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Oil declined to the lowestlevel since 2008 in Londonamid estimates that OPEC’sdecision to scrap produc-tion limits will keep themarket oversupplied.

Brent futures capped thebiggest weekly decline inmore than a year. The glob-al surplus will persist atleast until late 2016 as de-mand growth slows and theOrganization of PetroleumExporting Countries shows“renewed determination”to maximize production,the International EnergyAgency said Friday. Thegroup chose not to curboutput at its Dec. 4 meeting.

Oil prices have slumpedto levels not seen since theglobal financial crisis as aresult of OPEC’s strategy todefend market shareagainst higher-cost pro-ducers. The group’s produc-tion rose to a three-yearhigh in November, it saidin a report Thursday, assurging Iraqi volumes morethan offset a slight pullbackby Saudi Arabia.

"The hits keep on com-ing," said John Kilduff, apartner at Again CapitalLLC, a New York-basedhedge fund. "It was badenough that the OPECmeeting ended in disarraywith no quota. Now we’reseeing just how aggressive-ly everyone is fighting formarket share."

New LowsBrent for January settle-

ment declined $1.80, or 4.5percent, to $37.93 a barrelon the London-based ICEFutures Europe exchange.It was the lowest closesince Dec. 24, 2008. The con-tract decreased 12 percentthis week. The volume ofall futures traded was 36percent above the 100-dayaverage at 3:05 p.m. in NewYork.

West Texas Intermediate

OIL & GAS

See OIL PAGE 12A

Oilpricesslumpagain

Global surplus tolast until late 2016

By MARK SHENKBLOOMBERG

AUSTIN — A jury heretook less than two hoursThursday to find Mexicanbusinessman FranciscoColorado Cessa guilty ofconspiring to laundermoney for the notoriousZetas drug cartel.

Prosecutors hailed thedecision as a blow to acriminal underworld thatrelies on legitimate busi-nessmen and to the familythat leads one of Mexico’s

most feared gangs.Over eight days of testi-

mony, judges heard from anumber of drug traffickersand cartel operatives whosaid the Zetas relied onpeople like Colorado toconvert dirty money intofunds they could use freely.

That’s why the U.S. gov-ernment went after Col-orado, who wasn’t directlyinvolved in the drug trade,prosecutors said.

“The businessmen are aconduit for these guys,”Assistant U.S. Attorney

Douglas Gardner said af-ter the verdict was read. “Ithink it’s important to fo-cus on how they’re alsolaunderuing money in theUnited States.”

Colorado faces up to 20years in prison when he’ssentenced at a later date.

According to the testi-mony, Colorado met afounding member of theZetas through quarterhorse races in his homestate, and eventually be-came close to Miguel Tre-viño Morales, the gang’s

leader who’s jailed in Mex-ico.

Treviño had a schemeto launder tens of millionsof dollars through a quar-ter horse breeding andracing operation in theU.S. run by his olderbrother, José, and neededclean front men in thiscountry to pay for horsesat auction. Prosecutorsshowed that Colorado hadpurchased horses that lat-er ended up in José Trevi-

ZETAS DRUG CARTEL

Businessman guilty

COLORADO

By JASON BUCHSAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

See ZETAS PAGE 12A

DALLAS — He foundwhat he was looking for ina sip of mezcal. Shad Kvet-ko had been exploring thegrowing range of quality te-quilas when he found hisimage of Mexico’s otheragave-based spirit suddenlyupended.

Until then, his idea ofmezcal was the gimmickybottle with a worm in it. “Itried that years ago, and itwas just terrible,” he told

The Dallas Morning News.“But for a time, that’s allyou could get.”

Then, several years ago,the Dallas antiques collec-tor and dealer visited Aus-tin’s Bar Ilegal, at the timea tiny hole-in-the wall fea-turing the mezcal brand ofthe same name. “That fla-vor in my mouth — I waslike, that’s what I want,”Kvetko recalled. “It’s just amore interesting experi-ence.”

Around Texas andacross the country, craft-cocktail enthusiasts and li-

quor aficionados are enjoy-ing the growing number ofMexican spirits appearingon the shelves of U.S. barsand spirits retailers. Whilestill small in terms of mar-ket share, mezcal is quicklyclimbing, a $126 million in-dustry compared with $10million a decade ago.

Meanwhile, tequila’s pop-ularity has boomed as thespirit sheds its reputationas college-party shot; theU.S. now drinks twice asmuch tequila as Mexico,

CRAFT-COCKTAIL RENAISSANCE

MEZCAL IS A HIT IN TEXAS

In this photo taken Dec. 3, part of the agave-spirits collection is displayed at Mexican Sugar, at the Shops at Legacy in Plano. Photo by Louis DeLuca | AP

In this photo taken Dec. 1, Taylor Samuels pours a drink during aMezcal tasting party at Shad Kvetko’s home in Dallas.

Photo by Louis DeLuca | AP

Popularity of spirit has spikedBy MARC RAMIREZ

AND ALFREDO CORCHADOTHE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

See MEZCAL PAGE 10A

WASHINGTON — Re-publicans don’t see DonaldTrump as likable or com-passionate, but he’s viewedby Republican registeredvoters as their party’s mostdecisive, most competentand most electable candi-date, according to a new As-sociated Press-GfK poll.

Here are some things toknow about public opinionon the presidential candi-dates from the poll:

TRUMP TOPS ON DE-CISIVENESS, COMPE-TENCE

Eight in 10 Republicanregistered voters calledTrump very or somewhatdecisive, while more than 6in 10 called him very orsomewhat competent.Trump is far atop the fieldon decisiveness. Of the oth-er four Republican candi-dates tested in the poll, TedCruz came closest, with 56percent calling him very orsomewhat decisive, followedby Ben Carson at 53 per-cent, Marco Rubio at 52 per-cent and Jeb Bush at just42. The poll was taken be-fore Trump called for a banon Muslims coming intothe U.S.

Just 31 percent of Repub-lican voters said Trump isat least somewhat compas-sionate, and 43 percent saidhe is at least somewhat lik-able. Carson was viewed asmost compassionate andlikable, with 7 in 10 Repub-lican voters saying eachword describes him at leastsomewhat well.

But while 9 in 10 Repub-lican voters said decisive-ness and competence areextremely or very impor-tant in a candidate for pres-ident, just 6 in 10 said com-passion is that important,and only half said it’s thatimportant for a candidate

to be likable.Nine in 10 Republican

voters also agreed honestyis an important quality in apresidential candidate, butthey were more divided onwhether that’s a descriptionthat applies to Trump. Fif-ty-five percent said “hon-est” describes him very orsomewhat well, and 43 per-cent said only slightly ornot at all well. Bush, Rubioand Cruz didn’t performsignificantly better. Carson,on the other hand, wasviewed as at least some-what honest by 66 percent

ASSOCIATED PRESS-GFK POLL

In this Dec. 3 photo, Republican presidential candidate DonaldTrump speaks in Washington.

Photo by Susan Walsh | AP

Voters like Trump’s decisivenessBy EMILY SWANSONASSOCIATED PRESS

See TRUMP PAGE 10A

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12St. Patrick’s Church’s 25th an-

nual 5K Walk in Celebration of Our La-dy of Guadalupe at 7 a.m. beginning infront of Alexander High School. Thewalk continues down Del Mar Boule-vard with those in the procession pray-ing the Rosary. Matachines will join theprocession at 7:45 a.m. in front of theMcDonald’s and continue on to St. Pa-trick’s Church, 555 Del Mar Blvd., forMañanitas and Mass at 7:55 a.m. Af-terward there will be a children’s playin the parish hall. Refreshments will beserved.

Laredo Book Festival: The Best ofTexas and Beyond! At the Laredo Pub-lic Library, 1120 E. Calton Road, from10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The festival cele-brates local authors and illustrators.There will be book signings, books forsale, arts and crafts, readings andmore.

El Centro de Laredo FarmersMarket from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at JarvisPlaza in downtown Laredo. There willbe a chef demo featuring healthy livingwith Texas produce, a Christmas photobooth, holiday music with DJ The PopRocks, tamales, local seasonal produceand much more. There is free parkingcourtesy of El Metro Transit Centerwith a market purchase voucher.

Third Annual Home for the Pawli-days, presented by City CouncilmanRoque Vela, at Blas Castaneda Park,5700 McPherson Road, from 10 a.m.to 3 p.m. Give a homeless pet the giftof a family this holiday season. Therewill be free coffee, sodas and hotdogs.

“The Spanish Nutcracker” atLCC’s Martinez Fine Arts Center from7:30 – 10 p.m. A Spanish-themed twiston a holiday classic comes to life asLaredo Community College and El Es-tudio de Cristina Greco present "TheSpanish Nutcracker." Presale tickets areavailable. Proceeds from the event willbenefit student scholarships. Ticketsare $10. For more information call theMartinez Fine Arts Department at 721-5334.

TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Plan-etarium shows. 2 p.m.: Wonders of theUniverse; 3 p.m.: Season of Light; 4p.m.: Mystery of the Christmas Star; 5p.m.: Let it Snow (Music Show.) Ad-mission is $4 for children and $5 foradults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU stu-dents, faculty and staff. The 3 p.m.show is $1 less. For more information,call 956-326-DOME (3663).

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Plan-

etarium shows. 6 p.m.: Wonders of theUniverse; 7 p.m.: Seven Wonders. Ad-mission is $4 for children and $5 foradults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU stu-dents, faculty and staff. For more infor-mation, call 956-326-DOME (3663).

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17Spanish Book Club. From 6-8

p.m. Laredo Public Library-Calton. Formore info please contact Sylvia Reashat 763-1810.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Plan-

etarium shows. 6 p.m.: Stars of thePharaohs; 7 p.m.: Pink Floyd’s DarkSide of the Moon. Admission is $4 forchildren and $5 for adults. Admissionis $4 for TAMIU students, faculty andstaff. For more information, call 956-326-DOME (3663).

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19Teatro Tejano de la Calle from 3

p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at La Posada Hotel,1000 Zaragoza St. Street theatre-stylehistory tour, $5 per person.

TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Plan-etarium shows. 2 p.m.: Wonders of theUniverse; 3 p.m.: Season of Light; 4p.m.: Mystery of the Christmas Star; 5p.m.: Let it Snow (Music Show.) Ad-mission is $4 for children and $5 foradults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU stu-dents, faculty and staff. The 3 p.m.show is $1 less. For more information,call 956-326-DOME (3663).

MONDAY, DECEMBER 21TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Plan-

etarium will show their Holiday BreakSpecial. 2 p.m.: Accidental Astronaut; 3p.m.: Mystery of the Christmas Star; 4p.m.: Let it Snow (Music Show). Gener-al admission is $3. For more informa-tion, call 956-326-DOME (3663).

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Plan-

etarium will show their Holiday BreakSpecial. 2 p.m.: The Little Star thatCould; 3 p.m.: Season of Light; 4 p.m.:Let it Snow (Music Show). General ad-mission is $3.

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, Dec. 12,the 346th day of 2015. Thereare 19 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On Dec. 12, 1915, singer-ac-tor Frank Sinatra was bornFrancis Albert Sinatra in Ho-boken, New Jersey.

On this date:In 1787, Pennsylvania be-

came the second state to ratifythe U.S. Constitution.

In 1870, Joseph H. Rainey ofSouth Carolina became thefirst black lawmaker sworn in-to the U.S. House of Represen-tatives.

In 1925, the first motel —the Motel Inn — opened inSan Luis Obispo, California.

In 1937, Japanese aircraftsank the U.S. gunboat Panayon China’s Yangtze River. (Ja-pan apologized, and paid $2.2million in reparations.)

In 1946, a United Nationscommittee voted to accept asix-block tract of Manhattanreal estate offered as a gift byJohn D. Rockefeller Jr. to bethe site of the U.N.’s headquar-ters.

In 1963, Kenya became inde-pendent of Britain.

In 1975, Sara Jane Mooreasked a federal court in SanFrancisco to allow her toplead guilty to trying to killPresident Gerald R. Ford. (Af-ter the judge ruled Moorecompetent to change her plea,she was sentenced to life.Moore was released on paroleon New Year’s Eve 2007 afterserving 32 years behind bars.)

In 1985, 248 American sol-diers and eight crew memberswere killed when an ArrowAir charter crashed after take-off from Gander, Newfoun-dland.

In 2000, George W. Bush be-came president-elect as a di-vided U.S. Supreme Court re-versed a state court decisionfor recounts in Florida’s con-tested election.

Ten years ago: CaliforniaGov. Arnold Schwarzeneggerrefused to block the imminentexecution of Stanley TookieWilliams, rejecting the notionthat the founder of the mur-derous Crips gang had atonedfor his crimes and found re-demption on death row. (Wil-liams was put to death earlythe next day.)

Five years ago: An explo-sives-packed minibus blew upat the entrance of a joint NA-TO-Afghan base in southernAfghanistan, killing six Amer-ican troops and two Afghansoldiers as they prepared tohead out on patrol.

One year ago: PresidentBarack Obama urged the Sen-ate to ratify a $1.1 trillionspending bill opposed by someDemocrats, judging it an im-perfect measure that stemmedfrom “the divided governmentthat the American people vot-ed for.” (The Senate passed themeasure the next day.)

Today’s Birthdays: For-mer TV host Bob Barker is 92.Basketball Hall of Famer BobPettit is 83. Actor Bill Nighy is66. Author Lorna Landvik is61. International Tennis Hallof Famer Tracy Austin is 53.Rock musician Nicholas Dim-ichino (Nine Days) is 48. Au-thor Sophie Kinsella is 46.News anchor Maggie Rodri-guez is 46. Actress JenniferConnelly is 45. Actress Mad-chen Amick is 45. Actress Re-gina Hall is 45. Country singerHank Williams III is 43. ModelBridget Hall is 38.

Thought for Today: “Ifyou possess something but youcan’t give it away, then youdon’t possess it... it possessesyou.” — Frank Sinatra (1915-1998).

TODAY IN HISTORY

FORT WORTH — Four of the nine peoplekilled in a melee between rival biker gangsoutside a Texas restaurant were struck bythe same caliber of rifle fired by Waco police,according to evidence obtained by The Asso-ciated Press that provides the most insightyet into whether authorities were responsib-le for any of the deaths and injuries.

The latest trove of potential grand juryevidence reviewed by the AP depicts a chaot-ic, bloody scene in which police swarmed in-to the shootout between rival biker gangs onMay 17 outside the Twin Peaks restaurantthat left about 20 wounded and nearly 200people arrested.

Hours of audio and footage and hundredsof documents including ballistics reportsshow that four of the dead and at least one of

the wounded were struck with bullets from.223-caliber rifles — the only type of weaponfired by police that day.

Two of the four dead had wounds from on-ly that kind of rifle; the other two were shotby other kinds of guns as well. The ballisticsreports show that the rest of the peoplekilled were shot by a variety of other guns.

It was not clear whether any bikers hadsimilar guns to the police that day. Amongthe hundreds of weapons authorities reco-vered from the scene were 12 long guns,which could include rifles.

Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman had saidin June that officers shot a total of 12 roundsusing the semi-automatic setting on their.223-caliber rifles. The AP has previously re-ported that evidence showed some of thoseshots struck bikers, but didn’t indicatewhether they were fatal.

AROUND TEXAS

In this May 17 file photo, authorities investigate a shooting in the parking lot of the Twin Peaks restaurant, in Waco, Texas.Four of the nine people killed in a melee between rival biker gangs outside a Texas restaurant were struck by the same cali-ber of rifle fired by Waco police, according to evidence obtained by The Associated Press.

Photo by Jerry Larson | AP file

Police may have killed 4By EMILY SCHMALL AND SETH ROBBINS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Qatar military official,wife guilty of visa fraudSAN ANTONIO — A Qatar

military official training in Tex-as and his wife face up to 20years in U.S. prisons for lying toget visas for two domestic work-ers and mistreating them.

Prosecutors in San Antoniosay the women from Indonesiaand Bangladesh were given littlefood and slept on a pallet in abarren apartment. The couplepleaded guilty visa fraud.

Houston-area couple hasquadruplets, all well

WEBSTER — A Houston-areacouple has welcomed quadrup-lets.

An official at Clear Lake Re-gional Medical Center in Web-ster said Friday that the threegirls and one boy were born pre-mature but are “progressingnicely.”

Spokeswoman Rita Cunning-ham says Melissa Wood ofLeague City gave birth Dec. 3.

More than 100 animalsseized from home

SAN ANTONIO — More than100 dogs, cats, ducks, pheasantsand a peacock have been re-moved from a San Antonio homeamid concerns for overcrowding.

Officials with San Antonio’sAnimal Care Services on Fridaytook custody of the various crea-tures, including at least one tur-tle. Most of the animals appear tobe well-fed, but the living condi-tions could be hazardous.

Thieves break into about100 home mailboxes

CONROE — Police are seekingthieves who broke into about 100residential mailboxes in Conroe.

U.S. Postal Service officials be-lieve criminals targeted the out-door mailboxes over a two-dayperiod.

Investigators believe thievestargeted so many mailboxes, dur-ing the holidays, to look for giftcards or mail with cash as pre-sents.

Girl, 13, who jumped frommoving school bus diesGALVESTON — A 13-year-old

girl has died of injuries sufferedwhen she jumped from a movingTexas school bus after an argu-ment with another student.

Investigators believe the girlintentionally opened the rearemergency door and jumped.

The bus was going about 55mph Monday on I-45 when thegirl jumped and suffered a headinjury. She died Wednesday.

Police say boy, 11, findsgun, fatally shoots selfDALLAS — Dallas police say

an 11-year-old boy has died afteraccidentally shooting himselfwith a gun he found while at aresidence.

Police on Thursday did notimmediately release the child’sname or further details on whyhe was at the apartment.

Investigators say the shootinghappened Wednesday night.

— Compiled from AP reports

Wintry storm dumps snow on Sierra NevadaSAN FRANCISCO — The big-

gest storm to hit the slopes of theSierra Nevada this season trig-gered cheers Friday from thesnow-starved ski resorts ofNorthern California and thebusinesses that surround them.

Elsewhere in the drought-stricken state, rain and windgusts prompted high surf warn-ings and repeated cautions fromhighway patrol to slow downwhen driving.

The state needs all the snowand rain it can get, given fouryears of drought that have driedup reservoirs and left treesparched.

NJ could expand casinosbeyond Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — NewJersey voters would be asked inNovember whether to approvetwo new casinos in the northern

part of the state under an agree-ment unveiled Friday by statelawmakers.

The deal announced by SenatePresident Steve Sweeney calls fora November 2016 referendum onwhether to approve two new casi-nos in separate northern New

Jersey counties. The ballot ques-tion would not specify locationsfor either casino.

Tax revenue from the new ca-sinos would go to help AtlanticCity compensate from the expect-ed loss of business.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

In this photo provided by the Northstar California Resort, skiers make their waydown a run at the Northstar California Resort Thursday, in Truckee, Calif. It’sshaping up as the biggest snowstorm to hit the central Sierra in two years.

Photo courtesy of Northstar California Resort | AP

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 Local & State THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

The Zapata County Mu-seum of History is hostingthis year’s Christmas Town& Country Homes Tour onSunday from 1 to 5 p.m.

Visitors will tour La Ha-cienda De Las Flores,Torres Homes, LozanoHome and Treviño Ranch.

General Admission is $7.There will be new displaysand refreshments.

Come by the museum,805 N. U.S. Highway 83, fortickets and a map.

There will also be aChristmas tree decoratingcontest. Local organiza-tions will display themedChristmas trees at the mu-seum. Admission is $3 foradults and $1 for children.Visitors can vote for theirfavorite tree.

HomesTour

set forSunday

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Zapata residents will betreated Wednesday to anappearance by DinosaurGeorge.

The event, which takesplace from 8 a.m. to 6:30p.m. at the Zapata CountyCommunity Center, is freeand open to the public.

Dinosaur George is atraveling museum designedto bring dinosaurs to com-munities where the localchildren and adults maynot have an opportunity tosee things as amazing asthese, states a news re-lease.

This exhibit is highlyeducational. It is the large-st traveling exhibit of itskind in North Americawith more than 150 indi-vidual exhibit items fromaround the world, such ashuge skulls and bonesfrom prehistoric creaturesthat once roamed the plan-et.

Dinosaur George staffwill lead viewers throughan initial tour of the exhib-it.

The Zapata County Com-

munity Center is located at605 N. U.S. Highway 83.

The event is sponsored

by Dr. B’s Pediatric CareCenter, Zapata Crime Stop-pers, the Zapata County

Sheriff ’s Office, Saíd Alfon-so Figueroa Zapata CountyAttorney Youth Awareness

Program and the ZapataCounty Chamber of Com-merce.

Dinosaur George to visit ZapataSPECIAL TO THE TIMES

DALLAS — They areknown as “Three Percen-ters,” followers of a move-ment that has ralliedagainst gun control effortsnationwide, patrolled theU.S. border with Mexicoand recently begun con-fronting Muslim Ameri-cans.

Followers describe them-selves as armed “patriots.”But some of their leadershave been blamed forthreats and vandalismagainst lawmakers, policeand Muslims. One promi-nent member from Phoenixprompted an FBI alert in

November after posting anexpletive-filled Facebookvideo saying he was headedto upstate New York withguns to challenge a Muslimgroup.

In suburban Dallas, aprotest at a mosque byarmed, masked men, led bya Three Percent member,highlighted tension with theMuslim community. Also inTexas, the state has suedthe federal government tohalt Syrian resettlement.Police in September arrest-ed a 14-year-old Muslimwhose teachers in Irving,Texas, thought his hand-made clock was a bomb.And two Muslim gunmenwere shot outside a DallasProphet Muhammad car-

toon contest in May. The Three Percenters

have expressed concernsabout national security inwaging anti-Muslim activ-

ities this year. It’s unclearwhether they’ve also beeninfluenced by the provoca-tive speech of Republicanpresidential candidate Do-

nald Trump following thedeadly Paris attacks.

“We will interfere withevery move they (Muslims)make towards taking overour country,” Dallas protestorganizer David Wright saidin response to questions theAssociated Press sent to hispersonal Facebook page.“We are ready to fight backif they come at us violently.”

Wright, who plans to pro-test Saturday at a differentmosque, hasn’t advertisedthe “Three Percenters”name in his activities. Buthe claimed membership incomments on Facebook andtold the AP he was a leaderin a Texas chapter. A sec-ond Facebook profile ap-pends the Roman numeral

“III” to his name, as do oth-er Three Percenters, andfeatures a black “III%”patch as a background pho-tograph.

The Three Percentersmovement began in 2008,galvanized by President Ba-rack Obama’s election, fol-lowers and researchers say.The name comes from thedisputed percentage of colo-nials who armed them-selves and fought the Brit-ish during the AmericanRevolution.

The number of ThreePercenters is unclear partlybecause anyone can ascribeto the movement. The mancredited as the founder hasclaimed 3 million on hisblog.

Armed ‘patriots’ protest Muslim AmericansBy REESE DUNKLIN

AND EMILY SCHMALLASSOCIATED PRESS

Armed demonstrators hold a protest outside the Islamic Center ofIrving in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

Photo by Avi Selk/The Dallas Morning News | AP

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015

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

Federal, state and locallawmakers should takenote of the SupremeCourt’s decision thisweek not to hear a chal-lenge to a Chicago sub-urb’s ban on semiauto-matic assault weapons. Arecent series of horrificmass shootings, includ-ing one with the kind ofweapon that HighlandPark, Ill., has banned,underline government’slegitimate interest inregulating gun owner-ship to safeguard publicsafety. Lawmakers inWashington and statecapitals should take notethat they have the leeway— not to mention theobligation — to reformthis country’s lax gunlaws.

The court announcedMonday it would not re-view a lower-court rulingthat upheld the 2013 ordi-nance prohibiting semi-automatic weapons andhigh-capacity magazines."Weapons of choice inmass shootings" was theapt description from theopinion by a divided pan-el of the U.S. Court of Ap-peals for the 7th Circuit.It noted that the Su-preme Court’s landmarkDistrict of Columbia v.Heller decision uphold-ing a constitutional rightto keep arms for self-de-fense also allowed rea-sonable regulation bylegislatures, includingthe ability to prohibit"dangerous and unusualweapons."

Seven states reachedsimilar conclusionsabout the need to banthese frighteningly lethalweapons, and their re-cent use in the terrorist-inspired shooting in SanBernardino, Calif., hasbrought renewed calls forreimposition of a nation-al ban. These weaponsare designed for war, andprohibition makes sense.But there should be no il-lusion that such a move,alone, would provide thesolution to gun violence,of which mass shootings

and the use of assaultweapons comprise just asmall part. Similarly, ef-forts to prevent people onthe no-fly list from buy-ing weapons would do lit-tle to tackle larger issuesof gun accessibility.

A variety of strategiesis needed, including stiff-ening the low standardsfor legal gun ownership,designing better systemsto prevent those who aredisqualified from circum-venting barriers to gunpossession and encourag-ing the adoption of tech-nology to make gunssafer. Instead of holdingup possible policies tothe impossible test ofwhether they could haveprevented the most re-cent tragedy or wouldend all gun crime, pro-posals should be ground-ed in the research intowhat works and what of-fers the most promise forreducing homicides, sui-cides and accidentalshootings. Laws requir-ing gun purchasers to ob-tain a license from lawenforcement authoritieswould meet those tests.Not only has researchshown the efficacy of gunpermitting in reducinghomicides and suicides,but gun owners are gen-erally willing to put upwith a little inconve-nience if it helps fosterpublic safety.

Before passing on theHighland Park ordi-nance, the SupremeCourt opted out of re-viewing San Francisco’slaw requiring handgunsto be disabled or lockedaway when they are notbeing carried. It also de-clined to consider a chal-lenge to a New Jerseylaw barring most resi-dents from carrying gunsin public. We don’t knowwhether, as some havespeculated, the justicesare having secondthoughts about the Hell-er decision; we do knowthat lawmakers can andshould take action to ad-dress this country’s un-acceptable toll of gun vio-lence.

EDITORIAL

There is anobligation toreform USgun laws

THE WASHINGTON POST

OTHER VIEWS

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

This week, I spent oneunseasonably warm eve-ning at church, listening tochildren, kindergartenersthrough fourth-graders,sing Christmas songs whilestruggling to act as grownup as they’d been dressedup to be (never saw somany miniature bow ties inmy life, and I used to teachat a boys’ school).

They succeeded. At thesinging part, that is, whichwas angelic. The grown-uppart was a bit harder be-cause the equation "7 p.m.plus late dinner plus under10 plus grandparents snap-ping photos" yields lots ofenergy. One little boy keptbobbing his head back andforth like a metronome, tothe point that I wish I’dstuck Dramamine in myhandbag. (Side note: Dra-mamine was the only thingI didn’t have in my hand-bag, since I subscribe to theMonty Hall "ya got a paperclip in there?" school of or-ganization.)

Anyway, it was an in-credibly beautiful show, es-pecially the finale, wherethe kids invited those of usin the audience to singalong with them. The tunewas my all-time favoritecarol, "Do You Hear What IHear?"

And I suddenly foundmyself tearing up, whilesinging words that I’d knowby heart from the age of 7.It wasn’t so much the song,even though I really feel itssoaring spirit, especiallythe line "A child, a child,sleeping in the night/ hewill bring us goodness andlight/ he will bring us good-

ness and light."It wasn’t even the fact

that this is the first Christ-mas I’m feeling the full im-pact of my mother’s death,which is now a fact thatmust be accepted instead ofthe fresh shock during lastyear’s yuletide.

It wasn’t any panic aboutnot having the time or dis-posable money to go shop-ping.

It was this sense of grat-itude that these childrencould distract me in theirsweet, showy innocencefrom the meanness and theinsanity of the adults. Theywere mostly tears of grati-tude, mixed with frustra-tion.

As I wrote on my Face-book page, this pageant waslike the "Silkwood Shower,"cleansing me of the nuclearpoison caused by DonaldTrump. The past weekshave been difficult ones forpeople who don’t fit easilyinto any tidy political cate-gory. I certainly don’t.

On the one hand, I hatepeople who take offense atthe drop of a hat. It’s ridicu-lous to dance around thefact that the massacre inSan Bernardino, Calif., wasexecuted by a radicalizedU.S. citizen and his jihadistwife. They were Muslims.

On the other hand, theradiologist who foughtmightily to save my father’slife three decades ago andwho cried at his funeralwas also Muslim.

So are many people I callfriends.

So are some arrogantapologists at Center forAmerican-Islamic Rela-tions.

So are the soldiers on theground in the Middle East

fighting the Islamic State.So are most of its vic-

tims.Religion is relevant, then.

But it’s not determinative.And the idea that we’re go-ing to applaud someonewho thinks you can bar anentire group of believersfrom the United States isfrightening to me.

I’m more afraid of thepeople at Trump rallieswho think he’s an immigra-tion and constitutionalscholar, and are willing todraw barbed wire in frontof a Muslim seeking admis-sion. They parrot talkingpoints they’ve heard on theradio and television, andlack any sense of doubt orhumility. They call them-selves Americans. I’d callthem something else.

I remember seven yearsago, when Sarah Palin wasbeing ridiculed by liberalsfor being stupid. It was be-yond offensive, and showedthat progressives like to de-mean the intelligence oftheir philosophical oppo-nents.

I vowed then that I wouldnever do that. But I will al-so not ignore that some peo-ple, in order to maintainthe integrity of their val-ues, will not listen to facts.They will integrate opinioninto their arguments, andconvince themselves thattheir beliefs are objectivelytrue.

They will also report sta-tistics from polls withwhich they agree, and ig-nore the statistics fromthose that run counter totheir preconceptions. Youwill try and discuss withthem, calmly, the issues.They will take offense, andrespond with a certitude

that stuns, or at least cutsoff the conversation.

If you say you can’t ex-clude an entire group ofpeople based on the waythey pray to God, regard-less of the deformation oftheir faith by others, youhear "Well Roosevelt did itwith the Japanese." Actual-ly, Roosevelt interned a lotof people, didn’t excludethem, but he also refused toaccept Jewish refugeesfrom the Holocaust, and setup camps for Italian andGerman Americans as well.This was not based on reli-gion, and this was duringwartime, but it is now seenas having been the singulardark mark on an otherwiseadmirable political life.

This is not an example tobolster the righteousness ofTrump’s position.

And still we end up witha low threshold debateabout all Muslims being po-tential terrorists so we haveto keep them out. And thebuffoon with the hairdogets standings ovations.

That’s why I had moisteyes at the Christmas con-cert. Those sweet, highvoices were inviting me tolisten to the message ofgrace, of welcome, a Chris-tian message of hope. Andall I could feel was grati-tude that these babiesweren’t yet old enough tohate the stranger morethan they loved their neigh-bor, mixed with regret thatthey would have to growup, possibly under a Presi-dent Trump.

Hence, the tears.Christine M. Flowers is a

lawyer and columnist for thePhiladelphia Daily News.Readers may send her emailat cflowers1961@gmail.com.

COLUMN

Relishing innocence at churchBy CHRISTINE M. FLOWERSPHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

To the editor:The abuse of synthetic

drugs has become a verystrong issue and problemin the counties along theU.S.-Mexico Border. Zapa-ta county has been affect-ed by this substance, caus-ing severe health issues. Itis crucial that my officeand staff remain educatedand competent with theexpertise and knowledgeon how to detect and iden-tify abuse of these drugs.

We need to take thelead and step up in com-bating this problem whichhas become a health is-sue. I’m very interested inknowing the currenttrends involving syntheticdrugs and any health is-sues and complicationsthey bring.

On Dec. 1, 2015, I sentmy staff members toMcAllen, Texas, for a con-tinuing education courseon Synthetic Drug Abusehosted by the HidalgoCounty Sheriff ’s Officeand the Human HealthServices.

Overall, we need thecommunity’s help withany information on those

who sell this controlleddeadly substance. I contin-uously ask the communi-ty’s help to keep ZapataCounty a safe place tolive. Communication be-tween the law enforce-ment and the communityis key to successfully fightdrug abuse.

My concern is the safe-ty and security of thecounty.

Some of these drugs aresold over the internet orcertain stores (such as"herbal smoking blends"),while others are disguisedas products labeled "notfor human consumption"(such as "herbal incense,""plant food," "bath salts"or "jewelry cleaner") tomask their intended pur-pose and avoid health andsafety rules.

It is important to keepthe community informedand updated daily. Our ci-tizens need to be aware ofwhat issues are uprisingand threatening our chil-dren, youth and the entirecommunity.

Sincerely,Sheriff Alonso M. Lo-

pez

YOUR OPINIONSheriff concerned about proliferation ofsynthetic drug abuse in the community

CHICAGO — The familyof a black teenager shot 16times by a white Chicagopolice officer joined the callFriday for change in localleadership and policing inthe city and nationwide,weeks after a video of the2014 killing set off days ofprotests.

Laquan McDonald wasshot in October 2014 by po-lice Officer Jason Van Dyke,who is charged with first-degree murder. Squad-carfootage was released latelast month upon a judge’sorder, and protests have tak-en place almost daily since.Protesters allege a cover-upand have called for the re-signation of Mayor RahmEmanuel and Cook CountyState’s Attorney Anita Alva-rez.

The Rev. Marvin Hunter,who is McDonald’s greatuncle, said at a news confer-ence Friday that “whatwe’re feeling in Chicago isthe real feeling of Americaitself, and that’s injusticeagainst people of color.” Healso said there are “thou-sands of Laquan McDo-nalds.”

The family has stayedlargely out of the spotlightsince the video was releasedNov. 24, but about a dozen ofthem stood behind Hunter.A few activists with themwore T-shirts that read“Rahm Failed Us.”

One notable absence wasMcDonald’s mother, whomHunter said is “hurting andtraumatized by the constantreminder of the senselessdeath of her son.”

Since the video’s release,McDonald’s death becameanother example in the de-bate over gun violence andthe treatment of African-Americans by the police.Protesters have turned theshooting into a rallying cry,their chants of “16 shotsand a cover-up” taking its

place alongside the “I can’tbreathe” refrain that fol-lowed the video that showedEric Garner being takendown by a New York policeofficer in a fatal chokehold.

The city agreed to a $5million settlement withMcDonald’s family earlierthis year without a lawsuitbeing filed. Hunter down-played that Friday, sayingthe money that really mat-ters should come in theform of government re-sources to foster economicdevelopment and keep suchdeaths from happening. Andhe said he is calling for anational summit to be heldin his community — one ofthe most dangerous in Chi-cago — and hoped that Pres-ident Barack Obama woulddispatch someone from theWhite House to attend.

Chicago officials foughtthe release of the video, ar-guing that it could interferewith any resulting courtcase. Acting on a judge’s or-der, the city released it justhours after Alvarez an-nounced charges against theofficer. Attorneys for McDo-nald’s family said days agothat McDonald’s mother didnot want the video madepublic because she was stillgrieving. But on Friday, oneof their attorneys, JeffreyNeslund, said the city un-derstood that if Van Dykewas not charged that he and

attorney Michael Robbinswould release the video thatthey had obtained as part oftheir legal work for the fam-ily.

“The agreement says ...we would not release thevideo unless the officer wasnot criminally charged,” hesaid.

Neslund also wonderedwhy Alvarez, who ultimate-ly charged Van Dyke morethan a year after McDo-nald’s death, has been criti-cized while federal prosecu-tors have largely avoided re-proach.

Alvarez has defended thedelay in bringing chargesagainst Van Dyke, calling ita complex investigation.Emanuel apologized thisweek that the incident oc-curred under his adminis-tration. He fired the policechief and named a new headof the agency that investi-gates police conduct. Butprotests have continued.

Hunter called on Alvarezto resign but declined to de-mand, as other protestershave, that Emanuel stepdown as well. “I hold AnitaAlvarez accountable,” hesaid when asked about Ema-nuel’s role in the McDonaldinvestigation.

Hunter said McDonaldwas raised by his great-grandmother and, despite atough life, was gentle, lovingand fond of telling jokes.

Family of teen shot bycop joins call for change

By DON BABWINASSOCIATED PRESS

Demonstrators outside City Hall protest Chicago Police tactics inChicago, Friday.

Photo by Joshua Lott | New York Times

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 Nation THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

OKLAHOMA CITY — A“serial rapist with abadge” who faces manyyears in prison for rapingblack women on his policebeat was caught because ofthe courage of a grand-mother who refused to re-main silent after he sexual-ly assaulted her, her lawyersaid Friday.

“He just picked thewrong lady to stop thatnight,” said Jannie Ligons,whose complaint triggeredthe investigation that led tocharges Daniel Holtzclawvictimized 13 women as anOklahoma City Police offi-cer. “I wanted to make surethis wouldn’t happenagain, no way no how.”

Holtzclaw’s convictionon charges including rapeand sexual battery shouldsend a strong message na-tionwide, said attorneyBenjamin Crump, whoplans to sue the city forcivil damages.

“Black women’s livesmatter. It mattered just asif this were a group of 13white women,” Crumpsaid.

Holtzclaw was foundguilty on his 29th birthdayThursday of sex crimesagainst eight of the wom-en, and acquitted of charg-es involving five otherwomen he encounteredwhile on night patrol. Ju-rors recommended 263years, including 30-yearsentences for each of fourfirst-degree rape convic-tions.

Ligons, a daycare work-er in her 50s who waspulled over while drivinghome from a night withfriends, said she knew shehad done nothing wrongwhen Holtzclaw assaultedher.

“He did things to methat I didn’t think a policeofficer would do,” said Li-

gons, flanked by her familyand African-American ac-tivists outside the court-house. “I was out therealone and helpless, didn’tknow what to do.”

Investigators found oth-er victims through recordsof the background checksHoltzclaw had requested,corroborated their claimsthrough the GPS locator inhis squad car. He was firedand then jailed as othervictims emerged.

Holtzclaw’s case was ex-amined as part of a year-long Associated Press in-vestigation that revealedabout 1,000 officers nation-wide had lost their licensesfor sex crimes or other sex-ual misconduct over a six-year period.

The AP’s finding is un-doubtedly an undercount,since not every state has aprocess for banning prob-lem officers from re-enter-ing law enforcement, andstates that do vary greatlyin how they report andprosecute wrongdoers.

One factor stands out,however: Victims tend tobe among society’s mostvulnerable — juveniles,drug addicts, and womenin custody or with a crimi-nal history.

Questions of race sur-rounded the trial. Holtz-claw is half-white, half-Ja-panese. All his accusers

are black. The case washeard by an all-white jury.Oklahoma County DistrictAttorney David Prater saidhe had sought a “goodcross-section of our com-munity,” but defense attor-neys had eliminated everypotential black juror.

Prater said he hopespeople will see that his of-fice and local law enforce-ment will stand up for anyone, no matter their raceor background. Activistsoutside the courthouse onFriday said they will close-ly watch Holtzclaw’s sen-tencing to make sure.

The youngest victim, a17-year-old girl, was the lastto testify. She said Holtz-claw picked her up as shewalked home one night inJune 2014, and then walkedher to the porch, where hetold her he had to searchher. She said he grabbedher breasts, then pulleddown her pink shorts andraped her. Her DNA wasfound on his uniform trou-sers.

The jury convictedHoltzclaw of first-degreerape, second-degree rapeand sexual battery in thegirl’s case.

The AP does not identifyvictims of sex crimes with-out their consent and is notusing the mother’s name,but is using Ligon’s namebecause she spoke publicly.

Officer guilty ofraping black women

By NOMAAN MERCHANTAND SEAN MURPHYASSOCIATED PRESS

Shardayreon Hill, center, one of the accusers of former OklahomaCity police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, stands with her parents.

Photo by Sue Ogrocki | AP

EL CASCANUECESThe Nutcracker (El

Cascanueces) será presenta-do en el Auditorio de ZapataHigh School, 2009 StateHwy 16, el domingo 13 dediciembre a las 2 p.m. Elcosto del boleto es de 5 dó-lares. Organizado por el De-partamento de Teatro deZHS, en coordinación por ExAlumnos de Teatro de ZHS yThe Dance Studio.

RECORRIDO DE CASASSe invita a recorrer

las decoraciones en casasubicadas en La Hacienda DeLas Flores, Torres Homes,Lozano Home y TreviñoRanch el domingo 13 de di-ciembre, de 1 p.m. a 5 p.m.La entrada tiene costo de 7dólares. Adquiera su boletoen el Museo de Historia delCondado de Zapata, 805 N.US Hwy 83. También se lehará entrega de un mapa.Informes en el (956) 765-8983.

ENTREGA DE CARTILLAGUERRERO, México—

El sábado 12 y el domingo13 de diciembre, se realizarála entrega de Cartilla Militaren las instalaciones de lapresidencia municipal.

Se requiere que los inte-resados lleguen en punto delas 8 a.m. y lleven su mediacartilla.

CARRERA 5KMIGUEL ALEMÁN— La

ciudad de Miguel Alemán,México, invita a la poblacióna participar en la carrera ycaminata 5K “Regala unaSonrisa”.

El evento tendrá lugar eldomingo 13 de diciembre, ydará inicio frente al palaciomunicipal, a las 8 a.m. Con-tinuará por el boulevard Mi-guel Alemán hasta el libra-miento Eulogio Gómez y re-tornará por la misma víahasta el palacio municipal.

Los interesados podráninscribirse en las oficinas dela dirección municipal deldeporte en el auditorio mu-nicipal o el mismo día delevento antes de la carrera.Los participantes deberánllevar un regalo como apor-tación al evento.

Los participantes recibi-rán gratis una camiseta con-memorativa del evento.

DINOSAUR GEORGEEl miércoles 16 de di-

ciembre, se presentará la ex-hibición “Dinosaur George,Traveling Museum Exhibit”,en el Centro Comunitario delCondado de Zapata, ubicadoen 605 de N. U.S. Hwy.

El evento, que es gratuitopara estudiantes, escuelas ypúblico en general, está pro-gramado de 8 a.m. a 6:30p.m.

BAILE DE NAVIDADEl grupo Costumbre

se presentará en el Baile deNavidad de Nueva CiudadGuerrero, Tamaulipas.

El baile tendrá lugar elviernes 25 de diciembre, alas 9 p.m. en el Centro Cívi-co de la Ciudad.

SOCIEDAD GENEALÓGICALa Sociedad Genealó-

gica Nuevo Santander infor-ma que la próxima reuniónserá el sábado 9 de enerodel 2016 a las 2 p.m. en805 N Main St/ US Hwy 83.

FERIA DEL CONDADO DEZAPATA

La Feria del Condadode Zapata elegirá a sus re-presentantes de belleza ainicios del 2016. El Certá-men de Belleza para Jr. Ro-yalty se celebrará el 7 de fe-brero; en tanto que el Con-curso para Reinas de laFeria del Condado de Zapatase celebrará el 28 de febre-ro. Ambos eventos se reali-zarán a las 2 p.m. en el Au-ditorio de Zapata High Scho-ol.

Ribereñaen Breve

AUSTIN — Un jurado re-quirió menos de dos horasel jueves para encontrar cul-pable al empresario Francis-co Colorado Cessa, por elcargo de conspiración porlavado de dinero para el cár-tel de drogas de Los Zetas.

Tras ocho días de testi-monios, el jurado escuchó avarios narcotraficantes yoperadores del cártel que di-jeron que Los Zetas confia-ron en gente como Coloradopara convertir el dinero su-cio en fondos que podríanutilizar libremente.

Fiscales expusieron quepor esa razón el gobierno deEU fue tras Colorado, quienno participó directamentecon el narcotráfico.

“Los empresarios son unconducto para estos suje-tos”, dijo el Fiscal Asistentede EU, Douglas Gardner,después de la lectura del ve-redicto. “Creo que tambiénes importante enfocarnos encómo lavan dinero en Esta-dos Unidos”.

Colorado podría enfren-tar una sentencia de hasta20 años en prisión. Su con-dena le será dictada en unafecha posterior.

De acuerdo con el testi-monio, Colorado conoció aun integrante fundador deLos Zetas durante carrerasde caballos en su estado na-tal, y finalmente trabajó decerca con Miguel TreviñoMorales, el líder del cártelque se encuentra prisioneroen México.

Treviño tenía un esque-

ma para lavar decenas demillones de dólares a travésde una operación de cría decaballos y carreras de caba-llos en Estados Unidos, ope-rada por su hermano mayor,José, y necesitaba de testafe-rros en este país para pagar

por los caballos en las su-bastas. Los fiscales mostra-ron que Colorado comprócaballos los que finalmenteterminaron en posesión deJosé Treviño.

Durante sus argumentosfinales, Chris Flood, aboga-do de la defensa, dijo queColorado tuvo pocas opcio-nes en la materia. Duranteesta semana y la pasada, eljurado escuchó a testigosque describieron cómo LosZetas usaron a empresarioslegítimos en México para la-var dinero generado por lacorporación multimillona-ria de la droga.

Alejandro Barradas, unagente aduanal de Veracruz,estado natal de Colorado,fue abatido cuando no coo-peró con Los Zetas, deacuerdo con el testimonio.

Ramiro Villarreal, quienun tiempo compró caballospara Los Zetas en el país,fue golpeado letalmentecuando líderes del cártelsospecharon que estaba coo-perando con el gobierno deEU.

El miércoles, Alfonso DelRayo, un magnate de las bie-nes raíces en Veracruz, de-claró que fue secuestrado yforzado a tomar un vuelo ala ciudad de Oklahoma paracomprar caballos para elcártel.

“Pancho Colorado noacordó con nadie cometer la-vado de dinero”, dijo Flood.“Él compró los caballos paraLos Zetas con su propio di-nero. La alternativa era que(Colorado) corriera la mis-ma suerte de Ramiro Villa-rreal, Alejandro Barradas”.

JUICIO FRANCISCO COLORADO CESSA

Veredicto: CulpablePOR JASON BUCH

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

COLORADO

PÁGINA 6A Zfrontera SÁBADO 12 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2015

El jueves, autoridades estadounidensesempezaron trasladar a albergues del nortede Texas a casi 1.000 menores indocumen-tados provenientes en su mayoría de Cen-troamérica y que recién habían cruzado lafrontera con México.

La acción es en respuesta al fuerte incre-mento vivido en las últimas semanas conla llegada de menores no acompañados. Talha sido la cantidad que los albergues de lafrontera sur de Texas no son capaces de ab-sorber (la responsabilidad).

Entre octubre y noviembre, cruzaron lafrontera casi 10.595 menores no acompaña-dos, más del doble que en 2014, cuando fue-ron 5.129, según datos de la Oficina deAduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CBP).

Los menores, de entre 12 y 17 años deedad, llegarán a dos albergues pertenecien-tes a organizaciones religiosas en los con-dados de Ellis y Rockwall, cercanos a Da-llas. Los funcionarios en ambos condadosaseguraron que el traslado les fue “impues-to” por las autoridades federales.

“La gente puede estar muy preocupadapor la seguridad. Estos niños han cruzadoilegalmente la frontera, de algún modo hantenido la capacidad y la astucia para cru-zar de Guatemala a México”, dijo PaulPerry, comisionado para el Condado deEllis.

Por su parte, el juez del condado de Roc-kwall, David Sweet, dijo que se están encar-gando de la situación de sus ciudadanos.

“Somos conscientes de la situación difí-cil que viven estas personas pero nuestraprioridad, obviamente, es la seguridad detodos los residentes del condado”.

Los menores permanecerán en estos cen-tros por un máximo de tres semanas a laespera de que familiares que ya viven enEstados Unidos los acojan o, en caso con-trario, de ser deportados a sus países deorigen.

En tanto, autoridades informaron que seabrirá un tercer albergue en California an-tes de que finalice el año. El fundador delalbergue del condado de Rockwall, Ed Wal-ker, respondió a los comentarios escépticosde las autoridades locales. “Estos niños…ya están aquí y tenemos que encargarnos.Estamos preparados para ayudar y conten-tos de hacerlo”, expresó Walker.

En un comunicado, el Departamento deSalud de Estados Unidos afirmó que “au-mentar la capacidad de albergue de meno-res no acompañados” es “una medida pru-dente para que BP siga con su misión”.

TEXAS

Trasladanniños solos a albergues

LA VOZ DE HOUSTON

Bartolomé Robert y Yar-zábal nació en Tampico,México, el jueves 20 de oc-tubre de 1842. Sus padresfueron Teodora Yarzábal,de San Sebastián, España,y Francisco Robert, deCampeche, quienes habíancontraído matrimonio en

1841.Médico al igual que el

abuelo paterno de nuestrobiografiado, Francisco Ro-bert llegó a Tampico en1837 para ejercer de gale-no.

Francisco Robert era ci-rujano y dirigió el HospitalMilitar en 1844 y el Hospi-tal Civil en 1845. Prestarespaldo entretanto a laBeneficencia Española. De-sempeñaba funciones desíndico municipal cuandoen 1842 visitan Tampicomadame Calderón de la

Barca y su marido ÁngelCalderón de la Barca, di-plomático hispano. Ellovuelve probable la entre-vista de los tres en aquellaoportunidad.

El lunes 18 de mayo de1846, Francisco Robert cer-tifica el acta bautismal delpequeño vástago, llevándo-selo a Sitges, España. Losacompañaría Josefa, her-mana de Bartolomé. El in-fante tamaulipeco iniciasus estudios allá. Gradúaen 1867 con el título de mé-dico, de la Universidad de

Barcelona, a los 26 años deedad.

Practicante de esta pro-fesión, atiende enfermos,imparte cátedras, produceobras especializadas, dictaconferencias y preside dis-tintas academias del rubro.Imposible resumir en bre-ves líneas su trayectoriaprofesional. Recibe meda-lla del cabildo barcelonéspor auxilios prestados anteepidemias de fiebre amari-lla y cólera asiático en 1870y 1885, respectivamente.

Es electo alcalde de Bar-

celona en 1899, tiempo enel que depura el padrónelectoral. Renuncia al nodesear obedecer órdenespara que realice embargosen perjuicio de gente des-contenta con las onerosascontribuciones hacenda-rias. Empero, en 1901, sutierra adoptiva lo elige a lacámara baja del congresonacional.

(Con permiso del autorsegún fuera publicado enLa Razón de Tampico, Mé-xico, el 27 de noviembre del2015)

HISTORIA

Un tamaulipeco gobernó en Cataluña Nota del Editor: Esta es la

primera de dos partes acercade la vida de Bartolomé Ro-bert y Yarzábal.

POR RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

DIÓCESIS DE LAREDO

MISERICORDIA

El Obispo de la Diócesis de Laredo, James A. Tamayo, abre las puertas de la Catedral de San Agustín en Laredo, paracelebrar el Jubileo Extraordinario del Año Santo de la Misericordia, que concluirá hasta el 20 de noviembre del 2016.En palabras del Papa Francisco, el Año Santo de la Misericordia “nos recuerda que Dios nos espera con los brazosabiertos, similar a como el padre espera al hijo prodigo”.

Foto de cortesía | Diócesis de Laredo

El miércoles, María DelCarmen Peña, asesora de im-puestos del condado de Starr,y otros seis empleados delcondado fueron arrestados yacusados por robo en relacióncon una investigación que, adecir de autoridades estatalesy federales, reveló la depend-encia sufrió el robo de más de700.000 dólares.

Los arrestosfueron anuncia-dos por la Ofici-na del Fiscal delDistrito Judicial229.

Los cargos in-cluyen falsifica-ción de registros

gubernamentales, robo por unservidor público, falsificacióny actividad criminal organiza-da.

Oficiales agregaron que

otras personas fueron acusa-das formalmente en relacióncon la investigación.

La investigación fue realiza-da por varias agencias policia-cas, incluyendo la División deInvestigaciones Criminalesdel Departamento de Seguri-dad Pública, que encavezó lainvestigación, Texas Rangers,la Fuerza de Trabajo paraCorrupción Pública del FBI eInvestigaciones de SeguridadNacional, entre otras.

CONDADO STARR

Peña recibe cargos por roboPOR AARON NELSEN

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

PEÑA

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 Nation THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

WASHINGTON — Thecountry will have to waita bit longer to find outwho will become the firstwoman on U.S. paper cur-rency in more than a cen-tury.

Treasury Secretary Ja-cob Lew had said hewould announce a deci-sion by the end of thisyear naming the womanwho will replace Alexan-der Hamilton’s portrait onthe $10 bill.

But late Friday, Treasu-ry issued a statement say-ing the announcementwas being delayed untilsometime in 2016. Treasu-ry said the delay will givethe government time to“carefully review and con-sider a range of options”in response to an outpour-ing of suggestions fromthe public over the pastsix months.

Lew set off a furor inJune when he announcedhe was replacing Hamil-ton’s portrait on the $10bill with a woman. Trea-sury has gotten more than1.5 million responses com-menting on the change,everything from tweets tohandwritten notes.

Treasury has not re-vealed who might be inthe running to be placedon the $10 bill. Lew hassaid suggestions from thepublic have covered awide range of women whohave played importantroles in American historygoing back to the foundingof the country and rang-ing through the Civil Warand up to the modern era.

Treasury has asked thepublic to comment not on-ly about who should go onthe $10 billion but also to

suggest the best way touse the currency redesignto depict the theme of de-mocracy. Lew has stressedthat the redesign is aboutmore than just the onesquare inch of Hamilton’sportrait.

Hamilton supporters,including former FederalReserve Chairman BenBernanke, have urged Lewto reverse his decision toreplace the portrait of thenation’s first Treasury sec-retary on the $10 bill. Lewhas said that Hamiltonwill still be honored onthe $10 bill but he has notspecified how that com-mitment will be carriedout once Hamilton’s por-trait is replaced.

The Treasury statementdid not specify how longthe announcement couldbe delayed, only that itwould come “in the newyear.”

“As a result of the tre-mendous amount of en-gagement, we have manymore ideas than we hadoriginally anticipated,”the statement said.“Therefore, we are takingadditional time to careful-ly review and consider arange of options to honorthe theme of democracy aswell as the notable contri-butions women have madein our country.”

While the $10 bill is thefirst that will be rede-signed, Treasury hasplans to redesign the othercurrency denominationsin coming years as part ofan effort to protect againstcounterfeiters.

Treasury has a goal ofcompleting the redesign ofthe $10 bill by 2020, the100th anniversary of thepassage of the 19thAmendment giving wom-en the right to vote.

Woman on$10 bill stillup in the air

By MARTIN CRUTSINGERASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Avoid-ing the high drama of re-cent year-end budget fights,President Barack Obamasigned legislation Fridaykeeping government agen-cies open into next week,giving White House andcongressional bargainersmore time to completesweeping deals on taxesand federal spending.

Facing a midnight dead-line, Obama signed themeasure keeping govern-ment afloat throughWednesday just hours afterthe House used a voice voteto send it to him. The Sen-ate approved the bill a dayearlier, its easy sojournthrough Congress under-scoring that neither partysaw reason to risk a gov-ernment shutdown battle.

Talks were likely tostretch at least into theweekend over the environ-ment, Syrian refugees, gunsand dozens of other dis-putes sprinkled across twomajor bills. One would pro-vide $1.1 trillion to financegovernment for 2016; theother would renew around50 expiring tax cuts forbusinesses and individualsthat, with additions, couldswell to a 10-year price tagof $700 billion or more.

Disagreements remainedbut show-stopping, partisanquarrels were already re-solved, lowering the decibellevel of this year’s budgetendgame. The overall $1.1trillion spending total waspreviously cemented inplace, leaving only spend-ing details to finalize, andRepublicans decided toavoid shutdown brinkman-ship with Obama by omit-ting provisions dismantlinghis 2010 health care lawand halting Planned Par-enthood’s money.

GOP lawmakers also at-tributed the lessened inten-sity to new Speaker PaulRyan, R-Wis., who replacedthe ousted John Boehner,R-Ohio, this fall. They saidthey needed to finish this

year’s work and focus onpassing election-year billsin 2016 highlighting GOPpriorities on taxes andhealth care.

“There’s a honeymoonperiod in here,” conserva-tive Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla.,said of Ryan’s recent ascen-sion to the top House job.“And I think Paul’s articu-lated very well where wewant to go.”

Leaders were hopingCongress would adjourn forthe year next week after ap-proving the two measures.

Republicans wanted toinsert language into thebills ending the four-decadeban on U.S. oil exports andcurbing Syrian refugeesfrom entering the U.S., a re-sponse to last month’sdeadly attacks in Paris.They also wanted to rollback legal curbs on the fi-nancial industry, preventObama from easing tieswith Cuba and block his ef-forts to fight air and waterpollution.

Yet though Republicansdominate Congress, theaversion of many GOP law-makers to spending billsmeant Democratic voteswould be needed to pass thesweeping $1.1 trillion pack-age.

Seeking to use leverage,House Minority Leader

Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wasthreatening to withholdDemocratic support unlessRepublicans agreed to an-nual inflation increases to atax credit for children.

“Lifting the ban on oil(exports) and all of themoney that means for theoil industry” without boost-ing the children’s tax creditis “too big, it’s unfair and itdoes not have the supportof House Democrats,” Pelo-si told reporters.

Pelosi was also seekingmore money for renewableenergy and an end to curbson federal research intogun violence, an issue giv-en life by last week’s massshooting in San Bernardi-no, California.

No. 2 House Democraticleader Steny Hoyer of Ma-ryland indicated on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” thatDemocrats could be open tobargaining on oil exportsand gun violence research.But he expressed opposi-tion to an effort by SenateMajority Leader MitchMcConnell, R-Ky., to liftcampaign spending limitsby party committees forcandidates for federal of-fice, saying, “I don’t want tosay we can live with it.”

It was unclear if lawmak-ers would pull off a majortax bill with permanent ex-

tensions benefiting bothsides or opt for a two-yearextension of existing taxbreaks.

Republicans wantedbusiness tax reductions forresearch and developmentand for equipment purchas-es to be made permanent.For their part, Democratswere seeking permanencefor Obama-passed increasesin tax credits for low-earn-ing households, familieswith children and collegestudents.

In another fight, HouseMajority Leader KevinMcCarthy and other Cali-fornia Republicans blamedSen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for blocking a provi-sion aimed at bringingmore water to the state’sfarm belt amid a severedrought. At a news confer-ence, the Republicans saidFeinstein abandoned a dealin which GOP lawmakershad conceded to Democrat-ic demands, including pro-tection of endangered spe-cies.

Feinstein said the lan-guage likely would have vi-olated environmental law.

“I expect that by earlynext week we’ll have a billthat the state and federalgovernment can sign offon,” Feinstein said in astatement.

Federal shutdown avoided

Members of the House of Representatives leave Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, after a voice vote toapprove a short-term spending bill to keep the government open and avoid a crisis.

Photo by J. Scott Applewhite | AP

By ALAN FRAMASSOCIATED PRESS

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES International SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi— In coordinated attacks,gunmen stormed threemilitary installations inBurundi before dawn Fri-day. At least 15 peoplewere killed as gunfire andexplosions rocked theAfrican capital of Bujum-bura, marking a steep es-calation of a simmeringconflict.

Around 4 a.m., the uni-dentified attackers wear-ing civilian clothing hittwo military installationsin the capital and one inthe countryside. Terrifiedcivilians in Bujumburastayed in their homes asstray rounds hit some ofthem.

The sounds of battlecontinued into the after-noon, residents said. Mili-tary and police vehicleswere the only ones on thedeserted streets and road-blocks were set up.

“A stray bullet hit thewall of my neighbor’shouse. We do not knowwhat’s going on in thestreets. We are living infear,” said Claire Biguda,a resident of the city’sNyakabiga neighborhood,who was locked up in herhouse along with her hus-band and two children.

Taxi driver Emery Sa-habo said, facing road-blocks and gunfire earlyFriday, he and other mo-torists abandoned theircars and ran home.

Burundian officialshave previously accusedneighboring Rwanda ofsupporting an insurgencyagainst President PierreNkurunziza. There was noimmediate comment fromRwanda.

U.N. Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon condemnedthe attacks.

Fifteenkilled inBurundi

By ELOGE WILY KANEZAASSOCIATED PRESS

LE BOURGET, France— Two sets of reality areclashing as climate talksgo into overtime: Diplo-matic real politics andhard science.

Top experts say thatwhile a goal of limitingwarming in a new draftclimate agreement is laud-able, the rest of the pro-posed pact doesn’t providethe tools to achieve it —and in some ways, it evengoes backward.

“There’s an absolutelyhuge disconnect betweenthe negotiations and thepolitical rhetoric, andwhat’s very clearly comingout of the science,” KevinAnderson, deputy directorof the Tyndall Centre forClimate Research in Bri-tain, said Friday as thehigh-stakes climate talksdragged into an extra day.

The latest draft of a pro-posed international cli-mate agreement lists agoal of “holding the in-crease in the global aver-age temperature to well be-low 2 degrees Celsius (3.6degrees Fahrenheit) abovepre-industrial levels” andurges efforts to limit iteven further, to 1.5 degreesCelsius.

This even as Earth hasalready warmed nearly 1degree Celsius (1.8 degreesFahrenheit) since themid-18th century.

Dana Fisher, director ofthe Program for Societyand the Environment atthe University of Mary-land, said she sees “a cou-ple of dueling realities,” in-cluding one she calls a“kumbaya moment” whereeverybody talks about theimportance of a 1.5-degreecap on global temperatureincrease but no one doesanything to implement it.

And because the Parisdraft removes discussion ofcarbon dioxide emissionsfrom shipping and air trav-el, Anderson said he con-siders the Paris proposaleven weaker than the onethat came out of Copenha-gen in 2009.

“It is not consistent withscience, which the Copenh-agen accord had directly

written into it,” Andersontold The Associated Press.

And the current lan-guage for poor people indeveloping nations likeAfrica and Asia, “is some-where between dangerousand deadly,” Anderson add-ed.

The negotiations alsodon’t take into accountwhat emissions cuts areneeded to limit warming to1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius,said Hans JoachimSchellnhuber, director ofthe Potsdam Institute forClimate Research in Ger-many. “The politics simplyleave it out of the equa-tion.”

Andrew Jones, co-direc-tor of Climate Interactivewho runs computer simu-lations of what individualnations’ emissions prom-ises mean in terms of tem-perature, said currentpledges will amount to an-other couple degrees Celsi-

us warming from now,blowing right past the goalof keeping warming to lessthan 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

And making the goal amore stringent 1.5 insteadof 2 degrees without reduc-ing emissions just doesn’tcut it, he said.

“It’s kind of like this:My friends and I have com-mitted to losing 300 poundsbut are failing so far,”Jones said. “Instead of eat-ing less and exercisingmore, I propose that welose 350.”

At a news conference,Anderson and colleagueswent through the draftagreement — which still isbeing modified and nego-tiated — and said it isn’tnear to getting close to thegoal. They especially criti-cized vague language thattalks of “greenhouse gasemissions neutrality” with-out really defining it.

Clash of dueling climate realitiesBy SETH BORENSTEIN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The slogan "DECARBONIZE" isprojected on the Eiffel Tower aspart of the COP21, United Na-tions Climate Change Confer-ence in Paris, France, Friday.

Photo by Francois Mori | AP

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015

of Republican voters.TRUMP TOPS ON

ELECTABILITYRepublicans were more

likely to see Trump as apotential general electionwinner than to say thatabout any other candidate.Three-quarters thought hecould win in November ifnominated. Rubio (63 per-cent), Carson (60 percent)and Cruz (55 percent) werealso seen as general elec-tion winners by more thanhalf of Republicans.

Trump isn’t withoutweaknesses. Although 58percent of Republican reg-istered voters rated him fa-vorably, the 38 percent whogave him an unfavorablerating were among thehighest for the GOP field.

But Republican votersalso don’t think Trump isgetting a fair shake fromthe media. Two-thirds saymedia coverage is general-ly biased against him,more than say so of theother top candidates.

CLINTON TOPSSANDERS FOR DEMS

On the Democratic side,former Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton wasviewed favorably by 80 per-cent of Democratic regis-tered voters and unfavor-ably by just 14 percent.Vermont Sen. BernieSanders was viewed favor-ably by 54 percent of Dem-ocratic voters and unfavor-ably by 21 percent, with 24percent saying they stilldon’t know enough abouthim.

Clinton was viewed asdecisive and competent bymore than three-quartersof Democratic voters, andas compassionate and lika-ble by two-thirds, toppingSanders on those mea-sures. About 6 in 10 calledeach of the top two Demo-cratic candidates honest.

Nine in 10 said Clintoncould win a general elec-tion, while just over halfsaid of Sanders.

LOOKING FORWARDRegardless of who wins

the nominations, candi-dates will have a long wayto go to win a favorableopinion from a majority ofvoters. No candidate wasviewed more positivelythan negatively among

Americans as a whole.Trump received negativeratings from nearly 6 in 10,and Bush was viewed un-favorably by half.

Americans were dividedin their views of Demo-crats Clinton (44 percentfavorable to 46 percent un-favorable) and Sanders (31percent favorable to 32 per-cent unfavorable). Theywere also fairly closely di-vided on Republicans Ru-bio (30 percent favorable to33 percent unfavorable)and Carson (32 percent fa-vorable to 36 percent unfa-vorable). Cruz was viewedmore unfavorably than fa-vorably, 37 percent to 24percent.

But Clinton stood outfrom the field as the candi-date viewed as most ableto win a general election,with 78 percent thinkingshe could win if nominat-ed. Trump came in second,with 55 percent thinking ofhim as a possible generalelection winner. No othercandidate was seen as ableto win a general electionby more than 45 percent ofall Americans.

TRUMP Continued from Page 1A

with Texas its second large-st market.

Restaurants includingDallas’ Madrina, Plano’sMexican Sugar and evenTBD Kitchen in suburbanCastle Hills, along withearly adopters like Austin’sBar Ilegal, The Pastry Warin Houston and San Anto-nio’s Esquire Tavern, stockbroad selections of agavespirits to be sipped straightor used in cocktails.

Like Kvetko and others,consumers are learning thatrange means more than te-quila or even mezcal;there’s raicilla and bacano-ra, both also made fromagave, and sotol, a milderspirit produced from thedesert spoon plant in north-ern Mexico.

Their availability is a re-sult of the craft-cocktail re-naissance that has sweptthe country in the last 15-plus years, creating a sub-culture of bartenders, indus-try professionals and con-sumers that, like the “foo-die” culture with which itoverlaps, favors freshness,quality, vintage recipes andexclusive or exotic ingre-

dients.New spirits, liqueurs and

other mixers have risen tomeet the demand. Othershave found audiences as im-bibers seek authenticity andnew flavor experiences —like the agave-based spiritsKvetko covets, many madeby artisan producers usinggenerations-old methods.

“It makes sense, becausenever have we cared moreabout what we put into ourbodies than we do now,”said Judah Kuper, owner ofOaxaca-based Vago Mezcal.“Wanting to know whomade it, who’s the farmer,were there chemicals usedin the process, where did itcome from ... People arelooking for truth in any-thing these days. And mez-cal doesn’t have to put on adifferent hat to be that — itis that, it is artisanal. It’sjust agave and water, noth-ing else.”

The trend is in turn af-fecting Mexico as cocktailculture blossoms abroad,with tequila and mezcalearning newfound respectin trendy Mexico City andGuadalajara bars.

But the booming demandhas come with a price:Agave — a hearty plantwhose varieties require fiveto 35 years to reach maturi-ty — is a limited resource,and advocates warn thatoverharvesting and large-scale production not onlythreaten agave supplies butalso small producers andthe traditional methods onwhich they’ve built liveli-hoods.

In response, Texas bar-tenders are among mem-bers of a group promotingsustainable agave produc-tion and the preservation ofartisan culture.

It’s those small-batch ori-gins that have made Kvetko,a husky and affable OakCliff resident, passionateabout his agave spirits. He’sbeen to Oaxaca and broughtback bottles of mezcal cush-ioned in diapers purchasedfor the task. The spirits areserved alongside orangewedges and sal de gusano,or “worm salt,” a mix of seasalt, chile and the groundremains of roasted moth lar-vae that feed on the agaveplant.

MEZCAL Continued from Page 1A

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

DOVER, Del. — DowChemical and DuPont aremerging to form a companyvalued at about $130 billionas they try to counter fall-ing commodities prices andweakness in some key mar-kets that have pressuredtheir giant agriculture andchemicals businesses.

The two companies,whose research has broughtthe world products rangingfrom Ziploc bags and Saranwrap developed by Dow toDuPont’s Teflon coatingsand Nylon and Kevlar fi-bers, will first form DowDu-Pont, then separate intothree independent publiclytraded companies focusedon agriculture, material sci-ence and specialty products.

The proposed merger, an-nounced Friday, would tem-porarily create the world’ssecond-largest chemicalcompany, behind BASF. Itcomes as both Dow and Du-Pont Co. have seen recentdeclines in agricultural per-formance and been pres-sured by activist sharehold-ers to control spending andshift away from commodi-ties to faster-growing partsof their businesses.

“Overall, this transactionrepresents a tectonic shiftin an industry that hasbeen evolving over the lastmany years,” said Dowchairman and CEO AndrewLiveris, calling the merger aseminal event for employeesand customers of the twocompanies, which have a

combined workforce ofmore than 110,000 people.

DuPont chairman andCEO Edward Breen said the“industrial logic” behindthe deal was compelling.

“When I look at DuPontand Dow, I see businessesthat fit together like handand glove,” Breen said.

DuPont shares fell 5.4percent to $70.56 in middaytrading. Dow Chemicalshares were down 3 percentat $53.27.

Breen took over as Du-Pont CEO following theabrupt resignation in Octo-ber of Ellen Kullman, whojust a few months earlierfended off a proxy challengeby Trian Fund Manage-ment, a hedge fund led byactivist investor NelsonPeltz. Peltz has called forDuPont’s agriculture, nutri-tion and health and indus-trial biosciences units to becombined into a singlegrowth company, separatefrom the more cyclical busi-nesses of performance mate-rials, safety and protection,and electronics and commu-nication.

Similarly, Dow has beenpressured by hedge fundThird Point LLC, led by ac-tivist investor Dan Loeb, tosplit its specialty chemicaland petrochemical business-es. Dow avoided a proxyfight last year by addingfour independent directors,giving board seats to twoLoeb nominees.

“Both Dow and DuPonthad activist shareholderswho had sought breakups ofthese companies, so ulti-

mately the visions of theseactivists are being realized,”said James Sheehan, ananalyst for SunTrust Robin-son Humphrey.

Sheehan said the deal al-so could spark other merg-ers in the ag-chemical in-dustry. Earlier this year,Missouri-based Monsanto,the world’s largest seedcompany, abandoned a $46.5billion hostile bid for Swisspesticide giant Syngenta.Last month, Syngenta re-jected a $42 billion offerfrom state-owned China Na-tional Chemical Corp.

Michael Ritzenthaler, ananalyst for Piper Jaffray,said he expects Monsanto torenew its bid for Syngenta.Other big players who couldfigure in deals include Ger-many’s BASF and BayerAG.

Liveris will be named ex-ecutive chairman of thecombined company, whileBreen will be CEO. Thecompany will have dualheadquarters in Midland,

Michigan, and Wilmington,Delaware, where they arecurrently based.

Advisory committees ledby Breen and Liveris will beestablished for each of thespinoff companies.

The deal, which the com-panies expect to close in thesecond half of 2016, is sureto be scrutinized by anti-trust regulators.

Senate Judiciary Com-mittee Chairman ChuckGrassley, R-Iowa, said in astatement that the proposedmerger “demands seriousscrutiny.”

“I’ll be listening to Iowafarmers and consumersabout any concerns theymay have with this propos-al, and the Judiciary Com-mittee will be exercising itsappropriate oversight func-tion,” Grassley said.

But Breen said that whileconsolidation in the agricul-tural industry is a “naturalstep,” any ag-related divesti-tures are likely to be mini-mal.

“These are highly com-plementary businesses.... Wedon’t see much real signifi-cant overlap here, which ispretty incredible,” he said,adding that the combinedag business would be bal-anced between seeds andcrop protection.

One motive for the merg-er is to cut costs. The com-panies said the deal shouldcut annual expenses by $3billion. In addition, the com-panies announced separaterestructuring steps.

DuPont announced aplan that is expected to re-duce costs by $700 millionin 2016 compared to thisyear. Employee and contrac-tor layoffs will affect about10 percent of the company’sworkforce. DuPont expectsto record a pretax charge ofabout $780 million, with ap-proximately $650 million ofemployee separation costs.

“The state is committedto supporting those affectedby DuPont’s cost cutting inDelaware,” said DelawareGov. Jack Markell.

Dow, meanwhile, said itis taking full ownership ofDow Corning, currently a50-50 joint venture betweenDow and Corning. Dow saidthe move is expected to gen-erate more than $1 billionin additional adjusted earn-ings and increase its prod-uct offerings in the buildingand construction, consumercare, and automotive mar-kets.

Under the terms of themerger, Dow shareholderswill receive a fixed ex-change ratio of one share of

DowDuPont for each Dowshare, and DuPont share-holders will receive a fixedexchange ratio of 1.282shares in DowDuPont foreach DuPont share. Dowand DuPont shareholderswill own about 50 percent,respectively, of the com-bined company.

The proposed agriculturebusiness would unite Du-Pont’s and Dow’s seed andcrop protection businesses,which had combined proforma 2014 revenue of about$19 billion.

The material sciencecompany would combineDuPont’s performance mate-rials segment with Dow’sperformance plastics, per-formance materials andchemicals, infrastructure so-lutions, and consumer solu-tions units, excluding itselectronic materials busi-ness. Combined pro forma2014 revenue for materialscience was about $51 bil-lion.

The specialty productscompany would combineDuPont’s nutrition andhealth, industrial bioscienc-es, safety and protection,and electronics and commu-nications segments withDow’s electronic materialsbusiness. Combined pro for-ma 2014 revenue for special-ty products was approxi-mately $13 billion.

The new company’sboard will have 16 directors,consisting of eight currentDuPont directors and eightcurrent Dow directors, andtwo independent co-lead di-rectors.

DuPont, Dow Chemical seek mergerBy RANDALL CHASEASSOCIATED PRESS

This Thursday photo shows a Dow Chemical plant in La Porte, Tex-as. Dow Chemical and the DuPont will attempt to merge.

Photo by Pat Sullivan | AP

NEW YORK — A slumpin oil prices sparked a glob-al sell-off in financial mar-kets on Friday with lossesspreading from Asia to Eu-rope to the U.S., wherestocks fell sharply to captheir worst week since thesummer.

The selling was broad,with all 10 sectors of theStandard and Poor’s 500 in-dex ending down. Fearfulinvestors put their moneyin government bonds, espe-cially U.S. Treasurys. An-other measure of anxiety,the so-called Vix index,jumped. It is now up 70 per-cent in just five days.

Investors worry thesharp fall in the price of oiland other commodities is asign of weakness in theglobal economy, especiallyChina, and that will cut intoprofits at big energy pro-ducers and suppliers of rawmaterials as well as othercompanies.

“We’re stockpiling com-modities and demand is notpicking up,” said TimCourtney, chief investment

officer of Exencial WealthAdvisors. “It’s kind of a de-pressing market.”

Energy shares, alreadydecimated this year, fell 3.4percent on Friday. South-western Energy plunged 14percent. Freeport McMo-Ran, a mining giant,dropped 6 percent.

The trouble began with areport from the Internation-al Energy Agency that saidthe oversupply in oil wouldpersist until late next yeareven as demand continuesto weaken. Benchmark U.S.crude plunged $1.14, or 3percent, to close at $35.62 abarrel in New York. It hasbeen falling for 11⁄2 years andis now at its lowest levelsince early 2009.

By the end of the day, theS&P 500 index had lost 39.86points, or 1.9 percent, to2,012.37. It was down 3.8 per-cent for the week, its worstshowing since August.

The Dow Jones industrialaverage lost 309.54 points, or1.8 percent, to 17,265.21. TheNasdaq composite declined111.71 points, or 2.2 percent,to 4,933.47.

In Europe, Germany’sDAX lost 2.4 percent, Bri-

tain’s FTSE 100 dropped 2.2percent and France’s CAC40 shed 1.8 percent.

Investors were also rat-tled by trouble in a riskycorner of the credit marketswhere bonds from heavilyindebted companies aretraded. Their prices havefallen sharply as investorsfear the companies that is-sued the bonds might de-fault. A fund that tracks thebonds, the iShares iBoxxUSD High Yield CorporateBond ETF, has droppednearly 4 percent in five days.

Investors are also focusedon a Federal Reserve meet-

ing next week where thecentral bank is widely ex-pected to announce an in-crease in its benchmark in-terest rate from a recordlow.

Recent economic reportsindicate that the U.S. econo-my is healthy enough towithstand a rate hike, butinvestors are still nervousbecause it would be the firstrate rise in nearly a decade.

“It’s anticipation of theFed, it’s oil, it’s credit ... allof these factors are puttingfear and confusion into theinvestor,” said Jonathan D.Corpina, senior managing

partner at Meridian EquityPartners.

In a sign of troubleamong commodity pro-ducers, Dow Chemical andDuPont on Friday an-nounced a $130 billion dealto merge their businesses tocounter falling prices. Theirstocks had risen in previousdays on reports the deal wasforthcoming, but fell sharp-ly on Friday.

Dow Chemical dropped$1.54, or nearly 3 percent, to$53.37. DuPont lost $4.11, or5.5 percent, to $70.44.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei225 index climbed 1 percent,but most other major index-es fell. Hong Kong’s HangSeng dropped 1.1 percentand mainland China’sShanghai Composite lost 0.6percent.

Among stocks makingbig moves:

Software maker AdobeSystems rose $2.46, or 2.8percent, to $91.42 after re-porting earnings in its latestquarter that exceeded ana-lysts’ expectations. Thestock is up 26 percent sincethe start of the year.

Corning rose 99 cents,or 5.6 percent, to $18.68 after

the company said it willgive up its stake in DowCorning, a joint venturewith Dow Chemical. Insteadit will invest in a semicon-ductor business that is own-ed by Dow Corning.

U.S. government bondprices rose sharply. Theyield on the 10-year Treasu-ry note fell to 2.12 percentfrom 2.23 percent lateThursday, a big move. Thedollar fell to 120.79 yen from121.64 yen. The eurostrengthened to $1.0995 from$1.0939.

Precious and industrialmetals futures closed mixed.Gold edged up $3.70 to$1,075.70 an ounce, silver fell23 cents to $13.88 an ounceand copper rose four centsto $2.12 a pound.

In other energy futuresmarket, Brent crude, the in-ternational oil benchmark,fell $1.80, or 4.5 percent, to$37.93 a barrel in London. InNew York, heating oilplunged eight cents, or 6.5percent, to $1.146 a gallon,wholesale gasoline was littlechanged at $1.282 a gallon,and natural gas lost 2.5cents, or 1.2 percent, to $1.99per 1,000 cubic feet.

Stock market losses widespread after oil routBy BERNARD CONDON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Specialist Meric Greenbaum works at his post on the floor of theNew York Stock Exchange, Friday.

Photo by Richard Drew | AP

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015

Malena Aguirre, 67,passed away on Monday,Dec. 7, 2015 at LaredoMedical Center in Lare-do, Texas.

Ms. Aguirre is preced-ed in death by her hus-band, Guadalupe Gonza-lez and a son, Benito Al-varez-Aguirre.

Ms. Aguirre is sur-vived by her sons, Gua-dalupe Gonzalez Jr., Oc-tavio Gonzalez; daugh-ters, Amalia G. Lozano,Lourdes (Luis A.) Gar-cia; 22 grandchildren;and by numerous great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, ne-phews, nieces, other fam-ily members and friends.

Visitation hours wereheld on Friday, Dec. 11,2015, at 9 a.m. with achapel service at 10 a.m.at Rose Garden FuneralHome.

Committal servicesfollowed at MartinezCemetery in San Ygna-cio, Texas.

Funeral arrangementsare under the directionof Rose Garden Funeral

Home Daniel A. Gonza-lez, Funeral Director,2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapa-ta, Texas.

MALENA AGUIRRE

Aug. 28, 1948 – Dec. 7, 2015ño’s possession.

Defense attorney ChrisFlood said during closingarguments that Coloradohad little choice in the mat-ter. Jurors this week andlast heard from witnesseswho described how the Ze-tas used legitimate busi-nessmen in Mexico to laun-der the money generated

by their multi-million-dol-lar drug enterprise.

Alejandro Barradas, acustoms broker from Col-orado’s home state of Vera-cruz, was killed when hedidn’t cooperate with theZetas, according to the tes-timony.

Ramiro Villarreal, for atime the Zetas’ horse buyer

in this country, was beatento death when cartel lead-ers suspected he was coop-erating with the U.S. gov-ernment.

Alfonso Del Rayo, a realestate mogul from the samestate, testified Wednesdaythat he was kidnapped andforced to fly to OklahomaCity to buy horses for the

gang.“Pancho Colorado did

not agree with anyone tocommit money launder-ing,” Flood said. “Hebought the horses for theZetas with his own money.The alternative was toshare the fate of RamiroVillarreal, Alejandro Bar-radas.”

ZETAS Continued from Page 1A

for January deliveryslipped $1.14, or 3.1 percent,to close at $35.62 a barrelon the New York Mercan-tile Exchange. The contractdropped 11 percent thisweek, the biggest weeklydecline in a year. It was thelowest settlement sinceFeb. 18, 2009. The U.S.benchmark crude closed ata $2.31 discount to Brent.

Energy companies leddeclines on the Standard &Poor’s 500 Index. South-western Energy Co., an oiland natural gas producer,dropped as much as 17 per-cent, making it the worst

performer on the S&P 500Friday.

OPEC is displaying hard-ened resolve to maintainsales volumes even as pric-es fall in an oversuppliedmarket, the IEA said Fri-day in its monthly report.While its policy is hittingrivals, triggering the steep-est drop in non-OPEC sup-ply since 1992, world oil in-ventories will likely swellfurther once Iran restoresexports on the completionof a deal to lift sanctions, itsaid.

"The level of output outof OPEC is spectacular,"

Kilduff said. "There’s noend in sight for the globalglut."

Spending CutsConocoPhillips will re-

duce capital spending by 25percent next year to protectthe highest dividend yieldamong major U.S. pro-ducers, the Houston-basedcompany said Thursday. Itsplan to cut spending to $7.7billion comes a day afterChevron Corp. disclosed a2016 budget 24 percentsmaller than this year’s.

Together, the reductions bythe two companies totaled$10.9 billion.

Russia is preparing forthe possibility that lowcrude prices are here tostay as competition be-tween oil and other fuelssuch as natural gas intensi-fies. The nation sees noreason for crude to riseabove $50 a barrel anytimesoon and predicts it will re-main in a $40 to $60 rangeover the next seven years,Deputy Finance MinisterMaxim Oreshkin said at aMoscow conference orga-nized by Vedomosti.

OIL Continued from Page 1A

HOUSTON — Houston’sVince Wilfork didn’t wantto talk about his feelings oradmit that Sunday’s gameagainst the New EnglandPatriots will be any differ-ent than the other 170games in which he’splayed.

Only after repeated prod-ding did Wilfork, a corner-stone of New England’s de-fense for 11 years whosigned with Houston thisseason, finally discuss howhe felt after the Patriotsdidn’t pick up his option in

March.“Anytime that you walk

away from something thatyou’ve been a part of forthat long I think it’s goingto be some side of youthat’s kind of sad and emo-tions involved and every-thing,” he said. “I thinkI’ve been through that andI’ve passed that time.”

Even though the defen-sive tackle is over the part-ing now, he was forced toconfront it this week as heprepares to face the teamwhere he spent his first 11seasons. Wilfork was a

NFL: HOUSTON TEXANS

Houston nose tackle Vince Wilfork will face his former team for thefirst time Sunday when the Texans host New England.

Photo by Patric Schneider | AP

Wilforkfaces Pats

Longtime Patriot Vince Wilfork facesNew England for first time

By KRISTIE RIEKENASSOCIATED PRESS

See TEXANS PAGE 2B

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

AUSTIN — ShakaSmart’s first season at Tex-as has been anything butsharp.

Excruciatingly longroad trips bounced Texasaround half the globe’stime zones, from China tothe Bahamas and backagain before Thanksgiv-ing, producing three lossesin the first five games.

The Longhorns (5-3) re-

turned home to find paltrycrowds coming out to seetheir new coach and new-look game after years ofwhat might best be de-scribed as successful stag-nation under former coachRick Barnes: Good regularseasons followed by post-season flops.

Now Smart faces hisfirst “big” game with theLonghorns, facing No. 3North Carolina (7-1) onSaturday. The Tar Heelsstarted the season No. 1

and have their best player,Marcus Paige, back on thecourt after a preseason in-jury.

“I think it would be niceto have a win tomorrowfor a lot of reasons, play-ing one of the best teamsin the country, one of thebest programs in the coun-try,” Smart said. “What awin like this would do isbuild a lot of confidence.”

Smart has been prettyhonest in saying his teamlacks a lot of “naturally

confident guys” but sensesthat could be buildingwith a three-game winningstreak heading into Satur-day.

“I think we still have aways to go,” Smart said.

There have been glimps-es of the “havoc” pace andpressure Smart used atVCU but it has yet to be-come a Longhorns’ trade-mark.

North Carolina coach

NCAA BASKETBALL: TEXAS LONGHORNS

Texas’ first test

Texas coach Shaka Smart and the Longhorns are off to a 5-3 start as they face off No. 3 North Carolina Saturday.

Photo by Eric Gay | AP

Longhorns meet North Carolina SaturdayBy JIM VERTUNO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See TEXAS PAGE 2B

IRVING — Matt Casselwas enjoying his first winas the Dallas starter whenthe question of getting theball to Dez Bryant came upafter the game in Washing-ton.

The Cowboys quarter-back knew the right an-swer, and didn’t hesitate atall to give it: He had to getbetter at finding the All-Proreceiver.

Cassel may be new toDallas, and merely fillingin for Tony Romo, but the33-year-old has been here

before. He replaced an in-jured Tom Brady for al-most the entire 2008 seasonin New England. And thePatriots had a vocal receiv-ing star in Randy Moss.

“All those guys have acompetitive edge to them,and that’s the reason thatmakes them so good,” Cas-sel said Wednesday. “At thesame time, it’s my job obvi-ously to, in whatever capac-ity I can, continue to gethim the ball and do thosethings, but also be openwith him and talk to himand try to alleviate some of

NFL: DALLAS COWBOYS

Dallas quarterback Matt Cassel, left, is looking to get star wideoutDez Bryant the ball more often as the Cowboys remain in the play-off hunt.

Photo by Brandon Wade | AP

Cassel aims toget Bryant

more touchesBy SCHUYLER DIXON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See COWBOYS PAGE 2B

CHICAGO — The Chica-go Cubs already boastedone of the best young coresin baseball — and that wasbefore they added one ofthe top outfielders.

Free agent Jason Hey-ward agreed to a $184 mil-lion, eight-year contractwith the Cubs, according toa person familiar with thenegotiations.

The person spoke Fridayon the condition of ano-nymity because the dealhas not been announced.

The agreement with thethree-time Gold Glove win-ner is the latest in a seriesof big moves by the Cubsas they try to build on abreakthrough season andbring home their first

World Series title since1908. The Cubs won 97games and reached the NLChampionship Series be-fore getting swept by theNew York Mets.

Chicago also has addedpitchers John Lackey andAdam Warren along withinfielder Ben Zobrist. Lack-ey, like Heyward, left the ri-val Cardinals for the Cubsand figures to be Chicago’sNo. 3 starter behind NL CyYoung Award winner JakeArrieta and Jon Lester.

An All-Star in 2010, the26-year-old Heyward hit.293 with 13 homers and 60RBIs this year, helping St.Louis win the NL Central.He spent his first five bigleague seasons with Atlan-ta.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: CHICAGO CUBS

Cubs landHeyward for$184 million

Former St. Louis right fielder Jason Heyward has agreed to a $184million, eight-year contract with the young Chicago Cubs teamthat made the NLCS in 2015.

Photo by Billy Hurst | AP

By ANDREW SELIGMANASSOCIATED PRESS

See CUBS PAGE 2B

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015

NEW YORK — Even be-fore the Heisman Trophyis handed out Saturdaynight, it is tempting tolook ahead to 2016 andwhat could be a doozy of arace for college football’smost famous bronze statue.

While Alabama’s Der-rick Henry is likely to bothwin the Heisman and headto the NFL after the Crim-son Tide’s playoff run, theother two finalists, Clem-son quarterback DeshaunWatson and Stanford scatback Christian McCaffrey,are sophomores who willreturn.

Add Oklahoma’s BakerMayfield, Florida State’sDalvin Cook and LSU’s Le-onard Fournette and thereis a strong chance five ofthe top eight Heismanvote-getters from this yearwill be back in 2016.

“It’s a monster class,”said Chris Huston, a Heis-man historian and editor-in-chief of Heisman.com.

Henry, Watson andMcCaffrey arrived Fridayin New York from Atlanta,where they attended theESPN awards show at theCollege Football Hall ofFame. They were greetedin the Big Apple by a traf-fic jam that turned a 7-mile trip from LaGuardiaAirport to the TimesSquare into a 2-hour jour-ney. The delay cost themlunch at an Italian restau-rant, but otherwise all waswell.

“I’m just enjoying themoment and happy to be

here,” Henry said.Being a finalist is a

once-in-lifetime event formost players, often the cul-mination of a great career.For Watson and McCaffrey,maybe this is just a testrun.

“Of course, next year Iwant to be back. And if Ihappen to stay my senioryear I want to be backthen,” Watson said.

Only twice (2008 and ’10)in the previous 10 seasonshave at least two of the topthree finishers in the Heis-man voting returned toschool the next year. Onlytwice in the last 10 seasons(2012 and ’06) have five ofthe top eight returned the

next season.The contenders in 2016

aren’t confined to justthose players whose nameswill show up in the finalvoting Saturday night.

Georgia’s Nick Chubb,one of the preseason favor-ites this year, will returnfrom an injury, as well asWashington State’s LukeFalk and Baylor’s SethRussell. Though maybeJarrett Stidham will be theBaylor quarterback withthe Heisman hype?

Ohio State’s J.T. Barrettshould be the Buckeyesstarting quarterback fromDay 1 and there is a goodchance people will startnoticing that Oregon’s

Royce Freeman is as goodas all those stud runningbacks down South.

Notre Dame’s DeShoneKizer and Houston’s GregWard Jr. will be trying tobuild upon breakout sea-sons.

UCLA’s Josh Rosen andPenn State’s Saquon Bar-kley are primed for fantas-tic follow-ups to their fabu-lous freshman seasons.

The Heisman raceshould have a very differ-ent feel from this season,when none of last year’s fi-nalists were back.

“The race was kind of aslow burn,” Huston said.

TCU’s Trevone Boykinwas the presumptive favor-

ite after finishing fourth inthe 2014 voting, but thatback-loaded Big 12 sched-ule didn’t do him any fa-vors. Then he threw fourinterceptions in his firstreally big game, a loss toOklahoma State on Nov. 7.

Fournette was rollingalong as the favorite head-ing into that Saturday, butthe race flipped in Tusca-loosa, Alabama. The Tidestuffed Fournette and Hen-ry ran for 210 yards andthree touchdowns on 38carries, assuming the roleof front-runner.

McCaffrey, Watson andMayfield made late pushes,but Henry just kept chug-ging along. Conventional

wisdom is the voting forthe 80th Heisman will berelatively close, but Henryis the odds-makers’ choiceto become the second Ala-bama player to win theHeisman and the first run-ning back to win it sincethe Tide’s Mark Ingram in2009.

Seniors have won 56Heisman trophies, but thiswill be the ninth consecu-tive season with a non-se-nior winner — the last wasOhio State quarterbackTroy Smith in 2006 — andeverything is lined up for2016 to be more of thesame.

Top players are arrivingon campus more preparedto play than ever before,with an eye toward jump-ing to the NFL after threeyears. For college coaches,there is no sense trying tosave that talent.

“If you’re in a programlike Texas, for example,and you’re going to haveNFL players, I don’t thinkyou can redshirt them any-more,” said former Long-horns coach Mack Brown,who is now an analyst forESPN. “You just got to playthem. You’re not going toget more than three yearsout of a great player, mostlikely.”

Like Watson and McCaf-frey, Cook, Fournette,Chubb, Freeman and Bar-rett will be juniors nextseason.

“Now I know what ittakes,” McCaffrey saidabout becoming a finalist,“following with anythingless than that is unaccept-able for me.”

Heisman to be awarded Saturday nightBy RALPH D. RUSSO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Alabama’s Derrick Henry, Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson are the three finalists for the Heisman Trophy onSaturday.

Photo by Julie Jacobson | AP

first-round pick in 2004 bythe Patriots and played 158games with 148 starts forthem, helping them to Su-per Bowl titles in 2004 and2014.

After playing in NewEngland for so long, the34-year-old assumed thathe would finish his careerthere.

“I always thought Iwould, but that is busi-ness,” he said. “Some-times we lose track ofbusiness ... when you playthis game you kind ofblock out the business as-pect until it is time forbusiness to step in andthat was a prime case ofthis right here, it was justbusiness, it was not any-thing personal.”

Despite finally admit-ting that he was a bit sadthat the Patriots didn’tkeep him this season, heinsisted that he isn’t ap-proaching Sunday’s gameany differently than henormally does.

“I don’t look at it anydifferent going into thisgame as I do going intoany other game,” he said.“Who knows, I might feeldifferent on Sunday, but Ihave never been in thissituation. As of right now,I don’t feel no different. Ilook at them the same wayas I look at any otherteam.”

Wilfork has fit in nicelyin Houston where he’sadded a veteran presencealongside defensive endJ.J. Watt and JadeveonClowney. Wilfork has start-ed each game this seasonfor the unit that ranks sev-enth in the NFL in yardsallowed per game.

The 22-year-old Clowneyviews Wilfork like a wiseuncle.

“I call him unc, that’sbig unc to me,” Clowneysaid. “I take advice fromhim. He’s right beside mein the locker room. I talkto him just about everyday when we’re hereabout everything. Any-thing I have a questionabout, I ask him.”

New England coach BillBelichick said he thinksWilfork looks about thesame as he did last yearand that he thought heplayed his best game ofthe season last weekendagainst Buffalo. He did ad-mit that it will be a bitweird to see him in anoth-er uniform on Sunday.

“Sure, yeah, but we dealwith that pretty much ev-ery week,” Belichick said.“There is always some-body on our team that wason their team or some-body on their team thatwas on our team or acoach or something likethat ... we’ve been through

quite a few of those.”Houston defensive coor-

dinator Romeo Crennelhad the same positionwith the Patriots whenWilfork was drafted andwas impressed with himas a rookie. After watch-ing him develop over hiscareer, Crennel knew he’dbe a great addition inHouston.

“One of the reasons thatwe wanted him was be-cause we knew what kindof football player he was,but we also felt like hewould be a great leaderand help the guys in thelocker room and help usgrow as a team and he isproviding what we antici-pated that he would pro-vide,” Crennel said.

Wilfork was asked if hemight be able to providesome insight for the Tex-ans into how to slow downTom Brady since he facedhim in practice for morethan a decade.

“My whole 11 yearsthere I always tried to fig-ure out and see what I cantake from him that cangive me and edge andthere’s nothing there,”Wilfork said. “He coversall bases. He’s hard to pre-pare for because he doesthings that guys don’teven think about doing. Sowe have to be on top ofour game.”

TEXANS Continued from Page 1B

those issues that mightcome up.”

Bryant was particularlymouthy on the sideline af-ter Cassel didn’t see himon what could have been atouchdown against a blitzby the Redskins in the firsthalf Monday night. Hewent three periods withouta catch.

But the pair connectedthree times for 62 yards inthe fourth quarter of a 19-16 victory, starting with a42-yarder that set up a ty-ing field goal. The othertwo were the key catcheson a drive to the winningfield goal in the final sec-onds.

“I was really pleasedwith how he worked hisway through that frustra-tion and showed up late inthe game to make a differ-ence for our team,” coachJason Garrett said ofBryant.

Cassel came to the Cow-boys from Buffalo in atrade two weeks into theseason after the first of Ro-mo’s two broken left collar-bones. He was thrust intothe starting job when Dal-las decided backup Bran-don Weeden wasn’t the an-swer after three straightlosses.

At that point, Bryant wasstill out with a brokenright foot, and even whenhe returned, practice time

was limited. Bryant hadhis only 100-yard receivinggame of the year (104yards) in his second gameback with Cassel before Ro-mo returned two weeks lat-er.

Now that Romo is outagain and Bryant is closeto healthy after also bat-tling a knee issue, Cassel isgetting his best chance tobuild a rapport withBryant while the Cowboys(4-8) are somehow still alivein the NFC East with a vis-it to Green Bay (8-4) com-ing Sunday.

“I think it always takestime. There’s no doubtabout it,” said Cassel, wholost four starts before Ro-mo’s return and won thefirst game after the Dallasstar was injured again. “Ithink Dez and I haven’thad a lot of time on task,but at the same time, Ithink we’re definitely get-ting to learn one another.”

Bryant, who has had atesty relationship with re-porters this season, chattedinformally with a few ofthem Thursday, smiling alot and even saying hewasn’t bothered by gettingshut out most of the Wash-ington game.

Last year’s NFL leader inreceiving touchdowns is al-so returning to the scene ofhis catch that wasn’t in aplayoff loss to Green Bay

last season, an outcome hesaid left him moping on hiscouch for two weeks.

But Bryant said he’ll betrying to put the hotly de-bated play behind him ongame day. And his quarter-back for the rematchwasn’t even there in Janu-ary.

“You’ve got to guardagainst, ’I’ve got to getsomeone the ball early,’ be-cause the defense has agame plan,” offensive coor-dinator Scott Linehan said.“Dez is certainly a game-changing player for that.It’s something we’re work-ing on. I don’t think sincethe return we’ve been ableto do it as consistent aswe’d like.”

Then again, the Cowboyshaven’t had a consistentpractice plan. First, Casseldidn’t have Bryant at all.Then after three games to-gether, back came Romo.And then out went Romoagain. But Bryant’s healthmight be the key to the is-sue.

“I think the further wemove away from his sur-gery and everything,” Cas-sel said, “you get more op-portunities out there on thepractice field to continue tobuild that relationship.”

And Cassel’s beenaround long enough toknow how important thatis.

COWBOYS Continued from Page 1B

Chicago also signed Zo-brist to a $56 million, four-year contract and tradedStarlin Castro to the NewYork Yankees for Warren.

Heyward has a .268 careerbatting average and has hitmore than 18 home runsjust once. But the Cubs arecounting on him to helpstrengthen a batting orderthat includes young slug-

gers Anthony Rizzo, KrisBryant and Kyle Schwarberalong with Addison Russell.All are 26 or younger, withRizzo a two-time All-Starand Bryant a unanimouspick for NL Rookie of theYear.

The Cubs also are count-ing on Heyward to help so-lidify their outfield, whetherthey keep him in right field

or move him to center. IfHeyward plays right, theycould try to trade Jorge Sol-er for a pitcher or centerfielder.

The addition of Heywardwill only further fuel expec-tations after the Cubs fin-ished with both the third-best record in the majorsand in their division. Eventhough they took two play-

ers from the Cardinals, beat-ing St. Louis and Pittsburghin the Central won’t be easy.

Still the moves they madereinforce just how seriousthe Cubs are about winningtheir first pennant since1945. They won their last ti-tle 17 days after the Ford’sfirst Model T left the carfactory in 1908.

Chairman Tom Ricketts

was willing to open up thecheckbook rather than waitfor more revenue from theWrigley Field renovationand potential TV deal tokick in.

While the Cubs mightwind up having overpaidfor Zobrist, who turns 35 inMay, on the back end of hiscontract, Heyward shouldhave plenty of prime sea-

sons remaining. That’s a bigdifference from the $136 mil-lion, eight-year deal theCubs gave Alfonso Sorianounder previous ownershipand management before the2007 season. Soriano was 31at the time, and while hehelped Chicago win divisiontitles the first two seasons,his deal became a burden ashe started to decline.

CUBS Continued from Page 1B

Roy Williams said he’s pre-paring for the aggressive,pressure style Smart isknown for.

“I would think it’s achange in what they’re do-ing and it’s hard to getthem where Shaka wantsthem to be, I’m sure, butit’s good enough that weworked press offense yes-

terday and we’ll work pressoffense again today,” Wil-liams said.

Longhorns fans had be-come bored of the earlyousters in the NCAA tour-nament. Former athletic di-rector Steve Patterson firedBarnes after another exitlast March and hiredSmart, the up-and-coming

coach at Virginia Common-wealth who had been onjust about everyone’s shortlist of candidates the lastfew years. After spurningprevious chances to leaveVCU, Smart finally said yesto the Texas offer.

Texas fans have yet toreally take notice. Attend-ance at Tuesday’s 116-51

win over Texas-San Anto-nio was maybe half the offi-cial announced crowd ofabout 9,600.

“That’s a heartbreaker,”Longhorns center Cam Ri-dley said after the game.“We go to one of the biggestschools in the country.”

Freshman guard TevinMack called it “kind of a

letdown.”Texas expects a much

better turnout for the TarHeels, who have won fourin a row since a surprisingloss at Northern Iowa.

North Carolina seems tobe finding found its rhythmafter the early stumble.Paige missed the first sixgames due to a hand injury,

but returned to score 20 ina win over No. 2 Maryland.The Tar Heels then rompedover previously unbeatenDavidson.

Williams won’t call histeam ready for the postsea-son just yet.

“Neither of us have ourteam where we want themto be,” Williams said.

TEXAS Continued from Page 1B

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

Dear Readers: A recentcolumn addressed dogs’feeding schedules, and forfairness’ sake, it’s CATtime! Yes, I know, it’s al-ways cat time, on theirtime!

Just like dogs, expertsusually recommend feedingcats twice a day, or whatfits your household sched-ule. The average cat shouldweigh between 8 and 10pounds, so they say! But, ofcourse, that does vary, de-pending on the cat.

The general "look andsee" test is to look down atthe cat’s backbone, andthere should be an indentat the "waist" line. If youcan’t feel ribs, or if there isa glob or paunch betweenthe legs, it’s diet time! Itmay be cute when your catsits up and that fat roll be-tween the back legs poufsout, but it’s not healthy.

If you want to get yourkitty healthy, check withthe veterinarian beforemaking changes in food orschedule. Less food andmore exercise (just like hu-mans!) typically is the "rec-ipe" for getting Kitty lean.

Your cat CANNOT open

the refrigerator door – noscraps or high-calorie peo-ple food for your kitty!

Gradually cut down theamount of food – don’t sud-denly cut back!

As for exercise, it’s easy!Scratching posts, laserpointers and adopting abuddy for the cat to playwith all can do the trick!

Meow, meow, for astreamlined feline. – He-loise

P.S.: Use an old fishingpole, and attach a cat toy tothe end of the line. You cancast, reel and get your catmoving.

DRY SHAMPOO HOW-TO

Dear Readers: No time towash your hair, but want tofreshen it up a little? Tryusing dry shampoo. Manyare cornstarch-based,which absorbs oil and dirt.

Quick hints: Sectionyour hair and sprinkle orspray a little on the scalp.Massage in, then use abrush from the scalp downto the ends of your hair.Dry shampoo also can adda little body and fullness.Try one – you might besurprised! – Heloise

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015