probablementefue arrestado como líder del gru-po.

“Estoy seguro que el EjércitoMexicano no va a mentir acerca deesto”, dijo González. “Estoy seguroque él estuvo involucrado de algu-na manera, aunque no fuera quienmató con sus manos a Hartley”.

El que oficiales mexicanos ha-yan considerado la muerte de Har-tley como el de una víctima, es“muy importante”, dijo.

Tiffany Hartley dijo que ellaaún desea más información paraasegurarse de que el gobierno haarrestado al hombre responsablepor la muerte de su esposo.

“Pero, tú sabes, de cualquier for-ma, él es un miembro del cartel,de cualquier manera él forma par-te del cartel de Los Zetas”, dijoella. “Él ha lastimado a muchaspersonas y ha matado a muchaspersonas”.

(Escriba a Lynn Brezosky a lbre-zosky@express-news.net)

MÉXICO: DAVID HARTLEY MURIÓ A MANOS DE ORGANIZACIÓN CRIMINAL

Hartley: vindicaciónPOR LYNN BREZOSKY

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

DAVID HARTLEY

TIFFANY HARTLEY

MARTÍNEZ

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 13 DE OCTUBRE DE 2012

Entre las acciones tomadas durantela junta de administración del DistritoEscolar Independiente del Condado deZapata (ZCISD) estuvo la aprobación derecomendaciones para incrementar lossalarios de los maestros en las aulas declase y los bibliotecarios, junto con unpago de incentivo por retención de mildólares, por una sola ocasión.

La reunión mensual de ZCISD fue ce-lebrada el martes por la tarde en elCentro de Desarrollo Profesional deldistrito.

Entre otras decisiones tomadas, sedeterminó que todos los otros emplea-dos de tiempo completo del distrito reci-birán también un pago de una sola oca-sión; la aprobación de compra de dosvehículos para el Programa de Nutri-ción Infantil y dos autobuses para el de-partamento de transportación, así comola exención de clases para dos escuelas.

Durante la misma participaron An-selmo Treviño, Norberto López, DiegoGonzález, y Ricardo Ramírez. Así comoDora Martínez, secretaria de la junta;Verónica P. González, vice-presidenta;José Ramírez, presidente y Norma Gar-za García, superintendente.

En otra acción tomada por la juntaadministrativa se incluyó la aprobaciónde la evaluación de la SuperintendenteGarcía, la cual fue discutida en sesióncerrada por la junta. El contrato deGarcía también fue extendido hasta ju-nio del 2014 y su salario también fue in-crementado junto con el de otros em-pleados del distrito.

Por otra parte, y de acuerdo con ladesignación de octubre como el MesNacional de Directores por la Asocia-ción Nacional de Directores de EscuelasSecundarias y la Asociación Nacionalde Directores de Escuelas Primarias,seis directores de ZCISD fueron recono-cidos por la junta administrativa y reci-bieron certificados de agradecimiento.

Fueron reconocidos Gerardo García,Zapata North Elementary; Pedro Mora-les, Zapata High School; Marlen Gue-rra, Arturo L. Benavides Elementary;Cynthia Villarreal, Zapata South Ele-mentary; y, Norma Arellano, ZapataMiddle School.

Ellos estuvieron ante la junta confor-me escucharon la proclamación del Go-bernador Rick Perry, en voz de Veróni-ca González.

“Los directores son más que solo cui-dadores de sus escuelas. Se espera quelos directores sean líderes en la educa-ción, partidarios de la disciplina, cons-tructores comunitarios, voceros, analis-tas de presupuesto y guardianes de losmandatos políticos e iniciativas. Los di-rectores imponen el tono académico pa-ra sus escuelas y trabajan en colabora-ción con maestros para mantener am-plios estándares en materias escolares,desarrollan misiones e imponen objeti-vos para resultados”, indica la procla-mación.

EDUCACIÓN

ZCISDaprueba

aumentosPOR RICARDO R. VILLARREAL

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Con sede en Laredo, fuellevada a cabo la Cuar-ta Reunión Regionaldel “Programa Bina-

cional Frontera 2020”.Teniendo como sede el Cen-

tro de Desarrollo Ambiental, elprograma busca “mantener alas poblaciones fronterizas deCoahuila, Nuevo León, Tamau-lipas y Texas en condiciones demejoramiento ambiental paraun desarrollo sano y limpio delas comunidades”, informa uncomunicado de prensa del Go-bierno de Tamaulipas.

Los participantes, entre ellosrepresentantes de la Secretaríade Desarrollo Urbano y MedioAmbiente de Tamaulipas (SE-DUMA), plasmaron las condi-ciones y estrategias que cadauno realiza para abatir losproblemas que más aquejan yafectan a sus comunidades.

Los interesados dijeron quebuscan “el mejoramiento de lacalidad del aire, calidad delagua y mejorar acciones para ladisposición inadecuada de re-siduos sólidos y especiales, am-pliando la educación ambien-tal”, indica el comunicado.

Compromisos“Estamos muy al pendiente

de todos los avances de cadauna de las áreas y constante-mente le damos seguimiento einspección a los trabajos enco-mendados, coordinando ac-ciones con las autoridades fed-

erales y municipales”, dijo eltitular de SEDUMA del Gobier-no de Tamaulipas, SalvadorTreviño Garza. “En Tamaulipasse busca impulsar e incentivarel uso y aprovechamiento defuentes renovables de energía yla energía alterna a través deun plan de acción e impulso denueve proyectos de energía eól-ica, para lo cual los avances dela información van por muybuen camino”.

Tamaulipas también esperafortalecer el Sistema Estatal deMonitoreo Atmosférico, el cualdeberá estar funcionando al 100por ciento para el año 2014.

Por su parte, el Subsecretariode SEDUMA, Heberto CavazosLliteras, reiteró el compromisoestatal de velar por el cumpli-miento de las normas ambien-tales que exigen las autoridadesfederales de ambos países.

“Realizamos talleres para laconservación del agua, revisa-mos los proyectos de colectores

pluviales y sanitarios, activa-mos programas y estrategiaspara reducir la contaminaciónpor sustancias grasas y lubri-cantes e impulsamos una nuevacultura para el manejo adecua-do de los residuos electrónicoscontaminantes”, explicó Cava-zos.

El programa de Frontera2012 está compuesto por 29municipios del lado mexicano y168 ciudades de EU.

Otros asistentes fueron el Al-calde de la Ciudad de Laredo,Raúl G. Salinas; Pedro Bena-vides Benavides, CoordinadorGeneral de Protección Civil deTamaulipas; Fernando Miran-da, Secretario del Ayuntamien-to de Nuevo Laredo, México;Carlos Montiel Saeb, gerente dela Comapa Nuevo Laredo; Da-vid Negrete Arroyo, de la Comi-sión Internacional de Límites yAguas México y Osvaldo Valen-cia, director de Ecología y Me-dio Ambiente de Nuevo Laredo.

ECOLOGÍA

FRONTERA 2020

El mapa, cortesía de la Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales de México, muestra algunas de las ciu-dades que actualmente participan en el Programa Frontera 2020, cuya más reciente reunión fue celebrada el jueves enLaredo.

Foto de cortesí | Semarnat

Reiteran compromiso para desarrollo sanoTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

“En Tamaulipas se busca impulsar eincentivar el uso y aprovechamiento defuentes renovables de energía y laenergía alterna a través de un plan deacción e impulso de nueve proyectos deenergía eólica”.TITULAR SEDUMA-TAMAULIPAS, SALVADOR TREVIÑO GARZA

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES International SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012

HAVANA — Fidel Cas-tro’s son reportedly hassaid his father is in goodshape despite nearly fourmonths of public silencethat in recent days set theTwitterverse aflame withspeculation about the 86-year-old former president’shealth.

“The Comandante iswell, going about his dailylife, reading, doing his ex-ercises,” Alex Castro wasquoted as saying by ArlinAlberty Loforte, a reporterfor the Venceremos weeklynewspaper in the easterncity of Guantanamo.

The exchange came atan exhibition of portraitsthat the younger Castro, aphotographer, has taken of

his father since 2010. It wasreposted by a prominentpro-government bloggerknown as Yohandry Fonta-na, and state news agencyAIN also reported AlexCastro’s comments.

Speculation about FidelCastro’s purported decline,which seems to surface ev-ery few months, hit the ru-mor mill again this weekwhen he did not publiclycongratulate ally HugoChavez on winning re-elec-tion in a hard-fought Vene-zuelan presidential race.

“Does anybody know if#FidelCastro has sent con-gratulations to #HugoCha-vez?” dissident blogger Yoa-ni Sanchez tweeted earlierthis week. “Because somesilences are resounding.”

Castro has not been seenin public since video imag-

es showed him greeting avisiting Pope Benedict XVIin late March, and the lastof his essays, known as“Reflections,” was publish-ed June 19.

The most recent of thosehad taken on a brief, eso-teric nature that left Cu-bans and analysts alikescratching their heads, andexiles in Miami speculatingabout his grasp on reality.

Castro has been mostlyout of sight since he left of-fice in 2006 due to a life-threatening intestinal con-dition. His health and loca-tion are secret, and attimes the only word onhow he’s doing comes inrosy assessments from hisclose friend Chavez.

On Oct. 4, Chavez toldreporters Castro had beenin touch to remark on TV

coverage he’d seen earlierof a massive campaign ral-ly in Caracas.

“Fidel sent a message,Fidel says from Havanathat he has never seen any-thing like what he saw heretoday under the rain. ...Thank you Fidel,” Chavezsaid, “for your messageand for the many messagesthat have arrived.”

The latest round of ru-mors, which apparentlyoriginated Wednesday on aFlorida exile website thatdid not identify its source,spread like wildfire onTwitter.

Fidel was brain-dead,early versions had it. Then,he had died. No, he was onlife-support. Traffic for theFidelCastro hashtagboomed as exiles rejoiced,Castro-backers pooh-

poohed the rumors andmost simply asked whetheranyone could confirm itwas true.

Venezuelan journalistNelson Bocaranda addedfuel Thursday when he

wrote that an announce-ment of Castro’s deathwould come within thenext 72 hours.

Cuban officials did notreply directly to a requestfor comment this week.

Fidel Castro’s son reportedly says father is OKBy PETER ORSI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Alex Castro, son of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, reportedly says hisfather is in good shape despite a long public silence that has againfueled speculation about the 86-year-old former president’s health.

Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/file | AP

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Rebeca H. Salinas passedaway Monday, Oct. 8, 2012,at Laredo Medical Centerin Laredo.

Mrs. Salinas is precededin death by her father, RaulHinojosa; and her in-laws,Octavio and Carolina D. Sa-linas.

Mrs. Salinas is survivedby her husband of 46 years,Ricardo Salinas; son, Ricar-do Jr. (Cynthia) Salinas;daughters, Maria Adela(Rene) Alvarez and CelinaI. (Daniel) Canales; grand-children, Adela Renee Al-varez, Rene Eli Alvarez Jr.,Celinda Carolina Canales,Daniel Eden Canales Jr.,Eduardo Gonzalez and Or-lando Gonzalez; mother, Re-beca M. Hinojosa; brother,Pedro C. Hinojosa; sister,Naomi Hinojosa Davis; andby numerous nephews,nieces and friends.

Becky was a devotedwife, loving mother, sisterand daughter who alwayscared for and looked afterher family. She leaves a leg-acy of respect and admira-tion to all who knew andloved her. Mrs. Salinas re-tired from Zapata NationalBank as vice president/as-sistant cashier after 30years of service. She will begreatly missed.

“He who believes in Himshall not perish, or die but

dwell in the House of theLord forever.”

Visitation hours wereWednesday, Oct. 10, 2012,from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with arosary at 7 p.m. at RoseGarden Funeral Home. Thefuneral procession depart-ed Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012,at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. fu-neral Mass at Our Lady ofLourdes Catholic Church.Committal services fol-lowed at Zapata CountyCemetery. Funeral arrange-ments were under the di-rection of Rose Garden Fu-neral Home, Daniel A. Gon-zalez, funeral director, 2102N. U.S. 83 Zapata.

REBECA H. SALINAS

added, noting the case willrequire evidence examin-ation.

“To have that in our back-yard, as a prosecutor I cantell you it’s going to be a bigadvantage and it’s going tocut down on the time wecurrently have to wait.”

Authorities at the ground-breaking said testing re-sults sent to an out-of-townlab can take up to a year toreturn.

But with the crime lab,authorities here can expectan answer in three, fourthor six months, Alaniz said.

On Friday, Zapata CountySheriff Sigifredo GonzalezJr. echoed Laredo’s law en-forcement community thatsometimes evidence getsbacked up in other labs,thus having a waiting peri-od of almost a year. Thelab’s proximity to Zapatawill be a plus to get evi-dence examined quicker,Gonzalez added.

Currently, when a certaintype of crime is committed,deputies transport the evi-dence to McAllen or SanAntonio. But with the crimelab closer to town, it’ll be a

plus to the office.“Anything that’s going to

be able to assist us is good,”Gonzalez said. Laredo’scrime lab will include DNAtesting. Having DNA evi-dence is crucial in casessuch as sexual assault casesand burglaries, Gonzalezsaid.

Laredo’s crime lab will bethe 13th established in thestate. The crime lab is ex-pected to be operational bySeptember 2013.

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

CRIME LAB Continued from Page 1A

Recognized six prin-cipals during NationalPrincipals Month, whichis October. They include:Gerardo Garcia, ZapataNorth Elementary; Pe-dro Morales, ZapataHigh School; MarlenGuerra, Arturo L. Bena-vides Elementary; Cyn-thia Villarreal, ZapataSouth Elementary andNorma Arellano, ZapataMiddle School. The prin-cipals were given certifi-cates of appreciation.

A proclamation byGov. Rick Perry was

read during the meeting.“Principals are more

than just care-takers oftheir schools. Principalsare expected to be educa-tional leaders, discipli-narians, communitybuilders, spokesmen,budget analysts andguardians of policy man-dates and initiatives.Principals set the aca-demic tone for theirschools and work collab-oratively with teachersto maintain high curri-culum standards, devel-op mission statements

and set performance ob-jectives,” the proclama-tion stated.

Board members pre-sent were Anselmo Tre-viño, Norberto Lopez,Diego Gonzalez, and Ri-cardo Ramirez. Also pre-sent were, Dora Marti-nez, board secretary; Ve-ronica P. Gonzalez,vice-president; Jose Ra-mirez, president andGarcia.

(Rick Villarreal maybe reached at 956 728-2528 or rvillar-real@lmtonline.com)

BOARD Continued from Page 1A

CHICAGO — Just three weeks af-ter Chicago teachers returned to theclassroom following a bitter strike,Mayor Rahm Emanuel replaced hisschools’ CEO with a veteran educa-tor and administrator who he saidhad the experience to take Chicagoschool reforms “to the next level.”

Emanuel said at a news confer-ence Friday that Chicago PublicSchools CEO Jean-Claude Brizardresigned by mutual agreement after“constant questions” about his lead-ership became a distraction to themayor’s reform goals.

Emanuel moved quickly to namea permanent replacement: BarbaraByrd-Bennett, who had been servingas Chicago’s interim chief educationofficer and played a more visiblerole than Brizard in the teacher con-tract negotiations.

Byrd-Bennett, 62, started her ca-reer as a teacher in New Yorkschools, and served as an adminis-trator there before taking the job asCEO in Cleveland Public Schools.She later served as chief academicand accountability auditor for De-troit Public Schools, where she wasin charge of implementing a teach-ing and learning plan and auditingacademic programs.

Emanuel said the new teachercontract, which included a longerschool day, gives the nation’s third-largest school district the chance topush further on reforms.

To do that, he said, “you have tohave the right person who has expe-rience in front of class as a teacher,a person who also has the experi-ence as a principal being held ac-countable for the results of thatschool building ... (and) you alsoneed a person who understands howto manage a major school system.”

The mayor’s office announcedThursday night that Brizard wasstepping down, just 17 months afterEmanuel picked for him the job. Theresignation was first reported by theChicago Sun-Times.

Rumors had circulated for weeksthat Emanuel was unhappy withBrizard’s performance, but the may-or denied it, saying just after thestrike ended that “J.C. has my confi-dence.” Still, Brizard’s first perform-ance evaluation by the school boardraised concerns about his communi-cation and decision-making skills.

A native of Haiti, Brizard came toChicago last April from Rochester,N.Y., where he had a frosty relation-ship with teachers and more than 90percent of them gave him a vote ofno-confidence.

Chicago School Board PresidentDavid Vitale said Brizard initiatedthe discussion that led to his resig-nation, telling Vitale he was con-cerned he could no longer be effec-tive. Vitale then went to the mayor.

“He was constantly questionedabout his leadership. ... He ultimate-ly concluded that it wasn’t going towork,” Vitale said.

He said one of those repeatedquestions was who was actually incharge: Brizard or Emanuel?

“The mayor was not running thesystem. The board was overseeingthe work of (Brizard). And if therewas confusion about that, it’s unfor-tunate, and it may in fact have beenpart of the problem why Jean-Claude didn’t feel he could be suc-cessful,” Vitale said.

Emanuel later made a point ofsaying he wasn’t running things.

“I am clear about what our goalsare, I monitor and hold people ac-countable to achieving them,” themayor said. “But I don’t do the day-to-day work.”

Emanuel praised Brizard’s profes-sionalism and said he should beproud of the work he did, includinglaying the groundwork for the long-er school day and school year. Themayor dismissed the idea that hehad misjudged Brizard when hehired him.

Byrd-Bennett said her 44 years ineducation have prepared her for theChicago job and she’s here “for thelong haul.”

She said her first phone call afterlearning she was being promotedwas to Chicago Teachers UnionPresident Karen Lewis, for whomshe has “great respect.”

“We need to do this work together

... (and) I plan to build the necessarycoalitions,” Byrd-Bennett said.

Lewis, who was critical of Brizardwhen he was hired, said Byrd-Ben-nett is “highly qualified” and calledher appointment “a good begin-ning.”

“She has a reputation of doingwell in labor-management relation-ships,” said Lewis, who said Byrd-Bennett played a key role in helpingto settle the seven-day strike thatidled 350,000 students.

Brizard did not participate in ne-gotiations, but Lewis said that’s notunusual in Chicago.

Lewis said she and Byrd-Bennettdid not discuss exactly how theywill work together, “but the doorsare both open, so I’m hopeful.”

A good relationship could be vitalas the district starts talking aboutclosing dozens of schools that arehalf empty. One of the biggest issuesduring the teacher strike was ensur-ing that teachers from shutteredschools have a fair shot at otherteaching positions in the district.

Other union leaders praised Byrd-Bennett as knowledgeable and expe-rienced.

Adam Urbanski, president of theRochester teachers union thatclashed with Brizard, said he andByrd-Bennett served as co-chairs ofan American Federation of Teachersadvisory board and she understandsboth teachers and unions.

“I think she has a more promis-ing track record of being able towork more collaboratively withteachers,” Urbanski said. “I’m hope-ful that her experience in Chicagowill help to stabilize the relation-ships and figure out ways to moveforward together.”

Chicago schools get new bossBy SARA BURNETT AND TAMMY WEBBER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Newly appointed Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett speaks, accompaniedby Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, at a news conference Friday. Emanuel replaced his em-battled public schools chief with Bennett, a veteran educator and administrator.

Photo by M. Spencer Green | AP

PHILADELPHIA — Off-set is more than just com-ics, it’s a laboratory.

That, says boss IvanBrandon, is why he seesthe endeavor as more a “gi-ant, amorphous experi-ment” that tackles story-telling from a “100 percentcreative declination” anddiscards the traditionalrules of entertainment.

“As children we have anenormous scope of talentand ambition that we allowthe world to talk us out of,”the creator of “Viking” andwriter of comics said this

week ahead of the start ofNew York Comic Con. “Webecome less and less ambi-tious.”

But thanks to the prolif-eration of digital comics asa medium, people —whether readers, creators,comics fans or others — nolonger have to worry aboutrules like 22 pages in acomic or a certain numberof colors or even the size ofa page on which to draw.

“People don’t have allthose weird hang-ups, theydon’t have all those rules,”Brandon said. “That’s ourinspiration. We want to getoutside of all the old habitsand old rules.”

Comic hopes to tellstory in new way

By MATT MOOREASSOCIATED PRESS

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012

CORPUS CHRISTI —Then and now.

That’s what Ron Ran-dolf is comparing by pho-tographing some of thesame images taken dec-ades ago by John F. “Doc”McGregor, Corpus Chris-ti’s most notable photog-rapher.

“I enjoy taking pic-tures, but Doc was almostobsessive,” said Randolf,65, who has tended theMcGregor archive at Cor-pus Christi Museum ofScience and History for 25years. “There’s no meat insome of them, he just pho-tographed everything. Ihonestly don’t know howhe had time for his familyin the 1930s and 40s.”

Paired photos of signif-icant local landmarks arethe focus of an upcomingexhibit early next yearfeaturing the chiropractorphoto guru’s work.

It’s like walking inMcGregor’s footprints,Randolf said.

McGregor took a photoof Pompeo Coppini’s“Queen of the Sea” sculp-ture and fountain, at Low-er Broadway betweenSchatzell and Peoplesstreets. Randolf believesMcGregor climbed atopthe entry roof of the Dris-coll Hotel, on the bluff.

The hotel is gone, soRandolf needed a tall lad-der to get in the same po-sition. He considers sever-al elements to reproducethe best possible blackand white image, includ-ing angle, elevation, light-ing, time of day and focallength of the lens. At 5p.m. Thursday, he replicat-ed a shot McGregor tookin 1936 looking north onChaparral Street.

“Ron has the eye Dochad,” said Jesenia Guer-ra, archivist for the mu-seum. “He’s a perfection-ist who does an excellentjob and is an absolute as-set to the collection.”

McGregor’s imagesform a comprehensive his-tory of the city’s businessand cultural life, said Jil-lian Becquet, exhibit pro-ject manager for the mu-

seum.“The exhibit will offer

many chances for storiesto be told by visitors asthe images bring to mindtheir own experiences,”Becquet said.

Visitors’ stories will berecorded for postingalongside the paired pho-tographs, she said. It alsowill allow an increasingnumber of McGregor pho-tos to be added to the mu-seum’s database, whichcan be accessed at http://ccmuseum.pastperfect-on-line.com/.

“This is a great way toshare one of our greatestlocal treasures, and itwould be impossible with-out Ron’s unmatcheddarkroom skills,” Becquetsaid. “He has preservednot only Doc McGregor’sphotographs, but also thedarkroom techniques thatmake black and whitephotography an art form.”

Randolf has handled —with white cotton gloves— most of the collection’smore than 250,000 blackand white negatives,many of which deteriorat-ed and he recreated fromoriginal McGregor prints.

“Ron has been toilingmeticulously for years,”said Rick Stryker, mu-seum director. “He’s anexcellent photographerwho is very talented atcreating high-quality fin-ished images.”

Each negative is tuckedinto a clear plastic sleeve,slipped into a white paperenvelope, then stored in aclosed box for one ofabout 300 categories. Thelargest category group is“news photos,” which fillseveral shelves in one ais-le of the museum’s library— McGregor was a Caller-Times freelance photogra-pher through the 1940s.

Randolf generates about

$9,500 annually to helpmaintain the collection,by enlarging black andwhite prints for business-es, industry and the pri-vate sector, Stryker said.He hand paints imperfec-tions to create the highestpossible quality image onphoto paper capable oflasting hundreds of years.

The Taft native, whonow resides in CorpusChristi, began makingphoto prints in his bath-room as a teen. His inter-est in darkroom tech-niques led Randolf to com-plete an associate degreein photography at Amaril-lo Junior College in 1972.He’s been a part-time em-ployee of the museumsince 1987, tending toMcGregor’s collectionabout 20 hours a week. Onhis time, Randolf is a free-lance photographer forhire.

McGregor’s work still is

a mystery, because Ran-dolf is still finding nega-tives not yet categorized.

One surprise he foundwas personal — a weddingphoto of Randolf ’s par-ents, taken by McGregorin 1936. Randolf remem-bers visiting McGregor’sstudio as a child, with hisfather, for chiropractorservices. At that time henever expected he woulddedicate decades to pre-serving the mans’ photog-raphy work.

Randolf ’s mesmerizedby the volume of difficultphotos taken by McGre-gor.

“What Doc did is amaz-ing, with equipment prim-itive by today’s standard,”Randolf said. “He wouldstrap himself into the seatof a biplane, and hang outin the wind with a camerathe size of a breadbox toget some of the aerialshots in the collection.”

The darkroom develop-ment McGregor did is avanishing art in today’sdigital world, he said, add-ing that he’s honored tohandle the films Doc han-dled.

“Some have thumb-prints in the corners I seein the red light,” he said.“It’s Doc’s thumbprint,left when he pulled a neg-ative out of developer,looked at it and if not fin-ished sloshed it back intothe solution.”

A couple hundred yearsfrom now, only artists andhistory buffs likely willpursue darkroom repro-duction, Randolf said.

“It’s neat to watch animage come up in a trayof chemicals,” he said.“It’s the magic that hook-ed me, and probably whathooked Doc too. As longas I’m here, the McGregorcollection will stay in OKshape.”

Photographers show two views of cityBy MIKE BAIRD

CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES

Ron Randolf holds a photo made in the 1930s by Doc McGregor showing Chaparral Street in Corpus Christi on Sept. 26 while he stands in the same spot. Randolf is trying toshoot photos from the same locations in Corpus Christi as McGregor’s. The paired photos of significant local landmarks are the focus of an upcoming exhibit early in 2013featuring McGregor’s work.

Photo by George Gongora/Corpus Christi Caller-Times | AP

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

We are in the middleof October, which isknown as BreastCancer Awareness

month, and it is the time thateveryone goes pink, includingthe sports world.

Pink is in, and everyonewants to pitch in by wearingpink to bring light to this dis-ease, but most people wronglymistake breast cancer with a fe-male cancer and that is not thecase.

Men also get breast cancer,which astonishes many peoplewhen asked whom does it affect.

Knowledge is a very powerfultool, and the more you know thebetter to make an informed de-cision on what is going on withyour body.

Many women, and a few men,are the ones that found thebreast cancer through a self-breast exam, and it saved theirlives because the quicker it isdetected the higher the survivalrate.

It had been nice to see theyoung people of Laredo get intowearing pink, and one of the lo-cal school districts even desig-nated Oct. 12 as pink-out daywhere students were allowed towear a pink top to school onlyon that day.

Everyone was sporting thepink color in support of BreastCancer Awareness month, fromthe elementary to the highschool level.

I challenge Zapata to do thesame next year. Have the schooldistrict set one day aside nextyear when everyone is allowedto wear pink to school. Just forthat one day, let’s unite togetheras one against a problem thataffects one of eight women.

All the local volleyball teamsin Laredo are wearing pink

See SANDOVAL PAGE 2B

Time tothink

pink inOctober

The rankings just keep coming for Zapa-ta after two local teams are among the top10 in Texas.

Last week, the volleyball team wasranked No. 25 but now both the boys andgirls cross country teams have vaulted intothe top 10.

The boys cross country team moved toNo. 9 in the rankings by the Cross CountryCoaches Association while the girls areranked No. 10.

Coming into the season, the Hawksweren’t sure how they would fare after thedeparture of longtime coach Luis Escamil-la.

The foundation that Escamilla left be-hind is still going strong, however, as theHawks have flourished under new coachRoel Ibanez.

Ibanez has been able to maintain thathigh level of competition, pushing the teamfor greatness with each passing week.

The Hawks have responded and are nowcounted among the best of in Texas witheach passing week.

“It is great for the kids to get some rec-ognition,” Ibanez said. “These kids haveworked very hard for months and it givesthem a sense of achievement.

“I think it can help the team with confi-dence or if you’re not careful it could comeback to hunt you, when the kids get over-confident and stop working hard. At theend, rankings don’t matter if you do notperform the day of the meet.”

Zapata is on everyone’s radar heading in-to the District 31-3A meet and will battlewith Progreso for the title.

“I think that the kids will be ready. Wehave a good chance of repeating as districtchamps, but you never know,” Ibanez said.“We are in a new district and most of theteams have stayed under the radar byavoiding big meets. Teams will be comingat us hard and we just need to perform andrun our race.”

The Hawks have been led all season longby junior Luis Garza who has been able tocapture some big meets including theUTSA 3A division.

HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY

Zapata in Top 10

Zapata cross country runner Luis Garza is leading the Hawks who are ranked No. 9 in the state.

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

Both crosscountry teamsenter rankings

By CLARA SANDOVALLAREDO MORNING TIMES

See TOP 10 PAGE 2B

Zapata’s outing against PortIsabel didn’t go as they wouldhave hoped as the Tarponsscored every quarter in a 49-21victory Friday night. Thematchup was Zapata’s last tuneup before the start of districtplay.

Port Isabel was able to scorein double figures each quarter,jumping out to a big leadagainst Zapata as the Hawksstruggled to put points on theboard the first half.

In the opening quarter, PortIsabel put 13 points on theboard and Zapata was able topunch in a touchdown by MikeAlvarez to keep the Tarponsclose.

Port Isabel led 28-7 at half-time and did not let up, scoringtwo more touchdowns in thethird quarter to extend theirlead 42-7.

The Zapata defense was test-ed from the get-go as the Tar-pons didn’t take long to movethe ball on the opening drive.

Port Isabel wore down the de-fense as the Tarpons started tosettled in with their runninggame.

Zapata had a hard time con-taining Port Isabel’s Javier (10carries, 131 yards, 2 TDs) andIsaiah Martinez (6 carries, 70yards, 2 TDs) as they combinedfor four touchdowns and

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

See FOOTBALL PAGE 2B

Hawks rolled byPort Isabel in 49-21

loss at homeBy CLARA SANDOVAL

THE ZAPATA TIMES

Mike Alvarez rushed 15 times for 232yards against Port Isabel.

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

The second round seems to be getting harder forthe Zapata Lady Hawks volleyball team as they werestretched by Kingsville Tuesday night.

Zapata had an unusually slow start against theLady Brahama but managed to pull out a 3-1 (16-25,25-14, 25-20, 25-22) victory to keep their perfect Dis-trict 31-3A record intact.

“We started out flat and couldn’t get any breaks,”Zapata coach Rosie Villarreal said. “Even whenKingsville was giving up points, we still couldn’tmanage to capitalize on their mistakes. We madesome adjustments and started playing our game.”

Senior hitter Kristina De Leon is having an out-standing season as she continues to make a strongcase for district MVP.

De Leon helped the Lady Hawks stay at the top ofthe district standings with 23 kills that kept Zapataafloat in the game as they pulled off the victory.

De Leon was not shy about working the entirecourt and took what the defense gave, sometimeseven bullying her way through the Kingsville of-fense as she slammed the ball down the middle ofthe floor.

She was also sensational with her play at the neton defense as she had a block party that included sixon the night.

Helping out at the net were Vanessa Martinez andLiana Flores with one block each.

Celia Rathmell (five kills) is also starting toemerge for the Lady Hawks along with Martinez(two kills) and provided another offensive dimensionto Zapata.

When the opposing defenses key on De Leon,Rathmell and Martinez are able to come in and graba few kills to force the defense to widen their play atthe net.

Flores (four kills) and Jeana Jasso (two kills) also

provided some offense for Zapata to complete the of-fensive attack for the Lady Hawks.

One aspect of game that Zapata has really startedto take control over and has been burning defenseswith is their service game.

The Lady Hawks picked up eight points on howmuch power they were able to provide behind theirserves.

HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL

Zapata stays perfect in district

Zapata coach Rosie Villarreal has the Lady Hawks undefeat-ed in district 31-3A play after a 3-1 victory Tuesday overKingsville.

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

By CLARA SANDOVALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See HAWKS PAGE 2B

“CLARA SANDOVALVAL

ranked up most of the Tar-pons offense.

Port Isabel had a total of 501yards on offense with 411 com-ing on the ground.

The Tarpons moved the of-fense up and down the fieldand had 16 first downs whileZapata had too many three-and-outs as the Hawks hadjust eight first downs on thenight.

The bright spot for theHawks was the play of Alvarezwho has been an iron horsefor Zapata with his runningand his ability to slip throughsmall seems in the defense.

Alvarez had 15 carries for

232 yards against the Tarponsand accounted for more thanhalf of Zapata’s total offensiveyards on the night.

Zapata had 326 total yards ofoffense and they all came onthe ground. Alvarez accountedfor two of Zapata’s touch-downs and Brandon Alvarezhad one on the night.

Also getting the ball on theground was Juan Fernandez,who made the most of histhree carries as he ran for 42yards to ease some of the of-fensive load.

Danny Hinojosa carried theball twice and grabbed 16yards.

FOOTBALL Continued from Page 1B

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012

socks, pink shoes laces orpink warm up tops.

I have even seen someteams in the Rio GrandeValley sporting those pinksocks.

It is great to see the La-dy Hawks volleyball teamwearing pink bows andsocks to show their sup-port.

On Sept. 30, our parentpaper, the Laredo Morn-

ing Times, went pink for asecond year in a row.

The extra dollar thatLMT charged was donatedto many worthy causes,and it is a great way tokick off Breast CancerAwareness month.

I personally just love thepink paper and have thefirst edition neatly putaway because that was ahistorical day last year.

When it was announcedthat LMT would be hold-ing the pink edition again,I could not wait and litera-lly woke up around 6:30am just to go and get thepink paper. I read that pa-per from the first page tothe last page a few timesthat Sunday morning.

Pink is in, and Zapatashould embrace it witharms wide open. I would

like to see businesses withsome sort of pink bow dis-played somewhere andeven let employees wearpink for the month of Oc-tober.

Come on Zapata, let’s gopink for next year; the ballis in your court.

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

SANDOVAL Continued from Page 1B

Setter Sessy Mata led theteam with six aces on thenight and was followed byAnissa Garcia who hadtwo.

When Mata was nottorching the Lady Brahmaswith her serves, she wasbusy feeding the ball to theZapata hitters and recorded23 assists with the majoritygoing to her main target,De Leon.

Gaby Gutierrez added 12assist to help run the Zapa-ta offense.

The usual suspect in theback row was running theshow as libero Abby Agui-lar had 28 digs to ensurethat the Zapata had everyopportunity to succeed.

Lending a hand on de-fense was Anissa Garciawith eight digs and De Le-on with six digs.

HAWKS Continued from Page 1B

Top seven varsity runners are juniors Garza, Car-los Rodriguez , Heriberto Perez and seniors Jose Gar-cia, Sammy Camacho, Romeo Morales and JeromeCabugos. Also making the team as alternates are se-nior Luis Lerma and juniors Omar Alfaro and JoseHernandez.

The Lady Hawks return to familiar territory crack-ing the top 10 in the state after last year’s perform-ance.

“Being ranked to a coach is merely a complimentfrom the coaches from around the state saying ‘Heywe see what you’re doing and we have our eye out foryou all,’” Zapata girls cross country coach Mike Vil-larreal said. “As an athlete to be considered top 10 inthe entire state is an honor.

“This team has worked extremely hard to redeemthemselves and gain respect once again.”

The Lady Hawks varsity team is comprised of JazGarcia, Joyce Garcia, Raquel Almaguer, Cassie Pena,

Erica Hernandez, Jannet Chapa and Sara Pena. Nor-ma Ramirez and Angela Darnell are also in the mixfor a spot and have been working hard all seasonlong.

Garcia is a two-time state qualifier and is searchingfor her third straight trip to the state meet.

As a freshman, she placed in the top 15 at the statemeet and had a stellar performance her sophomoreyear. A third trip to state would put an exclamationpoint on the great season that the Lady Hawks arehaving this year.

Before Zapata can think of getting back to state,however, they must first get through the district meetthat will be run on Oct. 22 at Rio Grande City LaGrulla High School.

“As far as district is concerned we have biggergoals and that is to get back to the state meet inround rock,” Villarreal said. “District is a formalitybefore regionals.”

TOP 10 Continued from Page 1B

PARIS — The Tour de Francewill have no official winner for theseven races from 1999-2005 if LanceArmstrong is stripped of his victo-ries by the International CyclingUnion.

In an interview with The Associ-ated Press on Friday, Tour directorChristian Prudhomme called theU.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s report onArmstrong “damning.” It raisesdoubts, he said, about “a systemand an era.”

Tour officials are still waiting onthe UCI’s decision on whether to goalong with USADA’s decision to banArmstrong for life and erase hisracing results. A spokesman for thesport’s governing body, Enrico Car-pani, said it was “too early to say”what would happen. The UCI mustdecide by the end of the monthwhether to appeal USADA’s ruling.

UCI President Pat McQuaid de-clined to comment on USADA’s re-

port but defended his organization’sefforts to catch drug cheats.

The report cost Armstrong’s for-mer team manager, Johan Bruyneel,his job as general manager of Radio-Shack Nissan Trek. The team saidFriday the decision was taken by“mutual agreement” and that Bruy-neel “can no longer direct the teamin an efficient and comfortable way.”

The Belgian has his own legal bat-tle with USADA and has opted for ar-bitration to fight charges that he leddoping programs for Armstrong’steams.

If Armstrong’s Tour victories arenot awarded to other riders, thatwould leave a gaping seven-yearblack hole in Tour de France recordbooks. It would also mark a shift inhow Tour organizers treated similarcases in the past.

When Alberto Contador wasstripped of his 2010 Tour victory fora doping violation, organizers held aceremony to award the race winner’syellow jersey to Luxembourg’s Andy

Schleck. In 2006, Oscar Pereiro wasawarded the victory and a place inthe record books after the dopingdisqualification of American riderFloyd Landis.

Prudhomme wouldn’t address thedifferences in approach.

McQuaid said inadequacies inthe anti-doping system were failingto catch drug-using athletes. TheUCI tests athletes repeatedly fordoping, he said, but the federationcan do little if the results are nega-tive. He insisted the anti-doping sys-tem had improved since the 1998-2009 period of Armstrong’s careerexamined in the report.

For Frankie Andreu, the reportoffered relief. A former Armstrongteammate, he had previously admit-ted doping.

“We’re kind of getting to the endof this, where we can have some clo-sure on this,” Andreu said. “There’smore riders, more people out there,talking about what happened in thepast.”

Lance Armstrong, who won seven straight Tour de France races, is facing the loss of each of the wins. The Tour de France would haveno official winner if it were to occur.

Photo by Peter Dejong | AP

Armstrong report ‘damning’ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -NASCAR’s most populardriver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.,will sit out at least thenext two Sprint Cup Seriesraces after suffering a sec-ond concussion within sixweeks.

Earnhardt’s neurosurge-on, Dr. Jerry Petty, notifiedhim Wednesday he wouldnot be cleared to race inSaturday night’s Bank ofAmerica 500 at CharlotteMotor Speedway.

"I trust his opinion.That’s why I went to seehim. He’s been a goodfriend of mine for a longtime and has helped methrough a lot of injuriesbefore," Earnhardt said ofDr. Petty.

"I believe when he tellsme I don’t need to be inthe car and I need to takea couple weeks off thatthat’s what I need to do."

Earnhardt said he firstfelt symptoms nearly sixweeks ago after a hardwreck at Kansas Speedwayduring a tire test. He wasseen by medical staff atthe track but did not go in-to detail about his symp-toms then or immediatelyafterward.

"I decided to just try topush through and workthrough it. I’d had concus-sions before and knew ex-actly kind of what I wasdealing with," Earnhardtsaid.

When Earnhardt wasstill suffering from head-aches this week followinghis involvement in lastSunday’s last-lap wreck atTalladega (Ala.) Super-speedway, he decided toreach out to his sister, Kel-ley, and ended up meetingwith Dr. Petty.

Dr. Petty put Earnhardtthrough an impact test andmagnetic resonance imag-ing test, both of whichwere clear. But because ofEarnhardt’s lingeringsymptoms, Dr. Petty de-clined to clear him to race.

"The one test, the one

symptom that is more im-portant than all the tests isheadache, and as long asthere’s any headache, thebrain is not healed," Dr.Petty said.

"Until that’s healed andhad some time to rest andthen you provoke it againand can’t make it happenagain, then you feel likeyou’re on the road to re-covery."

Team owner Rick Hen-drick said he admiredEarnhardt for speaking upthis week about his health.

"I think a lot of guyswould try to play hurt, butwhen the doctor tells youif you get hit again likeright away, it could be cat-astrophic, so I think thisdeal has worked out ex-tremely well as it could,"Hendrick said.

"I mean, we were sohappy yesterday that theMRI was completely nor-mal, no damage. We don’thave a problem there."While Earnhardt was al-ready going to have a diffi-cult road to a champion-ship - he trails leader BradKeselowski by 51 pointswith six races left - the de-cision to get out of the carwill end any titles hopesfor 2012.

Due to the structure ofthe Chase, Earnhardt can-not finish lower than 12thin the series standings.

"It’s frustrating. I reallydidn’t get to make the deci-sion. I left it in the handsof the docs, and I’m goingto do what they tell me todo," Earnhardt said. "Butit’s frustrating; I just enjoydriving cars week in andweek out."

Driver Regan Smith,who was recently releasedfrom Furniture Row Rac-ing, will drive Earnhardt’sNo. 88 Chevrolet in thenext two races.

Earnhardt doesn’t planto be around the track dur-ing his hiatus.

"I think that I’d be moreof a distraction to the teamand their efforts in therace," he said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, right, talks about missing the next two races withhis second concussion in the past six weeks.

Photo by Chuck Burton | AP

Earnhardt Jr. tomiss two races

with concussionASSOCIATED PRESS

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, OCTOBER 13, 2012 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

Dear Readers: I askedyou, my readers, whichway TOILET PAPERshould be hung — out andover or back and around.Wow! Lots of commentson this question. Here iswhat just a few of you hadto say:

Kathy Rickard ofJohnsonburg, Pa., says:“We always put the paperon with the back-and-around method. The rea-son: If the paper was outand over, my 2-year-oldbrother made a game ofspinning the roll, and pa-per would tumble all overthe floor.”

Gerry in Oregon says:“If the roll is close to thetoilet, it’s more conve-nient to roll the paperfrom the back. If the rollis a distance away, it iseasier to roll from thefront.”

Roberta in Iowa says:“The roll of toilet papershould have the endagainst the wall. Whyhave it dangling in front?”

Gloria in Maine says,“I’ve been a housekeepingmanager at a hotel, and Iprefer the roll over thetop, and I taught my girlsthat the pointed fold staysmuch better coming fromthe top of the roll.”

Ruth Thompson inBrandon, Miss., says:“When we moved into ourhouse, I was shocked tosee the toilet paper downat ankle level. At that lev-el, over the top is the onlyappropriate way it can bereached.”

Jerry in Rapid City,S.D., says: “It’s harder tofind the end if it’s on thebackside. Embossed rollsmust hang in front, or youwill see the backside ofthe tissue hanging down.”

Joe in Texas says:“There is no wrong orright way to hang toiletpaper. However, if youhave felines in your houseand your toilet paper ishanging over the top, theytend to slap at it until it’sall on the floor.”

Joni in Gary, Ind.,says, “Whoever changesthe roll gets to put it onthe way he or she wants.”

So, the great how-to-hang-the-toilet-paper de-bate still “rolls” on! Morecomments are welcome. —Heloise

“HELOISE

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Football SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2012

DALLAS — Consider ita sign of how much BobStoops and Mack Brownhave raised the bar in theRed River Rivalry whenOklahoma and Texas areplaying each other withoutany real national title im-plications.

For the first time since1999, when Stoops was inhis first season coachingthe Sooners and Brownwas in Year 2 at Texas, nei-ther team will be rankedin the top 10 for Saturday’sclash at the Cotton Bowl.It’s just the second time in15 years that both teamswill arrive already with aconference loss — both athome, no less.

Yet there’s still plenty onthe line when the No. 13Sooners (3-1, 1-1 Big 12) andNo. 15 Longhorns (4-1, 1-1)square off for the 107thtime in one of college foot-ball’s most colorful rival-ries.

First of all, it’s a strug-gle for Big 12 survival withNo. 5 West Virginia (whichbeat Texas) and No. 6 Kan-sas State (which beat Okla-homa) already leading thepack. And maybe, justmaybe, the winner keepsthe glimmer of hope alivethat enough teams lose tomake a national champion-ship a possibility.

Even if all players had tolook forward to was the in-comparable feeling of put-ting the Golden Hat trophyon their heads, that wouldbe enough.

“All the games are funfor me, but this one hitsme deep,” Texas safetyKenny Vaccaro said. “Thisis a good rivalry. It’s rich. Ithink just the traditionthroughout the manyyears, the battles back andforth.”

Since Stoops and Brownhave been around, the ri-valry has reached a newlevel — such that a gamepitting two top-15 teams isa tiny bit of a letdown. Butbefore 2000, it had been 16years since both teamscame in ranked in the top15. Since then, eight out of11 games have featured at

least one team in the top 5,with both teams rankedthat high four times.

“It’s one of the biggestgames of the season. We alllook forward to this game,”Sooners defensive end Da-vid King said. “The atmo-sphere, there’s nothing likeit.”

Let King tell you a littleabout it.

For participants, the ex-perience starts with a busride to the stadium, insidethe State Fair of Texas.Fans from both teams willsurround the buses, hardlyholding back their opin-ions.

“You get so many mid-dle fingers it’s ridiculous,”King said.

The atmosphere insidethe Cotton Bowl is as col-orful as outside of it, withthe fair’s traditional cornydogs and funnel cakes. Thestands are split along the50-yard line with all of Tex-as’ burnt orange on oneside and Oklahoma’s crim-son on the other.

Just walking down thetunnel to the field is a life-long memory for most whoplay. It’s a chance to staredown your bitter rivalwhile the most boisterousof fans rain down a mix-

ture of insults and praise.“You come out, you’re

on the OU side and yourun down the field and yougo take your knee, sayyour prayer and you’reright in a sea of orange,”King said. “You knowthey’re just saying some ofthe most inappropriatethings. But I’m sure ourfans are saying inappropri-ate things to the Texasplayers when they’re walk-ing out.”

And that’s all before thegame even gets started.

The Sooners have wonthe last two meetings. TheLonghorns had claimedfour of the previous fiveshowdowns.

Brown’s Longhornswere also off to a promis-ing start a year ago whenOklahoma delivered a real-ity check by scoring threedefensive touchdowns in a55-17 blowout. Texas scuf-fled to another mediocreseason, by its standards,but emerged from the Holi-day Bowl with David Ashappearing as though hehas finally stabilized thequarterback position.

So far this season, he’sbeen far from the biggestproblem for the Long-horns. He’s third in the na-

tion in passing efficiencyand has thrown for 11touchdowns with only oneinterception. It’s been a tal-ented defense that hasn’tlived up to expectations,and the placekicking hasbeen a question mark, too.

For Oklahoma, quarter-back Landry Jones is onthe brink of setting theschool record for wins.He’s 32-8 in his career andhis next victory will pushhim past Steve Davis, whowent 32-1-1 and won twonational championship inthe 1970s. Jones can alsobecome the fourth SoonersQB to go 3-0 as a starteragainst Texas. He also re-lieved an injured SamBradford in the 2009 loss.

Whether Jones performslike the school’s winnin-gest quarterback or isturnover-prone, as he wasin the loss to Kansas State,could go a long way towarddetermining the outcome.

“They’re going to gettheir shots, we’re going totake our hits and it’s justgoing to be who keepsswinging is going to winthis game,” Sooners defen-sive end R.J. Washingtonsaid. “Who wants to fightmore than anyone else?”

Texas takes on rival SoonersBy JEFF LATZKE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones (12) and the 13th ranked Sooners take on No. 15 Texas today at11 a.m. in the 107th annual Red River Rivalry.

File photo by Mike Fuentes | AP

Texas A&M and Louisia-na Tech were supposed tomeet to open the season,when neither team wasranked in the Top 25.

On Saturday in Shreve-port, La., when the Aggiesand Bulldogs play theirgame that was postponedon Aug. 30 because of Hur-ricane Isaac, both teamsare ranked and ready tomove up.

For No. 22 A&M (4-1),freshman quarterbackJohnny Manziel has be-come a breakout star wholeads one of the nation’stop offenses. No. 23 Louisia-na Tech (5-0), meanwhile,has earned a national rank-ing for the first time since1999 thanks to its best startsince 1975.

The Bulldogs are lookingfor their first win over theAggies after losing all 10games in the series.

“I see a better team,”Texas A&M coach KevinSumlin said when asked tocompare Louisiana Techfrom the first time theywere scheduled to play un-til now. “They are not go-

ing to be intimidated by usone bit and they shouldn’tbe ... they’ve played in bigfootball games and this is achance for them to make astatement on national TVso we are going to get theirbest shot.”

Louisiana Tech coachSonny Dykes has worked tokeep his team, which has anation-best 12-game regu-lar-season winning streak,from looking ahead to theAggies. Now that it’s here,he thinks the Bulldogs areready for the challenge.

“Our guys have someconfidence and we knowwhat is ahead of us Satur-day and I do not think anyof us are afraid of TexasA&M,” Dykes said. “We un-derstand we are going tohave to play well, but thatis in our hands.”

It’s likely to be a shoot-out with these teams com-bining to average morethan 1,000 yards of offensea game.

Louisiana Tech’s toptask will be trying to con-tain Manziel. The dual-threat quarterback is ave-raging 356 yards of total of-fense.

Texas A&M wide receiver Mike Evans (13) leaps past a fallen team-mate as Mississippi defensive back Cody Prewitt (25) tries to tacklehim in a 30-27 win last week.

Photo by Rogelio V. Solis | AP

Manziel leadsAggies into

makeup gameASSOCIATED PRESS

IRVING — DeMarcoMurray and the DallasCowboys’ running gamehave been stuck in neutralsince an impressive start.

The unit that ran for 143yards in a season-openingvictory is now 29th in theNFL, averaging just 68yards per game. And theonly reason the Cowboys(2-2) are even that high isbecause of what they didagainst the New York Gi-ants in that first game.

Coach Jason Garrettsaid Wednesday there are alot of different reasons forthe struggles, and that theCowboys have to get betterto be more balanced offen-sively.

Murray missed the finalthree games of his impres-sive rookie season with abroken right ankle, butcame back healthy thisyear. There were also theadditions of two veteranguards (Mackenzy Berna-deau and Nate Livings) pro-viding more bulk up frontand veteran fullback Law-rence Vickers.

Murray had 131 yards on

20 carries in the opener, thefirst time the restructuredoffensive line played to-gether. Since then, he hasjust 106 yards on 41 carries.That includes two 11-yardcarries, one for his onlytouchdown.

“Frankly, we haven’tblocked as well as we needto and we haven’t run aswell as we need to,” Gar-rett said.

Murray averaged 5.5yards on his 164 carrieslast season, but is down to3.9 yards per carry thisyear. Take out a 48-yardrun against the Giants andhis two 11-yard gains since,and he is averaging only 2.9yards his other 58 rushingattempts.

Outside of Murray, theCowboys have 18 rushingattempts for 34 yards.

Not including end-of-game or end-of-half situa-tions the last two games,Dallas had negative yardson eight first-down rushingcarries and no gain on twoother such attempts.

Dallas plays Sunday atBaltimore, the first of fourroad games the next fiveweeks.

Dallas running back DeMarco Murray (29) gets past Tampa Baylinebacker Mason Foster (59) during the second half in a 16-10 winin Arlington.

Photo by LM Otero | AP

Dallas strugglesin running game

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — Texanslinebacker Brian Cushingis focused on his recoveryin the wake of a season-ending knee injury.

Cushing, Houston’sleading tackler, was hurtin the Texans’ 23-17 winover the New York Jets onMonday night on a low,rolling hit by guard MattSlauson. He was placedon injured reserve with atorn anterior cruciate lig-ament in his left knee.

Cushing had a protec-tive black sleeve over hisleft knee when he walkedinto the locker room onFriday. Tim Dobbins willstart in his place whenthe Texans (5-0) playGreen Bay (2-3) on Sun-day night.

“It’s all part of thegame,” Cushing said.“The next step is just toget healthy, get back onthe field as fast as I can.”

A first-round draft pickin 2009, Cushing has notimetable for the neces-sary surgery or a returnto football activities. Heplans to attend as manyteam meetings and prac-tices as possible while herecovers.

“I want be around, Iwant to be here for theguys, and help them thebest I can, whether it’s inspirit, or coaching tips orwhatever,” said Cushing,one of the team’s emo-tional leaders. “I’ve got anew role now, and I’ve ac-cepted it.”

Slauson was notflagged on the play, but hewas fined $10,000 thisweek by the NFL. Cush-ing wouldn’t say if hethought Slauson’s hitcrossed the line.

“Whether it was or itwasn’t, I’m not playingfor a while,” Cushingsaid. “That’s not going tochange my opinion onanything. I’m not a guythat’s going to look back

at the past and see what Icould’ve done differently.I’m going to look into thefuture and see how I canimprove.”

Cushing has onlymissed four games inthree NFL seasons, andthat was to serve a sus-pension in 2010 for a posi-tive test for a banned sub-stance. His last major in-jury came during hisjunior season at SouthernCalifornia, when hemissed three games witha sprained left ankle.

“When you sign up forthis game, I understandthis is part of it,” Cush-ing said.

The Texans’ defenseranks third overall (275.6yards per game), andCushing has been its topplaymaker under second-year coordinator WadePhillips. He led the teamwith 114 tackles in 2011and had an interceptionand a forced fumble to goalong with his 38 stops

this year.He vowed to return in

a confident proclamationon Twitter on Wednesday— and added a bold guar-antee.

“Trust me when I sayI’ll be back better than ev-er,” Cushing wrote. “I ap-preciate all the love andwant u to know WE areSTILL winning THISyear’s Super Bowl.”

Cushing acknowledgedon Friday that the tweetdrew “a lot of mixed reac-tions,” but he was onlytrying to send a positivemessage to his team-mates.

“Whatever I can do tohelp these guys, I’m goingto do it,” he said.

Houston was crippledby injuries to key playersin 2011 and still won theAFC South with a 10-6 re-cord. Cushing thinks nav-igating through last sea-son’s issues will help theTexans now.

“We definitely dealt

with a lot of adversity lastyear, especially from aninjury standpoint,” Cush-ing said. “This is a men-tally strong team that’sbuilt with a lot of depth.I’m not too concernedabout that.”

Houston coach GaryKubiak said this weekthat Dobbins was “thebest option” to take overCushing’s role. Dobbinsplayed his first four NFLseasons with San Diego,including one season un-der Phillips.

Cushing doesn’t thinkDobbins will need much1-on-1 mentoring movingforward.

“Tim’s played a lot offootball, he’s been in ev-ery single meeting I’vebeen in,” Cushing said.“He’s learned all thesame stuff as me. He’s agood player and I have alot of confidence in himand if he has any ques-tions, I’ll be sure to an-swer them.”

Cushing looks ahead after injuryASSOCIATED PRESS

The Houston Texans inside linebacker Brian Cushing (56) was lost for the season after tearing hisanterior cruciate ligament this week in a 23-17 win over the Jets.

Photo by Jack Dempsey | AP