the zapata times 9/10/2011

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BASTROP — Firefighters are tamp-ing down hotspots and holdingback flames from a wildfire thathas burned for days across Central

Texas, incinerating nearly 1,400 homes andtens of thousands of acres of drought-parched land, officials said Friday.

The fire in and around Bastrop, about 25miles east of Austin, officially remained 30percent contained, but crews had surround-ed and closed in on the flames and no new

homes were reported destroyed overnight.“It seems to be holding well today,” public

information officer Annette Grijalva-Disertsaid.

Authorities had planned Friday to deploya converted DC-10 jetliner capable of drop-ping 12,000 gallons of fire retardant on theblaze, but Texas Forest Service spokeswo-man Holly Huffman said the massive planewas not immediately needed in Bastrop andwas instead sent to fires burning in a most-ly rural area north of Houston.

Retardant is dropped to help shorten andshrink flames, allowing firefighters on the

ground to make headway, but it does not ex-tinguish the fire.

“What puts fires out, what’s most effectiveare the men and women on the ground,”said Tom Harbour, national fire director forthe U.S. Forest Service.

Huffman agreed firefighting crews havemade significant strides in Bastrop Countyand said the jet “can be diverted at anypoint if a new fire pops up,” but it was firstsent to blazes in Grimes, Montgomery andWaller counties that have blackened about

CENTRAL TEXAS

Wildland firefighter Jayan Palecek from the Sequoia National Forest in California douses a hot spot on the fire near Bastrop, on Friday.

Photo by LM Otero | AP

CREWS CONTAINING FIREOfficials: Almost 1,400 homes burned by massive blaze

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN AND APRIL CASTROASSOCIATED PRESS

See WILDFIRES PAGE 10A

With a Mexican navy helicop-ter whirring low over a ruralcommunity on the U.S. side of theRio Grande, an American mili-tary veteran armed with marks-manship skills and a hefty riflehankered from the ground toshoot it down.

“Don’t do it,” Zapata CountySheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. re-called warning the man on thatSunday afternoon last year.

The flight is one of as many as10 in the past 17 months in whichSouth Texans spotted Mexicanhelicopters hovering overhead inbroad daylight. The aircraft wasso close to the ground that daythat military personnel could be

WAR ON DRUGS

Mexican‘copterscan land

in USBy DANE SCHILLER

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

See ‘COPTERS PAGE 10A

The Zapata County Commis-sioners’ Court will discuss bidsfor the operation of the ZapataCounty Medical clinic during itsmeeting Monday at 10 a.m.

The clinic, which provides ba-sic medical services and stabiliz-ing care, is currently run by Dr.Edmundo O. Garcia, who is boththe holder of a soon-to-expirecontract and a bidder for thenew contract.

“As required, we gave Dr. Gar-cia 90 days notice that we weregoing out for proposals,” saidCommissioner Jose Vela, whosaid the county paid $1.7 millionper year over the last two yearsfor operation of the clinic. He es-timated that amount will changeto $1 million per year with thenew county budget.

HEALTH CARE

Clinicup fornew

contractCurrent doc, 3 others

seek to run facilityBy MIKE HERRERA IV

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See CLINIC PAGE 9A

Zapata Sheriff Sigifredo Gon-zalez Jr. and Fire Chief J.J. Mezaare the top officials ensuring thesafety and security of residents.

Their commitment has growngreater since 10 years ago whentwo jets crashed into the TwinTowers in New York City.

Each man recalls that inci-dent with disbelief.

Meza was attending a disaster

recovery class in Round Rock.At the time, attendants werecoming back from a break. In-structors told the audience theTwin Towers were attacked.

Not many believed that, in-cluding Meza. He, along other

fire officials, believed their in-structors were giving them ascenario for training. Suddenly,it was decided everyone shouldtake another 10-minute break.

TERRORIST ATTACKS

Officials recall 9/11Police, fire chiefs work to ensure local citizens’ safety

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

See ATTACKS PAGE 10A

A Zin brief SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

SATURDAY, SEPT. 10The Environmental Medicine

and Toxicology Conference will be heldfrom 8:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. today atthe UTHSCSA Laredo Regional cam-pus, 1937 E. Bustamante St. The con-ference is free for medical doctors,registered nurses, doctors of osteopa-thy, licensed vocational nurses, socialworkers, students and any other alliedhealth care workers. For more infor-mation, call the Area Health EducationCenter office at 712-0037 or Rodolfoat the South Texas EnvironmentalEducation and Research office at7537418.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 13A workshop entitled “The Art of

Starting a Business: Basic BusinessEssentials in Zapata, Texas” will takeplace from 9:30 a.m. through noon atthe Zapata County Courthouse, suite248. The workshop is free.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 18The first day of the two-day

South Texas Archery Shootout takesplace today. This will be a 3D pop-uptournament. For more information orto register, call Gil Gamez at 512-426-4255.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 19The second day of the two-day

South Texas Archery Shootout takesplace today. This will be a 3D pop-uptournament. For more information orto register, call Gil Gamez at 512-426-4255.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21The 18th Annual Logistics and

Manufacturing Association’s Symposi-um will be taking place today, tomor-row and Friday at Texas A&M Interna-tional University. The theme, entitled“Mexico’s Top Manufacturing and Con-suming Regions Utilizing Port Laredo,”will focus on the ability for transpor-tation and communications infrastruc-ture, port and border administration,market access, and the overall busi-ness environment to govern a port’sability to become a leader in facilitat-ing global supply chains. For more in-formation, contact Joseph Mendiola [email protected].

TUESDAY, SEPT. 27The “Anatomy of a Business

Plan Workshop in Zapata” is set for9:30 a.m. through noon at the ZapataCounty Courthouse, suite 248. The feefor the workshop is $20.

FRIDAY, OCT 7The first day of the three-day

Bass Champs tournament takes placetoday. For more information or to reg-ister, call 817-439-3274 or check thewebsite at www.basschamps.com.

SATURDAY, OCT. 8The first day of the three-day


SUNDAY, OCT. 9The first day of the three-day


FRIDAY, OCT. 28The first day of the three-day

2011 Pro/Am Event sponsored by theCouples Association of Sport Tourna-ments fishing tournament takes placetoday. For more information or to reg-ister, call 281-796-7486 or check thewebsite at www.fishcast.com.

SATURDAY, OCT. 29The second day of the three-day


SUNDAY, OCT. 30The third day of the three-day


To submit an item for thecalendar, send the name of theevent, the date, time, locationand contact phone number [email protected].

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, Sept. 10,the 253rd day of 2011. Thereare 112 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On Sept. 10, 1813, an Amer-ican naval force commandedby Oliver H. Perry defeatedthe British in the Battle ofLake Erie during the War of1812.

On this date: In 1608, John Smith was

elected president of the James-town colony council in Virgin-ia.

In 1846, Elias Howe receiveda patent for his sewing ma-chine.

In 1919, New York City wel-comed home Gen. John J.Pershing and 25,000 soldierswho’d served in the U.S. FirstDivision during World War I.

In 1939, Canada declaredwar on Nazi Germany as Par-liament acted at the behest ofPrime Minister Wiliam LyonMackenzie King.

In 1945, Vidkun Quislingwas sentenced to death in Nor-way for collaborating with theNazis (he was executed by fir-ing squad in Oct. 1945).

In 1960, Hurricane Donna, adangerous Category 4 stormeventually blamed for 364deaths, struck the FloridaKeys.

In 1961, a President AirlinesDC-6B charter crashed aftertakeoff from Shannon, Ireland,killing all 83 people aboard.During the Italian Grand Prix,German driver Wolfgang vonTrips lost control of his carand crashed into spectators,killing 14 of them as well ashimself. (American Phil Hillwon the race.)

In 1963, twenty black stu-dents entered Alabama publicschools following a standoffbetween federal authoritiesand Gov. George C. Wallace.

In 1979, four Puerto Ricannationalists imprisoned for a1954 attack on the U.S. Houseof Representatives and a 1950attempt on the life of Presi-dent Harry S. Truman werefreed from prison after beinggranted clemency by PresidentJimmy Carter.

In 1987, Pope John Paul IIarrived in Miami, where hewas welcomed by Presidentand Mrs. Reagan as he begana 10-day tour of the UnitedStates.

Ten years ago: A Marxistmilitant suicide bomber blewhimself up in a popular Istan-bul square, killing himself,two police officers and an Aus-tralian woman, Amanda Rigg.Charles Ingram won a millionpounds during a taping of theBritish TV game show “WhoWants to Be a Millionaire,”but was later exposed as acheat who’d gotten help from acoughing accomplice in thestudio.

Today’s Birthdays: GolferArnold Palmer is 82. vibrapho-nist Roy Ayers is 71. SingerDanny Hutton (Three DogNight) is 69. Singer Jose Feli-ciano is 66. Former Canadianfirst lady Margaret Trudeau is63. Political commentator BillO’Reilly is 62. Rock musicianJoe Perry (Aerosmith) is 61.Actress Amy Irving is 58. Ac-tor Colin Firth is 51. MLB All-Star pitcher Randy Johnson is48. Olympic bronze medal fig-ure skater Timothy Goebel is31. Actress Hannah Hodson is20.

Thought for Today: “Ifthere is no knowledge, there isno understanding; if there isno understanding, there is noknowledge.” — The Talmud.

TODAY IN HISTORY

WASHINGTON — A growing divide overSocial Security splits the two leading conten-ders for the Republican presidential nomina-tion, and the differences between Texas Gov.Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov.Mitt Romney foreshadow a tricky politicaldance with older voters.

Romney has seized on what he perceivesas Perry’s vulnerability on a program thatseniors hold dear, Democrats venerate assacrosanct and Perry calls a “Ponzi scheme.”

That sets up a battle for older voters in Io-wa, retirees in Florida and the Sun Belt, andBaby Boomers everywhere worried abouttheir own recession-scarred retirementplans.

“If we nominate someone who the Demo-crats could correctly characterize as being

against Social Security, we would be obliter-ated as a party,” Romney said on Sean Han-nity’s radio program Thursday.

Perry is unyielding.At a Friday fundraiser in California, Per-

ry stood by his criticism of Social Securityand his position that the program is best leftto states to administer — a non-starter formany, including some Republicans.

“For people who are on Social Securitynow, like my folks, and people who are ap-proaching Social Security, like me, it’s goingto be there,” he said.

But, he said, he didn’t know at what pointage-eligibility will have to be raised becausethe funds simply aren’t there.

“Anybody that’s for the status quo with So-cial Security today is involved with a mon-strous lie to our kids, and it’s not right,” hesaid earlier this week during a debate.

AROUND TEXAS

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, looks over at Republican presidential candi-date Texas Gov. Rick Perry as he answers a question during a Republican presidential candidate debate at the Reagan Li-brary on Wednesday in Simi Valley, Calif.

Photo by Jae C. Hong | AP

Perry, Romney clashBy PHILIP ELLIOTTASSOCIATED PRESS

SEC: Texas man defraudeddeaf investors

PLANO — The U.S. Securitiesand Exchange Commission hascharged a Texas man with secu-rities fraud for allegedly solicit-ing more than $3.45 million fromseveral thousand deaf investorsas part of a scheme involving thetrading of insurance policies thatfalsely promised big returns.

In a complaint filed in federalcourt in Plano on Thursday, theSEC alleges Dunn solicited in-vestments for Imperia over athree-year period and used thefunds to pay for a variety of per-sonal expenses

.

Texas zoo: Tiger’s killingof mate surprising

EL PASO — The killing of a ti-ger by his mate caught handlersat the El Paso Zoo by surprisebecause there were no warningsigns and the pair were seenplaying together only hours ear-lier, the zoo director said Friday.

Police: Dallas mom glueddaughter’s hands to wall

DALLAS — A 22-year-oldmother was facing child abusecharges Friday after police sayshe glued her toddler daughter’shands to a wall, kicked her inthe stomach and beat her over apotty training issue.

Joselyn Cedillo, 2, was on lifesupport with multiple internalinjuries at a Dallas hospitalThursday.

Bigamy trial forpolygamist pushed backSAN ANGELO — Convicted

polygamist leader Warren Jeffsis getting his next trial on biga-my charges pushed back untilFebruary.

The 55-year-old remains in aGalveston prison hospital afterbecoming ill upon starting a lifesentence last month.

A jury convicted Jeffs in Au-gust on child sex charges. A sep-arate bigamy trial had beenscheduled to start in October.

Obama proposal couldmean 141,000 Texas jobs

AUSTIN — The White Housesays President Barack Obama’sproposed Jobs Act could create141,500 jobs in Texas.

The proposal met with imme-diate disdain from Gov. Rick Per-ry, who is also running for presi-dent. Perry said Obama’s propos-al “offers little hope for millionsof Americans who have lostjobs.” Perry said the answer wasto cut spending, not spend more.

Prison for Dallas bankrobber who fled in taxiDALLAS — A convicted Dallas

bank robber who used a taxi toflee has been sentenced to nineyears in prison.

A federal judge in Dallas onFriday sentenced Joseph LamonWilliams of Houston.

Prosecutors say Williams onNov. 16 held up a Wells FargoBank by handing a teller athreatening note.

— Compiled from AP reports

Homes and businessesswamped in Pa., NY

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — Theswollen Susquehanna River be-gan returning to its banks Fri-day in Pennsylvania and NewYork after swamping thousandsof homes and businesses in someof the highest floodwaters everseen. But most of the 100,000 peo-ple forced from their homescould do little more than worryas they waited for the all-clear.

NY, Washington, aware ofterror threat, not afraidWASHINGTON — Undaunted

by talk of a new terror threat,New Yorkers and Washingto-nians wove among police armedwith assault rifles and waitedwith varying degrees of patienceat security checkpoints Fridaywhile intelligence officialsscrambled to nail down informa-tion on a possible al-Qaida striketimed to coincide with the 10th

anniversary of 9/11.

Fear about Europe, USdrags Dow down 300

NEW YORK — The problemsthat have weighed on investors

all summer — the European debtcrisis and fear of a new recessionin the United States — ham-mered the stock market Friday.The Dow Jones industrial aver-age fell more than 300 points onFriday.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

A New York police officer examines the rear section of an SUV at a vehicle checkpoint on Friday in New York. The city is deploying additional resources and takingother security steps in response to a potential terror threat before Sept. 11.

Photo by Jin Lee | AP

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 Zlocal PAGE 3A

ASSAULTJorge Hugo Flores was

served with a warrant, charginghim with assault family violence atabout 5 p.m. Monday in the inter-section of Second and Ramirezstreets. A sheriff’s office incidentreport states Flores slapped awoman he knows and busted herlip. Flores was taken to the ZapataRegional Jail.

Juan Carlos Aguilar-Lopezwas arrested and charged with as-sault family violence after a do-mestic disturbance reported at11:39 a.m. Monday in the 1500block of Hidalgo Boulevard. Theman was taken to the Zapata Re-gional Jail.

BURGLARYA man called deputies at

11:56 p.m. Sept. 2 in the 1400block of Ramireño Avenue to re-port that someone burglarized hismobile home.

A burglary of a vehicle wasreported at 3:08 a.m. Mondayalong FM 496, about half a milefrom the cemetery.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEFA woman reported at 2:15

p.m. Monday in the 1000 block ofBravo Street that a person heknows scratched her Ford Expedi-tion.

POSSESSIONSilvestre Grimaldo-Rivera

was arrested and charged withpossession of a controlled sub-stance at approximately 10:15 p.m.Wednesday in the 400 block of Ra-

mireño Avenue.

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONMario Medina Jr. was arrest-

ed and charged with public intoxi-cation at about 1:15 a.m. Sept. 2near Hidalgo Boulevard an SeventhStreet. The man was taken to theZapata Regional Jail.

Benito Garcia Jr. was arrest-ed and charged with public intoxi-

cation just before noon Sept. 4 atLos Ebanos Park near Ninth Avenueand Kennedy Street. The man wastaken to the Zapata Regional Jail.

THEFTA man called deputies at

3:25 p.m. Sept. 3 from the 5100block of Victoria Lane to reportthat someone stole three of his ri-fles.

THE BLOTTER

The Texas Health andHuman Services Commis-sion Friday awarded BCFSHealth and Human Servic-es a grant to increase ac-cess to and improve thequality of health and med-ical care for more than1,400 families living inWebb and Zapata Countycolonias.

The initiative expandsBCFS’ existing communi-ty-based programs thatserve impoverished fam-ilies in many communitiesalong the Texas-Mexicoborder.

“This effort is designedto break down barriersthat, for too long, have pre-vented families in the colo-nias from achievinghealthy living standards,”said Cindi Garcia, execu-tive director of BCFS’Community-Based Servic-es Division.

Language barriers aswell as a lack of transpor-tation are the two mostcommon inhibitors of ac-cessing medical care.Therefore, BCFS’ newhealth initiative will be im-plemented through pro-motoras who will reachfamilies through face-to-face visits, community

meetings and specialevents, such as health fairsconducted within the colo-nia community. Throughthese efforts, families willhave easy and better ac-cess to immunizations, vi-sion and hearing screen-ings, dental health and dis-ease managementprograms. They will alsobe better informed aboutavailable resources thatpromote good nutritionand healthy lifestyles.

BCFS has served WebbCounty colonias since 2001through its Healthy Startprogram, which aims todecrease disparities in ac-cess to maternal and childhealthcare by providingmobile, community-basedmedical care and casemanagement services tocolonia residents. Thanksto BCFS’ program, morewomen in Webb Countyare receiving prenatal carethan ever before.

“By bringing healtheducation and medicalcare directly into thesecommunities, we expectthat not only health out-comes will improve, but al-so the socioeconomic andself-sufficiency status offamilies,” Garcia said.

For more informationvisit www.bcfs.net.

Grant designedto aid residents

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Elvia Elvira Uriegas, 27,of Roma, has been sen-tenced to 27 months in fed-eral prison for conspiring totransport illegal aliens, U.S.Attorney José Angel More-no announced this week.

U.S. District Judge Micae-la Alvarez, who handeddown the sentence today, al-so ordered Uriegas to payrestitution totaling$18,767.81 for the medical ex-penses of two Sullivan Citypolice officers injured as aresult of a collision that oc-

curred during a high-speedchase while trying to stopUriegas and for the result-ing damage to the police ve-hicle.

Uriegas pleaded guiltyTuesday, June 7, admittingto conspiring to transport il-legal aliens by motor vehi-cle on April 2, from Roma toSullivan City. According tocourt documents, Uriegaswas driving a Dodge Duran-go carrying six undocu-mented immigrants as pas-sengers on April 2.

When the Sullivan Citypolice tried to initiate a traf-

fic stop, she fled, promptingpolice to pursue her. Driv-ing erratically onto somedirt roads and nearly caus-ing the Durango to flip over,Uriegas eventually slammedon her brakes, causing acollision with a police vehi-cle. Uriegas and two passen-gers fled on foot, but wereapprehended with the helpof a U.S. Customs and Bor-der Protection helicopter pi-lot. Two police officers andthree of the undocumentedimmigrants were taken tothe hospital for treatment.At the time of her guilty

plea, Uriegas admitted shehad been hired to transportthe illegal aliens.

Uriegas has been in fed-eral custody without bondsince her arrest and will re-main in custody pendingtransfer to a Bureau of Pris-ons facility to be designatedin the near future. Follow-ing her release from prison,she will serve a three-year-term of supervised release.

The charges against Urie-gas are the result of the ef-forts of the U.S. Border Pa-trol and the Sullivan CityPolice Department.

Prison for woman in conspiracy caseSPECIAL TO THE TIMES

SCHOOL RETIREES PLAN FOR 2011-2012

Courtesy photo

President Dahlia Lopezand members of the Re-

tired School Employeesmet in August to plan

the program for the newyear. The year’s first

meeting is scheduled for11 a.m. Tuesday at the

Holiday Restaurant.Members, from left

standing, are Nilda Gu-tierrez, Olga Flores, Mary

Morales, Avon Hatfield,Esperanza Navarro and

Cruz Torres. Seated,from left, are Amparo

Gutierrez and PresidentDahlia Lopez. Recent re-

tirees are welcome tojoin.

A Zopinion SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO [email protected]

Every year, the sec-ond Sunday in Sep-tember is National

Grandparents Day.For many grandkids,

grandparents are the ide-alized version of our par-ents — similar to thembut without all the rulesand discipline. However,increasingly for millionsof children across thecountry these days,grandparents are morethan just a pleasant Sun-day visit. They are theparents.

Currently, more than 6million children are be-ing raised by a grandpar-ent or another relative,according to GenerationsUnited. And at least 2.5million grandparents areconsidered the primarycaregivers for theirgrandchildren.

In many poor minoritycommunities, there is along tradition of grand-parents stepping in astemporary parents. Sincethe mid-1980s, these ar-rangements have becomeincreasingly prevalent asfamilies have been tornapart by the onslaught ofwidespread poverty, ad-diction and incarcera-tion.

At Community Coali-tion, the nonprofit basedin South Central Los An-geles that I head, we rou-tinely see the remarkablesacrifice these grandpar-ents and family membersmake for their lovedones.

They often take ontheir new responsibilitywith little time to pre-pare. They must make alife-changing decision ina moment’s notice whenthey receive an urgentcall from a relative or asocial worker looking fora safe home to place achild who has just lost aparent to illness, death orjail. They often risk theirown financial, physicaland emotional health toprovide a safe, stable andloving home for a grand-child, niece or nephew.

These family membersare saving children fromentering a broken fostercare system or worse.More than 70 percent ofall California State Peni-

tentiary inmates havespent time in the fostercare system, according toa May 12, 2006, SelectCommittee Hearing ofthe California Legisla-ture.

Fewer problemsNumerous studies

have shown that childrenwho live with relativesare more likely to findpermanent homes andthus less likely to experi-ence behavioral problemsor require mental healthtreatment versus those infoster care. In the longrun, they are more likelyto do better in school,stay out of jail and notbecome homeless.

Unfortunately, whilechild welfare agenciesmay understand the ben-efits to children, they failto adequately supportthese families.

For example, morethan 50 percent of chil-dren removed from theirhomes by the Los An-geles County Departmentof Children and Familiesare placed with relativesbut they receive nowherenear the same access tosupport and servicesavailable to non-relativefoster care parents.These barriers often leadmany grandparents whowere once economicallystable into poverty or ill-ness in the process ofcaring for young chil-dren.

Assist familyGrandparents and oth-

er relatives should nothave to risk their ownhealth and financial well-being to care for a childwho would otherwise endup in a broken fostercare system. Child wel-fare agencies and policy-makers should developcoherent and comprehen-sive approaches to deliv-ering services to kinshipfamilies in order to reme-dy this disparity.

In the end, what thesegrandparents and otherrelatives do is nothingshort of heroic. And theycertainly deserve a lotmore than one day of rec-ognition.

COLUMN

Support caregrandparentsgive families

By MARQUEECE HARRIS-DAWSONMCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

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 [email protected] or mail them toLetters to the Editor, 111Esperanza Drive, Laredo,TX 78041.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

Bernard Brown, AsiaCottom and RodneyDickens had just be-

gun the sixth grade in theDistrict of Columbia 10years ago. They were all11 years old, standout stu-dents who had earned thedistinction of being select-ed by the National Geo-graphic Society to partici-pate in a field workshopin the Channel IslandsNational Marine Sanctu-ary off the coast of Cali-fornia.

Early deathsThey arrived early on

the morning of Sept. 11,2001, at Dulles Interna-tional Airport with theirteacher chaperones. Theyboarded American Air-lines Flight 77 to departon the adventure of a life-time. A bright future layahead of them. A littlemore than an hour later,the lives of these shiningchildren were snuffed out.

Among many horribleimages we did see on 9-11,the most horrific imagewe did not see was ofthese children, herdedwith their teachers andother passengers to theback of the plane, hurtling

toward their deaths. Thehijackers had sat in theairport lounge with them,boarded the plane withthem, stared into theirfrightened eyes — andshowed them no mercy.

Hate on displayWhat kind of hatred,

what kind of fanaticismwould compel such intim-ate cruelty? The evil of 9-11 with its box cutters andknives was hideously per-sonal. After a decade, it isstill difficult to compre-hend.

9-11 was also personalin the sense that so muchof it was visible and audi-ble. No narrative wasneeded when cameras, al-ready focused on the blaz-ing North Tower of theWorld Trade Center, cap-tured United AirlinesFlight 175 smashing intothe South Tower.

No accidentYou might have held

out hope that the firstcrash was the result ofsome sort of accident.When you saw that hellishsecond fireball, you knewimmediately that hopewas gone. Passenger jetsdon’t fly into skyscrapers.

All that was familiar wassuddenly uncertain.

Pieces were fallingfrom the buildings, onlysome of the objectsweren’t pieces. They werepeople — fathers andmothers, friends andspouses who had simplygone to work in the morn-ing and then jumped totheir deaths. What kind ofheat, what kind of painwould drive people to leapfrom 100 floors? After adecade, it is still difficultto comprehend.

War, attacksTwo days before 9-11,

HBO premiered the firstepisode of “Band of Broth-ers,” its miniseries basedon historian Stephen Am-brose’s account of a com-pany in the 101st Air-borne Division duringWorld War II. For eightmore Sunday eveningsduring that fall of 2001, Ifaithfully watched the sto-ry of the men of EasyCompany.

As the haunting themefrom “Band of Brothers”would end, I’d switch overto the national news,which invariably showedthe still smolderingmound at Ground Zero.

What kind of fire burnsunderground for two

months? After a decade, itis still difficult to compre-hend.

The incomprehensiblenature of 9-11 shockedAmericans out of a deepsense of complacency.Oceans and standing ar-mies were no longer pro-tection against a terroristenemy willing to fly jetsfull of passengers intobuildings full of people.

Against all expectation,the death cult that perpe-trated 9-11 has, thus far,not been successful in car-rying out a follow-on at-tack against the UnitedStates, though not for lackof trying. The danger to-day is that the complacen-cy that allowed the 9-11plot to succeed has ree-merged.

Much will be writtenabout how the nation haschanged since Sept. 11,2001. What has notchanged is the persistentdesire to see the world asa place devoid of evil, thewillingness to assess thethreat of terrorism as amanageable law enforce-ment risk and the hopethat men who can stareinto the eyes of childrenthey murder will not re-turn to our shores. That,too, is difficult to compre-hend.

(Email: [email protected])

COLUMN

9/11 still hard to comprehendBy JONATHAN GURWITZ

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

To the Editor:This letter is in sup-

port of Dr. Edmundo O.Garcia, M.D. I under-stand Commissioners’Court is accepting bidsfor operating ZapataCounty Medical Clinic.We all know about fiscalpolicy and the budgetand how Commissioners’Court looks out for thebest interest of our com-munity.

That being said, I grewup across the street fromMundie, as we all knowhim. We were altar boysand played sports in thebarrio. We went throughour education system andgraduated with HawkPride. We then went toLaredo Junior Collegeand transferred to theUniversity of Texas AtAustin, where we bothgraduated. Mundie wentto medical school and Iwent for my master’s de-gree.

Mundie has practicedmedicine for almost 30years now and since hecame to Zapata to man-

age our clinic he hashelped me, my family,friends and our commu-nity. I know his staff issatisfied with his leader-ship and he has provento be a financial successto our county budget,that after what was leftfrom our previous clinicmanagement. We allknow about that. I, as aveteran of our armedforces, know Mundie hashelped our fellow veter-ans with the Veteran’sAdministration. I, as wellas other friends, can callMundie on his cell hereor in San Antonio andhe will be there for you.You don’t get that withother M.D.s.

I ask our communityto talk to our Commis-sioners’ Court, which weall know as our friends,to keep Mundie as ourmedical doctor. Mundie ismy friend and I believe itis in the best interest ofour community for himto practiv3e medicine inour clinic.

Hector F. Lopez Jr.

YOUR OPINIONLocal doctor gets support of lifetime friend for

operating medical clinic

ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICTJOB POSTING

Position: Instructional Assistant

Salary: $15,932.00 $23,891.00Minimum Maximum

Pay Grade: Instructional Support Pay Ranges Pay Grade II

Minimum Duty Days: 187 Days

Minimum Requirements: Possess a high school diploma orits equivalent, and meet one of the following qualifications: (a)Completion of an associate's degree or higher degree froman accredited institution; (b) possess 48 semester credithours from an accredited Institution; or (c) successful com-pletion of a rigorous training program approved by theSuperinendent.

Special Knowledge/Skills: Demonstrate ability to workeffectively and harmoniously with administrators and otherstaff; general knowledge of teaching and Interacting with spe-cial needs children; demonstrate Ibility to communicate effec-tively both in written form lind orally; possess technical skillsnecesary to perform essential job requirements, such as ade-quate knowledge of subject matter, sound teaching method-ology and effective discipline techniques; and treat all peoplewith dignity and respect.

Deadline for Applying: Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Applications May Be Obtained From:

Human Resources Department17th & Carla Streets

P.O. Box 158 - Zapata, Texas 78076(956) 765-6858 - Fax (956) 765-5940

Website: www.zcisd.org

We consider applicants for all positions without regard torace, cofor, national origin, age, religion, sex, marital or vet-eran status, the presence of a medical condition, disability

or any other legally protected status.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 Zentertainment PAGE 5A

er II as an example. “Butthe arcade version still hadbetter graphics and hand-ling. But eventually, thehome consuls had bettergraphics. They evolved.”

As the consuls evolved,so has the concept of the ar-cade, as Vasquez pointedout the recent trend ofgame rooms offering, in ef-fect, a place to play homeconsuls on giant TVs. Be-cause he gets to vary his lo-cation by driving his arcadeall over town, Vasquez be-lieves his is a sound busi-ness idea.

“I’m really looking at tar-geting the party market,”he said. “In Laredo, parentswill go all out for a kid’s

It’s been a few yearssince Gateway City and Za-pata gamers had a real ar-cade to go to. But now, dueto the efforts of Laredo Car-los Vasquez, that won’t be aproblem. The arcade will goto the gamers.

“I think of the concept asa mobile arcade,” said Vas-quez, a gamer and comput-er specialist. “It’s going tobe something really differ-ent for (the area).”

The Game Zone, as Vas-quez has dubbed it, is a2011 car hauler trailer 24feet long and 7 feet wide.The iconic Mario in his rac-coon-eared and -tailed vari-ation from Nintendo’s 1990Super Mario Brothers 3spreads his arms on theside of the truck. Once in-side the truck, customerswill see four 46-inch flatscreen TVs and an ambientglow emanating from be-hind the screen during play.

“The light changes colorto go along with the actionof the game,” Vasquez said.

A counter in the middleholds the four Xbox con-soles and a Nintendo Wii.On the other is enoughcouch space for 17 peoplechatting, cheering theirfriends or waiting for aturn at the control. There’salso a 1,300 BTU air condi-tioner for customers’ com-fort, and a black floor andwall carpets help keep thegaming environment dark,much like the vintage ar-cades of days gone by. Lare-doans who came of age inthe ’90s may rememberthese halls of homeworkavoidance stocked withcoin-operated fightinggames and shooters. ForVasquez, they’re a familytradition.

“My father (Vicente) wasin the arcade game busi-ness,” he said, reminiscing.

“You know those huge ma-chines? He owned DonkeyKong, Galaga, Centipede.We used to service them to-gether and collect thecoins.”

This experience gaveVasquez some informedopinions on what happenedto the console-arcade periodof the early ’90s, duringwhich a popular arcadegame eventually found itsway to a home system, yetgamers still visited the ar-cades.

“They both existed be-cause people would get ex-cited about playing an ar-cade game they liked athome,” said Vasquez, citingthe ’90s’ classic Street Fight-

party. They’ll rent PeterPiper and they still have tospend on food and otherthings. Me, I’ll go right totheir curb.”

One local gamer, OmarAnzaldua, thinks GameZone will work.

“For the budget-con-scious gamer who wants toget a good gaming experi-ence, this sounds like agreat idea,” Anzaldua said.

Acknowledging the re-cent negative attentionbrought to obesity in Lare-do, Vasquez emphasizedthat what he offers will, formost families, be a rare in-

dulgence. “I made sure to include

games for the Wii that re-quire movement,” he said.“Many video games requirethinking also. This is aform of entertainment peo-ple can enjoy once in awhile. Of course no one ex-pects kids to play everyday.”

As the business juststarted, few families haverented the truck. However,one parent whose kids haveplayed in it likes it.

“It was very novel,” saidTricia Driscoll, who runsthe local parenting blog

Critters and Crayons. “Isaw the older kids were en-thralled.”

As a parent, Driscolldoesn’t see any negativeside to playing video gamesin moderation. “As long astheir not addicted to it andit’s not detracting fromschoolwork, I think it’sfine,” she said.

For more information onscheduling Game Zone orto see when new games areoffered, visit www.laredoga-mezone.com.

(Mike Herrera IV can bereached at 728-2567 or [email protected])

Arcade brings the games to gamersBy MIKE HERRERA IV

THE ZAPATA TIMES

Carlos Vasquez poses outside his mobile gaming truck Thursday morning. The gaming business is a family tradition in the Vasquez family.

Photo by Cuate Santos | Laredo Morning Times

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES National SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

WASHINGTON — As the sog-gy East tries to dry out fromflooding and Texas prays for rainthat doesn’t come, you might ask:Isn’t there some way to ship allthat water from here to there?

It’s an idea that has temptedsome, but reality gets in the way.

A Texas oilman once envi-sioned long pipelines carryingwater to drought-stricken Texascities, just one of several untestedfantasies of moving water vastdistances. Parched Las Vegas stillwants to indirectly siphon off ex-cess water from the overflowingMississippi River. French engi-neers have simulated hauling aniceberg to barren Africa. Thereare even mega-trash bags tomove heavy loads of water.

There’s plenty of rainwateravailable. Tropical Storm Leedumped enough on the alreadysaturated Mid-Atlantic, Northeastand Gulf Coast to bring 9.6 inchesof rain across the state of Texas,according to the National Ocean-ic and Atmospheric Administra-tion and The Associated Press.

“One man’s flood control is an-other man’s water supply,” saidPatricia Mulroy, general managerof the Southern Nevada WaterAuthority. “Doesn’t it make youwant to think about a larger dis-tribution that helps both? That’sthe crazy part of this. It’s a win-win. There’s no loser.”

But moving quantities of wateris not simple or cheap, and thusnot realistic, experts say. Mostly,it’s too costly and political.

However, these dreamed-upconcepts show that a quiet watercrisis is getting more desperate.

“We will go to any lengths toavoid confronting the reality ofwater shortages,” said Universityof Arizona professor Robert Glen-non, author of “Unquenchable.”

“What all those zany ideas sug-gest are the traditional beliefs

that we can control nature andthere must be some oasis outthere where we can go to, to im-port water.”

But those are mirages, he said— tempting, but not realistic.

Mike Halpert, deputy directorof the NOAA’s Climate PredictionCenter, knows the temptation.He’s about to fly from Washing-ton, which has had 7 inches sinceMonday, to Houston, which gotabout that amount of rain for theentire spring and summer. Allthat D.C. rain would be enoughwater for every person in Hous-

ton for 10 days.He jested that he would love to

carry water in his suitcases. Hesaid colleagues have been “jokingthat we’ll send Texas our water.Will they send us their oil? But Idon’t think that’s going to fly.”

The trouble with water is“there’s enough quantity but it isnot always in the right places,”said G. Tracy Mehan, who waschief water regulator for the U.S.Environmental Protection Agen-cy during the George W. Bush ad-ministration.

So how about moving it?

“The short answer ... is that itcosts too much. It’s not a techni-cal problem,” said Peter Gleick,president of the Pacific StudiesInstitute and a MacArthur geni-us grant recipient for his workon water.

Las Vegas’ grand proposal is totake water from the mighty Mis-sissippi in a series of smallerpipeline-like exchanges amongstates just west of the Mississippito refill the overused ColoradoRiver. There are no official costestimates, but it likely would bein the hundreds of billions dol-

lars. Texas oilman T. Boone Pick-ens abandoned his plans for amassive water pipeline stretchingacross Texas to just moving wa-ter around the Texas Panhandle.

Water weighs a lot — about 8.3pounds per gallon — so movingmassive amounts, often up moun-tains, costs a lot, Glennon said.

Building a pipeline to pumpwater from flooded areas is fool-ish because each year somewheredifferent gets drenched, so youcan’t build something permanentbased on a unusual rainy weath-er, NOAA’s Halpert said.

Ever try moving a flood to a drought?By SETH BORENSTEIN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Sunday, Aug. 7 photo, Eddie Ray Roberts, superintendent of the city’s waste and water department, looks toward the water pump that sits just feet away fromthe water line at Lake E.V. Spence in Robert Lee. As the soggy Northeast tries to dry out from flooding and Texas prays for rain that doesn’t come, it seems like an idealmatch of oversupply and unquenchable demand. It isn’t.

Photo by Tony Gutierrez/file | AP

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. —Northern stretches of theswollen Susquehanna Riverbegan receding Friday af-ter days of rainfall from theremnants of TropicalStorm Lee flooded commu-nities from Virginia to NewYork, leading to evacuationorders for nearly 100,000people. Some evacueeswere allowed back home.

The damage was concen-trated along the Susque-hanna in Binghamton, N.Y.;in towns up- and downriverfrom levee-protectedWilkes-Barre, Pa., wheremore than 70,000 peoplewere told to evacuate; andcommunities farther down-stream in Maryland.

The Susquehanna crest-ed at 42.66 feet Thursdaynight in Wilkes-Barre —beyond the design capacityof the city’s levee system.

“They did what wasright for them, the peopledown there,” said Tom Vax-monsky, a resident of WestPittson, just upstream fromWilkes-Barre. “But it’s likeeverything else, for everyaction there’s a reaction.And the reaction is that wegot a lot more water thanwe did in ‘72 with theAgnes flood.”

As flood waters that in-undated the city of Bing-hamton, which the mayorcalled the worst in morethan 60 years, and sur-rounding communities be-gan subsiding, the first ofthe 20,000 evacuees beganreturning to their homes.

Robert Smith, 35, madeit back around noon to hishome in a struggling sec-tion of Binghamton. Mudand debris covered pave-ment, and water stillblocked streets closest tothe river. But he felt in-spired by the time he spentin a shelter; when a womancollapsed on the floor there,he said, strangers rushedto tend to her.

“Everybody was helpingeach other out, just totalstrangers,” he said. “You’venever seen it before in your

life.” The flooding was fed by

days of drenching rainsfrom what had been Trop-ical Storm Lee, and fol-lowed a little more than aweek the dousing that Hur-ricane Irene gave the EastCoast. In some areas ofPennsylvania, the rainfalltotals hit 9 inches or more,on top of what was alreadya relatively wet summer.

Authorities in Pennsyl-vania closed countlessroads, including someheavily traveled interstates,and evacuation sheltersopened to serve the manydisplaced people.

In Wilkes-Barre, officialssaid the levees holdingback the Susquehannawere under “extremestress” but holding.

A broken flood gaugehad hampered officials’ability to measure the riv-er’s height, but the U.S. Ge-ological Survey on Fridayestimated that the river

had crested at 42.66 feet,well above earlier estimatesand higher than the 1972record of 40.9 feet.

Luzerne County FloodProtection Authority execu-tive director Jim Brozenasaid the river was droppingFriday but that the floodcontrol system was at its“extreme limits.”

The heavy rains alsoshut down parts of the Cap-

ital Beltway in FairfaxCounty, Va., but some por-tions have reopened. Asmuch as 10 inches of rainhas fallen in some places inthe area around Washing-ton since Wednesday.

States gettingrelief from

Lee floodingBy MARK SCOLFORO AND MICHAEL

RUBINKAMASSOCIATED PRESS

Two flooded buildings are seen along Front Street on Friday in Wormleysburg, Pa. Days of rainfall from the remnants of Tropical Storm Leeflooded communities from Virginia to New York, leading to evacuation orders.

Photo by John C. Whitehead/The Patriot-News | AP

SÁBADO 10 DE SEPTIEMBRELAREDO — Pase la

tarde en el Planetario LamarBruni Vergara de TAMIU yexplore “One World, OneSky: Big Bird’s Adventure” alas 4 p.m., “Earth, Moon andSun” a las 5 p.m., “SevenWonders” a las 6 p.m. yPink Floyd’s “Dark Side ofthe Moon” a las 7 p.m. En-trada general 5 dólares; y 4dólares para niños.

NUEVO LAREDO, Méxi-co — “El Traje de la Patriaestá de Fiesta” en el TeatroPrincipal del Centro Cultural,a las 6 p.m. Entrada libre.Participan el Grupo de DanzaMextli, entre otros grupos dedanza.

DOMINGO 11 DE SEPTIEMBRELAREDO — Hoy es la

2da Expo Anual Exclusiva deBodas, de 1 p.m. a 5 p.m.en el San Agustin Ballroomdel Hotel la Posada. La expomostrará diferentes opcionespara vestidos de novia, pas-teles, florerías y fotografías,bajo un mismo techo.

NUEVO LAREDO, Méxi-co — “El Traje de la Patriaestá de Fiesta” en el TeatroPrincipal del Centro Cultural,a las 4 p.m. Entrada libre.Participa el grupo de danzamagisterial de la secundaria46 de Guadalajara, Jalisco,así como exhibición de dife-rentes trajes regionales.

LUNES 12 DE SEPTIEMBRELAREDO — La exhibi-

ción “Mark Anthony PolizziShow” se presenta en elCFPA de TAMIU, en horariode lunes a jueves de las 12p.m. a 5 p.m. Más informa-ción en el 326-3079.

LAREDO — La exhibi-ción “Habitat for Humanit-y…Building Homes, ChangingLives through Volunteer Ser-vice” abre hoy en la Bibliote-ca Yeary del Laredo Commu-nity College, de 10:30 a.m. a11:30 a.m.

MARTES 13 DE SEPTIEMBREZAPATA — El taller

gratuito “Art of Starting aBusiness: Basic Business Es-sentials”, es hoy de 9:30a.m. a 12 p.m. en el ZapataCounty Corthouse, suite 248.Instructor: Yael Rodríguez. Elobjetivo del taller es evitarpérdidas económicas, evaluarfortalezas y debilidades.

JUEVES 15 DE SEPTIEMBRELAREDO — El poeta

Martín Espada, considerado,el siguiente Pablo Neruda, sepresenta hoy en la Sala deUsos Múltiples H-E-B de laBiblioteca Pública de Laredo,1120 E. Calton Road, de 7p.m. a 8:30 p.m. dando ini-cio a la celebración del Mesde la Herencia Hispana.

VIERNES 16 DE SEPTIEMBRELAREDO — Shrine Cir-

cus inicia sus presentacionesen Laredo Energy Arena. Laentrada para el show de hoya las 7:30 p.m. es de 9 dó-lares.

LAREDO — Randy Ro-gers Band en concierto, hoya las 9 p.m. en Laredo Inter-national Fair and Exposition.

SAN YGNACIO — Elprimer evento para avista-miento de aves de la Socie-dad Monte Mucho Audubones hoy de 6:30 a.m. a 12:30p.m., justo al norte de SanYgnacio. Favor de reserva suespacio con Raul Delgado al763-7624 o escriba [email protected], paramayores detalles.

SAN ANTONIO — ElInstituto Cultural de México,en colaboración con Jazz91.7 FM, invita al concierto‘México Azul’ con Magos He-rrera & Trío, hoy a las 7p.m. en el ICM, 600 Hemis-fair Park. Donación: 10 dóla-res. Reserve al (210) 227-0123. Puede estacionarse enel estacionamiento ubicadoen la esquina de César E.Chávez (antes Durango) yAlamo.

Agendaen Breve

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 10 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2011

Las personas interesadas enformar parte de los departamen-tos de policía en Tamaulipas, es-tarán obligados a registrarse y ac-tualizarse constantemente.

La Secretaría de Seguridad Pú-blica (SSP) anunció además queel registro de aspirantes a formarparte del Nuevo Modelo Policialestará abierto de manera perma-nente.

Los interesados además debe-

rán participar en el Curso de For-mación Inicial, tiempo durante elcual recibirán alimentación, alo-jamiento, atención médica y unabeca mensual.

“Una vez concluido el curso,los seleccionados contarán con in-gresos a nivel profesionista, becasde educación y apoyo para vivien-da, entre otros beneficios”, infor-mó el Director del Instituto de Re-clutamiento y Formación Policial,Juan Manuel Palomino Maldona-do.

Entre los requisitos dados a co-nocer por la SSP destacan: tenerentre 19 y 35 años de edad y, deacuerdo con su perfil y nivel pro-fesional, tendrán la oportunidadde integrarse en las unidades deAnálisis Táctico, Investigación yOperaciones.

Para ingresar a las unidades deInvestigación y de Operaciones elsolicitante deberá contar con ungrado de estudios de nivel mediosuperior; y para la Unidad deAnálisis Táctico, contar con una

carrera profesional.Los que consideren son candi-

datos para ser parte de la policíade la entidad, pueden acudir alInstituto de Reclutamiento y For-mación Policial ubicado en carre-tera interejidal kilómetro 1.5, enCiudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.También se pueden comunicar alos teléfonos (834) 3 18 62 75 o ladasin costo 01 800 122 23 36. Otra op-ción es visitar la página de Inter-net www.ssp.tamaulipas.gob.mx/nvomodelopolest.html.

INFORMAN REQUISITOS PARA SER POLICÍA EN TAMAULIPAS

Nuevo modelo policialTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Tamaulipas está listo pa-ra celebrar del 24 de sep-tiembre al 8 de octubre laXIII edición del Festival In-ternacional Tamaulipas(FIT).

Reunidos ante represen-tantes de los medios de co-municación a nivel estado,la Directora General del In-stituto Tamaulipeco para laCultura y las Artes (ITCA),Libertad García Cabriales,dijo que “la política culturalde Tamaulipas es perma-nente”.

En tanto, el Director delFIT y Eventos Especiales,Sergio Cárdenas Tamez,sostuvo que la oferta cultur-al no se concentrara en unasola época sino que abarca-ra todo el año.

La idea es crear el diseñode una política integral, quedurante el año siga apoyan-do eventos tales como elFestival del Altiplano, laacademia musical de vera-no Musicorum o el Jazz-TamFest.

“Este festival (FIT) seconstituye en una fiesta em-blemática de los tamaulipe-cos, pero no es la única”, di-jo García. “El ITCA trabajatodos los días en todos losmunicipios”.

En la edición 2011 delFIT, los creadores tamauli-pecos serán los protagonis-tas principales en los 43municipios tamaulipecos.

Además participarán unmillar de artistas en 350 es-pectáculos, 90 por ciento delos cuales se ofrecerán sincosto para el público.

Torre Cantú realizará lainauguración oficial el 24 deseptiembre en Ciudad Victo-ria.

Ése día se realizará unhomenaje a la coreógrafa y

bailarina tampiqueña Ceci-lia Lugo, acto al que le se-guirá la presentación de lacompañía Contempodanza,que, por cierto, dirige Lugo.

En tanto, el artista plásti-co Federico Silva, cuya obraserá expuesta en el Museode Arte Contemporáneo deTamaulipas, donará una es-cultura monumental, “Prin-cipio”, que se instalaráfrente al puente interna-cional de Matamoros “Igna-cio Zaragoza”.

El FIT tendrá durantesus semanas de duraciónpresentaciones en música,teatro, danza, pintura y lit-eratura, cortometrajes, fun-ciones de magia, clases ma-gistrales y exposiciones.

TAMAULIPAS

FIT 2011 mostrarápolítica cultural

Dando a conocer los detalles del FIT, la Directora General del ITCA,Libertad García Cabriales, y el Director del FIT y Eventos Especiales,Sergio Cárdenas Tamez.

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

MÉXICO — El secretar-io de Hacienda, ErnestoCordero, renunció elviernes a su cargo, apa-rentemente con la inten-ción de obtener la postula-ción del oficialista Partidode Acción Nacional (PAN)para los comicios presi-denciales del 2012.

El presidente FelipeCalderón dijo que aceptóla dimisión y reconocióque “su labor (de Cordero)ha permitido mantener laestabilidad de las finanzaspúblicas y con ello la esta-bilidad económica delpaís”.

El mandatario del paísdijo que desde hace tiem-po Cordero había queridodejar el cargo, más que élhabía instruido esperarsea presentar el paqueteeconómico.

FuturoNinguno de los dos

mencionó las eleccionespresidenciales que se lle-varán a cabo en julio de2012, pero Calderón le de-

seó suerte en “proyectosfuturos”.

“Emprendo un nuevocamino impulsado, no porun afán personal, sino porla voluntad de avanzar enun proyecto de país quenos permita mantener elrumbo y consolidar lo quehasta ahora y con tantoesfuerzo los mexicanoshemos logrado”, expresóCordero.

El hasta ahora secretar-io de Energía, José Anto-nio Meade, ocupará la va-cante dejada por Cordero.Meade será reemplazadopor Jordy Herrera.

Calderón tambiénanunció la renuncia a laSecretaría de Salud de Jo-sé Angel Córdova, quienquiere ser candidato a go-bernador de Guanajuato.Reemplazará a Córdova,Salomón Chertorivski, excomisionado nacional deprotección social en salud.

El presidente tambiénanunció cambios en la di-rección del Centro de In-vestigación y SeguridadNacional. Guillermo Val-dés dejó el puesto para re-gresar a ser académico ylo sustituirá AlejandroPoiré.

MÉXICO

Renuncian dossecretarios de

CalderónPOR ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BASTROP — Losbomberos hanapagado algunosfocos y detenido el

avance de las llamas de unincendio que ardió durantedías en el centro de Texas,dijeron las autoridades elviernes. El fuego ha de-struido unas 1.400 vivien-das y calcinado miles dehectáreas de terrenos rese-cos.

El incendio en Bastrop,40 kilómetros (25 millas) aleste de Austin, y alrede-dores estaba contenido re-cién en un 30%, pero losbomberos lo han cercado yno se reportaron viviendasdestruidas durante lanoche.

Las autoridades planea-ban el viernes utilizar unjet DC-10 convertido capazde arrojar 45.000 litros(12.000 galones) de retarda-dor de fuego sobre las lla-mas, pero la portavoz delServicio Forestal de Texas,Holly Huffman, dijo que elaparato no se necesitabapor el momento en Bastropy que era despachado encambio a los incendios que

arden al norte de Houston.El retardador se arroja

para ayudar a reducir lasllamas, lo que permite elavance de los bomberos entierra, aunque no extingueel fuego.

“Lo más efectivo son losbomberos en el terreno”,afirmó Tom Harbour, direc-

tor nacional de incendiosen el Servicio Forestal Na-cional.

Bomberos de todo el paísseguían llegando a Bastrop,y un funcionario del Servi-cio Forestal de Texas, BobKoenig, dijo que 844 esta-ban trabajando el viernes.

Huffman afirmó que las

cuadrillas han logrado pro-gresos significativos en elcondado de Bastrop y agre-gó que el jet puede ser envi-ado a cualquier sitio si seaviva el fuego, pero que fueenviado por ahora a com-batir los incendios en loscondados de Grimes, Mont-gomery y Weller a 65 kiló-

metros (40 millas) al no-roeste de Houston.

Texas padece el peor es-tallido de incendios en suhistoria. El de Bastrop hasido el más grande de casi190 que según el servicioforestal estallaron esta se-mana y que mataron a cua-tro personas.

TEXAS

LUCHA CONTRA INCENDIOBomberos

logranavance

POR CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Y APRIL CASTRO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Un nuevo equipo de bomberos, de Sequoia National Forest en California, pasan sobre una malla ciclona para apagar puntos cerca de Bas-trop.

Foto por LM Otero | Associated Press

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES National SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

JACKSON, Miss. — Ashuttered clinic in southMississippi gave cancerpatients less chemother-apy or cheaper drugs thanthey were led to believeand reused the same nee-dles on multiple people aspart of a multimillion-dol-lar Medicare and Medi-caid fraud, a 15-count in-dictment says.

Three women, includ-ing Dr. Meera Sachdeva,the 50-year-old founder ofRose Cancer Center inSummit, were chargedThursday. The clinic hadalready been shut downby the state Health De-partment.

Sachdeva has been or-dered held without bond.Her attorney, Rob McDuff,said she will plead notguilty “and we’ll go fromthere.”

The defendants “knewthat the liquid solutionsthat were infused into thepatients treated at RoseCancer Center containeda smaller amount of thechemotherapy drugs thanthe defendants had billedto various health carebenefit programs, or con-tained different, less ex-pensive drugs,” the indict-ment says.

The clinic also billedthe agencies for new syr-inges for each patient,even though it reusedsome on multiple people,authorities said.

Prosecutors say Medi-caid and Medicare paidthe clinic $15.1 millionduring. Authorities haveseized $6 million.

Others charged are em-ployees, 24-year-old Britta-ny McCoskey of Monticel-

lo and 43-year-old MonicaWeeks of Madison.

When contacted Friday,McCoskey said she didnot know about the indict-ment and wanted to readit before commenting. Itwasn’t clear if Weeks hadan attorney. A phone callto a listing for Weeks wasnot immediately returned.

McCoskey was a recep-tionist and later the officemanager. Weeks submit-ted claims to Medicare,Medicaid and private in-surance companies.

McCoskey and Weeksare both charged with 11counts and, if convicted,face 125 years in prisonand $2.25 million in fines.

Prosecutor Scott Gil-bert said Sachdeva wasarrested in August and or-dered held without bond.She appealed that ruling,but it was upheld Fridayby a different judge.

Prosecutors arguedSachdeva should remainin jail until trial becauseshe’s a naturalized U.S. ci-tizen from India, and is aflight risk.

“Moreover, the defend-ant has substantial finan-cial resources available toher, in spite of the seizureof almost $6,000,000 by thegovernment,” court re-cords said.

Rose Cancer Centercame under scrutiny ear-lier this year when 11 pa-tients went to hospitalswith bacterial infections,according to the Missis-sippi Department ofHealth.

A Health Departmentspokeswoman, said Fridaythat the clinic was closedJuly 20. The Health De-partment advised patientsto get screened for Hepati-tis B and C and HIV.

Doc, 2 otherscharged in

medical fraudBy HOLBROOK MOHR

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — With theopening of the Sept. 11 me-morial days away, MayorMichael Bloomberg stillwonders if the choice of adesign for the tree-lined, 8-acre plaza may have beentoo rushed.

“I always thought thatwe did it a little bit wrong,”the mayor, who is also thechairman of the memorialfoundation, said ahead ofthe 10th anniversary of theattacks. “We picked a de-sign right away and thenwaited for things to quietdown before raising themoney. You want to raisemoney when the juices areflowing and then have theperspective of history asopposed to journalism todesign things that go on fora long time.”

“The connection be-tween today and 100 yearsfrom now is pretty tenu-ous,” Bloomberg added.

“Hopefully this memorialwill still ... give a message100 years from now.”

The decision to place thememorial on the WorldTrade Center site made itnecessary to move forwardfairly quickly on its cre-ation, Joe Daniels, the pres-ident of the memorial foun-dation, said Thursday.

“We’re building on thesite where the atrocity tookplace,” Daniels said. “It’svery important to stitchback together the actual,physical real estate.”

In a wide-ranging inter-view with The AssociatedPress on Wednesday,Bloomberg spoke about theattacks that helped definethe final months of hiscampaign for office — andmay have helped him winthe city’s top job. The may-or will join President Ba-rack Obama and other offi-cials at Sunday’s nationalcommemoration ceremony.

A decade ago, Bloombergtold voters that his years

building and directing hismedia empire would helphim repair the city’s econo-my, and he has a reputationas a business-minded, prag-matic politician. At times,his brusque manner hasled to misunderstandingswith family members of 9/11 victims.

But the mayor says that,from his perspective, a fo-cus on the city’s finances isa key way to honor thedead.

“They wanted to build abetter life. They were work-ing for a living to take careof their families,” he said.“We can’t bring them back,but we can take over thatresponsibility for them.And that means you haveto have an economy. Youhave to have a tax base.You have to have social pro-grams, and schools.”

Now in his third and fi-nal term, the mayor saidthat he didn’t see the at-tacks and their aftermathas a significant part of his

legacy, although he did sayhe believed he was a cata-lyst in getting past impass-es among stakeholders inthe rebuilding of the site.

“I don’t know that I wantto be remembered in termsof 9/11,” he said. “I wantthe public to rememberthat somebody was there —not even knowing who theywere. That they built theright thing. That they didthe right thing. That theymade the right decisions.”

Bloomberg said, he maysignificantly change futureobservances, which have al-ways been marked by thereading of the names of thethousands of victims of theattacks.

“The names were readbecause there was no otherplace where you could seethe names. Now the namesare all around both the(memorial) voids. Andmaybe it is time,” he said.“We’ll have to ask people.And I guarantee you it willbe controversial.”

Warren East Middle School eighth graders release 144 balloons in honor of the 10 year anniversary of the Sept.11 terrorist attacks on Fri-day, in Bowling Green, Ky. Each student picked five names from the 3,000 victims of the attacks to write on an attached card, with a per-sonal message.

Photo by Miranda Pederson/Daily News | AP

Mayor has doubts about memorialBy SAMANTHA GROSS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Jose A. “Charro” AraizaSr., 54, passed away Satur-day, Sept. 3, 2011, at LaredoMedical Center in Laredo,Texas.

Mr. Araiza is precededin death by his mother, Ro-sa H. Araiza; granddaught-er Kaylie R. Araiza; and abrother, Jesus Araiza.

Mr. Araiza is survivedby his wife, Felicidad M.Araiza; sons: Jesus J.(Blanca) Araiza, Jose A.(Rosanna) Araiza and San-tiago J. (Abigail) Araiza;daughter, Susie (Ernesto)Gillen; grandchildren Vic-toria, Jesus Jr., Jose A.,Summer M., Stacy A. Arai-za, Ernesto I. and Devanhi

D. Gillen; partner, MaryReyes; son Humberto J.Araiza; father, Santiago Ro-cha; and by numerous niec-es, nephews and manyfriends.

Visitation hours wereThursday, Sept. 8, 2011, at 8a.m. with a chapel serviceat 10 a.m. at Rose GardenFuneral Home.

Committal services fol-lowed at Zapata CountyCemetery.

Funeral arrangementsare under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonzalez,funeral director, 2102 High-way 83, Zapata, TX.

JOSE A. “CHARRO” ARAIZA SR.

mie (Jonathan) Ruffin,Roxeanna (Calvin), KaitlinVann, Felicia Flowers, Da-nyell Flowers, Tommy Jr.(Priscilla) Garcia, Christi-na (Romeo) Garza, Carlos(Gloria) Garcia, Mario Gar-za Jr., Michael, R.J. andMarc Anthony Vidal; 22great-grandchildren; broth-ers Eustolio Medrano, Ge-naro (Josie) Medrano andJulio Medrano; sister, No-elia Gonzalez; and by nu-merous nieces, nephewsand many friends.

SAN YGNACIO — Ma-ria Celia Vann, 69, passedaway Saturday, Sept. 3,2011, at Laredo MedicalCenter in Laredo, Texas.

Ms. Vann is preceded indeath by her husband,Staten L. Vann; parents:Julio Medrano and CeliaR. Medrano; son-in-law, To-mas Garcia; brothers Ray-mond Medrano, Flavio(Elida) Medrano, Guiller-mo Medrano and Eustacio(Hortencia) Medrano;brother-in-law, HiginioGonzalez; and a sister-in-law, Mary “Candy” Medra-no.

Ms. Vann is survived byher sons: David (Carla)Vann and James (Barbara)Vann; daughters: Norma J.(Mario) Muñoz and Fran-sis Vann (Gustavo Garza);grandchildren: William(Shasta) Vann, Jimmy (Ja-mie) Vann, Victoria Vann,Megan Vann, DakotaVann, Christopher (Tracy)Kitts, Cody Campbell, Ja-

Visitation hours wereMonday, Sept. 5, 2011, from6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a ros-ary at 7 p.m. at Rose Gar-den Funeral Home.

The funeral processiondeparted Tuesday, Sept. 6,2011, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10a.m. funeral Mass at Nues-tra Señora del Refugio Mis-sion in San Ygnacio, Tex-as.

Committal services fol-lowed at Panteon del Pueb-lo in San Ygnacio, Texas.

Special thanks to Valen-tin, Joan Medrano, Luciaand Evaristo Botello.

Funeral arrangementswere under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonzalez,funeral director, 2102 High-way 83, Zapata, TX.

MARIA CELIA VANN

lardo Benavides; parents:Esequiel and Eva Bena-vides; brothers: Mario Al-berto (Sofia) Benavides andEsequiel Benavides; father-in-law, Refugio Zamora;and by numerous aunts,uncles, cousins and friends.

Visitation hours will beSunday, Sept. 11, 2011, from6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a ros-ary at 7 p.m. at Rose Gar-den Funeral Home.

The funeral processionwill depart Monday, Sept.12, 2011, at 9:45 a.m. for a 10a.m. funeral Mass at Our

Ruben Benavides-San-chez, 37, passed away Fri-day, Sept. 9, 2011.

Mr. Benavides-Sanchezis preceded in death by hispaternal grandparents: Ru-ben and Dora Saenz Bena-vides; maternal grandpar-ents: Eduardo and PaulaMedina Sanchez; and hismother-in-law, MargaritaBautista.

Mr. Benavides-Sanchezis survived by his wife, Ma-ria Del Refugio Zamora;sons: Abelardo Caballero,Gilberto Benavides and Gi-

Lady of Lourdes CatholicChurch. Committal servic-es will follow at ZapataCounty Cemetery.

Funeral arrangementsare under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonzalez,funeral director, 2102 High-way 83, Zapata, TX.

RUBEN BENAVIDES-SANCHEZ

In addition to Dr. Garcia, threeother prospective operators havesubmitted bids for consideration.One of them is Laredo MedicalCenter, and the other two are in-dividual medical professionalswhose names were not yet con-firmed by The Zapata Times.

Because the bids will be dis-

cussed at Monday’s meeting,county officials contacted by TheZapata Times did not wish to saymuch. Vela wanted it known thatall four are priced within thecounty’s ability to pay and allproposals included 24-hour ser-vice, the county’s top require-ment.

Other items to be discussed in-clude the adoption of the countybudget for fiscal year 2011-2012.The proposed budget is availablefor public view on the court’s of-ficial website.

The court will also deliberateauthorizing the county treasurerand the county auditor to close

all accounts and make all neces-sary line item transfers.

A solid waste contract betweenthe county and Grande Garbagewill be considered, as will a pro-posal for installing new technolo-gy at the Zapata County Ad-vanced Education Center.

The court will also hear a pre-

sentation by the Border DamagePrevention Council, an organiza-tion “dedicated to the preventionof damage to underground utili-ties” in excavation projects, ac-cording to its website.

(Mike Herrera IV can bereached at 956-728-2567 or [email protected].)

CLINIC Continued from Page 1A

FIGHTING THE FALLOUT FROM EUROPE

Photo by Richard Drew | AP

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday in New York City. U.S. stocksplunged Friday, erasing the week’s gains, amid rising fears about fallout from Europe’s debt crisis.

U.S. retail sales rose inAugust at the slowest pacein three months, temperedby limited job and incomegrowth, economists said be-fore a report this week.

The projected 0.2 percentgain would follow a 0.5 per-cent increase in July, ac-cording to the median fore-cast in a Bloomberg Newssurvey ahead of CommerceDepartment figures onSept. 14. Production slowedin August and inflationcooled from the previousmonth, other reports mayshow.

Retailers J.C. Penney Co.and Target Corp. say salesgains are more difficult be-cause of a stagnant labormarket that’s battered con-fidence. The risk of abroader pullback in spend-ing, which accounts forabout 70 percent of theeconomy, increases pres-sure on the Federal Re-serve, Obama administra-tion and Congress to crafta plan to ensure the recov-ery is sustained.

“Consumers are reluc-tant to spend on anythingoutside of what they need,”said Sean Incremona, a se-

nior economist at 4CastInc. in New York. “Policysupport is going to be need-ed.”

The retail report may al-so show purchases exclud-ing automobiles rose 0.2percent last month after a0.5 percent increase in July,economists said. The autoindustry is recovering fromsupply disruptions due toJapan’s earthquake inMarch, which hurt produc-tion and sales the past fewmonths.

Cars and light truckssold at a 12.1 million sea-sonally adjusted annualrate in August, down froma 12.5 million pace in thefirst half of the year and lit-tle changed from July, ac-cording to researcher Auto-data Corp.

Labor MarketSpending on so-called

big-ticket items such ascars and appliances isthreatened by a lack of jobcreation. Payrolls were un-changed last month andthe unemployment rateheld at 9.1 percent, LaborDepartment figuresshowed.

A plan from President

Barack Obama, announcedbefore a joint session ofCongress on Thursday,called for an extension of apayroll-tax break for Amer-icans and unemploymentassistance. He also pushedfor a payroll tax break forsmall businesses, an in-crease in infrastructurespending and more aid forcash- strapped state govern-ments.

Congressional approval“would dramatically re-duce the risk of a long peri-od of much weakergrowth,” Treasury Secreta-ry Timothy F. Geithnersaid in a Sept. 9 interviewwith Bloomberg Televisionin Marseille, France.

Americans are pessimis-tic, a report may show onSept. 16. The Thomson Reu-ters/University of Michi-gan preliminary index ofconsumer sentiment roseto 56.6 in September froman almost three-year low of55.7 the prior month, econ-omists in the Bloombergsurvey projected.

Sales gains at Target, thesecond-largest U.S. discountretailer, are “a bit morechallenging” than expectedat the beginning of theyear, according to execu-tives.

Very little growth seenin August retail sales

By SHOBHANA CHANDRABLOOMBERG NEWS

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

seen inside, Gonzalez said. While an array of U.S.

federal and state agenciesdeclined to comment, aMexican government offi-cial confirmed that Mexi-can military helicoptershave permission to useTexas as a staging groundfor missions into Mexicoto fight drug traffickers.

“Yes, I can tell you theyexist, they are going on,”said the official, who hasknowledge of the flights.“Certainly, for the last cou-ple of years,” he said, not-ing that the U.S. govern-ment also has permissionto fly remotely mannedsurveillance planes intoMexico.

Most sightings havebeen in the vicinity of Fal-con Lake, a region whereauthorities in Mexico arefighting Los Zetas.

In some instances,American civilianssnapped photos of theflights and shared themwith police. In the most re-cent incident last month, aMexican military helicop-ter landed at Laredo Inter-national Airport.

U.S. Customs and BorderProtection offered minimaldetails, saying the pilotwas lost.

Working togetherAlthough such oper-

ations are apparently rare,permission to allow Mexi-can government helicop-ters to fly out of the UnitedStates goes back at leastuntil 1987, when Mexicanfederal police flew in fromWest Texas to attack leg-endary drug boss PabloAcosta, a marijuana king-pin.

U.S. Rep. MichaelMcCaul, who representspart of Harris County andis chairman of the Home-land Security Oversightand Investigations Sub-committee, declined to con-firm details about the Mex-ican military’s involve-ment with the UnitedStates.

“It is a highly sensitive,coordinated effort to takeout the cartels that has

been effective,” he said. Officials from the U.S.

Drug Enforcement Admin-istration, Federal AviationAdministration and Bor-der Patrol would not com-ment when contacted bythe Houston Chronicle.

Gonzalez, who testifiedbefore a Congressionalcommittee in May aboutborder security and is re-tiring soon, said he doesn’thave answers and doesn’tknow what he can tell thecitizens of Zapata County,which hugs Falcon Lake.

The lake, a massive RioGrande reservoir, is wherean American jet skier wasreportedly killed last yearwhile fleeing Zeta gunmenin boats. His body was nev-er found.

“Given the corruption inMexico, how do I knowwhat these guys are doing,dropping something off,picking something up —kidnapping somebody andtaking them back to Mexi-co?” the sheriff asked.

“Citizens have com-plained,” he said. “What dowe do, shoot them down?Can you imagine someonesaying, ‘This is my coun-try, I’m protecting it’?”

Robert Kline, a retireewho lives part of the yearin Zapata, said that inMarch 2010, the thump ofhelicopter rotors movingover Falcon Lake fromMexico startled him.

“I am standing on thedeck looking at it. ‘Holyman, that’s not one ofours,’” he recalled.

On the helicopter wasthe word “Marina,” theword the Mexican govern-ment uses for navy.

Catherine Frazier, depu-ty press secretary for Gov.Rick Perry, said state lawenforcement is not beingtold in advance of any op-erations in which Mexico’smilitary has permission tofly over Texas.

“Failure to do so stirs upunnecessary concernamong local people, andcould result in situationsof mistaken identity orfriendly fire, putting ourpeace officers and citizensin harm’s way,” she said.

In years past, the U.S.

government has labeledsome flights as “incur-sions,” or unauthorizedborder crossings.

Conservative group Judi-cial Watch, which special-izes in obtaining govern-ment documents, has post-ed reports listingincursions by Mexicangovernment employees, in-cluding at least eight heli-copters in 2007, apparentlythe last year in-depth de-scriptions were available.

ConcernJudicial Watch President

Tom Fitton said he can’timagine the Mexican mili-tary being permitted to flyover U.S. soil.

“There are always excus-es that can be made for fly-ing helicopters around …but to have authorized ac-tivity of that nature wouldbe explosive,” he said, add-ing it would “make the‘Fast and Furious’ pro-gram seem like a tempestin a tea pot.”

“Fast and Furious” wasan operation in which fed-eral agents let guns slip in-to Mexico as part of a planto track them to cartels.But the weapons were lost,and some later turned upat the scene where a Bor-der Patrol agent was killed.

U.S. Rep Ted Poe, whosedistrict stretches fromSpring to Beaumont, askedfor an official explanationfor at least one of theflights, which occurredover Starr County, not farfrom Falcon Lake.

“My office contactedHomeland Security, andthey confirmed that therewas an unauthorized flightover Falcon Heights thatday, but they said it wasimpossible to confirmwhether or not it was ac-tually a Mexican militaryhelicopter or the drug car-tels flying in a helicopterpainted to look like a Mex-ican military helicopter,”he said, “The Mexican mil-itary denies that they hadany military helicoptersflying the area that day.”

Neither scenario is ac-ceptable, he said.

‘COPTERS Continued from Page 1A

15,000 acres 40 miles north-west of Houston.

Texas is in the midst ofits worst wildfire outbreakin state history. The Bas-trop-area fire has been thelargest of nearly 190 wild-fires the forest service sayserupted this week, leavingnearly 1,700 homes state-wide in charred ruins, kill-ing four people and forcingthousands to evacuate.

Federal forest service of-ficials earlier this weekcontacted 10 Tanker Air

Carrier LLC, of Victorville,Calif., which leases theDC-10 to the U.S. ForestService and states as need-ed. The state asked that thecompany “ferry it as quick-ly as possible” to Texas,which also used the tankerin the spring, said CEORick Hatton.

The plane arrived Tues-day night in Austin, about25 miles west of the blaze,but could not be used untilFriday as crews worked toset a temporary plumbing

system to funnel retardantinto the plane, said TexasForest Service spokeswo-man Holly Huffman.

Huffman said Texas hasretardant plants in place atairports other than Austin,but runways at those sitesare not approved to handlesuch a large aircraft. Shesaid the DC-10 — whichcosts the state $12,000 perflight hour as well as a$45,000 per day availabilityfee — is used in addition tosmaller aircraft.

WILDFIRES Continued from Page 1A

Meza went back to hisroom. His wife had the tele-vision on a newscast broad-casting the attack. Nothinghad prepared the couple forwhat they were about towitness next.

“We saw the second planecrash into the other tower,”Meza recalled. “It’s a reallyimportant day we need toremember for the rest ofour lives, and remind oursmall children … This wassomething drastic that hap-pened to the United States.I hope it doesn’t happenagain.”

Gonzalez was home, get-ting ready to go to his of-fice. He was watching TheToday Show and then sawthe planes crashing. Thesheriff quickly monitoredthe situation, waiting forany type of security en-

hancement for the county.A day later, the sheriff ’s

office began receiving callsreporting suspicious pack-ets believed to contain an-thrax. In addition, Gonzalezsaid his office received callsreporting Middle Easternpeople in the Zapata Coun-ty area, but nothing devel-oped from those reports.

“We’re better prepared,better equipped. We remainvigilant because of the pos-sible threat,” Gonzalez add-ed. “Our main thing is bor-der security, not just narcot-ics.”

Sept. 11, 2001, changedlaw enforcement training inmany ways. Training be-came available for deputies,which included dealingwith bomb threats, bombdisposal and bomb investi-gation, but more specifical-

ly, how bombs could besmuggled across the borderonto U.S. soil, Gonzalezsaid.

The area law enforce-ment community came to-gether and created the Tex-as Border Sheriff ’s Coali-tion in May 2005. Thatunited front grew in No-vember 2006 when the coali-tion extended its coverageand became the SouthwestBorder Sheriff ’s Coalition.

Firemen also evolved.Meza has seen how firemenincreased their trainingand expanded their commu-nication with surroundingcounties, noting that openchannels of communicationare key in emergency situa-tions.

(César G. Rodriguez maybe reached at 728-2568 or [email protected])

A Customs and Border Patrol agent looks at lines of vehicles lining up on the Laredo side of the Lin-coln-Juarez international bridge, on Wednesday morning.

Photo by Danny Zaragoza | The Zapata Times

ATTACKS Continued from Page 1A

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

The 10th anniversary ofSeptember 11, 2001 is aday away, and theAmerican society will

always recall what they weredoing when those devastatingevents unfolded in New York,

Washington, D.C. and Pennsyl-vania.

At that time, I was startingmy rookie year as head coachat United South High Schooland the day started like anyother.

On my way to school, I hadheard a brief message on theradio about a plane hitting theWorld Trade Center, so when Igot to the coaches’ office Iturned on the television.

The other coaches and I

were transfixed on what wasunfolding in front of our eyes.

Watching smoke coming outof the towers, I just kept pray-ing that all the people made it

COMMENTARY

Remembering the daySee SANDOVAL PAGE 2B

When Manuel Salinas first slipped into hisshoulder pads and helmet at Zapata MiddleSchool, he never envisioned himself as aquarterback.

Salinas was vying to become the team’shalfback.

But as fate would have it, the coachingstaff as Zapata Middle saw something else inSalinas. He was moved to quarterback and hehas never relinquished the position, going onto become Zapata’s premier signal-caller thepast three years.

“I was never thought of playing quarter-back, but I guess the coaches saw somethingin me,” Salinas said. “I started to like the po-sition, continued to play quarterback fromthat moment.”

Now Salinas likes everything that comeswith playing one of the most pressure-filledpositions in all of sports.

“I like everything about being a quarter-back: the pressure, the atmosphere and justgetting out there with your teammates withone goal in mind, to win,” Salinas said. “Be-ing a quarterback, you have to know all theplays and just be on your toes all the time.”

Salinas is an all district quarterback andhas steered the Hawks’ offense to the top ofDistrict 32-3A the past two years.

“Manuel has developed as a quarterback,”Zapata coach Mario Arce said. “He is ourleader and done everything that we ask himto do.”

Salinas got the nod to become the startingquarterback during his sophomore year,thanks to the maturity he displayed.

In his first drive as a Hawks quarterback,Salinas led Zapata to a touchdown.

“I was really nervous and excited at thesame time,” Salinas said. “After a few snaps, Ifelt OK and just started playing.”

It turned out Salinas led the team to a vic-tory in his first outing, but things turnedsour in his next game when the pressure washard to overcome.

“I just felt that we lost because of me and Itook it hard,” Salinas said.

As the season progressed his sophomore

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Quarterback Manuel Salinas has developed into astar leader for the Hawks.

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

QBSalinasstars forHawks

Signal-caller leads way forZapata football

By CLARA SANDOVALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See SALINAS PAGE 2B

The Zapata girls’ cross country teamreturned to the course after a taking aweek off and the Lady Hawks did notskip a beat at the 2nd Annual Rio

Grande Valley Classic last weekend.The Lady Hawks were the only 3A

team to enter in the elite division andthey fared very well, placing seventhamongst some of the best competitionthe Valley had to offer, including statequalifier Edinburg, Edinburg North and

Sharyland.State qualifier Jazmine Garcia led Za-

pata with a solid third place finish andwas clocked at 11:47.

Erica Hernandez and Cassie Pena val-

CROSS COUNTRY

Zapata girls, boys run onBy CLARA SANDOVAL

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See CROSS COUNTRY PAGE 2B

The Lady Hawks are flying afteropening defense of their district title

with two district wins.Zapata has been sensational sweeping

its first two opponents in three games.Zapata (2-0 District 32-3A, 8-7), behind

the dynamic play of Kristina De Leon

and Shelby Bigler, beat Port Isabel, 25-19, 25-15 and 25-19, a week ago and thenturned around and beat Progreso, 25-6,

HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL

Kristina De Leon and the Lady Hawks are off to a 2-0 start in district play.

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

FAST AND FURIOUSLady Hawks get off to undefeated district start

By CLARA SANDOVALTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See VOLLEYBALL PAGE 2B

B Zscores SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

iantly fought to get on the medal stand,but fell short when all the dust was set-tled.

Not all was lost at the meet, however.Sara Pena and Wendy Medina broke

through in their quest to drop some timesin their race and recorded personal re-cords to solidify their spot on the varsityteam.

The junior varsity squad ran in the 3A-and-under division, which included many5A and 4A schools.

The JV team battled throughout thecourse and went home with the runner-uptrophy behind Brownsville St. Joseph’svarsity squad.

Top runners for the JV girls were MariaRodriguez (personal record) in sixth, An-gela Darnell (PR) in ninth, Jannet Chapa(PR) in 11th and Brianna Gonzalez (PR) in12th.

Closing out the squad were AlexandraGarcia, Daniela Vela (PR), Norma Cepeda(PR), Joyce Garcia and Alma Perez.

The freshmen girls were not to be out-done as they took second place honors intheir division.

Bianca Ponce continues to impress withanother top finish, taking sixth place andsetting a huge personal record to startmaking a strong statement.

Following close behind were teammatesEvelin Huerta (PR), Maria Angeles (PR),Kassandra Galvan (PR) and Corina Marti-nez (PR), all setting personal marks.

“There were 12 runners who set person-al bests at this meet, a great accomplish-ment this early in the season,” Zapatacross country coach Mike Villarreal said.

The Lady Hawks’ next competition is atFalfurrias this morning. Ten girls will runvarsity this weekend to determine whothe top seven runners are for the next fewmeets.

“The competition has been a great moti-vator for the girls and I believe it’s bring-ing out the best in them,” Villarreal said.

Zapata boys boast perspectiveThe Hawks boys’ cross country team

has been keeping this season in perspec-tive despite having a state ranking in itsback pocket.

In order to move toward their ultimategoal of a trip to state, the Hawks have beengoing against some of the toughest compe-tition that South Texas has to offer.

Zapata, along with some of the bestcross country teams in the Rio GrandeValley, made its way to Edinburg lastweekend for the 2nd Annual Rio GrandeValley Classic.

Zapata placed fourth overall in the elitedivision behind Sharyland, Los Fresnosand Eagle Pass. The Hawks were only fivepoints away from Eagle Pass’s third-placefinish.

“The team ran well,” Zapata coach LuisEscamilla said. “Everyone improved theirtimes and is heading in the right direc-tion.

“Being the third best Rio Grande Valleyschool, including the 5As, has given us theconfidence to run against any team.”

Luis Garza, who placed in the top 10with his 10th place overall finish, led theHawks.

Garza blazed the course with a 16:40 tostay on pace.

Garza’s feat was followed by Carlos Ro-driguez’s 12th place finish. Rodriguez wasclocked at 16:44.

The rest of the team finished in the fol-lowing order: Rafael Benavides(23rd-17:03), Sam Camacho (56th-17:45),Juan Rangel (59th-17:51), Tony Mendoza(66th-18:02) and Jose Garcia (69th-18:06).

“Our top three ran an aggressive race.They set the tone for the team. It’s a sweetand sour feeling finishing fourth, especial-ly by five points,” Escamilla said. “Overall,I’m very pleased with their performances.

“We’re going in with the highest expec-tations. Winning the 3A division is our

goal.”The Hawks will take a week off before

they head to the UTSA Invitational on

Sept. 17, where the entire region runs(1A-5A) to get a glimpse of the regionalpicture.

CROSS COUNTRY Continued from Page 1B

Bianca Ponce and the Zapata Lady Hawks are at the Falfurrias meet this morning.

Courtesy Photo

out alive, but I knew someof them already had per-ished because the planehad struck the first tower.

We were watching itwhen, all of a sudden, yousee a back dot coming intothe television screen fromthe left side. For some rea-son, I thought it was a birdand it started getting clos-er to the other twin towerbuilding.

But the object hit thetower, and that is when Irealized that this was noaccident. Someone or someorganization was set onventing its rage againstAmerica.

This was done deliber-ately.

I, like all the otherAmericans, were upset andfelt my stomach drop.

How could people be socruel and evil that theywould take innocent lives?

We stayed glued to thetelevision, and for the restof the day we could notthink about anything else.

I could not teach. Whatwas there to say whenyour country had just beeninvaded?

That day I went homeand even recorded somenewscasts, because I want-ed to keep it and show mynieces and nephews theseevents when they were old-er because at the time theywere in elementary school.

It is going to be 10 yearstomorrow and I still can-not get myself to rewindthe tapes and view what I

have recorded.I always have this un-

easiness come over me andI just can’t seem to get my-self to watch them. Whatfor? I can still see the im-ages of people jumping offbuildings because theirfloor was burning.

They say when a tragicevent of this magnitudehappens; a person alwaysremembers what they weredoing and even what theywere wearing.

September 11 is this gen-eration’s Pearl Harbor, butthe difference is Americawas being attacked by amilitary and it was aimedat our military, althoughsome civilians also diedthat December 7 day in1941.

The following day, Presi-dent Franklin D. Rooseveltasked Congress to declarewar on the Empire of Ja-pan and it was approvedright away.

On September 11, it wasan organization that at-tacked our innocent civil-ians who were just start-ing out their day. We fig-ured out who theorganization was and wentafter them.

I was angry when re-ports out of the MiddleEast had people celebrat-ing what they did to theUnited States.

How can people cele-brate the deaths of thou-sands of people and be joy-ous over it?

That made me angry

and just felt like crying forwhat they did to us. Itshook the fabric of theAmerican society andchanged the way that wefly.

I have flown before 9-11and after, and the changesare visible.

Only passengers that areflying are allowed to passthrough security, as beforeeveryone could go through.

Nowadays, it a practical-ly a strip search, though Iunderstand why they makeus go through that.

It changes the UnitedStates so many ways andtook away some of our in-nocence, but we are astrong nation that comestogether in the most bleakmoments in our history.

Even typing this col-umn, I am getting chokedup about September 11. Itis something that will livewith us for many years tocome and we will not for-get the brave men andwomen who raced to help;the first responders.

So many perished andleft families behind. Chil-dren grew up without fa-thers and mothers; wivesand husbands were leftwidowers.

We will never forget allthose brave men and wom-en who died that fatefulday.

God bless America andall its citizens.

(Clara Sandoval canbe reached at [email protected]).

SANDOVAL Continued from Page 1B

28-26, 25-9, to stay at thetop of District 32-3A.

The Lady Hawks havebeen led by the play of DeLeon and Bigler, who havebecome one of the dead-liest 1-2 punches in thedistrict.

During the Port Isabelgame, De Leon and Biglerdropped 20 and 19 kills, re-spectively, that kept theLady Tarpons busy all daylong.

De Leon and Biglerwere unstoppable, whileEstella Molina fed the ballto them and finished theday with 38 assists.

Abby Aguilar led theLady Hawk defense with24 digs.

Zapata continued to rollagainst Progreso on Tues-day as it jumped all overthe Lady Red Ants to takethe first set, 25-6.

De Leon and Biglerdominated the game asthey combined for 37 killsto lead the team at thenet.

In the second set, Zapa-ta struggled to keep backa pesky Progreso teamand had to throw out ev-erything against the LadyRed Ants.

Zapata squeezed out a28-26 second set and took a2-0 lead.

The Lady Hawks got asecond wind and came outwith a vengeance to takethe third set and the win.

The next games for Za-pata take place todayagainst PSJA Southwest

and Tuesday at homeagainst Rio Hondo.

ZAPATA STATS vs. Port Isa-bel: De Leon (20 kills,three service aces, ninedigs, four blocks), ShelbyBigler (19 kills, one block),Vanessa Martinez (fourkills, two blocks), EstellaMolina (three service ac-es, 38 assists), Abby Agui-lar (24 digs).

ZAPATA STATS vs. Progreso:De Leon (22 kills), Bigler(15 kills, five serves aces),Vanessa Martinez (sixkills), Estella Molina (fiveserves aces, 43 assists,nine digs), Liana Flores(two serves aces), AbbyAguilar (12 digs).

VOLLEYBALL Continued from Page 1B

Abby Aguilar led the Lady Hawkdefense with 24 digs.

year, Salinas started to geta feel for the position. TheHawks put together astring of victories and cap-tured second place in dis-trict.

Salinas was tabbed New-comer of Year by the dis-trict coaches.

In last year’s campaign,Zapata grabbed third andlost to Corpus Christi Mill-er in its playoff game.

The district title haseluded Zapata in Salinas’

career and this year he isaiming for the top prize in32-3A.

“We want to win a dis-trict title,” Salinas said. “Ihave experienced going tothe playoffs, but never adistrict championship.That would make a perfectending to my high schoolcareer.”

Salinas and the Hawksare also aiming to take astep to the second round inthe playoffs.

As the years have goneby, Salinas has matured in-to the quarterback Arce en-visioned when he saw Sali-nas play in middle school.

“I follow the kids sincethey are in middle schooland saw him develop as aquarterback,” Arce said.“He just has a lot of confi-dence and is very poisedout on the field.”

(Clara Sandoval can bereached at [email protected])

SALINAS Continued from Page 1B

IRVING — Jason Garrettwas groggy and grumpywhen he arrived at his Up-per West Side apartmentfollowing a cross-countryflight from Denver.

Sleep was hard to comeby as he thought about aseason-opening loss to theBroncos, a potentially seri-ous injury to a star receiv-er, and another injury thatwas likely to make Garrettthe holder on place kicks— for a left-footed kicker,no less, which would meancatching and placing theball on the opposite sidethan he was used to doing.

Drifting off became eventougher because a slew offire trucks were blaringtheir sirens as they spedthrough the streets below.He put a pillow over hishead to try muffling the

noise, but it was of littleuse.

Then came the interrup-tion he’ll never forget: acall from a former team-mate letting him know theWorld Trade Center wasburning.

Living just 5 miles fromground zero, Garrett —then a backup quarterbackon the New York Giants —vividly remembers everydetail of Sept. 11, 2001.

Memories of that dayand the months that fol-lowed have surged backthis week, and will againSunday when Garrett andthe Dallas Cowboys spendthe 10-year anniversary ofthe terrorist attacks inNew York. They’ll be play-ing the Jets in a prime-timeseason opener wrapped intributes to those who diedthat day and everyone elseaffected by the tragedy.

“It was a day like none

other for anybody in ourcountry,” Garrett said. “Be-ing there close to it, it wasan emotional day, and itwas one I certainly will

never forget.”The following days and

weeks were memorable,too, because of the recoveryefforts that brought the city

and nation closer together.For instance, Garrett re-calls so many people donat-ing blood that the bloodbanks said they had more

than enough.For Garrett and the Gi-

ants, their role in the re-covery began that week-end. NFL games were post-poned, so players went toground zero to hand outwater and show their ap-preciation for the workers.

He believes the Yankees’run to the World Seriesthat September and Octo-ber helped heal the com-munity.

“I just can’t describe toyou how emotional thatwhole thing was for somany people,” Garrett said.“It’s very different than thereal-life situations goingon. But hopefully in somesmall way the Giants, theYankees and the Jets, andall the teams that wereplaying at that time, gavethose people of that com-munity who were so affect-ed by this event an oppor-tunity to get away from it.”

Cowboys’ Garrett remembers 9/11By JAIME ARON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Aug. 11 file photo, Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett looks on during a preseason gameagainst the Denver Broncos in Arlington. On Sunday night, Sept. 2011, the Cowboys will be playing theNew York Jets in a prime-time season opener wrapped in tributes to those who died that day in 2001,and to everyone else affected by the tragedy.

Photo by Tony Gutierrez | AP

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

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

Dear Heloise: Since Icome into the office early, Iam often asked to put awaythe dishes. The other day, Iwas asked to PUT AWAYTHE GLASSES, turned allone way with the rims up.Our glasses are cone-shaped, and I had been al-ternating them to createbetter storage.

I have heard pros andcons on how to store glass-es. However, there havebeen complaints, so Ithought I would ask youradvice on which way theglasses should be placed inthe cabinet. — A Reader,via email

Everyone has an opin-ion! There are generallytwo types of glassware —those with stems and thosewithout. The biggest fac-tors to consider are whattype of glassware, how of-ten you use it (every day oronce in a while), and howdelicate it is.

For everyday drinkingglasses like you are talkingabout, alternating them,one up and one down, espe-cially if shaped like a“cone,” will save space.Some folks don’t like put-ting the “drinking” partdown because they don’tlike it touching the surfaceof the cabinet. Others don’tlike the drinking part upbecause of dust or otherfactors.

For wine and cham-pagne glasses with stems,or ones that are very old ordelicate, again, it’s yourcall. Some say NOT to storethem with the open enddown because it mightchip; others say rim up isNOT safe because it’s possi-ble to knock them togetherand cause a chip. In yourcase, I’d ask managementwhich way it wants theglassware stored. Readers?What’s your take? — He-loise

PET PALDear Readers: Polly B. in

Waterville, Maine, sent apicture of her four beauti-ful, elderly shelter cats,named Autumn, Wally, Hol-ly and Albert. She says thatthey are all different, butthey are all special. To seethis clowder (group) of cats,go to www.Heloise.com and

click on “Pets.” — Heloise

VINTAGE SUITCASESGreetings, Heloise: I

have found a great use forthe older-model hard-shellsuitcases without wheelsthat not too many of us liketo use for transportationanymore: They make excel-lent storage totes! Use themto store winter/summerclothing, blankets or foranything. Put a sachet in,and your items will befresh when needed (and itkeeps them out of landfills).— Deanne Autry, Alta Vis-ta, Kan.

EASY LEASHDear Heloise: I dog-sit

for my neighbor a couple oftimes a year. They have anenormous black Lab, whois sweet but doesn’t walkvery well on a leash. I havesolved the problem by tak-ing a nylon dog leash andlooping it around the dog’sneck. It doesn’t hurt her,and she doesn’t pull at allnow! — Karen in Texas

WASHING-MACHINEODOR

Dear Heloise: You print-ed remedies to combat“washing-machine odor” —here’s mine: Leave the lid/door to the machine openfor a few hours after thelast load. It will dry and airout naturally. — RobertaM., via email

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

Photo caption: Polly B. ofWaterville, Maine, sent inthese photos of her fourshelter cats. They are alldifferent, but they are allspecial.

HINTS BY | HELOISE

“HELOISE

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Sports SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

NEW YORK — When the NFLand players struck a deal to endthe league’s lockout, they didn’tjust save the football season thatbegins its first full day of gameson Sunday. They saved the mostprofitable sport in America, themost popular show on TV andbillions of dollars that wouldhave disappeared from the econo-my.

During the regular season, theNational Football League itselfexpects to take in about $9.5 bil-lion. The league estimates thatsponsorship revenue alone, whichis included in that figure, will beup 15 percent from last year.

But the impact of the 10-yearlabor agreement the leaguereached in July to end a four-mouth lockout reaches far be-yond the NFL’s big corporatesponsors, billionaire owners andmillionaire players. The leaguesupports about 110,000 jobs inNFL cities— not just tailbacksand punters but hotel workersand sports-bar owners. Overall,the games add about $5 billion tothe broader economy in NFL ci-ties, according to an analysis pre-pared for the NFL Players Associ-ation by Edgeworth Economics.

Here’s a look at some of the ec-onomic ripples:

AN NFL CITY ON GAME DAY: ‘INSANE’Downtown Cleveland is hop-

ping on weekends when theBrowns play at home. Fans of thehome team — and of the visitors,especially when the rival Pitts-burgh Steelers are in town —start packing hotels Saturdaynight. And the partying spillsover into city’s historic Ware-house District and bars near thestadium.

“Game days are insane,” saysAlice Burns, assistant managerand bartender at Bob Golic’sSports Bar & Grille, owned by aformer Browns star. “Last season,we opened at 7 a.m. and werecompletely packed by 9 or 10.”

Business at John Q’s Steak-house multiplies by five onBrowns’ game days, says ownerRick Cassara. “It means every-thing to us,” he says. “Everybodydowntown does well on a BrownsSunday.” When the Browns are

playing, he doubles his staff, put-ting an extra 12 to 15 servers, bar-tenders and cooks to work.

Positively Cleveland, whichpromotes tourism to the city, esti-mated four years ago that everyBrowns game brought $7.9 mil-lion in business to Cleveland —$63 million a year.

“No matter how the Brownsare doing,” says Tamera Brown,the group’s vice president of mar-keting, “they still sell out.”

The Browns’ appeal and eco-nomic clout extend far beyondOhio’s borders. Every game day,around 100 Browns fans descendon the Box Seat sports bar inHermitage, Tenn., outside Nash-ville.

“I usually bring my wife andtwo kids, and we spend around$20 to $30 on food,” says Kristoph-er Martel, 26, a software develop-

er in Murfreesboro, Tenn.AT METLIFE STADIUM: CONCESSION

WORKERS BACK IN BUSINESSAt Metlife Stadium in East

Rutherford, N.J. — the home ofthe Jets and the Giants that for-merly the New Meadowlands Sta-dium — 80 employees at the com-plex are full-time and guaranteeda paycheck.

The rest are event employeeswho had feared that, without foot-ball, they’d be out of work.

Tallying up parking attend-ants, security guards, ushers,ticket takers, janitors, merchan-dise sellers and concession work-ers, the stadium employs about4,000 people on any given NFLSunday, says Mark Lamping, thestadium’s CEO. Without footballgames in the fall and winter,those people don’t work, Lampingsays.

Concessions at the stadium aremanaged by a company called De-laware North, which has beenstuffing NFL fans full of hot dogsand beer for more than 45 yearsand has weathered player strikes.

Delaware North also does con-cessions for the Buffalo Bills, Chi-cago Bears, Cleveland Browns,Carolina Panthers and St. LouisRams. The company’s payroll forstaffing the six stadiums is $24million. Then there are the food,plate and cup suppliers whocount on Delaware North’s ordersto stay in business.

“Everyone was on pins andneedles,” says Rick Abramson,president of Delaware North’sSportservice unit, who startedhis career as a vendor at Milwau-kee County Stadium 40 years ago.“A missed season would be aproblem for a lot of people be-

cause they’re counting on thatmoney to make ends meet.”

While Jets wide receiver Santo-nio Holmes was angling for acontract that reportedly willguarantee him $50 million overfive years, veteran beer vendorswere hoping they wouldn’t losethe supplemental income theycount on six months out of theyear.

They take home about $150 pergame, plus tips and commission.

Overall, Delaware North takesin about $100 million per yearfrom food and drink sales at NFLevents.

The company also employsabout 30,000 seasonal workers.

“It’s a great thing that theywere able to resolve it,” says De-laware North owner Jerry JacobsJr. of the players’ agreement.“There was so much at stake.”

Economy welcomes back NFLBy ELLEN GIBSON AND PAUL WISEMAN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Sept. 8, file photo, Kid Rock performs during a kickoff concert before an NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints, in Green Bay,Wis. Football is the most profitable sport in America and the most popular show on TV. Sponsorship revenue is expected to rise 15 percent this year, to total about$9.5 billion, said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.

Photo by Mike Roemer | AP

the zapata times 9/10/2011

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