The Zapata Times 10/8/2011

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RUNNING FORWARDHAWKS KEEP EYES ON THE PRIZE, 1B

Zapata County Commissioners approved abudget for 2011-2012 during their Sept. 12meeting calling for revenues and expendi-tures of $17,571,432.

The commissioners also raised the tax ratetwo cents to $0.7987 per $100 valuation.

Prior to the Sept. 12 meeting, the court helda town hall to discuss cuts to various depart-

ments and theincrease in the net effective taxrate.

On Thursday, representatives from CountyJudge Joseph Rathmell’s office said the judgewould be unavailable for comment until nextweek. Last month, Rathmell told The ZapataTimes that a $4 million revenue shortfall andlower-than-expected mineral valuation neces-sitated the various departmental cuts and thetax increase.

“I asked all the department heads to sacri-

fice,” Rathmell said. Among the department cuts listed in the

approved budget on the Commissioners’Court website is the fire department. The dif-ference between the department’s 2011 and2012 budget expenditures is $86,993. Accordingto the department web site, it received 60 fire-related emergency calls as of June. Budgetedexpenditures for supplies and services desig-

COMMISSIONERS

Taxes get a boostShortfall, mineral valuations prompt cuts, tax hike

By MIKE HERRERA IVLAREDO MORNING TIMES

See COUNTY PAGE 7ALawyer and Laredo native

Marina Garcia Marmolejo wassworn in by Senior U.S. DistrictJudge George Kazen as thenewest federal judge for theSouthern Judicial District ofTexas on Wednesday afternoon.

Marmolejo followed lawyerDiana Saldaña as the secondLaredo federal court judge forthe Southern Judicial Districtof Texas sworn in this year.

Marmolejo was unanimous-ly confirmed by the U.S. Senatethis week.

Marmolejo, like Saldaña, re-ceived notable support fromSens. Kay Bailey Hutchisonand John Cornyn, both R-Tex-as, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

Marmolejo was initially rec-ommended by the Texas Demo-cratic delegation on May 13,2009, and nominated by Presi-dent Barack Obama on July 28,2010.

As for the extended confir-mation process, Marmolejomaintained that she is blessedto have been part of it.

“I have a lot of respect con-cerning the process,” Marmole-jo said.

With South Texas home tosome of the heaviest caseloads,Marmolejo’s presence comes ata time of judicial distress.

With a wealth of knowledgeof the federal judicial system,Marmolejo said she’s equippedand ready.

“I grew up in the federal sys-tem,” she said.

Straight out of law schooland before entering privatepractice, Marmolejo began herlegal career as an assistant fed-eral public defender, a job sheheld from 1996 to 1999.

For eight years after that,Marmolejo worked as an assist-ant U.S. attorney in the South-ern District of Texas.

Laredo’s newest federaljudge handled narcotics casesand public corruption investi-gations as assistant U.S. attor-ney.

She also has served as coun-sel for the firm Thompson &Knight LLP and, more recently,as a partner in the law firmReid Collins & Tsai LLP.

With experience spanning avariety of federal and statecriminal defense matters, Mar-molejo said she’s worked allsides of the bar.

“I have an understanding ofhow all sides work,” Marmole-jo said, attributing her successto hard work and dedication.

Texas has six federal judicialvacancies.

JUDICIARY

Lawyernow

federaljudge

By STEPHANIE IBARRA THE ZAPATA TIMES

BLESSING THE JUDICIARY

The Most Reverend James A. Tamayo, center, stands next to the altar servers as Tamayo conducts the 11th annual Red Mass on Tuesday evening at San Agustin Cathe-dral.

Photo by Daniel Zaragoza | The Zapata Times

Three Gulf Cartel memberswho operated primarily in Ta-maulipas, including Nuevo La-redo, were sentenced to severalyears in prison for their in-volvement in organized crime,states a report released Thurs-day by the Procuraduría Gener-al de la República or PGR, Mex-ico’s attorney general’s office.

Earlier in the week, a Mexi-

can federal judge issued an ar-rest warrant for 14 suspectedGulf Cartel associates who weredetained in Nuevo Laredo overthe summer, according to aPGR report.

Regarding the sentencing,the PGR’s special investigationdivision against organizedcrime, Subprocuraduría de In-vestigación Especializada enDelincuencia Organizada orSIEDO, obtained through a fed-eral district judge in Jalisco 30

years in prison for Gastón Mor-quecho Morales, known as“Melvin.” The PGR reportstates the man was found guiltyof involvement in organizedcrime in fomenting crimesagainst the health code.

Furthermore, Pedro Morque-cho Morales or José Mota,known as “Chore,” and HugoEnrique García Avilés weresentenced to 20 years for theirparticipation in organizedcrime. Mexican federal police

officers arrested all three menOct. 1, 2008, after authorities re-ceived an anonymous call re-porting the three men wouldmeet with other associates ofthe criminal organization.

Throughout the investiga-tion, authorities found out Gas-tón, Pedro and García Avilésbelonged to a “Cártel del Golfo(Gulf Cartel)” cell which oper-ated in Tamaulipas, according

WAR ON DRUGS

Three cartel members sent to prisonBy CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See CARTEL PAGE 8A

A Zin brief SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011

Saturday, Oct. 8The 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.

Sunday, Oct. 9The 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.

The Gateway Gatos of Laredoand St. Peter’s Church invite everyoneto bring their pets on a leash or har-ness or in a cage to be blessed from 3p.m. to 4 p.m. today at St. Peter’s Pla-za. All animals will be blessed. TheGateway Gatos will have cats availablefor adoption.

The Texas A&M International Uni-versity 2010-2011 Organ Recital Seriescontinues with organist Cherry Rhodesat 4 p.m. today in the Center for theFine and Performing Arts Recital Hall.The event is free and open to the pub-lic. For more information, call the de-partment for the fine and performingarts at 326-2654.

Tuesday, Oct. 11“Managing Cash — The Small

Business Owner’s Guide to FinancialControl Workshop in Zapata, Texas” isset for 9:30 a.m. through noon at theZapata County Courthouse, Suite 248.Fee for the seminar is $20. For moreinformationm, contact the TAMIU SmallBusiness Development Center.

The Greens of Guadalupe willhave its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. to-day in Room No. 1, Our Lady of Gua-dalupe Church, 1700 San FranciscoAve. The agenda will include forming acommittee and recruiting volunteers forthe Environmental Education Project;the pre-jamaica and jamaica day rum-mage sales; the Dia Del Rio event; andother items.

The Texas A&M International Uni-versity Office of Career Services pre-sents the 2011 Government and SocialServices Job Fair from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.today in the Student Center DownstairsRotunda. This event is free. Pleasedress business casual and bring copiesof your resume. As part of the fair, theTAMIU College of Arts and Scienceswill present “Protecting our AgriculturalAssets” from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.Panelists include members from theU.S. Department of Agriculture, Plant &Animal Health Inspection Services. Formore information, contact Laura Marti-nez at 326-4473, email [email protected] or visit http://www.ta-miu.edu/career/.

Wednesday, Oct. 12The Texas A&M International Uni-

versity A.R. Sanchez Jr. School of Busi-ness and the Center for the Study ofWestern Hemispheric Trade present theIBC Keynote Speaker Series featuringthe Jorge Fernando Quiroga, formerpresident of Bolivia. Quiroga will pre-sent “Latin America in the GlobalEconomy” from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. inthe TAMIU Student Center Ballroom,SC 203. The event is free and open tothe public. For more information, call326-2820.

Wednesday, Oct. 26The “Customer Service: A Key

to Business Success in Zapata, Texas”workshop will be held from 9:30 a.m,.through noon at the Zapata CountyCourthouse, Suite 248. Fee for theseminar is $20. Contact the TAMIUSmall Business Development Center formore information.

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


CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, Oct. 8,the 281st day of 2011. There are84 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On Oct. 8, 1871, the GreatChicago Fire erupted; fires al-so broke out in Peshtigo, Wis.,and in several communities inMichigan.

On this date:In 1869, the 14th president

of the United States, FranklinPierce (puhrs), died in Con-cord, N.H.

In 1918, U.S. Army Cpl. Al-vin C. York led an attack thatkilled 25 German soldiers andcaptured 132 others in the Ar-gonne Forest in France.

In 1934, Bruno Hauptmannwas indicted by a grand juryin New Jersey for murder inthe death of the son of CharlesA. Lindbergh.

In 1945, President Harry S.Truman announced that thesecret of the atomic bombwould be shared only withBritain and Canada.

In 1956, Don Larsen pitchedthe only perfect game in aWorld Series to date as theNew York Yankees beat theBrooklyn Dodgers in Game 5,2-0.

In 1957, the Brooklyn Base-ball Club announced it was ac-cepting an offer to move theDodgers from New York to LosAngeles.

In 1967, former BritishPrime Minister Clement At-tlee died in London at age 84.

In 1970, Soviet author Alex-ander Solzhenitsyn wasnamed winner of the NobelPrize for literature.

In 1981, at the White House,President Ronald Reagangreeted former PresidentsJimmy Carter, Gerald Fordand Richard Nixon, who werepreparing to travel to Egyptfor the funeral of Anwar Sa-dat.

In 1982, all labor organiza-tions in Poland, including Soli-darity, were banned.

Ten years ago: The UnitedStates pounded terrorist tar-gets in Afghanistan from theair for a second night. An SASairliner taking off from Milan,Italy, hit a private jet, careenedinto an airport building andexploded, killing 118 people.Seventeen Virginians werekilled when a dive boat cap-sized during a hurricane inBelize. American Leland H.Hartwell and Britons R. Tim-othy Hunt and Paul M. Nursewon the Nobel Prize in medi-cine. Radio talk show hostRush Limbaugh told listenershe had become virtually deaf(Limbaugh later had an elec-tronic device implanted in hisskull that restored much of hishearing).

Today’s Birthdays: Enter-tainment reporter Rona Bar-rett is 75. Actor Paul Hogan is72. Rhythm-and-blues singerFred Cash (The Impressions)is 71. Civil rights activist Rev.Jesse Jackson is 70. ComedianChevy Chase is 68. AuthorR.L. Stine is 68. Actress Si-gourney Weaver is 62. ActressStephanie Zimbalist is 55. Ac-tress Kim Wayans is 50. Gos-pel/rhythm-and-blues singerCeCe Winans is 47. Rock musi-cian C.J. Ramone (The Ra-mones) is 46. Actor-screenwrit-er Matt Damon is 41. Angus T.Jones is 18. Actress MollyQuinn is 18.

Thought for Today:“Don’t let yesterday use up toomuch of today.” — Will Rogers,American humorist (1879-1935).

TODAY IN HISTORY

AUSTIN — Hundreds of protesters took tothe streets in Dallas, Houston, Austin andSan Antonio on Thursday as cities acrossTexas joined the Occupy Wall Street demon-strations demanding an end to corruption inpolitics and business.

Upwards of 300 marchers worked theirway to the Federal Reserve Building in Dal-las, which police fortified with metal bar-riers. Houston police estimated that 200 peo-ple marched from the J.P. Morgan Chasebuilding to City Hall. In Austin, a crowdgathered outside City Hall and swelled toover 700, many waving signs things like,“End the Fed” and “Greed is evil. I am the 99percent.”

Nearly 100 protesters gathered in San An-tonio’s Travis Park and later marched past

the Alamo and toward the Federal ReserveBuilding.

Organizers are using social media to coor-dinate activities, and say they plan to occupythose locations for as long as possible.

There were no reports of arrests or majordisturbances, though Houston police steppedin after a crowd surrounded one counter-pro-tester. Justin Conry, owner of a carpet clean-ing business, was waving a sign that read,“Blame yourself not the bank. Hard workpays off.”

In Austin, police presence was heightenedbut the scene stayed calm

“I’m mad at the blame game going onright now,” cried Dave King, who told theAustin crowd he had been a public employeefor 23 years. “Blame public employees, blamethe poor. I blame the wealthy people. Ifyou’re jobs creators, where are the jobs?”

AROUND TEXAS

A protester takes part in an “Occupy Austin” protest on Thursday. Protests took place in Austin, Houston Dallas and San An-tonio.

Photo by Eric Gay | AP

Protests come to TexasBy WILL WEISSERTASSOCIATED PRESS

Outdoor watering bannedin some Texas cities

GEORGETOWN — Severe wa-ter restrictions have been issuedfor several Central Texas cities.

Round Rock and Georgetownbanned all outdoor watering.

That’s because of a problemwith a pipeline that allows theBrazos River Authority to oper-ate two reservoirs as one system.

Lake Georgetown and Still-house Hollow Lake were alreadylow because of the drought.

Officials say Lake Georgetownlevels will dropp if usage isn’t re-duced, because the pipeline willbe out of service for two weeks.

2 indicted in man’s fatalHouston-area shootingANGLETON — A Brazoria

County grand jury has indictedtwo men Thursday accused of fa-tally shooting their mother’s boy-friend in his Houston-area home.

Jared Levi Coleman and Tra-vis Wade Coleman were indictedon murder charges.

Americans slain in Mexicohad visited prison thereEL PASO — Mexican author-

ities say two U.S. citizens fatallyshot in Ciudad Juarez last weekhad just picked up a released in-mate at a prison when assailantsopened fire on their SUV.

Paulo Noe Williams and hismother, Rosa Williams, wereamong four who died Sept. 30.

The two were picking up 24-year-old Alberto Nieto Nieto.Nieto’s companion, 21-year-oldAlma Yesenia Flores, also died.

Woman facing new drunkdriving charges

HOUSTON — A Houston-areawoman is facing a drunken driv-ing charge two years after shewas convicted of intoxicationmanslaughter for an accidentthat killed her 4-year-old daugh-ter.

Elena Kay Fuentes of Springwas arrested Wednesday after al-legedly backing her car into an-other vehicle.

Pregnancy centers sueAustin over ordinanceAUSTIN — Four faith-based

centers that counsel women withunplanned pregnancies filed law-suits Thursday claiming Austin’ssign ordinance violates freedomof speech and religion.

The ordinance requires cen-ters to post signs at their en-trance stating they neither offernor refer clients to abortion orbirth control services.

The centers filed two federallawsuits to try to prevent the cityfrom enforcing the ordinance.Anti-abortion groups are sup-porting their efforts.

Southwest Airlines trafficrises in September

DALLAS — Southwest Air-lines Co. said Friday its numberof paying passengers increasedfaster than it expanded its capac-ity in September, making planesmore full in a traditionally weakmonth for air travel.

— Compiled from AP reports

Stocks turn down on jobs,Europe downgrades

A three-day rally on the stockmarket faded Friday after amixed jobs report and credit-rat-ing cuts for Italy and Spain.

The Dow Jones industrial av-erage rose in the morning, turn-ed lower at midday and staged abrief rally in the last hour. Thelatest day of choppy trading end-ed with a loss of 20 points in theDow, following a 468-point surgeover the previous three days.

AG Holder answers criticson gun-smuggling issueWASHINGTON — Attorney

General Eric Holder said Fridayhis testimony to Congress abouta gun-smuggling probe wastruthful and accurate and thatRepublicans are posturing whenthey say otherwise.

In his most forceful criticismof Republicans during his timeas attorney general, Holder said

he had said little so far about theprobe because the Justice De-partment is investigating it butthat he could not sit by while aRepublican congressman sug-gested government employees beconsidered accessories to mur-der.

Key Republicans say the attor-ney general knew many monthsearlier than he has admitted thatthe gun-smuggling probe in-volved agents letting guns passfrom small-time straw purchas-ers to arms traffickers.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee speaks at the InterchurchCenter on Friday in New York. Gbowee confronted armed forces in Liberia to de-mand that they stop using rape as a weapon.

Photo by Louis Lanzano | AP

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011 Zlocal PAGE 3A

ASSAULTAn assault family violence

incident was reported at 10:32a.m. Oct. 2 near West 23rd Avenueand Elm Street.

Jose Guadalupe Moreno wasarrested and charged with assaultat about 3 a.m. Monday in the1100 block of Carla Street. A Zapa-ta sheriff’s incident report statesMoreno assaulted his spouse andthen followed her to her aunt’shouse and stole her purse, whichcontained personal documents. Theman was taken to the Zapata Re-gional Jail.

Deputies responded to anassault call at 6:09 p.m. Tuesdayat Zapata High School. The com-plainant stated that a student as-saulted her.

BURGLARYA burglary of a residence

was reported at 1:15 p.m. Mondayin the 5200 block of Siesta Lane.

A burglary was reported at2:26 p.m. Monday at Riojas TireCenter, off U.S. 83.

DISORDERLY CONDUCTA disorderly conduct inci-

dent was reported at 3:45 p.m.Thursday at Zapata Middle School.A woman reported that an individ-ual had a graphic photo of hergenitalia and was showing it to herpeers.

DUIIris Irasema Alaniz was ar-

rested and charged with drivingunder the influence just before

midnight on Sept. 30 near SeventhStreet and Ramireño Avenue. Thewoman was taken to the ZapataCounty Jail.

HIT AND RUNA woman told deputies at

5:15 p.m. Oct. 1 that an orangeGMC struck her vehicle along Gon-zalez Street in the Nicholson Addi-tion and sped away.

A hit-and-run incident wasreported at 4:43 p.m. Monday nearSeventh Street and Ramireño Ave-nue.

NO PASSING ZONEAfter a traffic stop, Gonzalo

Tadeo Garza was arrested andcharged with passing in a no passzone (school bus) at about 8 a.m.Tuesday near Seventh Street andU.S. 83. The man was taken to theZapata Regional Jail.

POSSESSIONMichael Alexis Gonzalez was

arrested and charged with posses-sion of a controlled substance atabout 2:30 a.m. Oct. 2 near 11thAvenue and Glenn Street. The manwas taken to the Zapata RegionalJail.

Juan Domingo Gutierrez IIIwas arrested and charged withpossession of drug paraphernalia

and public intoxication at about 1a.m. Monday near the intersectionof Carla Street and West 12th Ave-nue. The man was taken to the Za-pata Regional Jail.

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONRomeo Sanchez was arrest-

ed and charged with public intoxi-cation at about 5 a.m. Oct. 1 nearSeventh Street and Ramireño Ave-nue in the Medina Addition. An in-cident report states the man wasarrested “because he was a dangerto himself and/or others.” He wastaken to the Zapata Regional Jail.

RECKLESS DRIVINGHomero Resendez was ar-

rested and charged with recklessdriving at about 8:45 p.m. Oct. 1near the intersection of SeventhStreet and Zapata Boulevard. Theman was taken to the Zapata Re-gional Jail.

THEFTA woman called deputies at

8:22 a.m. Tuesday from the 5100block of Laredo Lane to report thatsomeone stole her vehicle.

Deputies responded to atheft call at 2:38 p.m. Tuesday atthe Zapata County public boatramp. The complainant stated thatsomeone stole a fish finder.

THE BLOTTER CELEBRATING HISPANIC HERITAGE

Courtesy photo

At Fidel & Andrea R. Villarreal Elementary the students celebrated Hispanic heritage with various ac-tivities. The students in Mario Juarez’s pre-kinder class constructed piñatas and discussed how andwhen piñatas are used in different celebrations.

A Zopinion SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011

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

For many Ameri-cans, the years2001-2010 were the

roughest decade in mem-ory. Our nation enduredterrorism and war, tem-porary boom and lastingbust. Too many havebeen left feeling power-less in the recession’sdismal aftermath.

By one measure,though, Americans havebecome much more pow-erful. One of the nation’scorporate chief execu-tives — a group sufferingfrom a serious imageproblem these days —did more than anyone totransform our lives withthe power of computers.

Gadgets galoreWith iPods in 2001,

iPhones in 2007 andiPads in 2010, he madethe hard years of the re-cent past easier, moreproductive, more beauti-ful to behold.

Thanks, Steve. Weneeded that.

History will rememberSteve Jobs as an innova-tor, fortune builder andtechnology genius. Hislegacy holds an impor-tant lesson for dealingwith economic adversitytoday.

Jobs was, in hiswords, “a very publicfailure.” In 1985, he gotkicked out of the compa-ny he co-founded, AppleInc.

The focus of his adultlife disappeared. He awk-wardly apologized to peo-ple he thought he had letdown. He felt rejected.He didn’t know what todo next.

Starting againThose same hopeless

feelings probably soundfamiliar to the millionstargeted in brutal layoffsover the last four years.

Like so many otherstoday, Jobs started over.

In the 10 years that fol-lowed, he kept innovat-ing, making somethingfrom nothing, and not al-ways succeeding. He un-veiled the $6,500 NeXTpersonal computer,which didn’t sell.Through his Pixar ani-mation studios, he alsogave us Woody and Buzzfrom the beloved film“Toy Story,” which soldtickets by the millions.

Everybody fails. It’swhat comes next thatcounts.

Big comebackJobs wormed his way

back into Apple, first asan adviser, then as inter-im chief executive, thenby dropping the “inter-im.” What followed mustbe among the greatestcomebacks in business.

He proved himself tobe the Thomas Edison ofour age: prickly, yes, butadept at combining tech-nology and business tochange peoples’ lives.

Edison has the moreimpressive portfolio —you can get by withoutyour iPod more easilythan you can withoutlightbulbs. No, really,

you can.But Jobs has the more

impressive following.

EmotionsFor many people who

heard the news of Jobs’death, there was an im-mediate lurch of sadness.

On the sidewalk be-side the Apple Storealong Chicago’s NorthMichigan Avenue, Jobs’fans on Thursday creat-ed a shrine to his mem-ory. They left flowers, litcandles and placed freshapples on the concrete.The same spontaneoustributes occurred at Ap-ple Stores in London, Pa-ris, Tokyo and elsewherearound the world.

Fans react“I promise to always

take the next big step,”said one message left forJobs in Chicago.

“Let’s go invent tomor-row,” said another, invok-ing a Jobs quote.

One scribbled post-itasked if the iPhone’sGPS could be used to lo-cate its originator inheaven. Definitely aquestion for the store’sGenius Bar.

Facebook and Twitterlit up with people remi-niscing about their firstiPod or Macintosh.

Using a Mac“Before I could walk, I

was playing and learningon an Apple computer,”one fan began.

“It’s strange, realizinghow much someone younever knew changedyour life,” another wrote.“Of course I’m typingthis on my beloved Mac-Book Pro.”

Author Martin Lind-strom wrote in a recentNew York Times op-edthat brain scans of peo-ple reacting to a vibrat-ing iPhone showed they“responded to the soundof their phones as theywould respond to thepresence or proximity ofa girlfriend, boyfriend orfamily member. In short,the subject didn’t demon-strate the classic brain-based signs of addiction.Instead, they loved theiriPhones.”

Reaching outIn 2005, Jobs gave the

commencement speechat Stanford Universitythat makes his most fit-ting eulogy. Even thoughhe told the graduatingstudents that his cancerhad been cured, heshared his thoughtsabout facing death sincehis diagnosis about ayear earlier. Thinkingabout death every dayhelped him overcome thenatural fear of failure, hetold them.

‘70s idealsDrawing on his 1970s

California hippie roots,Jobs invoked The WholeEarth Catalog, a hodge-podge of photos, articlesand neat ideas — “one ofthe bibles of my genera-tion,” as Jobs put it. Heremembered its slogan:“Stay hungry. Stay fool-ish.” As Jobs said, “Ihave always wished thatfor myself. And now, asyou graduate to beginanew, I wish that foryou.”

Stay hungry. Stay fool-ish.

COLUMN

Jobs’s deathprompts

strong outcryApple’s founder

transformedsociety with the

power ofcomputers

MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

OTHER VIEWS

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

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

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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

AUSTIN — Did ourFounding Fathers,while doing their

fatherly founding, look assilly as some of the Occu-py Austin folks who sort ofoccupied Austin on Thurs-day as the anti-corporategreed movement came totown?

Most movements likethis wind up founderinginstead of founding. Butlet’s nod to the slimchance that this really isthe start of a Whole NewWay.

‘Sparkle fingers’With that in mind, I par-

ticipated in the Wednesdaynight “general assembly”that preceded Thursday’sOccupy Austin rally. Ac-tually, as a human beingwho showed up, I was eli-gible to participate in thegeneral assembly, butdidn’t because I’m far toodignified to do “sparklefingers” in public. We’llget back to that.

There were about 150 ofus on hand outside CityHall. That number wouldbe less than the number oftattoos on hand, and otherparts. (Surefire career ad-vice: Only job with a guar-anteed future is tattoo re-moval, which will boom inconjunction with tattoo re-morse.)

The general assembly,according to Occupy, is

“where people who al-ready have ideas that arefully formed” can seekconsensus among whoevershows up willing to dosparkle fingers. There’s noleader, but there’s a “vibechecker” (“someone whomakes sure everyone iscool,” we were told) and fa-cilitators.

Hand signsAs we began, in the

name of diversity, a facili-tator said this: “Any fe-males in the audience thatwould like to be co-facilita-tors?” Add that to your BigBook of Pickup Lines.

The whole thing runson hand signals.

To signal approval, holdyour hands up and wiggleyour fingers. In the lexi-con of the revolution, it’scalled sparkle fingers.There also are signals for”clarifying questions” andother actions. (This is ex-plained on another videoat statesman.com.)

With that out of the way,we moved to announce-ments. Virginia of the holi-stic health committeepromised a map of publicrestrooms.

Football referee?Big-time sparkle fingers

for that one, though Ithink I saw one guy signal-ing encroachment andstepping off the five-yardpenalty. He may have been

at the wrong meeting.Courtney, handling

child care, told folks to fillout the form telling her“who can we give yourchildren to” if you’re ar-rested.

Moments later, crisis, asStuart said that facilita-tors, in the harsh glare oflights, couldn’t see thehand signals. But folkssparkle-fingered supportfor the lights and wemoved to discussion ofwhat should be discussed.

Then we discussed howmany things should be dis-cussed. Then we discussedhow we should vote afterthe discussion about whatshould be discussed. Thislooked almost as ridicu-lous as a routine day inthe Texas House.

Talking and talking“Why don’t we just talk

about everything?” some-body yelled. So we did,though Isaac noted, “Mostpeople are not respond-ing.” Hey, just like in thereal world. Suggested dis-cussion topics included“Can we do a singalong,maybe like some folksysongs?”

I know it sounds likeI’m chiding the partici-pants. I am, but not in abad way. This was mostlyyoung people, save for Les,an older guy who parlayeda fondness for talking intoinfluence. I’m encouragedwhenever I see young peo-ple doing anything other

than skateboarding(though some of thesefolks had their boardswith them).

But I also thought thewhole thing might bemeshugas. If you learnjust one Yiddish word to-day, please let it be meshu-gas (pronounced by mylate grandmother, in herscathing 1964 one-word re-view of the Beatles, asmish-i-GOSS, kind of likeMichigan but with goss,instead of gan, at the end).

Is it nonsense?Meshugas, in general,

means madness, nonsense.But, history tells us, to-day’s meshugas can be to-morrow’s norm. It wasmeshugas when theWright boys said theywere building a flying ma-chine. It ceased beingmeshugas at Kitty Hawk.

Is the Occupy move-ment meshugas? Statisti-cally, stuff like this gener-ally is. Howard Dean’spresidential campaign nev-er transcended meshugas.We await a ruling on RickPerry’s.

But we must also re-member that until it reallygot rolling, the FoundingFathers’ deal probablyseemed like meshugas.Good luck, folks. Occupyin good health.

(Ken Herman is an edi-torial writer for the AustinAmerican-Statesman.Email: [email protected].)

COLUMN

Are protests real or for showBy KEN HERMAN

COX NEWSPAPERS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011 Zentertainment PAGE 5A

It started as a fundraiser.Now, kicking off its seventhinstallment Saturday, TA-MIU’s Autmus Fest hasfixed itself as a fall commu-nity tradition. For CandyHein, it began long beforethe Maroon Mob startedrocking out in 2005.

Back then Hein, who isTAMIU’s vice president forinstitutional advancement,approached the universityalumni association with anew venture. Seeing the as-sociation put on a series ofsmaller fundraisers andhearing them ask for some-thing big, Hein thoughtback to 1981.

“I was at LSU (LaredoState University) then, andDr. Billy Cowart was presi-dent. He was also presidentof the Laredo Arts Commis-sion. He and his staff beganBorder Fest,” says Hein.

Part salute to border her-itage, part outdoor concert,Border Fest evolved into thefamous Jalapeño Festival. Itwas a very different vibethan what Autmus attemptsnow, says Hein, but the im-petus, the desire to bringthe community together forcommon cause and fun, re-mains the same.

“We decided to bringback the past to an extent,”says Hein about those firstmeetings between her officeand the alumni association.“And it just took off.”

From that point, theevent grew and garneredmore attention beyond TA-MIU’s deer-filled grounds. In2009 the participation of mu-sical acts such as The Toa-dies and Motley Crue’sVince Neil lured VH1 Clas-

sics to record parts of theevent. Last year presented achallenge in the form of avery public dispute betweenthe association and ServingChildren and Adolescents inNeed, Inc., over the issue ofalcohol at Autmus, but asso-ciation Treasurer and EventChair Elsy Borgstedte saysit’s all in the past.

“I think highly of SCAN,”she says. “That’s all in thepast. There is alcohol thisyear, but of course all pre-cautions and securities aretaken.”

Most exciting for Borg-stedte is the fact that top-40radio favorite Fuel is head-lining.

“We’re one of the firstplaces in the countrythey’re starting their tour,”she says. “They are a verywell-known act and will per-form some of their best-known songs at Autmus.”

Borgstedte thinks attend-ees will be impressed byAustin’s Alpha Rev, a bandshe’s personally seen in con-cert.

“They bring somethingnew to the table. They com-bine classical with rock,”she says, adding that localmusicians, as is an Autmustradition, will open theshow.

While the bands promiseto bring the music, thewrestlers will bring thepain.

Having already earned areputation for its knock-down-drag-out performanc-es in Laredo and Zapata, theLaredo Wrestling Alliancewill hit the squared circle,an Autmus first. These localgrapplers will not just puton a few matches, but anentire 11-match card, ac-cording to the promotion’s

founder, Rey Chavarria.ESPN radio’s Bryan Ben-way will wrestle as well.

As exciting as the actsare, for Borgstedte, the last-ing impact of Autmus is inits original mission: raisingscholarships for TAMIU stu-dents.

“It can be the differencebetween taking classes ornot,” she says. “Being ascholarship recipient myselfwhen I was at TAMIU, I un-derstand how much of alife-changing opportunity itcan be.”

With student-directededucational funding bearingthe brunt of austere budgetcuts, scholarships have be-come more important thanever, says Hein.

“Now that the state andfederal governments havecut funding, outside sourcesof scholarships are moreimportant,” she says.

Hein says the universitynearly dropped 268 studentswho had trouble paying tui-tion on time. They wereable to help the studentsfind alternatives such asemergency loans, most ofwhich came from moneyraised by the alumni associ-ation.

“Last year, they (alumni)gave away $5,000 in scholar-ships. Much of that wasraised by Autmus,” shesays. “We hope people comeout this year to supporttheir university.”

Autmus starts at 5 p.m. atthe TAMIU grounds. Presaletickets are $10 and availablea TAMIU’s bookstore andStarbuck’s as well as Dan-ny’s Restaurants. Tickets atthe gate will be $18 and VIPtickets are $100. For moreinformation, visit www.aut-musfest.com.

Top-40radio fa-

voriteFuel is

headlin-ing to-

day’sAutmusFest at

TexasA&M In-

terna-tional

Universi-ty.

Courtesy pohto

Autmus Fest hits 7th yearBy MIKE HERRERA IV

THE ZAPATA TIMES

The fourth annual FireFest looks to set the Lare-do Energy Arena groundsablaze Saturday from 4p.m. to midnight andevent organizer DavidGonzalez expects it to getwhite hot.

“We’re bringing in sur-prises to the visual aspectof it,” said Gonzalez, pres-ident of the Laredo Fire-fighters’ Association. “Wewant to throw somethinglike an American rockconcert atmosphere, but alittle more interactive. Wewant an atmospherewhere people know theyare going to enjoy them-selves.”

Gonzalez watched theevent grow from its incep-tion at Laredo Park andRide. Then, it moved to aslightly larger venue: thedusty grounds of LaredoInternational Fair andExposition. More peopleshowed up. This led Gon-zalez and his fellow orga-nizers to seek the LEAgrounds. All the while,Gonzalez felt the eventfulfilled its original mis-sion.

“We wanted to contrib-ute something to Laredo.We thought Laredo coulduse more events likethis,” he said, adding thatthe initiative involves ac-tive and retired firefight-ers.

“Now that more peopleknow about it, we evenget people not connectedto the fire department atall coming to volunteer,”he said.

The concert features anarray of Mexican regionalartists, including Duelo.Founded by singer-song-writer Oscar Ivan Trevi-ño when he began playingwith Dimas Lopez, an ac-cordionist, Duelo’s album“El Amor No Acaba”earned praise for its lyri-cal poetry. This is Duelo’s

second appearance at FireFest and music enthusiastswill likely note Lopez’sskilled handling of his ac-cordion, an instrument en-demic to the Mexican norte-ño sound.

Other performers includeSonora Dinamita, La Firma,La Leyenda, and, openingthe show, Laredo’s own Inal-cansable.

“We’ve been the only lo-cal band for three years,”said Joel Johnson, bajo sex-ton player and vocalist forInalcansable. “It’s beengreat. As always, we’re go-ing to bring energy, joy. Wehave a slogan. We want fanscon la mano arriba (withhand in the air).”

“What you don’t seeenough of,” Gonzalez said,“is an event of Mexican re-gional music like this onewhere the families can hangout for the rest of the day.”

In fact, fans of norteñocan expect a music festivalatmosphere.

“Bring lawn chairs. Bringcanopies,” he said.

Aside from music, FireFest offers food, games anda test of cooking skill. Self-proclaimed barbeque ex-perts get to test their mettlein a rib cook-off that allowsvisitors to sample the differ-ent teams’ ribs and vote forthe best. Children can jump

around a moonwalk, as wellas enjoy an assortment ofrides Gonzalez said are free.

Money raised with FireFest not only helps the FireFighters’ Association fulfillits union functions, butsome of it goes to a generalfund to help fire victims.When 15 families were leftwithout a place to sleep bythe Laredo Motor Inn firelast month, the associationhelped get them temporaryshelter.

This kind of servicemakes it possible fills re-tired firefighter Felipe To-var with pride.

“This is what we taughtthe young ones,” said Tovar,retired after 24 years as afirefighter. “We taught themto go above and beyond tohelp those in need.”

Now a private citizen, To-var feels he can count onthe youth of the fire serviceif he ever needs them.

“Now, I’m on the otherside; I could be in need. Itrust them,” he said.

That harsh reality of afirefighter’s life, meeting thecommunity in times of trou-ble, also forms the impetusfor Fire Fest, according toGonzalez.

“We meet people at criti-cal moments,” he said.“Now we want to see peoplesmile.”

Fire Fest stars at LEABy MIKE HERRERA IV

THE ZAPATA TIMES

SÁBADO 8 DE OCTUBRELAREDO — Laredo Fi-

reFest presenta al grupoDuelo, El Poder Del Norte,La Sonora Dinamita, La Fir-ma, La Leyenda, e Inalcansa-ble en Laredo Energy Arena,a las 4 p.m. Costo: 20 dóla-res.

LAREDO — La Bandade Rock “Fuel” se presentaen AutMus Fest de TAMIU.Se presenta también: AlphaReva de Austin, y las bandaslocales Erebus, La Mata, So-mewhere in Between, BrokenVision, y Umano Aché. Es-pectáculo a las 5 p.m. Habrárefrigerios, juegos y activida-des infantiles. Donación: 10dólares en pre-venta o a 18dólares el día del evento. Ni-ños de 12 años y menoresentran gratis. Más informa-ción en http://www.autmus-fest.com/

LAREDO — Knights ofColumbus invita al BailaAnual para Becas, con músi-ca del Grupo Premier de losDos Laredos, a partir de las9 p.m. en el Laredo CivicCenter Ballroom. Costo: 15dólares por persona. Reserveen el 206-1098, 728-1040 y635-9650.

NUEVO LAREDO, Méxi-co — FIT 2011 presenta:“Rock en Movimiento” conRojo Vil, Nemulov, Arritmiaalas 7 p.m. en la ExplanadaEsteban Baca Calderón.Evento gratuito.

SAN ANTONIO — Ci-nema presenta: “El Bolerode Raquel” (1957) dirigidapor Miguel Delgado, a las 5p.m. en el Autorio del Insti-tuto Cultural de México, 600Hemisfair Park. Evento gra-tuito pero se sugiere reser-var al (210) 227 0123.

DOMINGO 9 DE OCTUBRELAREDO — Webb

County Heritage Foundationinvita a disfrutar la exhibi-ción “Haunted Heritage –Myths and Legends of Lare-do” en Villa Antigua BorderHeritage Museum, 810 Zara-goza St. El horario es demartes a sábado de 1 p.m. a9 p.m. Costo: 5 dólares.

LAREDO — GatewayGatos de Laredo y St. Pe-ter’s Church invitan a labendición de mascotas, de 3p.m. a 4 p.m. en St. Peter’sPlaza. Favor de llevar a sumascota con arnés o en jau-la.

LAREDO — La Seriede Recitales de Órgano deTAMIU presenta a CherryRhodes a las 4 p.m. Centerfor the Fine and PerformingArts Recital Hall. El eventoes gratuito.

NUEVO LAREDO, Méxi-co — Grupo de Teatro Expre-sión invita a la bra “Mi Viu-da Ya no me Llora” a las 7p.m. en el Teatro Lucio Blan-co de la Casa de la Cultura.Evento gratuito.

LUNES 10 DE OCTUBRELAREDO — Hoy inicia

la exhibición “Texas TechUniversity Graduate StudentShow” en la Galería del Cen-ter for the Fine and Perfor-ming Arts de TAMIU, de lu-nes a jueves, de 12 p.m. a 5p.m. Evento gratuito.

MIÉRCOLES 12 DE OCTUBRELAREDO — “Miscelá-

nea” de Olivia Cotton sepresenta hoy en Caffe Dolce,1708 Victoria. Habrá ventade camisetas, dibujos, tarje-tas, ilustraciones. Música acargo de Robek.

SÁBADO 15 DE OCTUBRELAREDO — El primer

evento “Shoot for the Cure”de Healthy Woman será apartir de las 8 a.m. en elSouth Texas Shooting Com-plex, ubicada a 9 millas delcrucero de Hwy 359 y Loop20. Costo por persona es de150 dólares. Las gananciasse destinarán a agencias sinfines de lucro en la luchacontra el cáncer. Más infor-mación en 796-2222.

Agendaen Breve

PÁGINA 6A Zfrontera SÁBADO 8 DE OCTUBRE DE 2011

Con el objetivo de revisarlicencias y normas de fun-cionamiento, 11 casinos ub-icados en siete municipiosde Tamaulipas fueronclausurados el miércolespor la Secretaría de Gober-nación (Segob), EjércitoMexicano y Secretaría deMarina.

Su reapertura será enbase de la verificación delcumplimiento de la ley.

En Nuevo Laredo, Méxi-co, vehículos del Ejército seubicaron en el Casino“Amazonas” ubicado porAvenida Reforma, casi es-quina con Pedro Pérez Ibar-ra. El jueves el “Amazonas”ya no estaba operando, perootro conocido casino llama-do “El Juega-Juega” sí esta-ba operando.

Una empleada de “ElJuega-Juega” dijo vía tele-fónica que estaban abiertosal público.

“Sí pueden venir a diver-tirse”, dijo la mujer.

El reporte federal indica-ba el cierre de casinos enNuevo Laredo, Reynosa,Matamoros, Miguel Ale-mán, Tampico, Ciudad Vic-toria y Ciudad Mante.

Una trabajadora en elHotel Camino Real, casi encontra esquina de el “Ama-zonas” dijo que en algúnmomento sintieron temorde que hubiera una nuevaexplosión.

En septiembre, una gra-nada explotó en el Casino“Amazonas” dejando comosaldo dos personas muertas.

Acerca del cierre de casi-nos, ni el Gobierno de Ta-maulipas o la ProcuraduríaGeneral de la República em-itieron comunicado oficial.

En las últimas semanas,la Segob ha sido cuestiona-da por el Congreso Legisla-tivo acerca del funciona-miento de 501 casinos, estotras el ataque ocurrido alCasino Royale, en Monter-rey, México, donde murie-ron más de 50 personas.

“A nombre de los parla-mentarios se ha solicitado ala Secretaría de Goberna-ción cerrar negocios queoperen como casinos”, dijo

la Presidenta del Grupo deTrabajo Especializado en laVigilancia y Cumplimientodel Reglamento de la LeyFederal de Juegos y Sorte-os, Lizbeth García Corona-do. “Se debe revisar uno auno (y) solamente si existencondiciones legales se lespermita abrir”.

Hasta el cierre de estaedición, la Secretaría de Go-bernación no había dado aconocer el resultado delcierre de casinos en Tamau-lipas.

Con este movimiento, losLegisladores esperan conoc-er quienes están y no autor-

izados para operar como ca-sinos, además de identificara los propietarios, conocerlos nombres de los funcio-narios que otorgaron lospermisos, así como reconoc-er el nivel de responsabili-dad de los municipios paraautorizar su instalación.

La ley que regula la in-dustria de los juegos y sor-teos en México data de 1947,según la Segob, pero la mis-ma se encuentra en procesode depuración y regulariza-ción.

Segob ha detectado casi-nos que operan sin permi-so, siendo que en lo que vade este sexenio no se ha ex-pedido ningún permiso ofi-cial de apertura. Aunquelos dueños de tales lugaresbuscan defenderse ante tri-bunales, Segob aplica in-specciones, suspensiones yclausuras.

(Localice a Miguel Tim-oshenkov en el (956) 728-2583o en [email protected])

SEGOB REVISA NEGOCIOS DE ESTE RAMO EN TAMAULIPAS

Clausuran once casinosPOR MIGUEL TIMOSHENKOV

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA “Se debe revisar uno a uno (y) solamente si existencondiciones legales se les permita abrir”.LIZBETH GARCÍA CORONADO, PRESIDENTA DEL GRUPO DE TRABAJO ESPECIALIZADO EN LAVIGILANCIA Y CUMPLIMIENTO DEL REGLAMENTO DE LA LEY FEDERAL DE JUEGOS Y SORTEOS

A fin de hacer realidad proyectos de agua ysaneamiento en algunas ciudades de la fronteranorte de Tamaulipas, el Gobierno del Estadoreafirmó la coordinación con la Comisión deCooperación Ecológica Fronteriza (COCEF).

Los proyectos, que ascienden a una inver-sión de 99.54 millones de dólares, serán apoya-dos con recursos del Fondo de InfraestructuraAmbiental de la Frontera de la Agencia de Pro-tección Ambiental de Estados Unidos (EPA porsus siglas en inglés) y administrados por elBanco de Desarrollo de América del Norte(NADBANK), durante los siguientes años.

Los 9 proyectos de agua y saneamiento quese contemplan son:

Reynosa: Ampliación de la planta de trata-miento de aguas residuales dos y la construc-ción de una estación de bombeo de aguas resid-uales.

Nuevo Laredo: Separación de colector plu-vial de red de drenaje sanitario.

Camargo: Ampliación de la red de alcanta-rillado.

Matamoros: Planta de tratamiento de aguasresiduales en la zona oeste, construcción delsistema de conducción de aguas residuales, in-troducción de drenaje en zonas sin servicio.

Río Bravo: Agua potable y alcantarillado.El Gobernador de Tamaulipas, Egidio Torre

Cantú, se reunió con la titular de la COCEF,María Elena Giner y con los Secretarios deObras Públicas, Manuel Rodríguez y de Desar-rollo Urbano y Medio Ambiente, Homero de laGarza Tamez.

“Esta es la primera vez que un Estado mex-icano fronterizo, de los cuatro cubiertos por laRegión 6 de la EPA (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Ta-maulipas y Nuevo León), es beneficiado coneste programa en su totalidad”, indica un co-municado de prensa del Gobierno del Estado.

Por otra parte, Giner informó que Tamauli-pas recibirá apoyo para desarrollar el Progra-ma Estatal de Acción Climática con fondos deeste organismo, el BIDy Tamaulipas.

Actualmente la COCEF tiene en cartera 14proyectos con un costo estimado de 154 mil-lones de dólares, que incluyen proyectos deagua y saneamiento en Miguel Alemán, Mata-moros, Reynosa y Río Bravo, así como unproyecto de parque eólico de 54 megavatios en“El Porvenir”.

DESARROLLO

Apoyaránnueve obras

de agua ysaneamiento

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Ciudad Mier, Tamauli-pas, se encuentra lista paracelebrar el 22 y 23 de oc-tubre el Primer Torneo dePesca “Copa GobernadorEgidio Torre Cantú: Haciala reconstrucción del tejidosocial”, con premios enefectivo que totalizarán76.000 pesos.

El evento se realizará en

la presa “Las Blancas” delmunicipio de Mier, con laintención de capturar lobi-na negra o róbalo, con unamedica mínima de 35 cm.del hocico hasta la cola.

El horario del evento se-rá el sábado 22 de 8 a.m. a 4p.m. y el domingo 23 de 8a.m. a 1 p.m.

“La participación seráindividual y ganará aquelparticipante que presentela lobina de mayor peso”,

aclara la convocatoria. “Ca-da participante podrá reg-istrara varias lobinas perosolo se le considerará lamás pesada y tendrá dere-cho solo a un premio”.

Otros detalles que los in-teresados deben considerarson: uso de chaleco salvavi-das, contar con el permisode pesca deportiva, se po-drá utilizar solamente cañay carrete.

Para inscribirse previo

al evento, puede comuni-carse al Sistema DIF en Ci-udad Mier al (897) 973-0070o (897) 973-0071, extensión 6,donde se informará el costopara participar en el tor-neo y la cuenta de bancodonde depositar su inscrip-ción.

Los premios serán:primer lugar, 1.800 pesos;segundo lugar, 1.500 pesos;tercer lugar, 1.200 pesos;cuarto lugar, 1.000 pesos; y,

quinto lugar, 500 pesos. Ha-brá un premio a golón de5.000 pesos (solamente paracategoría a pie y embarca-ción).

El viernes 21 de octubrehabrá rompehielos a partirde las 7 p.m. en el CasinoArgüelles, y se continuarácon la inscripción.

Para mayor informaciónpueden enviar correo elec-trónico a [email protected].

CIUDAD MIER

Habrá torneo de pesca 22 y 23 de octubrePOR MELVA LAVÍN-CASTILLO

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Elementos del Ejército Mexicano con-fiscaron cuatro toneladas de mari-huana en el poblado Rancherías, del

municipio de Miguel Alemán, en dos incur-siones por separado.

En el primer incidente, la droga fue lo-calizada oculta en fosas “disfrazadas”, indi-ca el reporte. Cuando soldados realizabanun operativo de reconocimiento, percibie-ron el olor a marihuana originándose enuna casa aparentemente abandonada perocon puertas y ventanas abiertas.

Tras una inspección, se localizó ocultadebajo de una estufa, una fosa subterránea

donde se encontraron 560 paquetes que con-tenían tres toneladas de marihuana.

Ningún sospechoso fue arrestado.El reporte de las autoridades indica que

de haberse utilizado la droga, se hubieranconfeccionado un millón 483 mil 500 dosis,que al venderse al consumidor al menudeohabrían redituado ganancias por 148 mil-lones 350 mil pesos.

Mismo sitioEn un segundo caso, se informó que el 27

de septiembre personal del Ejército localizóen una fosa subterránea 123 paquetes conun peso de 1 tonelada 163 kilos de marihua-na.

La droga también se ocultaba en una vi-vienda abandonada.

FRONTERA

En operativo de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, soldados ubicaron una fosa subterránea debajo de unaestufa en un domicilio del poblado Rancherías de Miguel Alemán. Confiscaron 3 toneladas de marihuana.

Foto de cortesía | Sedena

OPERATIVO MILITAREN MIGUEL ALEMÁN

Ubican más de 4 toneladas demarihuana en dos acciones

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

LAS VEGAS — An ac-tive-duty Navy SEAL wasfound guilty Friday in Ne-vada on 13 federal chargesalleging he headed ascheme to sell machineguns, explosives and mili-tary hardware from Iraqand Afghanistan in theUnited States.

Petty Officer NicholasBickle stood straight in uni-form while the verdict wasread in U.S. District Courtin Las Vegas, then huddledquietly afterward in thecourtroom with his parentsand sister.

Bickle’s lawyer, JamesPokorny, characterizedBickle and his family as“chagrined” at the verdict,which the lawyer acknowl-edged could lead to a dis-honorable discharge fromthe Navy and the loss ofbenefits.

Seventy-two weaponswere involved in the case,including more than 30 ma-chine guns, said Thomas L.Chittum III, head of the fed-eral Bureau of Alcohol, To-bacco, Firearms and Explo-sives office in Las Vegas.While the firearms werefound to be stolen, testimo-ny and evidence didn’t es-tablish how they got intothe U.S.

Chittum called the caserevolving around allega-tions of war materiel beingmarketed in the U.S. by adecorated special forcesmember “an aberration.”

“It’s unthinkable thatsomeone with his experi-ence would sell guns likethis on the streets of theUnited States,” the ATFagent said.

The case hinged on an in-vestigation last year by un-dercover ATF agents whoenlisted a man who laterpleaded guilty to conspiringin the scheme for the pur-chase of high-powered andhard-to-trace machine guns.

Authorities seized hand-guns and a component foran AK-47 in raids in No-vember at Bickle’s apart-ment in San Diego, and astorage unit he leased innearby El Cajon. Raids alsowere conducted in Las Ve-gas and at Durango, Colo.,where agents were sur-prised to find five pounds ofmilitary C-4 explosive at thehome of a close Bicklefriend, Richard Paul.

Paul, 35, pleaded guilty inJanuary to conspiracy andexplosives transport charg-es and faces 15 years inprison and up to a $500,000fine at sentencing Oct. 28.

The prosecutors in thecase, Timothy S. Vasquezand Phillip N. Smith Jr., al-leged that profit was themotive for the weaponssales.

Prosecutors accusedBickle of controlling the

sale of military hardwareranging from ammunitionto night-vision goggles andhigh-tech rifle targetingscopes. They made closingarguments to the jury amidan array of AK-47 and M92machine guns, a sniper ri-fle, a wheeled footlockerwith a false bottom andhandguns including Ruger9mm weapons of the typeused by the U.S. military.

Smith cited bank records,text messages, phone callsand emails between Bickleand others in the case. Hetold jurors that like a targetsighted through the riflescopes, the evidence pointedto Bickle.

Pokorny maintained thegovernment case was cir-cumstantial and neverproved a link between Bick-le and the weapons. Heasked the jury to considerwhether a decorated and ac-complished special forcesmember who had a role inthe 2011 movie “Transfor-mers: Dark of the Moon”would risk everything in a

scheme to sell arms in theU.S.

Bickle, 34, was acquittedof two of six charges of pos-session and transfer of amachine gun. He was foundguilty of a total of 13 counts,including conspiracy to dealin stolen firearms; dealingin firearms without a li-cense; possession and trans-fer of machine guns; posses-sion, concealment, sale anddisposition of stolen fire-arms; receiving, concealingand retaining property ofthe United States; andtransportation and distribu-tion of explosives.

He could face 125 yearsin prison and $3.25 millionin fines. However, federalsentencing guidelines areexpected to provide for aprison sentence of less than20 years. Judge Roger Huntlet him remain free with anelectronic monitor to returnto his Navy base and homein San Diego pending sen-tencing Jan. 20.

Pokorny promised to ap-peal the verdict and seek

probation. “There was no finger-

print evidence, no DNA evi-dence,” he said. “The bulkof the prosecution case wasbased on testimony andfacts founded upon state-ments of drug users, con-victed felons, drug addictsand arms smugglers.”

Pokorny derided the tes-timony of Paul and two oth-er former co-defendantswho pleaded guilty andcooperated with the govern-ment in hopes of leniencyat their own sentencings.

Andrew Kaufman, 37, ofLas Vegas, pleaded guilty inDecember to conspiracyand illegal transfer of a ma-chine gun charges. He facesfive years in prison and upto a $500,000 fine at sentenc-ing Oct. 28.

Omar Aguirre, 36, of LasVegas, the man who author-ities say facilitated theweapon sales, pleaded guiltyin December to conspiracy.He faces five years in pris-on and up to a $250,000 fineat sentencing Oct. 14.

SEAL guilty of smugglingJury: Scheme was

to sell weapons By KEN RITTER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Petty Officer Nicholas Bickle, right, walks out of the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse with his attorney,James Pokorny, left, and family members on Friday, in Las Vegas. A federal jury Friday found Bickleguilty on 13 of 15 charges in a scheme to sell machine guns and explosives from Iraq and Afghanistanin the United States.

Photo by Julie Jacobson | AP

nated for the Lopeño andSan Ygnacio fire depart-ments are now listed aszero for 2012. The 2011 ex-penditures for thetwo sub-departments were listed at$2,000 and $3,000 respec-tively.

The supplies and servic-es total budgeted expendi-tures for the FigueroaPublic Library dropped byabout $2,500; although thebook fund remained un-changed at $17,000.

Residents dependent onthe Nutrition Care HomeDelivery department willstill be taken care of. Rawfood expenses, thoughthey dipped from $18,125in 2010 to $17,000 in 2011,remain unchanged for2012. Non-food consuma-bles, however, droppedslightly from $1,100 to$968. The county’s contri-bution to the NutritionCenter fell $308,846 to$300,573.

The across-the-boardcuts also hit the road andbridge funds of each pre-cinct commissioner to thetune of $200,000. Thesecuts mean more emphasison road maintenance rath-er than road repair, Pre-cinct 1 Commissioner JoseVela said on Sept. 3.

In a move intended to

offset shortfalls, countyemployees will now auto-matically contribute 5 per-cent of their health insur-ance costs previously cov-ered by the county.

“They’re now partici-pating in covering theirown insurance,” said Velaon Friday. “This, we think,is a fair contribution.”

Vela reiterated what heand other commissionerstold The Zapata Times lastmonth: that the overridingconcern was avoiding cutsto personnel.

“We didn’t lay off any-one. That was our mainconcern,” he said.

County Tax Assessor/Collector Luis Lauro Gon-zalez anticipated that thecounty would continue re-searching new revenuestreams, including theproposed bridge to Mexi-co.

“Some were against it,”said Gonzalez, referring toan economic developmentsurvey conducted lastmonth that included thebridge idea. “I think we’llcontinue looking into thatand other ideas to bringin new money for thecounty.”

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

COUNTY Continued from Page 1A

SACRAMENTO, Calif.— Federal prosecutors an-nounced an aggressivecrackdown on Californiapot dispensaries Friday,vowing to shut down doz-ens of growing and salesoperations and sayingthat the worst offendersare using the cover ofmedical marijuana to actas storefront drug dealers.

Officials described it asthe first coordinated state-wide offensive againstmarijuana dealers andsuppliers who use Califor-nia’s 15-year-old medicalmarijuana law as legalcover for running sophis-ticated drug traffickingventures in plain sight.

“California’s marijuanaindustry supplies the na-tion,” said U.S. AttorneyBenjamin Wagner, citing a2009 federal study that 72percent of marijuanaplants eradicated nation-wide were grown in Cali-fornia.

“Huge amounts of mar-ijuana grown here in thisstate is flowing east toother states, and hugeamounts of money areflowing back in the oppo-site direction.”

The actions weregeared toward stopping aproliferation that has ledto thousands of pot shops

opening their doorsacross the state. Thespread was fueled partlyby the Obama administra-tion’s assurance two yearsago that it did not plan todevote federal resourcesto countering marijuanaoutlets operating in com-pliance with state laws.

One example cited bythe prosecutors Friday: Inone Orange County stripmall, eight of the 11 sec-ond-floor suites are occu-pied by dispensaries anddoctors’ offices for doctorswhere healthy individualsobtain “sham” recommen-dations to use medicalmarijuana.

It is “a Costco, Wal-mart-type model that wesee across California,”said Andre Birotte Jr.,U.S. attorney in the LosAngeles area. Some peo-ple making money frommedical marijuana openlyrevel in what some havecalled “the new Californiagold rush,” he said.

Landlords leasing prop-erty to dozens of ware-houses and agriculturalparcels where marijuanais being grown and retailspaces where pot is soldover the counter are re-ceiving written warningsto evict their tenants orface criminal charges orseizure of their assets, thestate’s four U.S. attorneyssaid.

Feds to attackCalif. pot sales

By DON THOMPSONASSOCIATED PRESS

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES Local SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011

An elderly woman fromMcAllen was arrested af-ter trying to move approxi-mately 250 pounds of mari-juana across Zapata Coun-ty on Monday afternoon.

Maricela Idalia Canales,64, is being charged withpossession of marijuana.She was taken to the Zapa-ta County Jail, where Jus-tice of the Peace FernandoMuñoz set an $85,000 bond.

At about 2:44 p.m. Mon-day, a deputy initiated atraffic stop about one milesouth of Zapata on U.S. 83.The driver of the red 2010Chevrolet passenger vehi-cle was identified as Ca-nales.

A sheriff ’s office newsrelease states the deputynoticed a cellophane bun-dle on the back driver’sside floorboard. A subse-quent search of the caryielded 11 bundles of mari-juana.

The pot weighed ap-proximately 250 poundsand had an estimatedstreet value of $110,250.Sheriff ’s office Sgt. MarioElizondo said the vehiclewas heading toward Lare-do.

(César G. Rodriguezmay be reached at 728-2568or [email protected])

Shown are 250 pounds of marijuana with a street value of$110,250, seized during a bust Monday afternoon.

Courtesy photo

Woman chargedwith possession

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

MARICELA IDALIACANALES: Facing$85,000 bond inpossession case.

COMMAND CENTER AT THE LAKE

Courtesy photo

The Zapata County Sheriff’s Office Mobile Command Center was stationed at the public boat ramp last weekend to provide security at afishing tournament. The center will be located at the county boat ramp again this weekend for another tournament. Shown last week-end are Texas Ranger Nathan R. Mutz and sheriff’s investigator Gregory Gutierrez planning security.

to a PGR report. The men acted as“halcones” (lookouts) for the or-ganization.

All three men received moneyfrom “tienditas” (drug-sellingpoints), “fayuqueros” (people whosmuggle merchandise into Mexicowithout paying taxes) and “pate-ros” (human smugglers). The PGRreport goes on to say the three mencharged a “tax” to people whowould arrive with drugs at NuevoLaredo.

Also this week, the PGR an-nounced Wednesday an arrest war-rant issued against 14 alleged GulfCartel associates arrested in Nue-vo Laredo during a July shootout.

Authorities identified them asLuis Enrique Cervantes Ortiz,known as “El Flaco”; José HugoDelgado Galindo, known as “El Ce-jas”; Mario Ángel Díaz López,known as “Spun”; David Hernán-dez Hernández, known as “Huer-co”; Rubén Gámez, known as “ElHomie”; Juan Manuel GarzaCortes, known as “Flaco”; andJuan Francisco López Cordero,known as “El Ratón.”

The list goes on with Julio CésarMay Rodríguez, known as “Gua-cho”; José Montoya Benítez,known as “Ocho”; Mario EnedilsonRaffles Campos or Mario Enedil-son Refes Campos, known as “Bar-

bas”; David Ramos Ibarra, knownas “El único”; José Alberto RoblesMartínez, known as “El Java”; An-tonio Rodríguez Aguilar known as“Calaca”; and Octavio RodríguezCamacho, known as “El Talibán.”

All men are facing charges of or-ganized crime and possession offirearms and ammo clips used ex-clusively by military personnel. APGR report states the Mexican ar-my detained the men July 25 inNuevo Laredo after shots werefired between organized crime ri-vals. The 14 defendants were trans-ported to the prison Centro Feder-al de Readaptación Social número5, “Oriente,” in Veracruz.

CARTEL Continued from Page 1A

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

The Lady Hawks haveworked hard to stay per-fect throughout the dis-trict season, yet still havesome goals to accomplish.

A district title is at thetop of their list and they’reon track to successfully de-fend their title, with thehalfway point in the sec-ond round approaching.

Zapata picked up twowins against Progreso andPSJA Southwest last weekto push their record at 9-0(15-7 overall), staying atopthe district standings. Za-pata soundly beat first-year varsity programPSJA Southwest 25-12, 25-14 and 25-12.

“The team played well,”Zapata coach Rosie Villar-real said. “Everyone

played to their potentialand it showed in the lasttwo games.”

Zapata continues dis-playing a balanced offenseled by the best 1-2 combi-nation in recent memory.

Shelby Bigler and Kris-tina De Leon carry the of-fensive load for the LadyHawks, complimentingeach other on the court.They had 13 kills apiecewhile Jackie Salinaschipped in with six of herown to lead all offensiveplayers.

Zapata vs. ProgresoZapata started out slug-

gish against Progreso onSaturday, digging deepdown to pull out a 25-22,25-8 and 25-8 victory.

The Lady Hawks took a

while to warm up their en-gines, nearly letting theopening set slip away inthe process.

“I don’t know if it wasbecause of homecomingthe night before,” Villar-real said. “But we didn’tcome out ready to play. Wecame out sluggish andstruggled in the first set.We couldn’t get the ball tothe setter and we had herrunning all over theplace.”

Zapata pulled out thefirst set and began playingmore like themselves inthe second and third sets,holding the Lady Red Antsto eight points in each ofthe final sets.

Bigler had a field daywith the defense recording20 kills while De Leon be-came a terror at the netwith 18 kills.

Zapata faces a lengthylayoff, not returning untilOct. 18th against rival LaFeria.

The Lady Hawks werescheduled to play today,but the game was movedto Friday, Oct. 21st.

ZAPATA STATS VS PSJA: Ab-by Aguilar (16 digs, fouraces), Salinas (three aces,five digs), Biger (two aces,one block), Kristina De Le-on (two aces, five digs), Es-tella Molina (30 assists,two aces).

ZAPATA STATS VS PROGRESO:Bigler (20 kills, four aces,two blocks), De Leon (18kills, one ace), Aguilar(one ace, 14 digs), Molina(35 assists), Jackie Salinas(seven digs), Liana Flores(four digs)

(Clara Sandoval can bereached at [email protected])

Zapata preys on District 32-3A

Zapata Lady Hawks head coach Rosie Villarreal speaks with herteam, leading them to a perfect District 32-3A campaign thus far.

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

By CLARA SANDOVALLAREDO MORNING TIMES

Zapata Middle Schoolcontinues to be the highschool cross country pro-gram’s premier talentpipeline.

The Merlins hosted the8th Annual Cross CountryInvitational last Saturday.

The 7th grade boys’team turned in a stellarperformance by takinghome eight out of the top

15 medals and grabbingtheir first championship ofthe season.

Once again leading theway for the Merlins, JoanZuniga finished runner upfollowed by Jose Avila inthird.

Jorge Garcia (sixth),Kris Hinkel (eighth), Con-nor Moreno (ninth), MitoLanda (13th), Albert Hino-josa (14th), and Javy Flores(15th) rounded out theteam. Teammates Jorge

Perez, Jose Guzman, JuanDiaz, and Gabriel Peñacontributed to the team’swin as well.

Valo Villarreal’s secondplace finish led the Mer-lins, followed by Jacob Vil-larreal (seventh), SimonNino (ninth), Leandro Hi-nojosa (10th), Austin Bran-don, and Adrian Bugg. Theboys and girls head to Ro-ma Middle School thisweek, where they’ll striveto bring back four team

championships.On the girls side, both

the 7th and 8th grade girls’teams finished in secondplace.

The 7th grade girls fin-ished behind rival LaGrulla, once again led byAbby Zuniga’s first placefinish. Mariela Hernandeztook second, with GabyGonzalez (eighth), DanielaSantos (ninth) in the top10. Vanessa Guerra, Sa-mantha Peña, and Daniela

Guzman contributed aswell.

The 8th grade girlswere led by Norma Ra-mirez with a strongthird place finish, whilethe rest of the team con-sisted of Alexa Alvarez(fifth), Raquel Almaguer(sixth), Andrea Garza(seventh), Alondra Lara(12th), and Tatiana Lo-pez (16th) and AndreaReyes (17th) just missedmedals.

Zapata Middle School’s Merlins are coming off their first championship of the season at the 8th Annual Cross Country Invitational last Saturday.

Courtesy photo

Merlins rake in medals, championshipBy CLARA SANDOVAL

THE ZAPATA TIMES

In a few weeks Zapatawill host the 32-3A Districtcross country meet with ev-ery team attempting to puttheir best foot forward.

All of Zapata County ishighly encouraged to comeout and support yourHawks and Lady Hawksrunners as they once againaim for a district title, a re-gional berth and a trip tothe state meet.

I’m not sure if Zapataunderstands how hard it isto accomplish this feat yearin and year out.

To win a district title isgreat and a regional title iseven better, but a trip tostate is the ultimate goalthat every single teamdreams about but few everaccomplish.

The cross country teamsin Zapata have accom-plished that feat over thepast few years.

That has become the ex-

Runningin theright

direction

See SANDOVAL PAGE 2B

The time to show off allthe season’s hard work isjust three weeks away,coming in the form of theDistrict 32-3A cross coun-try meet.

Zapata has run withoutan elite state ranking allyear, but that’s onlyserved to motivate themmore.

The district cross coun-try meet on Saturday, Oct.22, in Zapata will be theteam’s chance to make aserious statement.

Last week, the LadyHawks swept the varsityand junior varsity divi-sion at the CarrizoSprings Invitational, de-spite fielding a young and

inexperienced team.The Lady Hawks turned

in a remarkable perform-ance scoring 19 points,four points shy of a per-fect score in cross country.

Zapata grabbed the topthree spots and all sevenrunners finished in thetop 10, even after having afew teammates sit out tonurse injuries.

State qualifier JazimeGarcia has turned in astellar season while guid-ing the young Lady Hawksto a top performance level.

Garcia captured the in-dividual girls’ title, hersecond victory this sea-son, and continued chas-

ing her goal of making areturn trip to the statemeet.

Behind Garcia, CassiePeña and Agela Darnellcame in second and thirdplace, respectively.

Brianna Gonzalez (sixthplace), Janette Chapa (sev-enth), Alex Garcia(eighth) and Maria Rodri-guez (10th) rounded outthe top ten finishers.

Similar to the varsity’simpressive feat, the juniorvarsity turned in 17points with four runnersfinishing in the top five.Norma Cepeda and Bian-

CROSS COUNTRY

Home stretchBy CLARA SANDOVAL

THE ZAPATA TIMES Zapata runners race toward oneultimate goal: a state championship

Zapata Lady Hawks race to the finish line in hopes of winning a district, regional and eventual statechampionship at Round Rock.

Courtesy photo

See CROSS COUNTRY PAGE 2B

B Zscores SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011

ca Ponce were neck-and-neck the entire way rally-ing a dead sprint for thefinished line. Cepeda tookfirst with Ponce steps be-hind in second.

“We had great bounceback performances from(Cepeda) and (Ponce),”coach Mike Villarreal said.“They battled the entireway, until (Cepeda) outkicked (Ponce) for the

win.” Daniela Vela, recovering

from an injury, turned in athird place performance,while Maria Angeles camein fourth place.

Corina Martinez brokeher personal record for thesecond time this season,the first coming at theUTSA meet. Martinez fin-ished in seventh.

The Lady Hawks will be

competing at the 4th An-nual Meet of Champions inDonna this morning.

On Saturday, Oct. 15, Za-pata will host a specialmile run at the stadium at9 a.m. The public is invitedto attend and watch the La-dy Hawks show their stuffbefore district.


CROSS COUNTRY Continued from Page 1B

pectation each year withboth the boys’ and girls’teams in Zapata; they areheralded as among the bestin the state.

Zapata is fortunate tohave coaches like Mike Vil-larreal and Luis Escamillawho are dedicated to theircraft year round, and giv-ing each athlete the toolsneeded to succeed.

The pair of coaches arethinking about cross coun-try every waking momentof every day.

They’re like two mad sci-entists obsessed with per-fecting a formula for suc-cess, and their resultsspeak for themselves.

Villarreal and Escamillaknow what it takes to gettheir team to the next level,having done it so often thatpeople in Zapata mighttake for granted what itmeans to take a team tostate.

Taking a team to stateonce is hard, back-to-backtrips is harder, but makingthree straight trips really

tests every coach.Round Rock and Old Set-

tlers Park has become thefinal race for both teamsfor the past few years andthey wouldn’t have it anyother way. Villarreal, justlike Escamilla, don’t takesummers off to loungearound, but instead theyare with their teams build-ing them for success at thenecessary rate to peak atthe right time.

Escamilla doesn’t evenrace his team every week-end, instead he opts to savehis runners’ legs every oth-er Saturday because he islooking at the bigger pic-ture: state.

I was fortunate to headto Zapata and visit withcoach Escamilla a fewweeks ago. As I made myway to the high school Ifound him and the team bythe softball field gettingready to run a few miles.

The runners were verypolite and answered thequestions that I had totheir best of their ability,

and after asking themabout being ranked instate, they told me that itwas nice but they have on-ly one goal in mind.

They told me, with nohesitation, that they werecertainly going to accom-plish that goal.

I can’t wait to finally seeboth teams in action thisSaturday when they travelto Laredo for the UISD In-vitational Cross Countrymeet.

That is when I finally getto meet the most successfulrunners in the area. Manyof them wearing their let-terman’s jackets full of dis-trict, regional and statepatches setting up as theenvy of the meet.

Laredo will finally get tosee a true team effort onthe boys’ and the girls’ side.

I just hope they slowdown long enough to giveme a few minutes of theirtime.


SANDOVAL Continued from Page 1B

CLEVELAND — Acrossthe street from QuickenLoans Arena, a buildingthat rocks and rolls fromNovember until April ashome to the Cavaliers,reality is posted on a wall.

Harry Buffalo is one ofthe downtown restaurantsin Cleveland that countsheavily on the beer-drink-ing, burger-devouringNBA crowd to keep itsdoors open. Operationsmanager John Adams hastaped an internet reportoutside the kitchen for hiswaitresses, bartenders andcooks to read.

With yellow highlighter,he’s shaded the grim newsof the NBA labor impassefor his employees, some ofwhom may soon lose theirjobs if there’s no deal.

This is where the lock-out hits home, and hitshardest.

“It’s rough,” Adamssaid, glancing toward TheQ. “I’ve got three singlemoms on my wait staffand two single dads in thekitchen. I’ve got their 11children to think about.It’s painful when it’s out ofmy control, when I have toput the business first andsay I can’t have 15 serverson staff because we don’thave the business.”

This week, the NBAcanceled its preseason. OnMonday, CommissionerDavid Stern may wipe outthe first two weeks of theregular season if his mil-lionaire players and evenwealthier owners can’tagree on how to split reve-nue and cap salaries.

Sure, players are tempo-rarily out of work and willhave to find ways to main-tain their skills. But KobeBryant has the luxury ofpotentially signing with anItalian team to do that,earning a big salary untilthe labor unrest settles.

Others aren’t as fortu-nate.

The loss of one game, letalone 10 or maybe all 82,will have a devastating im-pact on workers with jobsdependent on pro basket-ball’s six-month-plus sea-son. A few teams have al-ready trimmed their staffsand more layoffs could beforthcoming if the discus-sions drag on. Then thereare those who don’t work

directly for an NBA teambut who still depend onthe excitement the leaguebrings to town.

Ushers, security person-nel, parking lot attendants,concession workers, res-taurant employees andothers all stand to havetheir hours cut or join thecountry’s 14 million unem-ployed.

“Yeah, financially, I’mworried,” said waitressJeannette Lauersdorf, asingle mother of two, whoon a quiet Wednesday af-ternoon is serving sixguests at three tables in-side Harry Buffalo. On anight the Cavs are playing,the place has a 30-minutewait for a table. “We’ve gotbills to pay.”

Nerves, already frayedin a depressed economy,are unraveling.

As it was during theNFL’s labor dispute, cer-tain cities around theleague will bear more of aburden than others untilthe NBA gets bouncingagain. Markets like Orlan-do, Memphis, Salt Lake

City and Portland, with noother income being gener-ated by a major profession-al sports franchise, couldbe facing a long winter.

At this point, there’s notelling how long the lock-out will last, but NBA dep-uty commissioner AdamSilver projected losses ifthe season’s opening twoweeks are canceled in “themillions of dollars.”

“We’ve spent a lot oftime with our teams walk-ing through those scena-rios of lost games,” Silversaid. “The damage is enor-mous, will be enormous.”

While Cleveland may beundergoing a minor re-naissance with new con-struction, including adowntown casino beingbuilt by a group headed byCavs owner Dan Gilbert,unemployment remainshigh. There’s a thrivingone-block strip of EastFourth Street, where up-scale eateries lure guestsno matter the time of year.

But closer to the Q,some bars and restaurantsare still recovering from

the financial aftershockcaused by superstar Le-Bron James leaving.

When James was withthe Cavs, the Gateway Dis-trict crawled with fans,some of whom bought sea-son tickets in 2009 for lastseason — under the as-sumption their favoriteplayer would stay in Cleve-land. But now that he’s inMiami, and the Cavs areno longer a title contender,fans aren’t flocking down-town.

“Even if there is a sea-son, I think we’re going totake a hit,” said CaitlinCassidy, manager at HarryBuffalo. “People love theCavs, but they love theCavs more when they’rewinning. Even last year,people who had seasontickets didn’t come all thetime. Cleveland fans are aspecial breed. They comedown and watch the Cavsand drink beer and hangout, but it’s definitely notbeen the same without Le-Bron.”

Memphis could experi-ence a similar dropoff if

the lockout deepens.A young team on the up-

swing, the Grizzlies captiv-ated the city last springwith its playoff run. Fanspoured out of sold-out Fed-Ex Forum and into theBeale Street entertainmentarea to toast each postsea-son win, and there’s hopesimilar celebrations willtake place this April, May— and maybe into June.

The team reports sea-son-ticket sales are up. Buttickets have no value with-out a season.

“We have a franchise wefeel is locked and loaded tobe very competitive for thenext four, five, six yearsbarring injuries,” said Ke-vin Kane, president andCEO of the Memphis Con-vention and Visitors Bu-reau. “We’ve got a productthe city’s really excitedabout, the city’s engagedwith.”

Orlando’s situation isdifferent.

In February, the Magicare slated to host NBA All-Star Weekend, an interna-tional event projected to

bring $100 million to thecity. But the lockout’s un-certain endgame is delay-ing plans from being final-ized, and already localbusinesses are scramblingto help offset losses ifmore games are canceledat year-old Amway Arena.

Owners of upscale DraftGlobal Beer Lounge andGrill, which opened acrossfrom Amway in March,fear it could be a toughseason ahead.

“The economic impactwould be detrimental,” co-owner Willie Fisher said.“This location is one of themain reasons we chosethis location.”

During the winter, Utahfans eat up the Jazz andCrown Burgers.

From the parking lot ofhis restaurant, Mike Kat-sanevas can see the edgeof EnergySolutions Arena,home of the Jazz. Katsane-vas, whose family hasbeen selling burgers, in-cluding one crowned withpastrami, for three dec-ades, estimates a lost NBAseason would offset hisbusiness by 25 to 30 per-cent — and not just thisseason.

Katsanevas predictsfans won’t renew their sea-son tickets.

“People were upset andhad a right to be. Everybo-dy needs to be paid fortheir jobs,” he said. “Buthow much money do youneed to make? Let’s behonest here. Everybodyelse is suffering (in thiseconomy). I don’t want tobad-mouth players or theowners, but how muchmoney do these guys real-ly need to keep making?”

Cassidy said while thevibe around Harry Buffa-lo’s staff is upbeat andhopeful that the lockoutwill be lifted, several em-ployees are making plansjust in case. A few of herwaitresses have picked upshifts elsewhere, and she’sbeing honest with any newapplicants who comethrough the door.

In days and weeksahead, the staff mayshrink.

“It’s scary for us, too,”she said. “Because who isgoing to want to work hereif there’s no customers? Ialways tell applicants thatthe good times alwaysmake up for the badtimes.”

NBA lockout creates economic ripple for allBy TOM WITHERS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Caitlin Cassidy, manager of Harry Buffalo, sits at a table with the Quicken Loans Arena, where the Cleveland Cavaliers play, in the back-ground, in Cleveland. The league’s cancellation of the preseason and the likelihood that regular-season games will soon be wiped out iscausing collateral economic damage in cities around the league. The loss of games will mean the loss of jobs for waitresses, bartenders,hotel workers and others who count on pro basketball’s six-month season for employment.

Photo by Tony Dejak | AP

LUBBOCK — But fortwo second-half melt-downs, No. 24 TexasA&M might be undefeat-ed and still in the nation-al championship huntheading into Saturdaynight’s game at TexasTech.

Instead, it’s the RedRaiders bringing an un-blemished record intothe final Big 12 matchupbetween the two old ri-vals, the last hurrah be-fore the Aggies leave forthe Southeastern Confer-ence next season.

The game will be ahomecoming of sorts forAggies senior quarter-back Ryan Tannehill,who grew up about 100south of Lubbock in BigSpring. He said his teamis in “dire need” of awin.

“It’s nice to be able togo back but this gamecould be anywhere in thecountry,” said Tannehill,who started and won hisfirst game at quarter-back last year againstTexas Tech. But “we arecoming off two toughlosses and we need towin this game.”

Texas A&M had a 17-point lead at homeagainst Oklahoma Stateafter two quarters andlost 30-29. They squan-

dered an 18-point halftimelead to Arkansas last weekand lost 42-38.

Texas Tech coach Tom-my Tuberville doesn’tthink the losses will ham-per the Aggies (2-2, 0-1 Big12).

“I don’t think it will be abig effect for them,” hesaid. “Sometimes the bestteams don’t win. The ballbounced the other way, youdon’t get a break.”

The Aggies need lookback no further than lastyear to see that their sea-son can be repaired. Afteran early three-game losingstreak — to OklahomaState, Arkansas and Mis-souri — they came back tocompete for the Big 12 title.

“We’re so close,” Tanne-hill said. “It’s no time toget crazy or freak out. Wejust need to make goodplays.”

Tannehill, who threwfor a school-record 449yards and four touchdownsin last year’s 45-27 winover the Red Raiders inCollege Station, said histeam understands the chal-lenge. He is averaging 285passing yards this seasonbut has thrown five inter-ceptions.

“You can’t play one halfand expect to win,” hesaid. “You have to play thefull game on both sides ofthe ball.”

The game pits two of theworst defenses in the coun-

try: Texas A&M is deadlast (120th) in pass defenseand the Red Raiders arenearly at the bottom(117th) against the rush —not a great situation sincethe Aggies are No. 15 na-tionally rushing behindCyrus Gray and ChristineMichael.

The two average a com-bined 192 yards rushingper game, and they couldhave banner days against aTexas Tech defense that al-lows 229. Last year, the Ag-gies got 174 rushing yardson 43 carries.

“It’s going to be prettytough,” Red Raiders defen-sive back Tre’ Porter said.“Last year they put uppretty big numbers.”

On the other side, TexasTech quarterback SethDoege is ninth nationallyin passing yards per game(328.7) with 14 touchdownsand just one interception.

Aggies coach Mike Sher-man said it will be difficultto slow Doege.

“It’s hard because of theway they take their passsets and the way the quar-terback drop,” he said. “It’shard to get to him.”

Texas A&M has won twostraight over the Red Raid-ers (4-0, 1-0), but before theAggies’ 2009 win in Lub-bock, they had lost sevenstraight there.

Taking on an unbeatenTexas A&M team wouldhave been fine with Doege.

No. 24 Aggies take on Texas Tech today

By BETSY BLANEYASSOCIATED PRESS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

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

Dear Readers: A letterfrom a reader about notfinding a HANDICAP VANSPACE available whenshopping sparked a lot ofcomments. I mentionedthat not all handicappedpeople “look” hand-icapped.

This topic, as always,struck a nerve. Here arewhat JUST A FEW read-ers had to say:

Linda, via e-mail,says: “I am one of thoseseemingly ‘able-bodied’people who have a hand-icap tag. I suffer from con-ditions where I am unableto walk more than a dozenfeet without getting out ofbreath. I get dirty looksfrom people because myhandicap is not apparent.I wish people would not beso quick to judge, becausenot all handicaps are visi-bly apparent.”

Christine, via email,says: “Thank you forpointing out that all dis-abilities are not alwaysvisible. I was accosted in aparking lot by a womanwho apparently has amaz-ing powers of medical de-duction. One look and she‘knew’ I was either per-fectly healthy or miracu-lously healed. The statedetermines eligibility forwho gets the placards orplates. I make a point ofparking in smaller spacesthan those used by vanswith a ramp because Iknow that there are thosewho need the extra space.”

Judy in Ohio says: “Ibeg to differ with the read-er who objects to vehiclesother than vans parkingin the van-accessiblespots. The signs, at leastin my state, don’t say ‘Vanonly.’ When a person isdisabled, as in my case, Isay, ‘First come, firstserved.’”

Thanks to all whowrote. — Heloise

PET PALDear Readers: Angie

from Michigan sent in aphoto of Mr. Squirrel eat-ing a piece of bread. Angiesays: “I feed the birds,chipmunks and squirrelseach day. I put out onlywhat they will eat right

away; I don’t leave largeamounts sitting out.”

To see Mr. Squirrel, goto www.Heloise.com andclick on “Pets.” — Heloise

REFRIGERATORMAGNETS

Dear Heloise: Afterreading a hint about re-frigerator magnets, I hadto let you know how wesolved the problem. Myhusband hated the clutteron the refrigerator. Wehave a small cabinet off tothe side in the kitchen. Webought brand-new cookiesheets that would fit onthe cabinet. He installedthem on the front of thecabinet, and that is wheremy decorative and favoritemagnets are kept. Theyare still in the kitchen andfun to look at. — Jo EllenKeller, Vincennes, Ind.

EASY HINTDear Readers: When

you have boxes of drymilk, instant potatoes orother food, sometimes youget down to the bottom on-ly to find that the foodwill no longer come out ofthe spout. I cut the box inhalf and then pour outwhat’s left. No waste! —Heloise

GIFT-CARD BALANCEDear Heloise: I keep

track of a gift-card bal-ance by writing it on thecard with a fine-tip per-manent pen. — Laura inCalifornia

Send a money-saving ortimesaving hint to He-loise, P.O. Box 795000, SanAntonio, TX 78279-5000, oryou can fax it to 1-210-HE-LOISE or email it to [email protected]. I can’tanswer your letter person-ally but will use the besthints received in my col-umn.

HINTS BY | HELOISE

“HELOISE

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Sports SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011

DALLAS — Unlike the folksthrowing softballs at weighted-down milk bottles or those shoot-ing basketballs at narrow rims,Mack Brown and his No. 11 Long-horns are guaranteed to havesomething meaningful to takehome from their trip to the StateFair of Texas this weekend.

Should Texas beat No. 3 Okla-homa in the 106th Red River rival-ry, it would be the ultimate sign ofprogress for Brown’s rebuildingfrom a 5-7 season.

Yet, even if the Longhorns loseSaturday at the Cotton Bowl,Brown and his staff will find out alot more about their squad by see-ing them play the best team intheir conference, and one of thebest in the country.

Brown will learn whether his4-0 club is really as good as thescoreboard indicated after the lasttwo games — lopsided road victo-ries over UCLA and Iowa State —or whether they’re closer to theteam that opened the season witha slow start against Rice andneeded a late rally to beat BYU bya point at home.

“I want to see us respond,”Brown said.

Coming off a year that beganwith big hopes and wound up be-ing his first losing season at Tex-as, Brown saw turnover at bothcoordinator positions, thenchanged quarterback early thisseason. That much change couldleave a guy queasy, but it’s quitethe opposite. The stomach-churn-ing came during the collapse, leav-ing Brown pretty relaxed now thatthings are starting to fall in place.

His calm approach to this gameis especially noteworthy consider-ing its importance. Here’s howseason-defining it can be: Backwhen the Big 12 was big enoughto have divisions (1996-2010), Okla-homa or Texas won the South allbut twice, including the last 11years.

“There’s no doubt the pres-sure’s also on them more thanus,” Brown said. “I mean, they’resupposed to win and we’re gettingbetter. That’s fact, whether youlike it or not.”

Given those options, Soonerscoach Bob Stoops likes it.

Besides, Stoops knows an im-pressive win might be exactly

what Oklahoma needs to regainthe No. 1 spot it held in the pre-season poll. The Sooners havebeen passed by SEC heavyweightsLSU and Alabama.

Held at the Cotton Bowl —about 190 miles from each campus— the Texas-OU/OU-Texas gameremains one of college football’sgreatest pageants. Ask anyonewho’s played or coached in thegame and they talk about charg-ing out of the tunnel and into ascene that Brown described as “abowl game in midseason.”

The stadium is split 50-50,burnt orange on one side, crimsonand cream on the other. There’sthe carnival atmosphere for every-one to enjoy on the way in andout, mostly out this year as kick-

off is at 11 a.m. And there are thesmells. Depending on which waythe wind is blowing, fans will in-hale the aroma of corny dogs anddelicacies such as fried pralinesweet potato poppers, or thestench of a livestock arena that’s ashort punt away.

This spectacle is so unique andhas meant so much to so manygenerations (it’s been this waysince 1932) that officials from bothschools resisted movements todrag the games back to their cam-puses or to Cowboys Stadium inArlington. Each of those settingsmight be more profitable, but, inthis case, tradition trumped dol-lars.

It could even be argued thatthis game helped keep the Big 12

together. The bond between theseschools turned out to be strongerthan that between Texas and itsother big rival, Texas A&M, as theAggies fled to the SEC, likely end-ing their historic series. Their de-parture set off a realignment fren-zy nationwide and threatened todissolve this conference. But afterlooking around, UT and OU decid-ed to stay put, helping keep theleague intact.

This is the kind of series com-mentators like to hype by saying“you can throw the records outwhen those teams meet.” Except,lately, the rankings have been agood indicator of which team isgoing to win.

The higher-ranked team is 9-2since 2000, with the upper hand

swinging back and forth. TheSooners won every meeting from’00-04, and by a combined score of189-54. Back then, the pressurewas mounting on Brown, andVince Young changed everythingby beating Oklahoma on the wayto a national championship in ’05,starting a run of four Texas victo-ries in five years.

The Sooners won again lastyear, 28-20, with Landry Jones atquarterback. He got into the gameas a freshman the previous year,when Sam Bradford got hurt.Now, he’s returning for his thirdappearance in this series carryingthe title of leading passer inschool history. He’s also fourth inthe nation with 361.8 yards pergame passing and fresh off throw-ing five touchdowns, albeit againstBall State.

Favorite target Ryan Broylescomes in 13 catches shy of theNCAA career record, but theLonghorns can’t blanket him be-cause they still have to deal withKenny Stills. In the fourth quarteragainst Florida State, he kept thewinning drive alive with a third-and-long catch, then made a terrif-ic catch for a touchdown.

Dominique Whaley hasemerged at running back, chug-ging behind an offensive linethat’s allowed only two sacks,while linebacker Travis Lewisleads an Oklahoma defense that’sracked up 11 sacks and seven in-terceptions.

The Longhorns are led by aquarterback tandem of sophomoreCase McCoy and freshman DavidAsh, and a freshman runningback, Malcolm Brown. CoachBrown famously held Cedric Ben-son out of the lineup when he wasa freshman, letting him play onlya single play against Oklahomaand even that only because some-one had lost a shoe and needed areplacement.

Texas is amazingly balanced onoffense and the defense is keepingfoes to 289 yards per game. Ofcourse, they haven’t faced an of-fense like this.

Even if the Longhorns don’tmatch last year’s win total in thisgame, and maybe not next week-end, when they face OklahomaState, they seem poised for aquick return. Already beingranked No. 11 indicates they al-ready have bounced back, even ifthey’ve yet to face a stiff test.

Red River serves as ’Horns’ measuring stick

Texas Longhorn D.J. Monreo (26) is tackled by Oklahoma Sooner Travis Lewis (28) during the first half of play at the 2010Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park in Dallas.

Photo by Vernon Bryant | AP

By JAIME ARONASSOCIATED PRESS

The Zapata Times 10/8/2011

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