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AUSTIN — The TexasLegislature wound downSunday by lifting a ban onfirearms on college cam-puses after years of thwart-ed attempts, putting a finalconservative stamp on newRepublican Gov. Greg Ab-bott’s debut that includedtax cuts and a dramaticrise in border securityspending.

The official last day forthe Legislature was Mon-day, and that day was most-ly ceremonial; unlike the

previous 14 years underRick Perry, lawmakerswent home instead of beingmarched into a specialsummer session to finishbusiness.

The last major bill sentto Abbott was both a sym-bol of the Republican dom-inance flaunted over thelast 140 days of the sessionand the most emotionally-charged issue when hetook office — expandinggun rights.

Allowing concealedhandguns in college class-rooms — known as “cam-

TEXAS LEGISLATURE

‘Campus carry’ a go

In this Jan. 13 file photo, a gun-rights advocate carries a rifle on his back and a cardboard cutout of apistol on his waist as a group protests outside the Texas Capitol, in Austin, Texas.

Photo by Eric Gay | AP file

Lawmakers lift ban,Abbott poised to sign

By PAUL J. WEBER AND WILL WEISSERT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See CAMPUS CARRY PAGE 9A

HARLINGEN — Re-searchers suspect steadyrains and other factors maybe responsible for a drop ina tiny bug’s infestation of agrain crop so far this year.

Farmers in the RioGrande Valley had fearedthe sugarcane aphid wouldagain invade their sorghumcrop following experts’ pre-dictions they would comeback in full force after anincrease in populationacross the region last year,the Valley Morning Star re-ported.

The pests had swarmedthe Valley’s sorghum fields,gnawing away at the plantsin 2014. The bugs also in-fested crops from Mississip-pi to southern Oklahomawhile devastating Mexico’ssorghum crop, according toresearchers.

They had warned thatsorghum growers in theValley who didn’t take pre-ventive measures by spray-ing their fields with insecti-cide would face heavy croplosses. But they think rainsand humidity may havehelped stop the insect in at-tacking the crops.

“We have an enigma asto what’s happening,” saidRaul Villanueva, an ento-mologist at Texas A&MAgriLife Extension Servicein Weslaco. “We were pre-dicting them to be veryabundant this year.”

Farmer Ricardo Lopez,who has around 2,200 acresof sorghum in San Manuel,said he had worried thataphids would infest hisfields this year. But he saidhe and other workershaven’t seen signs of thebug ruining their grain har-vest.

In Santa Rosa, SamSparks III said he’ll contin-ue to spray insecticide infields where he has foundthe pests.

“We’ve had to spraysome areas but others areclean,” said Sparks, whofarms about 2,000 acres ofsorghum. “They’re a prob-lem but not at the severitythat they were last year.We’re not out of the woodsyet.”

RIO GRANDE VALLEY

Afterrains,feweraphidsInfestations downin sorghum crops

ASSOCIATED PRESS

DENTON – Seven months aftera rag-tag group of local activistsscored a surprising victory overthe state’s powerful oil and gas in-dustry by convincing voters inthis North Texas city to ban hy-draulic fracturing, heavy trucksbearing piping, perforating gunsand other high-powered equip-ment waited at well site earlyMonday.

After police arrested three pro-testers trying to block the path ofworkers, Colorado-based VantageEnergy, a natural gas driller, offi-cially revved up its fracking oper-ations on a pad site on the west-ern outskirts of town. That effec-tively ended the brief but intenselife of an ordinance that Dentonofficials say they can no longerenforce due to a new Texas law —House Bill 40 — passed in re-sponse that pre-empts local con-trol over a wide range of oil andgas activities.

“Since the ban on hydraulicfracturing took effect in 2014, wehave maintained regular dialoguewith Denton City officials, pre-sented path forward alternativesand last week followed the city’s

HOUSE BILL 40

DENTON SAYS FIGHT ISN’T OVERFrackingstarts up

again

Vantage Energy on June 1 resumed hydraulic operations on a pad site on the western outskirts of Denton. It was the first com-pany to frack within city limits after the Texas Legislature overturned the Denton’s ban on the process.

Cooper Neill | Texas Tribune

By JIM MALEWITZTEXAS TRIBUNE

See FRACKING PAGE 9A

As the sun begins to seton the 84th Texas Legisla-ture, promises to enacttough immigration legis-lation remain unfulfilled.State Sen. Donna Camp-bell says she’s not givingup just because the lastgavel is about to drop.

Campbell, a NewBraunfels Republican,tried unsuccessfully topass Senate Bill 1819,which would have elimi-

nated a 14-year-old policythat allows non-citizens,including some undocu-mented immigrants, topay in-state tuition ratesat public colleges and uni-versities.

“Unfortunately, it takesa [three-fifths] vote tobring a bill to the floor,and I was unable to findthose final two to three af-firmative votes once thebill passed out of commit-tee,” she said in an emailSaturday. “I am disap-pointed that we were un-

able to get this bill passedunder the current body,but I have two years tochange a couple members’minds and try again nextsession."

Republican lawmakerscould take a similar con-ciliatory tone on anothercontentious issue, SenateBill 185, by state Sen.Charles Perry, R-Lubbock.That bill sought to ban so-called “sanctuary cities” –the common term for lo-cal governments whosepeace officers don’t en-

force immigration laws.The proposals seemed

likely to pass, at mini-mum, the upper chamberin the early months of thesession. The crush of un-authorized migration lastsummer in the RioGrande Valley kept the is-sues at the forefront, andsome GOP senators saidduring their campaignsthat passing immigrationlegislation was a priority.

But two Republicansenators, Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, and Craig Estes, R-

Wichita Falls, opposed themeasures. Eltife said theissues were about localcontrol; Estes said hefeared both could havedire unintended conse-quences. Their oppositionblocked both from goingbefore the full chamberfor a vote.

State Sen. Kirk Watson,D-Austin, said a coalitionopposing the bills formedearly, and it held “regard-less of a great deal of pres-sure that was put on somepeople.”

“We spent time talkingto individual membersand talking to people out-side the Capitol who inturn talked to members,so that we could be surewe weren’t making anyassumptions about wheresomeone might be onthese bills, simply becauseof their party,” said Wat-son, chairman of the Sen-ate Democratic Caucus.

When then-Gov. RickPerry declared eliminat-

TEXAS LEGISLATURE

Despite push, immigration bills fall flatBy JULIÁN AGUILAR

TEXAS TRIBUNE

See BILLS PAGE 9A

PAGE 2A Zin brief WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3Planetarium shows at TAMIU La-

mar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4p.m.: The Secret of the CardboardRocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun.General admission is $3. For more in-formation call 956-326-DOME (3663).

THURSDAY, JUNE 4Elysian Social Club will be hosting

its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Herlin-da Nieto-Dubuisson at 956-285-3126.

Planetarium shows at TAMIU La-mar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4p.m.: The Secret of the CardboardRocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun.General admission is $3. For more in-formation call 956-326-DOME (3663).

SATURDAY, JUNE 6Villa San Agustin de Laredo Ge-

nealogical Society meeting with speakerAlbino Salinas Arreola on the Foundingof Nuevo Laredo at the Laredo PublicLibrary-Calton, from 10 a.m. to noon.Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter at 722-3497.

First United Methodist Churchused book sale from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30p.m. at 1220 McClelland. Hardcovers,$1; paperbacks, $.50; magazines, $.25;children’s books, $.25.

The Laredo North Side Market as-sociation will host its monthly marketday at North Central Park from 9 a.m.to 1 p.m. Grave Yard Ethics Band willplay at the market. Save the date andpick up some gifts for Father’s Day. Formore information visit Facebook at La-redo North Side Market.

Planetarium shows at TAMIU La-mar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 1to 5 p.m. 2 p.m.: Accidental Astronaut(Matinee Show – $1 less); 3 p.m.: Cos-mic Adventures; 4 p.m.: Attack of theSpace Pirates; 5 p.m.: Led Zeppelin.General admission is $4 for childrenand $5 for adults. Admission is $4 forTAMIU students, faculty and staff. Formore information call 956-326-DOME(3663).

MONDAY, JUNE 8The Laredo Stroke Support Group

will be holding its monthly meeting at7 p.m. at the San Martin de PorresChurch Family Life Center. Visit www.la-redostrokesupport.com for more infor-mation.

Rock Fitness event for teens fromages 11-17, June 8 to July 3. A greatway for adolescents to get a head starton fitness and nutrition in an enjoyableand engaging way. Email info@rock-fit-ness.com

TUESDAY, JUNE 9Planetarium shows at TAMIU La-

mar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4p.m.: The Secret of the CardboardRocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun.General admission is $3. For more in-formation call 956-326-DOME (3663).

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10Planetarium shows at TAMIU La-

mar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4p.m.: The Secret of the CardboardRocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun.General admission is $3. For more in-formation call 956-326-DOME (3663).

THURSDAY, JUNE 11Planetarium shows at TAMIU La-

mar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4p.m.: The Secret of the CardboardRocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun.General admission is $3. For more in-formation call 956-326-DOME (3663).

FRIDAY, JUNE 12Planetarium shows at TAMIU La-

mar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 6to 8 p.m. 6 p.m.: Stars of the Phara-ohs; 7 p.m.: Live Star Presentation (Ob-serving will occur after the show,weather permitting). For more informa-tion call 956-326-DOME (3663).

SATURDAY JUNE 13South Texas Food Bank bucket

brigade fundraiser 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. atseven Laredo corners: Hillside-McPher-son, Zacatecas-Zapata Highway,McPherson-Shiloh, Saunders-Bartlett,Arkansas-Clark, Guadalupe-Meadow,Springfield – Del Mar.

(Submit calendar items atlmtonline.com/calendar/submitor by emailing editorial@lmton-line.com with the event’s name,date and time, location and pur-pose.)

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Wednesday, June 3,the 154th day of 2015. Thereare 211 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On June 3, 1965, astronautEdward H. White became thefirst American to “walk” inspace during the flight of Ge-mini 4.

On this date:In 1621, the Dutch West In-

dia Co. received its charter fora trade monopoly in parts ofthe Americas and Africa.

In 1808, Confederate Presi-dent Jefferson Davis was bornin Christian County, Kentucky.

In 1924, author Franz Kafka,40, died near Vienna.

In 1935, the French linerNormandie set a record on itsmaiden voyage, arriving inNew York after crossing theAtlantic in just four days.

In 1937, Edward, The Dukeof Windsor, who had abdicatedthe British throne, marriedWallis Warfield Simpson in aprivate ceremony in Monts,France.

In 1948, the 200-inch reflect-ing Hale Telescope at the Palo-mar Mountain Observatory inCalifornia was dedicated.

In 1955, convicted murdererBarbara Graham, 31, was exe-cuted in the gas chamber atSan Quentin State Prison inCalifornia, as were two accom-plices, Jack Santo and EmmettPerkins, for the 1953 slaying ofMabel Monahan.

In 1963, Pope John XXIIIdied at age 81; he was succeed-ed by Pope Paul VI.

In 1972, Sally J. Priesandwas ordained as America’sfirst female rabbi at the He-brew Union College-Jewish In-stitute of Religion in Cincinna-ti, Ohio.

In 1983, Gordon Kahl, a mil-itant tax protester wanted inthe slayings of two U.S. mar-shals in North Dakota, waskilled in a gun battle with law-enforcement officials nearSmithville, Arkansas.

In 1989, Iran’s spiritual lead-er, Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho-meini, died. Chinese armytroops began their sweep ofBeijing to crush student-ledpro-democracy demonstra-tions. SkyDome (now calledRogers Centre) opened in To-ronto, Ontario, Canada.

Ten years ago: U.S. mili-tary officials said no guard atthe Guantanamo Bay prisonfor terror suspects had flusheda detainee’s Quran down thetoilet, but disclosed there wereinstances in which Quranswere abused by guards, inten-tionally or accidentally.

Five years ago: BP slicedoff a pipe with giant shears tomake way for a cap in the lat-est bid to curtail the worst oilspill in U.S. history.

One year ago: PresidentBarack Obama arrived in War-saw, Poland, at the start of athree-country swing, pledgingto boost U.S. military deploy-ments and exercises through-out Europe.

Today’s Birthdays: TVproducer Chuck Barris is 86.The president of Cuba, RaulCastro, is 84. Author LarryMcMurtry is 79. Rock musi-cian Richard Moore is 66. Ac-tress Suzie Plakson is 57. Ac-tor Scott Valentine is 57. Rocksinger-musician Mike Gordonis 50. TV host Anderson Coop-er is 48. Rhythm-and-bluessinger Lyfe Jennings is 42.Tennis player Rafael Nadal is29. Actress-singer Lalaine is28. Actor Sean Berdy is 22.

Thought for Today: “It isbest to act with confidence, nomatter how little right youhave to it.” — Lillian Hellman,American playwright (1905-1984).

TODAY IN HISTORY

AUSTIN — At 5 feet 5 inches tall, TexasRep. Kenneth Sheets is one of the smallestmembers of the Texas Legislature.

But he’s often called to the House dais topreside over the chamber, where he’s brokensix solid, walnut gavels, crafted by Texasprison inmates, in this past 140-day sessionalone. None of the chamber’s other 149 mem-bers — even House Speaker Joe Straus, whowields them far more often — broke any.

“I’m just passionate,” said Sheets, a DallasRepublican.

Three of the fragmented gavels, whichSheets said suffered “construction defects,”were sent back to the East Texas prisonerswho make them to evaluate why they failed.Wear-and-tear — namely, repeatedly pound-ing a piece of wood against a steel plate —

caused the other three to chip, separate andcrack. About 1,150 of the gavels were sold tothe House and Senate this year at $38 each,with the money going to the Texas Depart-ment of Criminal Justice. They’re among theitems made by 4,800 men and women in Tex-as lockups that are sold to lawmakers andpublic agencies, schools and hospitals forabout $5 million a year total.

The gavels are available to counties butare purchased almost exclusively by the Leg-islature. They’re used to mark the beginningand end of meetings, get the attention of leg-islators and signify the end of a vote. Law-makers hand out gavels ceremoniously, asthey recently did on “John Wayne Day” torelatives of the late movie star.

The sales by Texas Correctional Industriesare easily swallowed by the program’s $68million budget.

AROUND TEXAS

Texas Rep. Kenneth Sheets, R-Dallas, poses with three of the six solid, mahogany gavels he broke during the legislative ses-sion this year, Monday, in Austin. At 5-feet-5-inches, Sheets is one of the smallest members of the Texas Legislature, buthe’s broken six gavels crafted by Texas prison inmates this session alone, outpacing any other lawmaker.

Photo by Eric Gay | AP

Leaving gavels in piecesBy EVA RUTH MORAVEC

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Texas State Aquariumback to near capacity

CORPUS CHRISTI — The Tex-as State Aquarium is nearly fullof fish again after a chemical ac-cident in April killed hundredsof creatures.

Aquarium president TomSchmid told the Corpus ChristiCaller-Times that as of Mondaythe fish collection topped 95 per-cent. Nearly 400 fish died when amislabeled container led aquar-ium personnel to put a poison-ous chemical in the water.

County reaches $400Ksettlement with ex-inmate

HOUSTON — A mentally illinmate left unattended for weeksin his filthy Harris County jailcell will receive a $400,000 settle-ment. Commissioners approvedpaying Terry Goodwin, over hisphysical and emotional suffer-ing. Goodwin was jailed in 2013on a marijuana charge when hewas found in his shredded uni-form amid trash and feces.

Some flood victims could get federal helpAUSTIN — People in three

Texas counties recovering fromlast month’s devastating floodsand tornadoes could be eligiblefor federal assistance. The Feder-al Emergency ManagementAgency on Tuesday urged resi-dents of Hays, Harris and VanZandt counties to consider apply-ing. A May 29 presidential disas-ter declaration covers eligiblefamilies, individuals and busi-ness owners in those areas.

Inmate, 67, set to die for4 slayings 31 years agoLIVINGSTON — Sixty-seven-

year-old Lester Bower will be theoldest Texas inmate executed ifhis scheduled lethal injection iscarried out this week in Hunts-ville for the slayings of four menat a North Texas ranch.

Bower insists he didn’t kill thefour at a ranch hangar where hesays he bought an ultralight air-plane in October 1983.

Police fatally shoot theftsuspect who had BB gun

PALESTINE — Police have fa-tally shot an East Texas man sus-pected of stealing beer and point-ing a BB gun at officers trying toquestion him. Officers Sundaynight responded to a theft reportat a Wal-Mart and a suspect seenleaving the store. Alexander saysofficers located the man hidingin the bathroom of a nearby res-taurant. Police say Bushey leftthe restaurant, struggled with of-ficers and pointed what appearedto be a pistol at them.

Man not prosecuted infatal shooting of dog

HOUSTON — A Houston-areaman who was facing a charge ofanimal cruelty after he shot andkilled a Staffordshire bull terrierat a dog park will not be prose-cuted.

A Harris County grand juryon Monday declined to indict 27-year-old Joseph Potts.

— Compiled from AP reports

Gunman says he calledcrisis line before shooting

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Col-orado theater gunman JamesHolmes has said he called a men-tal health hotline minutes beforethe 2012 massacre, thinkingsomeone might be able to talkhim out of killing people watch-ing a movie.

In a videotape played for ju-rors on Tuesday, Holmes says thephone call was disconnected be-fore anyone answered.

Holmes says he lingered out-side a moment, then walked intothe theater, threw a tear gas can-ister and began firing into thecrowd.

Holmes says he was “on auto-pilot” during the shootings. Hesays he heard one scream.

Eastwood to make biopicof ‘Sully’ SullenbergerNEW YORK — Clint Eastwood

will follow his box-office sensa-

tion “American Sniper” with abiopic of pilot Chesley “Sully”Sullenberger.

Warner Bros. announcedTuesday that Eastwood will di-rect and produce the not-yet-ti-tled drama as his next film.

The film is to be adapted from

Sullenberger’s 2009 memoir,“Highest Duty: My Search forWhat Really Matters,” whichchronicled his personal historybefore he famously landed a USAirways plane in the HudsonRiver in New York in 2009.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

In this July 23, 2012, file photo, James Holmes, who is charged with killing 12moviegoers and wounding 70 more in a shooting spree in a crowded theatre inAurora, Colo., sits in Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo.

Photo by RJ Sangosti | AP file

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 State THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

AUSTIN — Bill Powerswon’t be the University ofTexas at Austin presidentwho decides whether tokeep a statue of JeffersonDavis, a tribute to the pres-ident of the Confederacy, oncampus.

But Powers has spent hisnear-decade in office grap-pling with the kind of ten-sion that’s been on displayin recent weeks as studentshave called for the statue’sremoval.

The Houston Chroniclereports the episode is thelatest example of UT, a na-tionally renowned researchuniversity, struggling tosever the more troublingbits of its Old South roots.

When Powers took officein 2006, diversifying theflagship and making thecampus a more inclusiveplace were among his toppriorities. Nine years later,as Powers prepares to leavethis week, he has achievedmuch of that goal.

He’s been a fierce de-fender of the race-con-scious admissions policiesthat have drawn nationalattention to UT throughhigh-profile legal challeng-es. The Supreme Court thisweek could consider takingthe case up again.

Despite his efforts,though, challenges remain,as suggested by the Davisstatue and several otherrelics of the Old South stillon campus, including aninscribed ode to the menand women of the Confed-eracy. UT’s black studentpopulation hasn’t grown inPowers’ time, white stu-dents still outperform theirminority peers, and the fac-ulty remains overwhelm-ingly white.

“From the students’point of view, it still is chal-lenging to come to whatwas the Big White Univer-sity,” Powers said.

A growing Latino stu-dent population and thecreation of an entire arm ofthe university to focus on

diversity will be amongPowers’ most important le-gacies.

The efforts include out-reach to historically disad-vantaged communities likeEast Austin, which longlooked at UT as somethingof an adversary. UnderPowers’ tenure, UT has es-tablished two ethnic stud-ies departments — a priceycommitment to institution-al diversity, even duringtough economic times —that are among the few oftheir kind in the nation.

“In a time of extremeausterity, they’ve still triedto keep diversity on thefront burner,” said Ed-mund T. Gordon, chair ofthe African and AfricanDiaspora Studies Depart-ment. “It is completely un-precedented that in a timeof cutbacks, the universitywould be creating newunits like this department.… That’s unheard of. Inmany places, they’re cut-ting out these kinds of pro-grams, rather than build-ing them.”

UT’s undergraduate pop-ulation has become lesswhite in Powers’ time — 46percent of undergraduatestudents were white in2014, compared with 57 per-cent when he took office.But UT’s black student pop-ulation hovered between 4percent and 5 percent foreach of Powers’ years in of-fice.

And while the universityhas made gains in graduat-ing minority students, asignificant gap remains be-tween their success rateand that of their whitepeers. Just 42 percent ofblack students who startedin 2010 graduated in fouryears, for example, com-pared with 61 percent ofwhite students. Of the His-panic students who startedin 2010, just 44 percentgraduated four years later.

The tiny black studentpopulation at UT — Afri-can-Americans make up 12percent of Texas’ popula-tion — is a “blemish” onthe university, said Mi-

chelle Asha Cooper, presi-dent of the Institute forHigher Education Policy, anonprofit that aims to pro-mote access to and successin higher education for allstudents.

“I have to be honest, thatblows my mind,” Coopersaid. “When I think aboutdiversity I don’t necessarilythink about UT-Austin, ex-cept I think it is a schoolthat can do more, given thepercentage of people of col-or that live in the state. . Ifyou’re not educating stu-dents who come from thatpopulation, then who areyou educating? Because thewhite population is only go-ing to be decreasing overtime.”

UT faculty also has beenslow to diversify. The vastmajority — 77 percent — ofthe school’s teaching facul-ty is white. Just 147 of UT’s1,549 tenured teaching pro-fessors were black or His-panic in 2014. UT also hasstruggled to attract minor-ity doctoral students, espe-

cially black doctoral stu-dents.

Officials hope that theschool’s new ethnic studiesdepartments, the Africanand African Diaspora Stud-ies and the Mexican Amer-ican and Latino/a Studiesdepartments, will be power-ful recruiting tools. The de-partments show a “commit-ment to institutional diver-sity,” said Gregory J.Vincent, UT’s vice presi-dent for diversity and com-munity engagement — aposition elevated to a vicepresidency by Powers in2006.

The departments are acostly commitment — UThas spent $19.3 million onthem since 2011 — butthey’ve already shownpromise.

Caitlin O’Neill, a docto-ral student in her secondyear at UT, went to Austinfrom Oberlin College inOhio, which was famouslythe first institution of high-er education in America toregularly admit women

and black students. Going from such a liber-

al place to a state on theopposite end of the politicalspectrum was daunting,but O’Neill was swayedwhen UT’s new black stud-ies department — one ofonly about a dozen in thenation — lured a professorO’Neill wanted to workwith away from the Univer-sity of Minnesota. Since itscreation in 2011, the depart-ment has hired 54 percentof all new black faculty atUT.

O’Neill said she’s seenthe department becomesomething of a haven forblack students, many ofwhom she works with as ateaching assistant.

The Mexican Americanand Latino/a Studies De-partment, which is in itsfirst year and bills itself asthe first of its kind in thenation, has become a mag-net. Three students choseto major in the field asfreshmen in the firstmonths of the department’sexistence. That was rela-tively unheard of for a fieldthat had historically takentwo or three years to evenget on UT students’ radar,said Domino Perez, direc-tor of the Center for Mexi-can American Studies.

“One of the things stu-dents look for — Hispanicstudents — in decidingwhere to go is whetherthere is an established areaof study that focuses ontheir group or if there is asupport system to aid stu-dents like them,” Perezsaid. “I think it’s going tobe a huge recruiting tool.”

Beyond recruiting, theschool has made strides inhelping students graduate.While the success rates forminority students lag be-hind whites, they havemade progress. The per-centage of black studentswho graduated in fouryears jumped a full 11points to 42 percent be-tween 2009 and 2014, for ex-ample.

Much of that is becauseof work being done by the

Division of Diversity andCommunity Engagementand by David Laude, re-ferred to as the “gradua-tion czar” in the provost’soffice.

Laude drew national at-tention to UT with his data-driven approach to boost-ing the university’s gradua-tion rate. Laude’s data canhelp predict which studentsare more likely to succeed,which helps the school fo-cus on those who need themost help. His data hasguided admissions, helpedchange degree pathwaysand created financial aidprograms that incentivizefour-year graduation.

The university, mean-while, has worked morewith K-12 schools to helpprepare students beforethey arrive on campus.UT’s elementary charterschool in East Austin, forexample, has become a“great model on how to ef-fectively teach students inlow-income areas,” Vincentsaid.

UT also offers $20,000scholarships and leader-ship training to mostlyfirst-generation studentswho would otherwise be atrisk of dropping outthrough the UniversityLeadership Network. Theuniversity also recentlycreated a $15 million schol-arship aimed at attractingthe best-performing, mostat-risk students. And UThas summer programs tohelp new students get accli-mated to college life.

Despite the progress, theschool has a ways to go.Powers said the new strate-gies UT has adopted are“where computers were 15years ago.”

“I think we’re at thestart of a renaissance onthat,” Powers said. “We’relearning a lot about subtlerforms of disparities. I thinkthere’s still a lot of work todo.”

But it will be GregFenves, who takes officethis week as UT’s new pres-ident, who will see UTthrough that renaissance.

Diversity issues linger as Powers leaves UTBy BENJAMIN WERMUND

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

In this May 5 photo, a statue of Jefferson Davis is seen on the Uni-versity of Texas campus in Austin. Bill Powers won’t be the UT-Austin president who decides whether to keep a statue of JeffersonDavis, a tribute to the president of the Confederacy, on campus.

Photo by Eric Gay | AP file

PAGE 4A Zopinion WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

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

Every generation has anopportunity to change theworld. Right now, collegecampuses around thecountry are home to amoral movement thatseeks to reverse centuriesof historic wrongs.

This movement is led bystudents forced to live withthe legacy of sexism, withthe threat, and sometimesthe experience, of sexualassault. It is led by stu-dents whose lives havebeen marred by racismand bigotry. It is led bypeople who want to secureequal rights for gays, lesbi-ans and other historicallymarginalized groups.

These students are dri-ven by noble impulses todo justice and identify op-pression. They want to notonly crack down on exploi-tation and discrimination,but also eradicate the cul-tural environment that tol-erates these things. Theywant to police socialnorms so that hurtful com-ments are no longer toler-ated and so that real bigot-ry is given no tacit sup-port. Of course, at somelevel, they are right. Cal-lous statements in themainstream can lead tohostile behavior on theedge. That’s why we don’ttolerate Holocaust denial.

But when you witnesshow this movement is ac-tually being felt on cam-pus, you can’t help notic-ing that it sometimesslides into a form of zeal-otry. If you read the web-site of the group FIRE,which defends free speechon campus, if you readKirsten Powers’s book,“The Silencing,” if youread Judith Shulevitz’s es-say “In College and HidingFrom Scary Ideas” thatwas published in TheTimes in Sunday Reviewon March 22, you comeacross tales of professorswhose lives are ruined be-cause they made innocentremarks; you see speechcodes that inhibit free ex-pression; you see reputa-tions unfairly scarred bycharges of racism and sex-ism.

The problem is that thecampus activists have mor-al fervor, but don’t alwayshave settled philosophiesto restrain the fervor oftheir emotions. Settled phi-losophies are meant to(but obviously don’t al-ways) instill a limitingsense of humility, a defer-ence to the complexity andmultifaceted nature of real-ity. But many of today’s ac-tivists are forced to rely ona relatively simple socialtheory.

According to this theory,the dividing lines betweengood and evil are starklyclear. The essential conflictis between the traumatizedpurity of the victim andthe verbal violence of theoppressor.

According to this theory,the ultimate source of au-thority is not some hard-to-understand truth. It iseverybody’s personal feel-ings. A crime occurs whensomeone feels a hurt trig-gered, or when someonefeels disagreed with or“unsafe.” In the Shulevitz

piece, a Brown student re-treats from a campus de-bate to a safe room be-cause she “was feelingbombarded by a lot ofviewpoints that really goagainst” her dearly andclosely held beliefs.

Today’s campus activistsare not only going after ac-tual acts of discrimination— which is admirable.They are also going afterincorrect thought — impie-ty and blasphemy. Theyare going after people forsimply failing to show suf-ficient deference to and re-spect for the etiquette theyhold dear. They sometimesconflate ideas with actionsand regard controversialideas as forms of violence.

Some of their targetshave been deliberately im-pious. Laura Kipnis is afeminist film professor atNorthwestern Universitywho wrote a provocativepiece on sexual mores oncampus that was publishedin February. She was hitwith two Title IX chargeson the grounds, withoutevidence, that her wordsmight have a “chilling ef-fect” on those who mightneed to report sexual as-saults. Other targets of thiscrusade had no idea whatthey were getting into. Astudent at George Wash-ington wrote an essay onthe pre-Nazi history of theswastika. A professor atBrandeis mentioned a his-toric slur against Hispan-ics in order to criticize it.The scholar Wendy Kamin-er mentioned the N-wordat a Smith College alumnievent in a clearly nonracistdiscussion of euphemismand free speech.

All of these people weretargeted for purging mere-ly for bringing unaccept-able words into the publicsquare. As Powers de-scribes it in “The Silenc-ing,” Kaminer was ac-cused of racial violenceand hate speech. The uni-versity president was pillo-ried for tolerating an envi-ronment that had beenmade “hostile.”

We’re now in a positionin which the students andthe professors and peersthey target are talking pasteach other. The studentsfeeling others don’t under-stand the trauma they’vesurvived; the professorsfeeling as though they arevictims in a modern Salemwitch trial. Everybodywalks on egg shells.

There will always bemoral fervor on campus. Amore mature moral fervorwould be structured by theclassic ideal of the worldlyphilosopher, by the desireto confront not hide fromwhat you fear, but to en-gage the complexity of theworld, and to know thatsometimes the way to wis-dom involves hurt feelings,tolerating difference andfacing hard truths.

(David Brooks is a col-umnist for The New YorkTimes.)

COLUMN

Campuscrusaders

“DAVID BROOKS

OTHER VIEWS

The Zapata Timesdoes not publish anony-mous letters.

To be published, let-ters must include thewriter’s first and lastnames as well as aphone number to verifyidentity. The phonenumber IS NOT publish-ed; it is used solely toverify identity and toclarify content, if neces-sary. Identity of the let-ter writer must be veri-fied before publication.

We want to assure

our readers that a letteris written by the personwho signs the letter. TheZapata Times does notallow the use of pseudo-nyms.

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

Via e-mail, send let-ters to editorial@lmton-line.com or mail them toLetters to the Editor, 111Esperanza Drive, Lare-do, TX 78041.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

Those of us who havebeen privileged to do some-thing we love dearly all ofour lives belong to a groupI named in a speech yearsago as the Brotherhood ofCommunity Newspapers.Over time, with more expe-rience in that genre, I de-cided it could also be calledthe Texas Country Newspa-per Family.

That is in reference, ofcourse, to small town news-papers and, more succinct-ly, to those folks who manthe presses, so to speak.

Therein lies one of themajor reasons I found thatsegment of the journalismprofession to be most ap-pealing to me as a way tomake a living doing some-thing I love.

People in country news-paper publishing havemore in common than theold saying “ink in myblood.” The connections ofshared experiences extendsto a family affection that isso strong that we can finisheach other’s sentences orresume an interrupted con-versation by a newspaperconvention adjournment atthe next gathering monthsor even a year away.

Perhaps this is notunique to our profession,but I daresay the affection

and closeness created bythe commonality of experi-ence in serving a commu-nity in our manner issomehow extra special.Other than spousal andfamilial love, I’ve experi-enced no greater or strong-er feeling than those bondsbetween country newspa-per editor-publishers.

And, so it is that whenthere is a loss, we all feel itdeeply. There are those whomay have additional con-nections to a fellow coun-try newsperson and thedeath of a compatriot iseven more painful.

Such an experience hap-pened recently with thedeaths of several dearfriends in the country pa-per business: Nick and Ma-ry West of the Palacios Bea-con (just months apart);Bill Wilkerson, publisher ofthe Pleasanton Express;and Vana Tidwell of Gran-bury — wife, helpmate andpartner — of Hood CountyNews publisher Jerry Tid-well.

In addition to newspa-

pering, Nick and Maryshared the common bondwith Julie and me of fight-ing cancer. And, we oftenmet during his and mytreatments at Houston’sM.D. Anderson Hospital.

Their spirit, determina-tion and refusal to let thedisease stop them from en-joying life was a greatboost to my spirits and pro-vided an impetus for myfight. Nick’s battle went onfor almost a decade, so in-tense was his mind-set.

Bill Wilkerson’s great,happy spirit was silencedrecently at age 90. Thisgreat, gregarious man wasan inspiration to youngjournalists. He could en-courage you but keep yourego from puffing beyondtolerance with some off-hand remark.

Once, early in my careerwhen I was making a moveto a better job every fewyears, I was greeted at apress convention by Billwith an arm around myshoulder and a foghornquestion ricocheting off thewalls: “Where in hell areyou now?!”

However, he never hesi-tated to help when I soughthis advice and took advan-tage of his fine newspapermind.

Julie and I enjoyedshared experiences withJerry and Vana Tidwell —Texas Press Associationconventions and meetings(he and I both served aspresident of that group);and National NewspaperAssociation meetings inKansas City and Washing-ton D.C.

Vana’s omnipresent anddazzling smile was alwaysa beacon to great visits.Her great sense of humorexhibited her optimismand enjoyment of life.Those who knew Vanawell, knew she fought backproblems for years. Yet, hergood humor glowed andcharmed all who knew her.

While we will all missVana’s great smile, we aregrateful for the time wewere able to know and en-joy her.

The Texas newspaperfamily has lost some won-derful members — friendswhose value is incalcula-ble. Additionally, the com-munities each of thesefolks served have suffered agreat loss as well.

Willis Webb is a retiredcommunity newspaper edi-tor-publisher of more than50 years experience. He canbe reached by email atwwebb1937@att.net.

COLUMN

Newspaper family suffers loss

Completing his CommonCore U-turn, New JerseyGov. Chris Christie, R, of-fered the explanation thatthe rigorous academic stan-dards simply aren’t work-ing. That’s news to much ofhis state’s education leader-ship, which embraced themas central to preparing stu-dents for college, careerand life. When we askedthe governor’s office inwhat way the standards are“not working,” no specificswere forthcoming. Mr.Christie’s rhetoric aboutthe Common Core hasnothing to do with educa-

tion and everything to dowith his possible bid forthe White House. Mr.Christie not so long agowas an unabashed support-er of the K-12 standards, de-veloped at the impetus ofgovernors and state educa-tion officials who recog-nized the value of consis-tent, real-world learninggoals. As he tested the wa-ters for a presidential runand encountered implaca-ble opposition to the stan-dards from his party’s mostconservative wing, he ex-pressed mounting doubts.On Thursday, he completedhis abandonment of princi-ple, announcing an effort

to develop a new set ofstandards that would beunique to New Jersey.

Given the experience ofother states that rolled outtheir own standards be-cause of backlash againstCommon Core, chances arethat any effort in New Jer-sey will produce somethingthat bears a striking re-semblance to CommonCore. The development ofduplicative standards willmean added expense andpossible disruption forNew Jersey teachers, stu-dents and parents whohave been adjusting toCommon Core. If that mat-tered to Mr. Christie, he at

least would have waited forthe report, due in July,from the commission heappointed last year to re-view testing and standards.Apparently waiting untilJuly doesn’t suit Mr. Chris-tie’s political calendar. Sad-ly, he is not the only GOPpresidential hopeful turn-ing his back on previoussupport of Common Core.His fellow panderers in-clude Bobby Jindal, MikeHuckabee and Scott Walk-er. What distinguishes Mr.Christie’s betrayal is thathe promotes himself as astraight talker willing tostand up for principle, nomatter the consequence.

EDITORIAL

Chris Christie’s about-faceTHE WASHINGTON POST

Sports&OutdoorsWEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

IRVING — A.J. Jenkinscringes when he hears theword "bust" attached tohis name.

"I know I was a first-round pick years ago," thenewest Dallas Cowboys re-ceiver said. "But I’m noteven on that Earth anymore.

"I’m kind of just tryingto make a team. I’m tryingto be a part of this greatorganization, and theygave me an opportunity,so I’m going to make thebest of it."

Jenkins signed a con-tract with the Cowboyslast week, nearly threemonths after he was re-leased by the Kansas CityChiefs.

The San Francisco49ers gave up on Jenkinsafter just one uneventfulseason. They chose Jen-kins in the first round -No. 30 overall - of the 2012NFL Draft.

But the 49ers were souninspired by Jenkins’performance that he wasonly active for threegames as a rookie, playedjust 37 offensive snaps,had no catches and wastargeted only once duringa season in which SanFrancisco advanced to theSuper Bowl.

After that season, the

49ers quickly parted wayswith Jenkins.

Things weren’t muchbetter for Jenkins withthe Chiefs. In his twoyears in Kansas City, Jen-kins caught only 17 passesfor 223 yards in 25 games.

Suddenly, Jenkinsfound himself unemployedagain when the Chiefs re-leased him on Feb. 17.

Even Jenkins admitsthat, although the Cow-boys have given him newlife, his career is on shakyground.

The Cowboys continueorganized team activitiesnext week at ValleyRanch.

"I know how it looks. Idefinitely know how itlooks," Jenkins said. "Butjust the position that Iwas put in at that pointand time 1/8in San Fran-cisco3/8, I don’t really seemyself as being a failureor nothing like that.

"My clock is ticking, Iknow that. So I’ve got tohurry up and make someplays and do something."

The Cowboys lost re-ceiver Dwayne Harris tofree agency and recentlycut Chris Boyd to makeroom for Jenkins. Alongwith Devin Street, theCowboys are hoping Jen-kins will be able to addsome depth at the receiverspot behind Dez Bryant,Terrance Williams and

Cole Beasley.And although he is in

catch-up mode as far aslearning the playbook isconcerned, Jenkins is notin position to offer any ex-cuses.

"I have to definitely goout there every single dayand work hard," Jenkinssaid. "That’s one thingthat coach 1/8Jason3/8Garrett does talk about

every single day is everyguy is accountable.

"Even though I camelate, I’m not trying to bethat guy that doesn’tknow what he’s doing andthat doesn’t know what’sgoing on. Pretty much mymain focus right now isjust trying to study thatplaybook and just get asmuch knowledge andcatch up as fast as I can."

The Cowboys view Jen-kins as a player with ahuge upside.

"We’re always trying toimprove our team," Gar-rett said. "I think our per-sonnel department hasdone a great job alwayskind of examining thelandscape of personnel,and finding different guysthat they think can helpour team that we can eval-uate.

"In some cases, webring them in. We signedA.J. Jenkins, the receiverfrom that workout lastweek, so we think allthose things are positivefor us."

The 49ers had high ex-pectations for Jenkins,who made 146 receptionsfor 2,022 yards and 15touchdowns during hislast two seasons at Illi-nois.

But the All-Big Ten se-lection never did live upto San Francisco’s expec-

tations and couldn’t fit inwith a talented 49er castof receivers that includedRandy Moss, MichaelCrabtree, Ted Ginn Jr.,Mario Manningham andKyle Williams.

Jenkins, 25, hopes thatall changes with the Cow-boys, although he’s moreinclined now to just flyunder the radar.

"I’m just trying to bepart of the Cowboys," the6-foot, 200-pound Jenkinssaid. "I don’t need to haveany expectations.

"I want to see if I can goout there every day andjust show the coaches andthe organization that theymade a good decision bysigning me. That’s mymain focus."

Although his stay wasshort-lived, Jenkins wasappreciative of the timehe spent with the 49ers.

"That was a programthat was pretty stacked atthe time," he said. "Wewent to the Super Bowl,so I experienced that.

"It was cool, it was agood run, it was a longseason, but it was a goodstretch. The guys that Iwas able to play with likeRandy Moss and Crabtree,I don’t take it for granted,so I took as much adviceas I could from those guysand now I’m trying to findmy way in this league."

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

Jenkins looking for turnaroundFormer first-round pick tries to revive career with the Cowboys

Dallas signed wide receiver A.J. Jenkins in the offseason as the for-mer first-round pick from Illinois looks to get his career on trackwith the Cowboys.

Photo by Brandon Wade | AP

By DWAIN PRICEMCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

RECAUDACIÓN DE FONDOSEl Boys and Girls Club

del Condado de Zapata seencuentra recaudando fondospara sus programas juvenilesy eventos programados parael 2015. Interesados en apo-yar la causa, la compañíaTupperware se encuentraofreciendo que por cada pro-ducto Tupperware que secompre, un 40 por ciento delas ventas se destinará direc-tamente al club de Zapata. Lemeta es recaudar 3.000 dóla-res. Pida informes llamandoal (956) 765-3892.

MERCADO AGRÍCOLA Y DEARTESANOS

El Mercado Agrícola yde Artesanos de Zapata serealizará el sábado 6 de junio,de 9 a.m. a 1 p.m. en el es-tacionamiento del Centro Co-munitario, 605 N US Highway83. Pida informes en el (956)536-7171.

REUNIÓN DE COMISIONADOSLa corte de comisiona-

dos se reunirá en el Palaciode Justicia de Zapata, el lu-nes 8 de junio, de 9 a.m. a12 p.m.

Más información llamandoa Roxy Elizondo al (956) 765-9920.

CAMPAMENTO DE VERANODel 9 de junio al 2 de

julio, tendrá lugar un Campa-mento de Verano, para los es-tudiantes de ZCISD desdepreescolar a quinto año. Lassesiones serán de 8 a.m. a 12p.m. y de 12 p.m. a 4 p.m.

El desayuno y el almuerzoserán proporcionados. No ha-brá transporte.

El campamento es gratui-to, sin embargo, los estudian-tes deberán cumplir con lasnormativas de fin de año pa-ra ser elegibles.

Las solicitudes de ingresodeberán ser entregadas antesdel 14 de mayo.

Para más informaciónpuede llamar a Gerardo Gar-cía al (956) 765-6917; a DaliaGarcía, al (956) 765-4332; aAna Martínez, al (956) 765-5611; o a Marlen Guerra al(956) 765-4321.

CAMPAÑAMÉDICO-ASISTENCIAL

MIGUEL ALEMAN — Seimplementará la primer cam-paña médico asistencial pro-puesta por miembros de losministerios nacionales “Betel”el 11 de junio, de 8 a.m. a 5p.m.

El grupo de 15 personas,entre médicos y enfermeros,estarán representados por lamisionera Deana Gatlin. Ade-más traerán consigo ropa,medicamentos y despensas.

El Presidente Municipal,Ramiro Cortez, informó quelos misioneros evangélicosviajarán a las comunidadesrurales del sur de Miguel Ale-mán el 13 de junio.

TORNEO DE PESCAA partir del jueves 11

de junio, a las 8 a.m., y hastael sábado 13 de junio, a las 8p.m. se realizará el Torneo dePesca API, en Beacon Lodge.

REUNIÓN DE COMISIONADOSLa corte de comisiona-

dos se reunirá en el Palaciode Justicia de Zapata, el lu-nes 8 de junio, de 9 a.m. a12 p.m.

Más información llamandoa Roxy Elizondo al (956) 765-9920.

EXHIBICIÓN DE ARTEEl Boys and Girls Club

de Zapata tendrá una exhibi-ción de arte, el sábado 27 dejunio, de 1 p.m. a 4 p.m.

Los integrantes del clubinteresados en participar pue-den llamar al (956) 765-3892.

La participación es exclusi-va para integrantes del club.Las personas que gusten ins-cribirse pueden acudir al clubo llamar al (956) 765-3892.

Ribereñaen Breve

El lunes, el Procurador Ge-neral de Texas Ken Paxton,alertó a los residentes del Es-tado sobre posibles fraudes yaumentos ilegales en el pre-cio de productos, tras los de-sastres.

A través de una conferen-cia de prensa celebrada enSan Marcos, Paxton, junto afuncionarios de la región, dioa conocer la información.Asimismo, visitaron centrosde emergencia y voluntariosen San Marcos y Wimberleypara conocer el daño tras lasinundaciones que devastaronel área.

“Deseo alertar a todas laspersonas del área impactadapor las inundaciones paraque sean sumamente cuida-dosas con las personas queofrecen servicios”, señalóPaxton, de acuerdo con un co-municado. “En Texas, la Pro-curaduría General es la vozde la víctima, ya sea una víc-tima de delito o víctima deuna tormenta. O, desafortu-nadamente, a veces de las doscosas.”

Los fraudes por parte de

contratistas que no cumplencon el trabajo por el que yahan recibido pago son comu-nes después de un desastrecomo este, señaló Paxton, deacuerdo con un comunicadode prensa.

A las víctimas de las inun-daciones se les pide ser preca-vidos con contratistas quevienen de fuera del área, noapresurarse para firmar uncontrato, solicitar referenciasy verificar con el Better Busi-ness Bureau para asegurarsede que están tratando conuna empresa confiable. Ade-más, bajo la ley estatal, unavez que el gobernador emiteuna declaración de desastre,los vendedores tienen prohi-bido cobrar precios exorbi-tantes por necesidades duran-te y después de la crisis.

“Hemos sido testigos delvalor de nuestros oficiales deprimeros auxilios y de la ge-nerosidad de los vecinos quese han unido para ayudar aotros tejanos”, dijo Paxton.“Lo último que necesitan laspersonas que han perdido to-do es que aparezcan personascon falsas pretensiones apro-vechándose de sus circuns-

tancias”.El Gobernador Greg Ab-

bott declaró estado de desas-tre en 70 condados de Texas.Estos son: Angelina, Archer,Bastrop, Blanco, Bosque, Bo-wie, Burleson, Caldwell, Cass,Cherokee, Clay, Collin, Comal,Cooke, Denton, Dewitt, Eas-tland, Edwards, Ellis, Fannin,Fayette, Gaines, Garza, Gilles-pie, Grayson, Grimes, Guada-lupe, Harris, Harrison, Hays,Henderson, Hidalgo, Hill, Ho-od, Houston, Jasper, Johnson,Kaufman, Kendall, Lamar, Le-on, Liberty, Lynn, Madison,Milam, Montague, Navarro,Newton, Nueces, Parker, Real,Red River, Refugio, Rusk, Sa-bine, San Jacinto, Smith, Tra-vis, Tyler, Uvalde, Van Zandt,Victoria, Walker, Waller,Wharton, Wichita, William-son, Wilson, Wise y Zavala.

Los residentes en los con-dados afectados que creen ha-ber sido defraudados o encon-trado aumento ilegal de pre-cios deben llamar gratis a lalínea de quejas de la Procura-duría General al (800) 621-0508o presentar una queja en lí-nea en www.texasattorneyge-neral.gov.

FRAUDES

Emite alerta TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

PÁGINA 6A Zfrontera MIÉRCOLES 03 DE JUNIO DE 2015

Dos hombres acusados del tráfico de 23 inmi-grantes indocumentados en el Condado de JimHogg, fueron sentenciados el martes en una cor-te federal de Laredo.

Agentes federales arrestaron a Jaime RosaliReyes y a Cervando Bustos-Peñaloza, el 9 de ju-nio de 2014.

Un gran jurado los acusó formalmente el 8 dejulio, con un cargo por conspiración para trans-portar inmigrantes indocumentados a EstadosUnidos y cuatro cargos por transportar e inten-tar transportar inmigrantes indocumentados acambio de un pago.

Bustos-Peñaloza se declare culpable el 5 de di-ciembre, a los cinco cargos de la acusación.

La Juez de Distrito de EU, Diana Saldaña, sen-tenció a Bustos-Peñaloza a dos años en prisiónfederal.

Reyes se declaró culpable el 16 de enero, a uncargo por transportar e intentar transportar in-migrantes indocumentados. Como parte delacuerdo de culpa, la fiscalía desestimó los cargosrestantes de la acusación formal. Saldaña le or-denó 18 meses en prisión. Los dos hombres fue-ron arrestados cuando un oficial de la Oficinadel Fiscal del Condado de Jim Hogg notificó alas autoridades federales que tenía en custodia ados sospechosos de traficar a 23 inmigrantes in-documentados. Además autoridades federales to-maron a 23 inmigrantes en custodia, y decomisa-ron dos paquetes de marihuana y 19.700 dólares.

CORTE

Dictan penaa 2 hombres

POR PHILIP BALLITIEMPO DE ZAPATA

El Departamento de Edu-cación Continua del LaredoCommunity College, estábuscando estudiantes parael programa Academia deConstrucción de una Carre-ra en Texas, cuyo objetivoes proporcionar entrena-miento y certificación enconstrucción de carreteras.

En el proyecto tambiéncolabora el Departamentode Transportes de Texas yla Universidad de Texas enArlington.

La academia hace hinca-pié en impartir entrena-miento de calidad para los

estudiantes y así cumplircon la demanda de trabaja-dores de la construcción decarreteras. Entre los temas/cursos que se impartirán es-tán: Introducción a la Indus-tria de la Construcción deCarreteras; Administraciónde Seguridad y Salud en elTrabajo, una certificaciónde 10 horas; primeros auxi-lios/CPR/AED para trabaja-dores; entre otros. El pro-grama será en dos sesiones,del 10 al 12 de julio y del 17al 19 de julio, y continuarádel 20 al 31 de julio, de 8a.m. a 5 p.m. en el salón 108de De la Garza Building, enel Campus Fort McIntosh.

EDUCACIÓN

Invitan a cursosde capacitación

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Con el día de eleccionespróximo, los candidatos adiputado por el Distrito Ide Tamaulipas, han come-

nzado con los cierres de campañasen las diferentes ciudades que inte-gran el distrito, tal fue el caso de lascandidatas a la diputación por lospartidos Revolucionario Institucion-al (PRI) y Acción Nacional (PAN).

Yahleel AbdalaEl martes, la candidata a diputa-

da por el PRI, Yahleel Abdala, estu-vo en Miguel Alemán, México,donde simpatizantes le manifesta-

ron su apoyo. Durante el evento, la candidata

estuvo acompañada por su suplenteClaudia Ochoa y con Cristina DíazSalazar, secretaria general de laConfederación Nacional de Organi-zaciones Populares (CNOP), señalaun comunicado.

“El proyecto político no es sólode Claudia Ochoa y Yahleel Abdala,es de la ciudadanía del primer dis-trito, son sus peticiones, sugeren-cias, propuestas y expresión de lasnecesidades que vamos a resolver”,dijo la candidata. “Somos mujeresentregadas, trabajadoras, compro-metidas y cumplidoras. Estaremosatentas a sus necesidades en todomomento, todos los días, porque elcontacto permanente con la gente

es una obligación del diputado fed-eral”.

Abdala expresó su agradecimien-to a los habitantes de Miguel Ale-mán que acudieron al evento, por laconfianza depositada en su proyec-to. Asimismo reafirmó que, en casode ser electa, volverá a los munici-pios que ya visitó, culmina el co-municado.

Laura ZáratePara culminar con su campaña

la candidata por el PAN, realizó unevento en Nuevo Laredo, México,donde realizó un recuento de las ac-tividades realizadas hasta el mo-mento.

“Soy una mujer, que sabe lo quenecesitan aquí en la región… Soyuna empresaria, que sabe lo que ne-cesitan los negocios para crecer…Soy madre, se lo que nuestros hijosnecesitan para seguir estudiando,para conseguir empleo… Para salira divertirse con seguridad”, dijo Za-rate durante su discurso, de acuer-do con un comunicado.

Durante la campaña Zarate visitóa residentes de Nuevo Laredo, Ciu-dad Guerrero, Ciudad Mier, MiguelAlemán y Camargo, México, deacuerdo con un comunicado.

Zarate reafirmo su compromisocon los residentes y ciudadanos.

“Volveré a cada municipio queya visité y lo haré con resultados”,finaliza el comunicado.

TAMAULIPAS

CIERRE DE CAMPAÑAS

La candidata a diputada del Distrito I, por el Partido Revolucionario Institucional(PRI), junto a su equipo de trabajo durante el cierre de campaña en Miguel Alemán,México.

Foto de cortesía

La candidata del Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) al Distrito I de Tamaulipas, junto a suequipo durante el cierre de campaña en Nuevo Laredo, México.

Foto de cortesía

Candidatas llegan a cierre con mensaje a comunidadTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

PARTIDO AMISTOSO

Foto de cortesía

El domingo, la selección de Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, México, se enfrentó a "Botafogo", equipo sub-campeón de Nuevo Laredo, México. El encuentro amistoso fue en la cancha de Fútbol 7, Profr. Ever-eardo Barrientos, en Nueva Ciudad Guerrero.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 Nation THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

WASHINGTON — Presi-dent Barack Obama willnominate Roberta S. Jacob-son, the top State Depart-ment official for LatinAmerica and his point per-son in negotiations to re-es-tablish diplomatic ties withCuba, to be the U.S. ambas-sador to Mexico, WhiteHouse officials said Mon-day.

In choosing Jacobson, 53,a Mexico specialist whorose through the ranks ofthe State Department andmade the rare transforma-tion from career civil ser-vant to senior diplomat,Obama turned to a trustedofficial with allies in bothpolitical parties whose ré-sumé seems tailor-made forthe post.

Congressman HenryCuellar, D-Laredo, applaud-ed this nomination in apress release.

“I have been impressedwith Ms. Jacobson’s deep

knowledge ofMexico andthe rest ofLatin Ameri-ca and fullysupport hernomination,”Cuellar said.“Ms. Jacob-son and I

have worked together be-fore, including on the Méri-da Initiative, and she hasproven herself to be an ableand effective leader. I knowshe will serve well as theU.S. Ambassador to Mexico,and I look forward to work-ing together to continue toimprove and grow the rela-tionship between the U.S.and Mexico.”

Over the span of both theBush and the Obama ad-ministrations, she has han-dled every aspect of the del-icate and vital relationshipbetween the United Statesand Mexico, starting as thedesk officer at the State De-partment and rising to thetop post overseeing theWestern Hemisphere.

Her work to restore dip-

lomatic rela-tions withCuba couldmake hernomination aflashpoint forcritics ofObama’s newpolicy. Yether selection

also suggests that the talkson opening embassies inHavana and Washington,the latest round of whichconcluded last month with-out a final resolution, are intheir final stages.

If confirmed, Jacobsonwould be the first woman toserve as the ambassador toMexico. She is fluent inSpanish and formerlyserved as deputy assistantsecretary of state for Cana-da, Mexico and NorthAmerican Free TradeAgreement issues. She alsoled the Office of MexicanAffairs.

The selection representsa change of approach forObama in choosing an en-voy to Mexico, the closest ofAmerican allies in the La-

tin world.His initial pick for the

post was Maria Echaveste,the daughter of Mexicanimmigrants and a formerClinton administration aidewith no diplomatic back-ground.

She was a strong sup-porter of the Democraticpresidential contender Hill-ary Rodham Clinton and avocal proponent of an im-migration overhaul. Echav-este’s nomination lan-guished for months withoutso much as a hearing onCapitol Hill. She withdrewher name in late January.

Jacobson, by contrast,has support from both Re-publicans and Democrats.But opponents of Obama’srapprochement with Cubamay seek to block her con-firmation over the matter,as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.,a presidential candidate,did temporarily when Ja-cobson was named to hercurrent post. Asked wheth-er Rubio would seek to doso again, a spokeswoman,Brooke Sammon, said only

that he would be “closelyreviewing” her record.

The current ambassador,E. Anthony Wayne, haskept a low profile, attendingbusiness and educationalconferences. Jacobson, ana-lysts said, is likely to bemore comfortable engaginga wide range of Mexicans.

“She really has been theperson who has managedthe relationship, startingwith day-to-day stuff on theMexico desk and up to highstrategic levels from thepast decade,” said AndrewSelee, director of the Wood-row Wilson Center’s MexicoInstitute.

Jacobson’s appointmentwill probably be welcomedin Mexico City, where she isa well-known figure with areputation for a pragmaticapproach to the recurrentfrictions in the countries’relationship. “I cannotthink of a diplomat as wellprepared for this as she is,”said Rafael Fernandez deCastro, chief of internation-al studies at ITAM, a uni-versity in Mexico City.

Obama picks envoy to MexicoBy JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS AND

RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLDNEW YORK TIMES

JACOBSON CUELLAR

WASHINGTON — Con-gress approved sweepingchanges Tuesday to surveil-lance laws enacted after theSept. 11 attacks, eliminat-ing the National SecurityAgency’s disputed bulkphone-records collectionprogram and replacing itwith a more restrictivemeasure to keep the re-cords in phone companies’hands.

Two days after Congresslet the phone-records andseveral other anti-terrorprograms expire, the Sen-ate’s 67-32 vote sent the leg-islation to President Ba-rack Obama, who said hewould sign it promptly.

“This legislation willstrengthen civil libertysafeguards and providegreater public confidencein these programs,” Obamasaid in a statement. Thebill signing could happenlate Tuesday or earlyWednesday, but officialssaid it could take at leastseveral days to restart thecollection.

The legislation will re-vive most of the programsthe Senate had allowed tolapse in a dizzying collisionof presidential politics andnational security policy.But the authorization willundergo major changes,the legacy of agency con-tractor Edward Snowden’sexplosive revelations twoyears ago about domesticspying by the government.

In an unusual shifting ofalliances, the legislationpassed with the support ofObama and House SpeakerJohn Boehner, R-Ohio, butover the strong oppositionof Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell. McCon-nell failed to persuade theSenate to extend the cur-rent law unchanged.

NSAbill

sent toObama

By ERICA WERNERASSOCIATED PRESS

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES Nation WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Californians are using lesswater, but they’ll have toconserve a lot more toachieve the mandatory cutstaking effect this month, ac-cording to the latest num-bers released Tuesday.

California residents re-duced overall water usageby 13.5 percent compared tothe same month in thebenchmark year of 2013, wa-ter officials said.

That’s the second-bestconservation achievementsince state officials startedclosely tracking water usemore than a year ago, butfalls short of the 25 percentcuts Gov. Jerry Brown mademandatory for cities andtowns as of June 1.

“Local communities arestepping up in a way theyweren’t before, and I’m hop-ing that’s why we are start-ing to see the uptick” inconservation, said FeliciaMarcus, chairwoman of thestate Water Resources Con-trol Board.

“The real challenge is, wereally have to step it up forthe summer months,” Mar-cus said. “If we miss thesummer, we are toast.”

April’s still-lacklusteroverall achievement report-ed by the roughly 400 wateragencies in the state couldraise concerns about wheth-er Californians have fullyacknowledged the drought’sseverity.

This year’s Sierra Neva-da snowpack, which feedsthe state’s rivers, was thelowest on record — a grimimage that served asBrown’s backdrop when heannounced unprecedentedconservation measures onApril 1.

“When they saw the gov-ernor out on that dry mead-ow and saw what was in hisexecutive order, and realizedit was really time to step up,they really started to stepup,” said board scientistMax Gomberg, who is over-seeing conservation.

April’s best conserversincluded Santa Rosa, a cityof 170,000 north of San Fran-cisco, which reported a 32percent drop compared to2013. The city offered a hostof programs to achieve this,paying residents to reduce52 football fields’ worth oflawn and giving away 50,000low-flush toilets since 2007.

Saved water “is thecheapest water you canfind,” said David Guhin, wa-ter director for Santa Rosa.“It’s gotten to where lawnsare uncool.”

Cool or no, many com-munities are still falling farshort.

“Fifty-thousand toilets?Really? We don’t have thatkind of money,” said AlanTandy, city manager of Ba-kerfield, where water useactually increased by 1 per-cent in the latest statecount.

Besides offering somemodest rebate programs forwater conservation, theworking-class city of farmsand oil rigs was finding it“difficult to get the word outto everybody” about saving,Tandy said.

The Southern Californiacoast, a region includingLos Angeles and San Diego,cut just 9 percent in April,compared to a 20 percent re-duction in the San Francis-co Bay Area and 24 percentin the Sacramento area.

Among cities of 40,000 ormore, the steepest reductionin the state, 45 percent, wasreported by the water com-pany serving Livermore.The worst was Escondido,reporting a 20 percent in-crease.

Water districts missingtheir targets face potentialfines of up to $10,000 a dayonce June numbers are in,although a far more likelyoutcome will be state-or-dered changes in local regu-lations, like tougher limitson lawn-watering.

Each community was as-signed a reduction target,with some ordered to cutback as much as 36 percent.

Water waste also is beingtracked, and the boardcould penalize local agen-cies that don’t crack down.

Workers with JW Landscape work on removing 300,000 squarefeet of turf at Suzuki headquarters in Brea, Calif.

Photo by Mindy Schauer/The Orange County Register | AP

Californiansused less water

By FENIT NIRAPPIL AND ELLEN KNICKMEYERASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON —Scores of low-flying planescircling American citiesare part of a civilian airforce operated by the FBIand obscured behind ficti-tious companies, The Asso-ciated Press has learned.

The AP traced at least 50aircraft back to the FBI,and identified more than100 flights in 11 states overa 30-day period since lateApril, orbiting both majorcities and rural areas. Atleast 115 planes, including90 Cessna aircraft, werementioned in a federal bud-get document from 2009.

For decades, the planeshave provided support toFBI surveillance operationson the ground. But now theaircraft are equipped withhigh-tech cameras, and inrare circumstances, tech-nology capable of trackingthousands of cellphones,raising questions abouthow these surveillanceflights affect Americans’privacy.

“It’s important that fed-eral law enforcement per-sonnel have the tools theyneed to find and catchcriminals,” said CharlesGrassley, chairman of theSenate Judiciary Commit-tee. “But whenever an oper-ation may also monitor theactivities of Americanswho are not the intendedtarget, we must make darnsure that safeguards are inplace to protect the civil lib-erties of innocent Ameri-cans.”

The FBI says the planesare not equipped or usedfor bulk collection activ-ities or mass surveillance.The surveillance equip-ment is used for ongoinginvestigations, the FBIsays, generally without ajudge’s approval.

The FBI confirmed forthe first time the wide-scaleuse of the aircraft, whichthe AP traced to at least 13fake companies, such asFVX Research, KQM Avia-tion, NBR Aviation andPXW Services.

“The FBI’s aviation pro-gram is not secret,” spokes-

man Christopher Allensaid in a statement. “Specif-ic aircraft and their capa-bilities are protected for op-erational security purpos-es.”

The front companies areused to protect the safety ofthe pilots, the agency said.That setup also shields theidentity of the aircraft sothat suspects on the grounddon’t know they’re beingfollowed.

The FBI is not the onlyfederal law enforcementagency to take such mea-sures.

The Drug EnforcementAdministration has its ownplanes, also registered tofake companies, accordingto a 2011 Justice Depart-ment inspector general re-port. At the time, the DEAhad 92 aircraft in its fleet.And since 2007, the U.S.Marshals Service has oper-ated an aerial surveillanceprogram with its own fleetequipped with technologythat can capture data fromthousands of cellphones,the Wall Street Journal re-ported last year.

In the FBI’s case, one ofits fake companies shares apost office box with the Jus-tice Department, creating alink between the compa-nies and the FBI throughpublicly available FederalAviation Administration re-cords.

Basic aspects of the FBI’sprogram are withheld fromthe public in censored ver-sions of official reportsfrom the Justice Depart-ment’s inspector general,and the FBI also has beencareful not to reveal its sur-

veillance flights in courtdocuments. The agencywill not say how manyplanes are currently in itsfleet.

The planes are equippedwith technology that cancapture video of unrelatedcriminal activity on theground that could be hand-ed over to prosecutions.One of the planes, photo-graphed in flight last weekby the AP in northern Vir-ginia, bristled with unusualantennas under its fuselageand a camera on its leftside.

Some of the aircraft canalso be equipped with tech-nology that can identifythousands of people belowthrough the cellphonesthey carry, even if they’renot making a call or in pub-lic. Officials said that prac-tice, which mimics cell tow-ers and gets phones to re-veal basic subscriberinformation, is used in onlylimited situations.

“These are not yourgrandparents’ surveillanceaircraft,” said Jay Stanley, asenior policy analyst withthe American Civil Liber-ties Union. Stanley said theflights are significant “ifthe federal government ismaintaining a fleet of air-craft whose purpose is tocircle over American cities,especially with the technol-ogy we know can be at-tached to those aircraft.”

The Justice Departmentrecently published a priva-cy policy for its agencies’use of drones and un-manned aircraft systems.But that policy does not ap-ply to piloted aircraft. An

FBI spokesman said theFBI’s flights comply withagency rules.

Those rules, which areheavily redacted in publiclyavailable documents, limitthe types of equipment theagency can use, as well asthe justifications and dura-tion of the surveillance.

Evolving technology canrecord higher-quality videofrom long distances, even atnight, and can capture cer-tain identifying informa-tion from cellphones usinga device known as a “cell-site simulator” — or Stin-gray, to use one of the prod-uct’s brand names. Thesecan trick pinpointed cell-phones into revealing iden-tification numbers of sub-scribers, including thosenot suspected of a crime.

The FBI has recently be-gun obtaining court ordersto use this technology. Pre-viously, the Obama admin-istration had been directinglocal authorities throughsecret agreements not to re-veal their own use of thedevices, even encouragingprosecutors to drop casesrather than disclose thetechnology’s use in opencourt.

Officials say cellphonesurveillance from FBI air-craft was rarely used.

Details confirmed by theFBI about its air force trackclosely with published re-ports since at least 2003that a government surveil-lance program might be be-hind suspicious-lookingplanes slowly circlingneighborhoods.

One such plane was spot-ted during the recent dis-turbance in Baltimore thatfollowed the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, whosustained grievous injurieswhile in police custody. Inthat instance, the FBI washelping local police with ae-rial support, which it occa-sionally does when asked.Those types of requests arereviewed by senior FBI offi-cials. During the past fewweeks, the AP trackedplanes from the FBI’s fleeton more than 100 flightsover at least 11 states plusthe District of Columbia,most with Cessna 182T Sky-lane aircraft.

FBI behind mysterious planes

A small plane flies near Manassas Regional Airport in Manassas,Va. The plane is among a fleet of surveillance aircraft by the FBI.

Photo by Andrew Harnik | AP

By JACK GILLUM, EILEEN SULLIVANAND ERIC TUCKERASSOCIATED PRESS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Magdalena E. Guzman,66, passed away on Satur-day, May 30, 2015 at Lare-do Specialty Hospital inLaredo, Texas.

Mrs. Guzman is preced-ed in death by her daugh-ters, Juana Estela Guz-man and Juana ElenaGuzman; parents, Seferinoand Eloisa Escamilla anda brother, Rodolfo Esca-milla.

Mrs. Guzman is sur-vived by her husband,Francisco J. Guzman;sons, Francisco J. Jr. (Ma-ria L.) Guzman, IsraelGuzman, Luis A. (Rosalin-da) Guzman, Miguel A.Guzman, Juan F. (Aida)Guzman; daughters, Eloi-sa (Jose L.) Sanchez, Ana(Antonio) Benitez, AdelitaGuzman, Dora A. (Sera-fin) Briseño, Maria T.Guzman, Martha L. (Mi-guel) Salazar, MargaritaE. (Lorenzo) Soliz; fortygrandchildren; four great-grandchildren and by nu-merous brothers, sisters,nephews, nieces, otherfamily members andfriends.

Visitation hours wereheld on Monday, June 1,2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.with a rosary at 7 p.m. at

Rose Garden FuneralHome.

The funeral processiondeparted on Tuesday, June2, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10a.m. funeral Mass at OurLady of Lourdes CatholicChurch.

Committal services fol-lowed at Zapata CountyCemetery.

Funeral arrangementswere under the directionof Rose Garden FuneralHome Daniel A. Gonzalez,Funeral Director, 2102 N.U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.

MAGDALENA E. GUZMAN

pus carry” — had repeated-ly stalled under Republicanmajorities in Texas since astudent killed 32 people atVirginia Tech in 2007. Butlast-minute concessionsthat give skittish universityleaders leeway to carve out“gun-free zones” finallywon the support to pushthe bill through.

Guns brought into col-lege classrooms must re-main out of sight. But mosteverywhere else in Texas,openly carrying a holsteredgun in public will becomelegal in September — an-other measure approvedthis session.

“The men and women ofTexas who carry have beenwaiting to go to class-rooms, but we have beenasking them to put theirweapons up,” said Republi-can state Rep. Allen Fletch-er, a former Houston policeofficer who sponsored thebill.

The House passed themeasure 98-47. Abbott is ex-

pected to sign the bill intolaw, which won’t take effecton campuses until fall 2016.

Loosening gun restric-tions give newcomers Ab-bott and Republican Lt.Gov. Dan Patrick, the pow-erful Senate leader whoused big-money donors asa private sounding boardfor legislation, the braggingrights of succeeding wheretheir predecessors failed.But it also provided extracover with tea party voterswho helped put them in of-fice.

Republicans will leaveAustin with a long list ofconservative victories: thebiggest Texas tax cuts in adecade, doubling spendingon security at the borderwith Mexico and weaken-ing the power of judges andpublic corruption prosecu-tors in liberal Travis Coun-ty.

But other proposedcrackdowns on immigra-tion went nowhere, and ef-forts to defy the U.S. Su-

preme Court if gay mar-riage is legalized thissummer fizzled. Both werecraved by the most conser-vative bloc of Republicanvoters and lawmakers, butdrew defiance from out-numbered Democrats andbusiness groups.

Watching those hot-but-ton issues wither, were oflittle consolation to Demo-crats whose party waswhipped on Election Daylast November and thenfurther pushed to the side-lines upon coming back towork.

Health care was practi-cally a non-issue and pub-lic schools only received asmall bump in funding de-spite billions of dollars inrevenue that Republicansare leaving unspent. WhenAbbott made boostingpre-K his first educationinitiative and dangled anextra $130 million in frontof schools — far less thanwhat Texas cut from pre-Kin 2011 while slashing the

state budget to the bone —Democrats considered thatfigure as a starting point.

Instead, the bottom linenever budged.

“Certainly the funds arethere for a variety of thosethings. But the politicalwill wasn’t there,” saidDemocratic state Rep.Chris Turner, who ranWendy Davis’ failed run forgovernor last year.

Abbott wields line-itemveto power over the budget.The last time Texas had anew governor, Perrystunned lawmakers by ve-toing dozens of bills in ashow of power, though Ab-bott’s political style is morereserved than the bravadoof his predecessor.

Gun advocates say therewill likely be very few con-cealed weapons on campusbecause most studentswon’t qualify for one. Texashas about 850,000 concealedhandgun license holders,all of whom must be 21 orolder.

CAMPUS CARRY Continued from Page 1A

ing sanctuary cities anemergency item in 2011,the business communityand some conservativegroups worked behind thescenes to stop the legisla-tion. Watson said thisyear saw a repeat of thoseactions.

“There was a lot of ef-fort that went into melt-ing away labels and look-ing, with some level ofprecision, at what thesebills actually did,” hesaid.

Immigrant rightsgroups are also sharingthe credit for stopping themeasures. They cite pub-lic testimony, which attimes lasted until theearly-morning hours dur-ing committee hearings,as a possible game-chang-er this session.

“No doubt this wasmade possible throughyour help in contactingyour Senators and sharingyour stories,” the LatinoCenter for Leadership De-velopment, a coalition ofeducators, businessgroups and advocates,said in a statement issuedafter key deadlines for thebills had passed. “Thanksto the strong coalitionthat you helped build inorder to KeepHB1403 in-tact for our families.Thank you for your ef-forts!”

The House steered awayfrom the issues all ses-sion, and lawmakers inthe lower chamber saidthey would not amendborder security bills withimmigration legislation.What could have been the

final vehicle for the "sanc-tuary cities" bill, HouseBill 11, a broad-based bor-der security bill by stateRep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, was sent to Gov.Greg Abbott’s desk latelast week.

The Senate sponsor ofthat measure, state Sen.Brian Birdwell, R-Granbu-ry, did not allow amend-ments, and Bonnen saidhe wasn’t sure if any oth-ers senators discussed at-taching anything. But hewouldn’t have allowed it,he said.

"It would have made itharder on the bill," hesaid. "I personally supportthe sanctuary cities bill.But it doesn’t belong onthe border security bill."

The conservative grass-roots is also likely to con-tinue hounding lawmak-ers after the session. Sev-eral Tea Party groupsreleased a statement askey deadlines approachedin May warning lawmak-ers that they wouldn’t set-tle for excuses about “run-ning out of time” on sev-eral issues, includingimmigration-enforcementlegislation.

“It’s beginning to lookas if some of those cam-paign promises are ‘allhat and no cattle,’” JoAnnFleming, the executive di-rector of GrassrootsAmerica, a conservativeEast Texas group, said ina statement. “With thecondition our country isin, we’re in no mood forany stalling, slow walk-ing, or backtracking fromTexas leaders.”

BILLS Continued from Page 1A

guidelines in communicat-ing our plans to resumework on June 1st,” SethUrruty, the company’s vicepresident of development,said in a prepared state-ment. “We work hard to bea good neighbor in thecommunities where wework and Denton is no ex-ception.”

Activists and city offi-cials said they aren’t pre-cisely sure what’s next forthe city of roughly 123,000,but agreed that its anti-fracking push — and theLegislature’s swift move toquash it — have funda-mentally changed atti-tudes, stirring outrage anda conversation that couldlast for years.

“What they did with HB40 is raising awareness,and it’s giving people avoice,” said Cathy McMul-len, who spearheaded Den-ton’s push against frack-ing, the practice of blast-ing apart undergroundshale to bolster oil and gasproduction.

McMullen, a homehealth nurse, said she hasfielded messages from an-gry residents of drillingtowns across Texas, and isin some ways “grateful”that the Legislature enact-ed such a far-reaching law.“This is a unifying thingfor communities.”

Denton will weigh itsnext step Tuesday eveningwhen its City Counciltakes up a measure thatwould remove the frackingban from its books — a de-bate that’s sure to turnemotional.

“It’s a big deal when youinvalidate a vote,” saidMayor Chris Watts. “Ithink we expected some-thing like that, and weknew fracking would be-

gin. But this is just anoth-er step, another stage inthe journey.”

Nearly 59 percent ofDenton voters supportedthe fracking ban last No-vember after backers —outspent by petroleum in-terests 10 to 1 — canvassedneighborhoods, stagedpuppet shows and per-formed song-and-dancenumbers.

The ban’s proponentscalled it a last-ditch effortto address noise and toxicfumes that spew fromwells just beyond theirbackyards, saying loop-holes and previous zoningdecisions rendered chang-es to the city’s drilling or-dinance unenforceable.

Opponents – includingmost Texas regulators andlawmakers – say the policyeffectively halted all drill-ing inside Denton, keepingmineral owners from us-ing their property.

The Texas Oil and GasAssociation — the state’slargest petroleum group —and the Texas GeneralLand Office each filedsuits against Denton justhours after the votes weretallied, calling the ban un-constitutional. (Parties inthose disputes both saythey are now negotiating aresolution, but have not re-leased a timeline. Whetherthe city formally drops itsban will affect the out-come.)

And in May, Gov. GregAbbott signed HB 40 intolaw, saying Texas neededto avoid a “patchwork oflocal regulations” thatthreaten oil and gas pro-duction and private prop-erty rights.

Energy companies andindustry groups supportthe law, whose preamble

states that the act “ex-pressly pre-empts regula-tion of oil and gas oper-ations by municipalitiesand other political subdivi-sions.”

“The whole process inDenton certainly shined alight on the whole dilem-ma and started the processof people thinking about,how clear is the law,” ToddStaples, former agriculturecommissioner and currentpresident of the oil andgas association, said in aninterview, calling the law a“balanced approach to reg-ulation.”

“This is not an environ-ment where everybodygets what they want,” headded.

The new law lists someareas cities can still regu-late, including fire andemergency response, traf-fic, lights and noise — butonly if such rules are“commercially reasona-ble.” The language also al-lows cities to enact somesetbacks between drillingsites and certain buildings,but critics call the lan-guage vague and likely totrigger more litigation.

“It has provided someline of clarity, but in otherways it hasn’t addressedthe root problem, which Ithink poses a high risk ofcontinued litigation,”Watts told The Texas Tri-bune.

Though fracking’s re-sumption seemed to bringDenton full circle on Mon-day, Watts said that he hadno regrets about defendingthe ban in court and be-fore the Legislature – evenif it cost the city some$220,000 in legal fees alone.

“It raised these ques-tions of local control. Itraised these questions

about health and safety,”he said. “There comes atime when your valuesand your principles areparamount, and if youstrongly believe in some-thing, you just have to dowhat you need to do.”

Not all Dentonitesagreed.

“Minerals in Texas werenever meant to be votedon, and they take prece-dence over surface,” saidBobby Jones, who ownsmineral rights on 82 acresof land in town and wasthe local face of the indus-try’s campaign against thefracking ban last year. “Ithink it’s back where itused to be."

Though Vantage re-sumed fracking on Mon-day, it did so a bit laterthan planned. That’s be-cause three residents –flanked by a sign display-ing the language of Den-ton’s fracking ordinanceand cheered on by a gaggleof fellow activists nearby –blocked the entrance to thecompany’s pad site on NailRoad for about hour, keep-ing some trucks from en-tering.

Police arrested the trioon criminal trespassingcharges.

Adam Briggle, a NorthTexas University philoso-phy professor who wasamong those booked, saidstate lawmakers were“sowing the seeds of theirown undoing” by over-turning the local ban.

“We’re not done fight-ing,” he said after a three-hour stint in the countyjail. “It’s like the vote inNovember, they can’t takethat away from us, andthey can’t take the com-munity we built awayfrom us.”

FRACKING Continued from Page 1A

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015