SATURDAYJANUARY 29, 2011

FREE

DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY

A HEARST PUBLICATION ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

TO 4,000 HOMES

PACKERS, STEELERS GET READYWOODSON AND MENDENHALL HIGHLIGHT SUPER BOWL PRACTICES, 1B

Zapata South ElementarySchool kicked off its Pennies forPatients campaign last week toraise funds for children with leu-kemia and to help their familieswith medical expenses.

The campaign will also benefitcancer research, said Rosie Bigler,Zapata South Elementary librar-ian.

Bigler headed the campaignand encouraged students to col-lect spare change from home tosupport the mission to cure leuke-mia and to improve the lives of

patients and their families, shesaid.

“This is a tremendous opportu-nity for the children to demon-strate their passion for support-ing friends and families in theircommunity,” Bigler said. “Theyare learning at a young age howimportant and fulfilling commu-

nity service can be.”Monday morning, Zapata

South Elementary received apleasant surprise from the grand-parents of two former students,Ryan and Rebecca Ayers, Biglersaid.

The Ayers’ now reside inWhiteright and are also helping

their school in the Pennies for Pa-tients campaign and asked theirgrandparents Mary Lou and Mon-roe Shelton to visit their schooland donate pennies, Bigler said.

The Sheltons visited the schoolon behalf of their grandchildren

FUNDRAISING

Kids raising funds for Pennies for PatientsBy LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See PENNIES PAGE 9A

Approximately 63 ZapataCounty ISD students participat-ed in the UIL district competi-tion in La Feria last Saturday.

“The participants had anawesome opportunity in gettingto know different people as wellas showing off their skills inthe various events in whichthey competed,” said Fidel andAndrea R. Villarreal Elemen-tary UIL coordinator Lydia Gar-za.

The students departed at 4:30a.m. Saturday morning and re-turned at 8 p.m., said PrincipalCarmen Zavala.

“We’re very proud of their be-havior and their participation,”Zavala said. “They’ve been prac-ticing an hour to an hour andhalf every week from five to six-ty-thirty in the evening.”

ZCISD students from A.L. Be-navides, Villarreal, ZapataSouth and Zapata North ele-mentaries attended the one-daycompetition and competed in 15events.

Events included oral reading,story telling, general math,spelling, art smart, maps,charts and graphs, dictionaryskills, and English and Spanishoral divisions.

The four elementary schoolscompeted against four otherschools from Port Isabel, La Fe-ria, Rio Hondo, and Donna, Za-vala said.

Nearly 20 students from Zapa-ta South Elementary took first-thru sixth-place ribbons or tro-phies, according to the final re-sults.

“We had quite a few win-ners,” said Zapata South Ele-

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Localsvie for

UILhonorsElementary studentscompete in 15 eventsin district competition

By LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

See UIL PAGE 10A

The South Texas Council onAlcohol and Drug Abuse held aribbon-cutting ceremony to offi-cially mark the grand opening of

a newer and bigger facility in Za-pata County Wednesday after-noon.

STCADA is a non-profit organ-ization serving Webb, Zapata,Jim Hogg, Starr, Cameron andDuval counties.

The organization relocated toaccommodate more staff to betterserve the community, said Dr.Humberto Gonzalez, chairman ofthe board.

“It’s a tremendous upgrade,”Gonzalez said. “We had been

renting for a long time and thisbigger facility allows for morestaff and services.

“It’s really a commitment fromSTCADA to this community and

STCADA

BIGGER FACILITY OPENS

Romeo Rodriguez, Patricio Hernandez, Humberto Gonzalez, Alma Heine, Isidrio Alaniz, Romeo Salinas, Maria Kane, and Graciela Martinez participated in the grandopening of the new STCADA office in Zapata, on Wednesday afternoon.

Photo by Daniel Zaragoza | The Zapata Times

Agency’s new building to allow more staff, servicesBy LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See AGENCY PAGE 10A

The Texas Department ofTransportation is near the com-pletion of a 3.2-mile long roadupgrade and continues to workon other road projects on US 83.

Construction on US 83 fromMonterrey Lane to 1,050 feetsouth of Tepozan County Roadstarted in July and includes a3.2 mile upgrade from a two-lane, bi-directional roadway to afour-lane roadway with a contin-uous left turn lane, said Marisa

Ramirez, TxDOT area projectmanager.

The 3.2-mile long road up-grade, awarded to Foremost Pav-ing and for nearly $7 million, isexpected to be completed thesecond week of February, Rami-rez said.

“The road has been weatherpermitted and is still pendingstriping and final riding,” Rami-rez said.

Foremost Paving continues towork on a road upgrade from

INFRASTRUCTURE

Roads get the worksSeveral projects are upgrading highways in countyBy LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

See ROADS PAGE 10A

PAGE 2A Zin brief SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

SATURDAY, JAN. 29Spend the evening at the Texas

A&M International University LamarBruni Vergara Planetarium and explore“One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Ad-venture” at 5 p.m., “Violent Universe:Catastrophes of the Cosmos” at 6p.m. and “Rock on Demand” at 7 p.m.General admission is $5 and $4 forchildren and TAMIU students, faculty,staff and alumni. Premium shows are$1 more. For additional show times,call (956) 326-DOME or visit ta-miu.edu/planetarium.

The Tuesday Music & LiteratureClub will host the Annual ValentineTea today at 4 p.m. at the First Unit-ed Methodist Church Fellowship Hallat 1220 McClelland. The program willbe “A Romantic Medley” by JosephCrabtree and Dana Crabtree, accompa-nied on the piano by Mikolaj Gorecki.For more information, contact LindaMott at (956) 206-3033 orl-

mott@stx.rr.com.TUESDAY, FEB. 1

The Zapata Chamber of Com-merce invites the public to the unveil-ing of the official 2011 Zapata VisitorsGuide at 5:30 p.m. at the ZapataCounty Courthouse. The keynotespeaker will be U.S. CongressmanHenry Cuellar. Food and refreshmentswill be provided. RSVP by contactingCelia Balderas at (956) 765-4871 orcbalderas@zapatachamber.com.

The Webb County CommunityCoalition of SCAN, Inc. invites thepublic to attend the WCCC meeting onTuesday, February 1, 2011 from 11:30a.m. to 1 p.m. at Border RegionMHMR Community Center, 1500 Pap-pas St. The guest speaker will beAgent Michael Wise from the FBI of-fice. If you have any questions orwould like to RSVP, call Melissa Bel-mares-Cavazos or Veronica Jimenez at(956) 724-3177.

The Alzheimer’s support groupwill meet today at 7 p.m. in meetingroom 2, building B of the Laredo Med-ical Center. The support group is forfamily members and caregivers takingcare of someone who has Alzheimer’s.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 2Kick off the Laredo Birding Fes-

tival with an opening reception todayfrom 6:30-10:30 p.m. in the Philip VRoom at La Posada Hotel, 1000 Zara-goza Street. This opening event willfeature nature photographer and fieldexpert Larry Ditto with a talk entitled“Big birds, little birds, pretty birds,sneaky birds.” This event is free andopen to the public. Laredo Conventionand Visitor’s Bureau at 795-2200 orvisit www.laredobirdingfestival.com.

THURSDAY, FEB. 3Texas A&M International Univer-

sity College of Arts and Sciences Cen-ter for the Fine and Performing Artspresents “Deep in the Heart…”, an artexhibit and reception featuring theartwork of Janet Krueger, Mary Quiros,Miki Rodríguez, Christina Zorillo Speerand Marilu Flores Gruben. Opening re-ception is from 5-7:30 p.m. in theCFPA gallery lobby. Admission is freeand open to the public. The exhibitwill be on display in the CFPA Gallerythrough March 24. TAMIU Departmentof Fine and Performing Arts at (956)326-2654.

FRIDAY, FEB. 4The Texas A&M International

University Lamar Bruni Vergara Plane-tarium will show “IBMX-Search for theEdge of the Solar System” at 6 p.m.and “Wonders of the Universe” at 7p.m. General admission is $5, $4 forchildren, and TAMIU students, faculty,staff and alumni. Premium shows are$1 more. Call (956) 326-DOME.

SATURDAY, FEB. 5The Texas A&M International

University Lamar Bruni Vergara Plane-tarium will show “Star Signs” at 5p.m., “IBMX- Search for the Edge ofthe Solar System” at 6 p.m. and “PinkFloyd’s Dark Side of the Moon” at 7p.m. General admission is $5, $4 forchildren and TAMIU students, faculty,staff and alumni. Premium shows are$1 more. Call (956) 326-DOME.

TUESDAY, FEB. 8The American Cancer Society

and United South High School will behosting a Look Good...Feel Better ses-sion at United South High School lo-cated at 4001 Presidentes for womenundergoing cancer treatment.

To submit an item for thecalendar, send the name of theevent, the date, time, locationand contact phone number toeditorial@lmtonline.com

CALENDARASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Saturday, Jan. 29,the 29th day of 2011. There are336 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in His-tory:

On Jan. 29, 1861, Kansas be-came the 34th state of theUnion.

On this date: In 1820, Britain’s King

George III died at WindsorCastle.

In 1843, the 25th presidentof the United States, WilliamMcKinley, was born in Niles,Ohio.

In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe’spoem “The Raven” was firstpublished in the New YorkEvening Mirror.

In 1856, Britain’s Queen Vic-toria introduced the VictoriaCross to reward military actsof valor during the CrimeanWar.

In 1919, the ratification ofthe 18th Amendment to theConstitution, which launchedProhibition, was certified byActing Secretary of StateFrank L. Polk.

In 1936, the first members ofbaseball’s Hall of Fame, in-cluding Ty Cobb and BabeRuth, were named in Cooper-stown, N.Y.

In 1963, the first members ofpro football’s Hall of Famewere named in Canton, Ohio.Poet Robert Frost died in Bos-ton at age 88.

In 1979, President JimmyCarter formally welcomedChinese Vice Premier DengXiaoping to the White House,following the establishment ofdiplomatic relations.

In 1998, a bomb rocked anabortion clinic in Birming-ham, Ala., killing securityguard Robert Sanderson andinjuring nurse Emily Lyons.(The bomber, Eric Rudolph isserving a life sentence.)

Five years ago: ABC“World News Tonight” co-an-chor Bob Woodruff and a cam-eraman were seriously injuredin a roadside bombing in Iraq.

One year ago: In a remark-ably sharp face-to-face con-frontation in Baltimore, Presi-dent Barack Obama chastisedRepublican lawmakers for op-posing him on taxes, healthcare and the economic stimu-lus, while they accused him inturn of brushing off theirideas and driving up the na-tional debt. A jury in Wichita,Kan., convicted abortion oppo-nent Scott Roeder of murderin the shooting death of Dr.George Tiller, one of the onlydoctors to offer late-term abor-tions in the U.S. Haitian au-thorities detained 10 U.S. Bap-tist missionaries who weretransporting 33 children to aDominican Republic orphan-age.

Today’s Birthdays: ActorNoel Harrison is 77. AuthorGermaine Greer is 72. ActressKatharine Ross is 71. ActorTom Selleck is 66. Rhythm-and-blues singer Bettye La-Vette is 65. Actor Marc Singeris 63. Actress Ann Jillian is 61.Rock musician Tommy Ra-mone (Ramones) is 59. Rockmusician Louie Perez (Los Lo-bos) is 58. Rhythm-and-blues/funk singer Charlie Wilson is58. Talk show host Oprah Win-frey is 57. Country singer Ir-lene Mandrell is 55. ActressDiane Delano is 54. Actress Ju-dy Norton Taylor (“The Wal-tons”) is 53. Rock musicianJohnny Spampinato is 52.

Thought for Today: “Loveis an irresistible desire to beirresistibly desired.” — RobertFrost, American poet (1874-1963).

TODAY IN HISTORY

AUSTIN — Citing the death of a mission-ary earlier this week, the Texas Departmentof Public Safety has warned Texans to avoidtraveling in Mexico.

The warning, issued Friday, is the fourthin the last year.

Missionary Nancy Davis, 59, was killedshot and killed Wednesday. The DPS also cit-ed the shooting of an American on the Mex-ican side of Falcon Lake in late September,the killing of a University of Texas-Browns-ville student in October and the suspectedabduction of four men from San Marcos anda 14-year-old from Chicago who were visitingNuevo Laredo in late November.

Davis died in a McAllen hospital Wednes-day about 90 minutes after her husbanddrove the couple’s truck against traffic

across the Pharr International Bridge, aPharr Police Department official said. Thehusband relayed to Texas authorities andU.S. Customs agents a frantic episode of thecouple being fired upon in Mexico and thendriving at top speed to the border.

Police described the couple as missionar-ies who travel extensively into Mexico.

Pharr Police Chief Ruben Villescas saidMexican authorities contacted by his depart-ment confirmed the shooting happened nearthe outskirts of San Fernando, about 70miles south of Reynosa. The area is heavilycontrolled by the Zetas drug cartel and isone of Mexico’s most dangerous.

"We know that many of our Winter Texansenjoy traveling to Mexico, but they shouldunderstand that we cannot guarantee theirsafety after they cross the border," said Ste-ven C. McCraw, DPS director.

AROUND TEXAS

Merton Rundell III, Union Bible College official, holds a prayer card given by Sam and Nancy Davis, missionaries working inMexico. Nancy Davis, 59, died in a McAllen hospital Wednesday about 90 minutes after her husband drove the couple’struck against traffic across the Pharr International Bridge after the couple were allegedly attacked by gunmen in Mexico.

Photo by Michael Conroy | AP

DPS: Stay out of MexicoASSOCIATED PRESS

Teen driver arrested infatal crash

ODESSA — Authorities havearrested an 18-year-old West Tex-as man accused of leading law of-ficers on a chase that resulted ina fatal car crash.

Saul Benivides Acosta Jr. wasarrested by sheriff ’s deputiesearlier this week on charges oftheft and evading arrest with amotor vehicle causing death. Hewas released from jail Friday af-ter posting $26,000 bond.

Dewhurst announcescommittee assignmentsAUSTIN — There were no sur-

prises today when Lt. Gov. DavidDewhurst announced his Senatecommittee appointments for the82nd legislative session.

The composition of the 18committees remained virtuallyunchanged from Dewhurst’ssummer 2010 appointments, withcommittee leadership remaininglargely in Republican hands.

EPA chief says Texasaction ‘not about politics’

SAN ANTONIO — The headof the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency says the long-run-ning dispute between the agencyand Texas is about public healthand not politics.

EPA administrator Lisa Jack-son said Friday in San Antoniothat her agency isn’t out to crip-ple businesses with its actions.

Omaha archdiocesesettles molestation suitSAN ANTONIO — A teenager

who received a $1 million settle-ment from the Roman Catholicchurch in a molestation lawsuithas reached another settlementwith a Nebraska archdiocese.

The Archdiocese of Omaha an-nounced Friday it reached an un-disclosed settlement with the al-leged victim of John Fiala. The52-year-old priest is in a Dallasjail facing criminal charges of so-liciting someone to kill the teen-ager.

Oil exec gets probation inMexican oil scheme

HOUSTON — A former Texasoil company official has beensentenced to probation for hisrole in the sale of petroleumproducts stolen from Mexico.

Tim Brink, who was presidentof Continental Fuels, received hissentence during a hearing Fri-day in Houston federal court.

Brink had previously pleadedguilty to one count of conspiracyto receive stolen goods.

Dallas police say babyfound, not a kidnappingDALLAS — Dallas police say a

woman’s report that her friend’sinfant was kidnapped was falseand the baby turned up safe withthe mother.

The woman who made the re-port Friday could face charges.

Police issued an Amber Alertwhen a woman reported a babygirl was in a car that was stolenafter she went into a store.

— Compiled from AP reports

Woman has plea changehearing in terror plot

PHILADELPHIA — A Penn-sylvania woman charged lastyear in a global terror plot isscheduled for a change of pleahearing next week.

Forty-seven-year-old ColleenLaRose of Pennsburg has pleadednot guilty to charges of helpingforeign terror suspects intent onstarting a holy war in Europeand South Asia.

Police: Army officer’s wifekills her 2 children

TAMPA, Fla. — The wife of amilitary officer told detectivesshe fatally shot her teenage sonand daughter inside their homebecause they were being“mouthy,” police said Friday.

Police said Julie Powers Sche-necker admitted the slayings af-ter officers found her covered inblood on the back porch of herhome Friday morning,

Ohio Air Force official gets20 months in prison

MASCOUTAH, Ill. — A mili-tary jury on Friday sentenced asenior Ohio-based Air Force offi-

cial to a year and eight monthsin prison and a dishonorable dis-charge for committing adulterywith four married female AirForce subordinates and makingunwanted sexual advances to-ward several others.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

North Dakota state Rep. George Keiser, R-Bismarck, right, has introduced legisla-tion that would put new restrictions on teenage drivers in the state.

Photo by Dale Wetzel | AP

Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501Business Manager, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 324-1226Chief Accountant, Thelma Aguero .............. 728-2553General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510Retail Adv. Manager, Raul Cruz................... 728-2511Classified Manager, Jesse Vicharreli ........... 728-2525Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505Editor, Diana Fuentes ................................ 728-2581City Editor, Mary Nell Sanchez .................. 728-2543Sports Editor, Dennis Silva II......................728-2579Business Journal Editor, Sean Bowlin.......... 728-2529Entertainment Editor, Emilio Rábago III ....... 728-2564Online Editor, Julie Daffern ....................... 728-2565

SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY(956) 728-2555

The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the LaredoMorning Times and for those who buy the Laredo MorningTimes at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted.

The Zapata Times is free.The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning

Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129,Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500.

The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Ave-nue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mailthezapatatimes.net

CONTACT US

SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011 Zlocal PAGE 3A

The Zapata Chamber ofCommerce invites the com-munity for the unveiling ofthe official 2011 ZapataCounty Visitor’s Guide,filled with small-town at-tractions and traditions.

“This is the second edi-tion of the guide and we’veimproved the guide to in-clude more beneficial infor-mation and new attractionsincluding, the Zapata Coun-ty Museum of History,” saidJose F. “Paco” Mendoza,president and chief execu-tive officer of the chamber.

The unveiling ceremonywill be held at the ZapataCounty Courthouse rotundaWednesday, at 5:30 p.m.

The keynote speaker willbe Rep. Henry Cuellar.

“The purpose of theguide is to promote Zapataand all the attractions thatwe have to offer,” Mendozasaid.

The guide will inform thecommunity and visitors ofZapata about the town’s cal-endar of events, local busi-nesses and restaurants, in-door and outdoor entertain-ment, and hotels andlodging, Mendoza said.

Also in the guide is a

map of the town includingthe famous InternationalFalcon Reservoir with worldclass bass fishing, Mendozaadded.

Food and refreshmentsdonated by InternationalBank of Commerce-ZapataCounty will be available af-ter the ceremony.

For more informationcontact Celia Balderas,Chamber of Commercemembership services coor-dinator, at (956)765-4871(Ext.12) or via e-mail at cbal-deras@zapatachamber.com.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557.)

New guide to be unveiled Wed.By LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

Zapata County ISDschools showed their appre-ciation for the board oftrustees during the monthof January, showering themwith gifts and filling themwith delicious homemadefood and pastries.

Fidel and Andrea R. Vil-larreal Elementary hosteda special breakfast, whilethe student council gave apresentation on how appre-ciative the students werefor representing theirschool, said Principal Car-men Zavala.

The school also dedicat-ed a wall to the board, witha banner that included apicture of seven studentseach resembling a boardmember with the boardmember’s names at the bot-tom, Zavala said.

“We’re very grateful fortheir dedication and com-mitment to our school andour district,” Zavala said.

The banner is to remindthe students to aspire to beleaders, Zavala added.

Student council also pre-

sented the board with a jarfilled with 680 M&Ms, rep-resenting each student atthe school, plus chocolatekisses representing thestaff, to be placed in theboard’s executive sessionroom, Zavala said.

“This is a reminder forthem when they are mak-ing decisions to keep us inmind,” Zavala said.

At A.L. Benavides Ele-mentary the board enjoyeda luncheon of sirloin, rice,and beans with the staff,said Counselor Blanca V.

Gonzalez.For dessert everyone en-

joyed homemade pastriesand dipped fresh fruit in achocolate fountain, Gonza-lez said.

“Everything they ap-prove is for a good cause,the students,” Gonzalezsaid.

Zapata South Elemen-tary also honored theboard with pancakes, gifts,and a parade, said UIL di-rector Jackie Pineda.

The board visited everycampus and at the high

school the trustees receivedmenudo and fruit basketswhile the mariachi bandplayed a few songs.

More food and giftsawaited the board at ZapataNorth Elementary, startingwith a breakfast.

“We flipped pancakes forthem and had bacon, fruitkabobs and a chocolatefountain,” said special edu-cation teacher Amy Sali-nas. “We also had hot choc-olate, coffee, juice and ricepudding.”

Students also decoratedthe halls of the school andthe meeting room withposters expressing their ap-preciation for the board,Salinas said.

Also student councilhanded the board gift bagswhich included an apronmonogrammed with eachof their names, Salinassaid.

“We really appreciatethat they took the time tocome and share with us,”Salinas said. “We under-stand they have other jobsand family but they stilltook the time to visit our

school.”Lastly, Zapata Middle

School welcomed the boardwith a breakfast while 15student organization repre-sentatives honored themwith a video presentationof each classroom express-ing their gratitude, saidcounselor Marina Alvarez.

“Most students com-mented on our new school,since it’s recently been re-modeled,” Alvarez said.

Student representativesalso presented the boardwith a basket filled withcandy and read a poemaloud, Alvarez said.

“In the poem every littlecandy had a significantmeaning,” Alvarez said.

The appreciation pre-sentation ended with a fewtunes by the eighth-grademariachi band, Alvarezadded.

Schools treat trustees with food, giftsBy LORRAINE L. RODRIGUEZ

THE ZAPATA TIMES

Villarreal Elementary treated school board members to breakfast on Thursday, and presented themwith a Green Apples kid representing each one. Pictured are Principal Carmen Zavala; Secretary DoraMartinez; Member Diego Gonzalez; President Jose M. Ramirez III; Vice President Veronica P. Gonzalez,and Superintendent Norma Garica.

Courtesy photo

PAGE 4A Zopinion SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

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

The calendar saysTuesday was Jan.25. But President

Obama’s State of theUnion address made itseem like Feb. 2 —Groundhog Day.

After years of prodigalspending and postponingdifficult decisions, “a dayof reckoning has ar-rived,” the president de-clared. “Now is the timeto act boldly and wisely… to build a new founda-tion for lasting prosper-ity. Now is the time tojump-start job creation,restart lending and in-vest in areas like energy,health care and educa-tion that will grow oureconomy, even as wemake hard choices tobring our deficit down.”

Back to the pastActually, that flimflam-

mery wasn’t from Tues-day night. That was Oba-ma’s State of the Unionaddress in 2009. The bitabout “hard choices”came a week after thepresident signed the so-called stimulus bill thatjump-started job creationby funding a $1.9 millionstudy of ants from Mada-gascar and boldly built afoundation of lastingprosperity by spending$1 million to give iPodsto every student andiPads to every teacher ata Utah high school.

Here’s the presidentagain: “Like any cash-strapped family, we willwork within a budget toinvest in what we needand sacrifice what wedon’t. And if I have to en-force this discipline byveto, I will.”

Oops! Wrong yearNo, wait — that wasn’t

Tuesday night, either.That was from Obama’sState of the Union ad-dress in 2010, a year inwhich the federal gov-ernment sacrificed byspending $3.5 trillion andran a $1.3 trillion deficitwhile the president en-forced fiscal disciplineby exercising exactly ze-ro spending vetoes.

So really, here is thepresident Tuesday night:

“In the comingmonths,” he promised,“my administration willdevelop a proposal tomerge, consolidate andreorganize the federalgovernment in a waythat best serves the goalof a more competitiveAmerica.”

Moreover, he warnedlawmakers, “If a billcomes to my desk withearmarks inside, I willveto it.”

Changes, anybody?

Does anyone take thisstuff seriously? Does any-one believe the ObamaWhite House has any in-terest in making the fed-eral government operateany differently, any moreefficiently, any less waste-fully than it did in 2010 or2009?

Deficit reductionWhat makes President

Obama’s remarks espe-cially cynical in 2011,however, is that they fol-low closely on the final re-port of the bipartisan debtcommission he created,one he said “can’t be oneof those Washington gim-micks.”

It was only last monthwhen the Commission onFiscal Responsibility andReform warned that thetime for talking about thedebt crisis is past: “Theproblem is real. The solu-tion will be painful. Thereis no easy way out. Every-thing must be on the ta-ble. And Washington mustlead.”

Coupon savingsObama, however, barely

even paid lip service todeficit reduction. Oh yes,he did talk about extend-ing a freeze — not a cut —on federal spending at re-cord levels, a freeze thatwould affect only 12 per-cent of the budget andwhich, by his own admis-sion, would only slow thegrowth of — not reverse— deficit spending andachieve average cuts of$40 billion a year over 10years.

The Congressional Bud-get Office projects the def-icit for 2011 will be a re-cord $1.5 trillion, addingto a national debt that al-ready exceeds $14 trillion.

Saving $40 billion byfreezing a fraction of thebudget is the equivalent ofclipping coupons as an ex-haustive strategy to avoidforeclosure.

Let’s spend moreRather than embrace

the findings of his debtcommission, the presidenttook the easy way out andcalled for more spending— which he euphemisti-cally calls investments —without even hinting at aconceivable plan for defi-cit reduction.

And, by the way, don’teven think about tinker-ing with Social Security.

“The era of debt denialis over,” the commission’sfinal report says, “andthere can be no turningback.”

Oh yes there can — andback and back.

Change? Nope — just gimmicks,

and a lot more of thesame.

COLUMN

Obamadelays ‘hard

choices’By JONTHAN GURWITZ

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

For years, many Mid-dle Easterners haveoperated on the prem-

ise that things could contin-ue as in the past. Arab au-tocrats assumed they couldrule forever, and many Is-raelis thought they could oc-cupy forever.

President George W.Bush tried to explode thestatus quo by imposing de-mocracy on Iraq fromabove, but we’ve seen wherethat led.

As of this month, we areentering a new era — forArabs and Israelis — inwhich past assumptionsmust be reconsidered. Theold order is being shaken inuncontrollable ways.

The Tunisian rebellionhas unleashed pent-up pas-sions of a generation of an-gry Arab youths who feltthey had no options. Someregimes may be able to sup-press these cries of paintemporarily, but they can nolonger be silenced.

However, the aging auto-crats of Egypt, Algeria, Li-bya and Saudi Arabia havemostly squashed any mod-erate opposition, thus de-stroying the likelihood of asmooth passage to represen-tative government. Thatleaves the field open to Isla-mists, who can organize inthe mosque, or possibly to

populists with military sup-port.

Tunisia, with a strongmiddle class, may have thebest chance for a decenttransition. In countries ri-ven by sectarianism, suchas Lebanon and Syria, largesegments of the public mayaccept leaders they detestrather than contemplate civ-il war.

But the new belief amongyoung Arabs that change ispossible — inspired by Tu-nis and spread on the Inter-net — will not easily bedampened. Do not confusetheir passionate pleas forjustice with a new democra-cy movement; grassrootsprotests may shake the oldorder, but there is little rea-son to hope that democraticgovernments will emerge.

Meanwhile, within Israeland Palestine, recent eventsalso signal that old assump-tions are passe.

This week, someoneleaked internal Palestiniannegotiating documents to al-Jazeera that detail 17 yearsof peace talks with Israel.They reveal far-reachingconcessions offered by nego-tiators for Palestinian Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas in2008. The talks founderedwhen then Israeli PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert wasforced to resign over cor-ruption allegations.

Those who’ve followedthe history of Israeli-Palesti-

nian talks were familiarwith most of these details.But they were not supposedto be made public before afinal accord; neither the Pal-estinian nor the Israeli pub-lic was fully aware of thefine print.

What’s significant is thatboth sides were discussingthe nitty-gritty, with evenmore specifics than duringserious Israeli-Palestiniantalks in 2000-2001. As hasbeen previously revealed,Olmert proposed that Israelkeep about 6 percent ofWest Bank land, includingsome Jewish settlementsnear the 1967 border, in re-turn for which Palestinianswould get a land bridge toGaza and other bits of Israe-li land.

Palestinians counteredwith a proposal of a 1.9 per-cent swap. According to thedocuments, they would haveallowed Israel to keep mostof the large suburbs it hasbuilt around Jerusalem ononetime West Bank land. Inreturn, Palestinians wantedIsrael to dismantle twolarge settlements, Ariel andMaale Adumim, that pro-trude dramatically into theWest Bank, effectively divid-ing that already small pieceof land.

Many Palestinians arestunned at the extent of theconcessions their negotia-tors were considering, espe-cially as Israel continues to

expand settlements on theWest Bank. Even though noagreement was reached(and U.S. officials couldhave done far more to facil-itate one), these documentsprove that Israel had a part-ner for peace.

Yet the leak, along withthe Tunis revolt, will ener-gize the Palestinian grassroots. It may make it impos-sible for Palestinian negotia-tors to replicate the 2008 of-fer, and it could even dis-qualify their negotiatingteam. It certainly will de-crease the chances for com-promise.

Meantime, many Israelisnow reject the equally dra-matic concessions Olmertwas willing to consider. Is-raeli officials are now pro-moting an “interim” Palesti-nian state on only 40 per-cent of West Bank land.This is a fantasy that wouldbe rejected by Palestiniansand the international com-munity; many countries aremoving to recognize a Pales-tinian state within the en-tire 1967 borders of the WestBank and Gaza.

The clock can’t be rolledback. The message of 2011 isthat Arab and Israeli lead-ers who don’t get ahead ofMideast events with far-reaching ideas will face nas-ty surprises. That goes forU.S. leaders as well.

(E-mail trubin@philly-news.com)

COLUMN

An old order is finally endingBy TRUDY RUBIN

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

President Barack Oba-ma is smart to ex-tend an olive branch

to American businesses.Our economic success de-pends on businesses invest-ing, growing and creating

new jobs. From expandingexports to improving in-frastructure, governmentand businesses share im-portant goals.

From a purely pragmaticpolitical standpoint, reach-ing an entente with corpo-rate leaders will make it

easer to defuse the hostilityhe has faced. Some of it hasbeen purely partisan andideological, from groupslike the U.S. Chamber ofCommerce, which deployedmillions to unseat Demo-crats.

Still, Obama must take

care not to let his agendabe taken over entirely bycorporate interests. Theydo not belong to the onlyconstituency he serves.

As Obama reaches out tobusiness, corporate interestgroups must reach backout to him.

Business is key constituencyNEW YORK TIMES

SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

A man fishing on Fal-con Lake was accidentallyshot the afternoon of Sat-urday, Jan. 22, accordingto Zapata County SheriffSigifredo Gonzalez Jr.

“There was no criminalintent in this case whatso-ever,” Gonzalez said.

The shooting was re-ported at about 4:30 p.m.at a ranch off Los LobosRoad.

Gonzalez said a rancherwas shooting targets onhis private property. Twomen were fishing on thelake near the area.

According to Gonzalez,one man was shot in thearm with a .22-caliberhunting rifle. The manwas taken to a hospital inMcAllen. His injury wasnot life-threatening. Thesheriff said the rancherdid not shoot the fisher-man on purpose.

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

Man shotaccidently

at lake is OK

By CESAR G. RODRIGUEZTHE ZAPATA TIMES

ASSAULTDeputies responded to a ver-

bal argument call in which severalpeople got into a fight Monday after-noon in the 600 block of MirafloresAvenue. The case remains open.

Deputies responded to a fam-ily dispute call at about 9 p.m. Mon-day in the 900 block of LaredoStreet. According to an incident re-port, a man assaulted his spousewith his fists.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEFDeputies responded to a crimi-

nal mischief call at 9:06 p.m. Jan.22 in the vicinity of Seventh Streetand Villa Avenue. The complainantstated that some type of tube wasused to strike his vehicle, causing ascratch in the paint.

DWIAlvie Martin was arrested and

charged with driving while intoxicat-ed around 5:15 a.m. Jan. 23 at thecorner of 14th Avenue and U.S. 83.In the same incident, deputies ar-rested Shannon Martin for public in-toxication.

Gloria Arambula was arrestedand charged with driving while intox-icated with a child younger than 15years of age at 3:06 p.m. Tuesday inRamireño, off U.S. 83. The womanwas taken to Zapata Regional Jail.

POSSESSIONA juvenile was detained and

charged with possession of marijua-na in a drug-free zone around 1 p.m.Jan. 24 at Zapata Middle School,near the corner of 17th Avenue andCarla Street. The juvenile was turnedover to juvenile personnel.

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONAlejandro Santos Chapa was

arrested and charged with public in-toxication at about 8:30 p.m. Jan.23 in the Riverview parking lot, offU.S. 83. An incident report statesSantos Chapa was found intoxicatedin a public place, placing his life andthe life of others in danger. The manwas taken to Zapata Regional Jail.

THEFTDeputies responded to a theft

call at 2:20 p.m. Jan. 25 in the2400 block of Elm Street. Deputiessay a man took items that belongedto his father and pawned them.

Jorge Peña was arrested andcharged with theft at 5:04 p.m. Jan.25 at El Tigre Exxon, 1302 U.S. 83.The man was taken to Zapata Re-gional Jail.

THE BLOTTER

ATLANTA — Re-searchers have a new tac-tic to save endangeredwhales tangled in fishingline: Get them to calmdown with sedatives shotfrom a dart gun so theycan pull closer and cutthe potentially fatal gearaway.

The method was usedJan. 15 off the Floridacoast to free a youngNorth Atlantic rightwhale from about 50 feetof line wrapped throughits mouth and around itsflippers. A satellite mon-itor attached to thewhale during the rescueattempt this monthshows it survived.

“It’s a big step for us,”said Michael Moore, a se-nior research specialistat the Woods Hole Ocean-ographic Institution inMassachusetts who wason the rescue team. Thesame team has tried thetechnique during oneother rescue of a free-swimming whale.

Wildlife authorities foryears have tried differentways to save whales tan-gled in gear that cutstheir flesh, restricts feed-

ing and causes infectionand starvation.

It’s a major threat tothe 300 to 400 criticallyendangered North Atlan-tic right whales that re-main. They generally mi-grate seasonally from theLower Bay of Fundy inCanada during the sum-mer to calving groundsoff the Florida coast inthe fall and winter.

At least two North At-lantic right whales areknown to have died fromentanglement between2005 and 2009, although

28 were observed tangledin that same period. Ex-perts say those numbersonly include dead or tan-gled whales that havebeen spotted, meaningother whales may die un-seen.

“It’s a very slow, pain-ful death,” said MichaelWalsh, associate directorof the Aquatic AnimalHealth Program at theUniversity of Florida.The former SeaWorldveterinarian helped de-velop the sedative mix-ture.

Once tangled whalesare found, rescue teamsgenerally tie boats andbuoys to lines trailingfrom the animal to slowit down and restrict itsmovement. Crews thenuse pole-mounted knivesto cut off entangling gear.

The techniques are im-perfect. Staying behind awhale is safe for humans,but it’s difficult to reachgear wrapped around thefront of the animal. Suc-cess rates, which vary byspecies and tangle, arelow for right whales.

Sedatives help free whalesBy RAY HENRY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A disentanglement team cuts the remaining ropes wrapped around a young North Atlantic rightwhale on Jan. 15 after scientists used at-sea chemical sedation off the coast of Cape Canaveral,Fla. Researchers succeeded in using sedatives fired from a dart gun to calm down and free the en-dangered North Atlantic right whale tangled in fishing line.

Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission | AP

SÁBADO 29 DE ENEROLAREDO — Pase la

tarde en el Planetario LamarBruni Vergara de TAMIU ydisfrute “One World, OneSky: Big Bird’s Adventure” alas 5 p.m., “Violent Universe:Catastrophes of the Cosmos”a las 6 p.m. y “Rock on De-mand” a las 7 p.m. Entradageneral es de 5 dólares. Másinformación en tamiu.edu/planetarium.

LAREDO — Pase latarde disfrutando la lectura ycharla con Roberto Hernan-dez Jr., autor de Quest forSurvival by Hunting and Fis-hing, en la Biblioteca Públicade Laredo, 1120 E Calton Ro-ad.

LAREDO — WBCA invi-ta a UETA Jamboozie en elCentro de Laredo de 4 p.m.a 12 p.m. Entrada gratuitaantes de las 6 p.m. En pre-venta el boleto es de 7 dóla-res y en la puerta, despuésde las 6 p.m., de 10 dólares.Niños de 12 años y menoresentran gratis.

SAN ANTONIO — Den-tro del ciclo de cine mexica-no se presneta la película “ElSanto contra Las Lobas” alas 5 p.m. en el Auditorio delInstituto Cultural de México,600 Hemisfair Park. Entradagratuita. Reservar al (210)227 0123.

MIÉRCOLES 2 DE FEBREROLAREDO — Hoy inicia

el Festival de Aves de Laredocon la ceremonia de aperturade 6:30 p.m. a 10:30 p.m.en el Philip V Room del Ho-tel La Posada, 1000 ZaragozaStreet. Se presentará el fotó-grafo Larry Ditto con su ex-posición “Big birds, littlebirds, pretty birds, sneakybirds”. El evento es gratuito yabierto al público en general.

LAREDO — Cirque DuSoleil se presenta hoy con“Alegria” en Laredo EnergyArena a las 7:30 p.m.

JUEVES 3 DE FEBREROLAREDO — Cirque Du

Soleil se presenta hoy con“Alegria” en Laredo EnergyArena a las 7:30 p.m.

VIERNES 4 DE FEBREROLAREDO — El equipo

de béisbol de TAMIU recibe aUniversity of Texas – PermianBasin, a las 12 p.m. y las 3p.m. en el diamante universi-tario. La entrada general esde 5 dólares. Más informa-ción en el 326-2891.

LAREDO — Pase latarde en el Planetario LamarBruni Vergara de TAMIU ydisfrute “IBEX: Search for theEdge of the Solar System” alas 6 p.m. y “The Future isWild” a las 7 p.m. La entradageneral es de 5 dólares. Másinformación en el 326-DOME.

LAREDO — Cirque DuSoleil se presenta hoy con“Alegria” en Laredo EnergyArena a las 7:30 p.m.

SÁBADO 5 DE FEBREROLAREDO — El equipo

de béisbol de TAMIU recibe aUniversity of Texas – PermianBasin a las 12 p.m. La entra-da general es de 5 dólares.Más información en el326.2891.

LAREDO — WBCA invi-ta al Festival de Danza Juve-nil de 2 p.m. a 5 p.m. en elAuditorio del Laredo CivicCenter. Entrada gratuita.

LAREDO — Pase latarde en el Planetario LamarBruni Vergara de TAMIU y ex-plore “Star Signs” a las 5p.m., “IBEX: Search for theEdge of the Solar System” alas 6 p.m., y Pink Floyd’s”Dark Side of the Moon” alas 7 p.m. Entrada general esde 5 dólares. Más informa-ción en el 326-DOME.

LAREDO — No se pier-da el Concierto del Festivaldel Ballet Folklórico de TA-MIU hoy a las 7 p.m. en elteatro del Center for the Fineand Performing Arts de launiversidad. Adquiera su bo-leto llamando al 326-2654.

Agendaen Breve

Zfrontera PÁGINA 7ASÁBADO 29 DE ENERO DE 2011

MONTE ALTO — Unapareja de misioneros esta-dounidenses que fue ataca-da por hombres armadosen México se topó con unretén ilegal en una zona pe-ligrosa del país en la que sehan registrado 40 robos deauto en los últimos dosmeses, dijo el jueves unfuncionario mexicano.

Los pistoleros abrieronfuego luego de que el con-ductor Sam Davis decidióno detenerse, dijo un fun-cionario de la procuraduríade justicia del estado de Ta-maulipas, quien habló encondición de anonimatoporque no está autorizadoa discutir el caso.

La esposa de Davis, Nan-cy, fue herida en la cabezapor una bala que atravesó

el cristal trasero de su ca-mioneta tipo pickup, dijo eljueves el jefe de la policíade Pharr, Rubén Villescas.

Sam Davis dijo a investi-gadores que condujo a todavelocidad hacia la frontera,a 112 kilómetros (70 millas)de distancia, mientras suesposa sangraba en elasiento de al lado. Como ha-bía una larga fila de autosesperando entrar en Esta-dos Unidos, decidió cruzarel puente internacional porel carril de sentido contra-rio.

Nancy Davis, de 59 años,fue llevada a un hospital deMcAllen, donde se le decla-ró muerta a la 1:54 p.m.

A través de un comuni-cado de prensa, el Gobiernodel Estado de Tamaulipascondenó la agresión de quefueron víctimas los Davis.

“El hecho indigna a lasociedad tamaulipeca y enparticular a la comunidadmormona del Estado”, señ-ala el documento.

La Procuraduría Generalde Justicia del Estado haestablecido contacto con

sus contrapartes en EU afin de ayudar en las tareaspara identificar a los re-sponsables del ataque y ac-tuar en consecuencia.

Las autoridades dijeronque camionetas como laChevrolet 2008 de los Davisson codiciadas por organi-zaciones criminales enMéxico y que los daños ob-servados sugieren que otrovehículo trató de forzarlos asalir del camino.

“Conducir este tipo devehículo llama la aten-ción”, dijo el sargento de la

policía de Pharr Ray Lara.“Suponemos que quizá nomolestan a las personas dela iglesia, pero quieren esosvehículos”.

Villescas dijo que planea-ba hablar con investiga-dores mexicanos el jueves.Se negó a dar detalles sobreel paradero de Davis o desu iglesia, por la necesidadde protegerlo.

El hijo de la pareja, Jo-seph Davis, dijo el jueves aThe Associated Press quesus padres conocían el ries-go de trabajar en ciertaspartes de México, pero queestaban dedicados a su tra-bajo. “Sería más fácil” con-tar el número de veces queno fueron atacados durantesus recientes viajes a Méx-ico, dijo Joseph Davis en sucasa de Monte Alto.

Los Davis eran misione-ros en México desde 1970.

PRESUMEN ROBO COMO CAUSA DE ATAQUE A MISIONERA DE EU

Investigan agresión“El hecho indigna a la sociedad tamaulipeca y enparticular a la comunidad mormona del Estado”. GOBIERNO DEL ESTADO DE TAMAULIPAS

POR PAUL J. WEBERASSOCIATED PRESS

La Secretaría de la De-fensa Nacional emitió unreporte donde detalló lamuerte de 4 sospechosos, eldecomiso de armas y dine-ro en efectivo en distintosoperativos llevados a caboen ciudades de Tamaulipas.

Nuevo LaredoEl 23 de enero, elementos

del Ejército Mexicano en elPuente Internacional Juá-rez-Lincoln, trabajando enconjunto con autoridadesdel Servicio de Administra-ción Tributaria, localizaronen un autobús, una maletacon 31 paquetes que oculta-ban 119.979 dólares ameri-canos.

El autobus procedía delos EU y al pasar por losrayos gamma, reveló las ir-regularidades en una male-ta.

Una persona fue arresta-da al no poder justificar laprocedencia del dinero.

En un caso similar, el 21de enero en el Puente I LasAméricas, nuevamente ele-mentos del Ejército y SATdescubrieron que una per-sona que se transportabaen bicicleta hacia Laredo,Texas, llevada 58.000 dó-lares americanos.

También se detuvo aotro individuo que se diri-gía a Laredo, Texas y queocultaba 20.745 dólares.

Sospechosos, efectivo ybicicleta, fueron entregadosa la autoridad correspond-iente para continuar con lainvestigación.

Díaz OrdazEl 24 de enero, al efec-

tuar reconocimientos en lazona rural del poblado Va-ladeces, municipio de DíazOrdaz, soldados fueronagredidos con disparos dearmas de fuego por inte-grantes de la delincuenciaorganizada.

Al repeler la agresión,dieron muerte a cuatro pre-suntos agresores y asegura-ron 300 dosis de cocaína enpiedra, 22 dosis de cocaínaen polvo, 2 paquetes demarihuana con un pesoaproximado de 8 kilogra-mos, 13 dosis de marihua-na, 6 armas largas, 38 car-gadores de diferentes cali-bres, 3 vehículos, cartuchosy 1 máquina para contardinero.

SEDENA

Sujetoqueríacruzardólares

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

CIUDAD VICTORIA —Un neolaredense se ubicóentre los 10 primeros lu-gares durante su participa-ción en dos pruebas dentrodel Campeonato Mundialde Atletismo del Comité Pa-ralímpico Internacional.

Pedro Márquez Villanue-va se ubicó en la séptimaposición mundial en laprueba de 200 metros pla-nos de la categoría T-35 deparálisis cerebral, y en eloctavo puesto de la pruebade 100 metros planos.

En los 200 metros, Már-quez detuvo el cronómetroen 31 segundos y 92 centési-mas para finalizar en elséptimo lugar de la prueba.

El representante de Su-dáfrica, Teboho Mokgalaga-

di se llevó la medalla deoro con un tiempo de 27.59;seguido por Allel Boukhal-fa de Argelia, quien con unregistro de 27.87 se quedócon la plata; el tercer lugardel podio fue ocupado porIván Otleykin de Rusia, alcronometrar 27.98.

En lo que se refiere a laprueba de los 100 metrosplanos, Márquez registróun tiempo de 15 segundos17 centésimas para termi-nar como el octavo lugarmundial.

Mokgalagadi repitió lahazaña y se llevó la medal-la de oro con un tiempo de12.96; la medalla de platacorrespondió a Allel Bouk-halfa de Argelia, con 13.38,y el bronce para Niels Steinde Alemania, con 13.59.

La representante de Ta-maulipas en la especialidadde ciegos y débiles visuales,Casandra Guadalupe CruzMonroy, no logró avanzar ala final de la prueba de los100 metros planos de la cat-

egoría T-11. Hasta el momento, la del-

egación de México ocupa elquinto lugar del cuadro demedallas, con ocho preseas;cuatro de oro, dos de platay dos de bronce.

El evento, que tuvo comosede el estadio Queen Eliza-beth II en Christchurch,Nueva Zelanda.

EsgrimistaPor otra parte, la esgrim-

ista de Ciudad Victoria Úr-sula González Gárate, seimpusó en el Tercer Selec-tivo de Mayores que se lle-vó a cabo el 22 y 23 de en-ero en la Sala de Armas delComité Olímpico Mexicanode la Ciudad de México.

El evento fue convocadopor la Federación Mexica-na de Esgrima.

En la especialidad de sa-ble, por su posición en laclasificación general Gon-zález obtuvo el pase auto-

mático en la primera ron-da; en los octavos de finalse impuso a la represen-tante de Jalisco, Bertha Mi-chel; en la ronda semifinal,a la también tapatía Angél-ica Aguilar, y en la final delcertamen, a la seleccionadamexicana que participó enlos Juegos Olímpicos deBeijing, la capitalina Angél-ica Larios, por marcador fi-nal de 15 puntos contra 11.

“La participación de Úr-sula en los Juegos Pana-mericanos de Guadalajara2011 es casi un hecho”, dijoel entrenador Aquiles Ríos.

González continuará par-ticipando en el proceso se-lectivo que marca su Fede-ración, y el 2 de febrero es-tará presente en el controlque efectuará este organis-mo, exclusivo para los me-jores 8 clasificados del paísen cada especialidad y ra-ma.

Posteriormente partici-par en el Cuarto SelectivoNacional de Mayores.

DEPORTES

El neolaredense Pedro Márquez Villanueva es visto durante su participación dentro del Campeonato Mundial de Atletismo del ComitéParalímpico Internacional en Nueva Zelanda.

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

Destaca atleta neolaredenseDos deportistasponen en alto a

TamaulipasTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

La necesidad de crearprogramas de empleo tem-poral fue el principal temaanalizado entre los gobier-nos municipales de NuevaCiudad Guerrero, San Ni-colás y Mainero, con laSecretaría de DesarrolloSocial (SEDESOL).

Al impulsar el empleotemporal, los municipiosconsideran que se podránfortalecer proyectos pro-

ductivos y se ampliará lainfraestructura educativa.

En ése marco, la titularde SEDESOL, DinorahBlanca Guerra Garza,anunció que para NuevaCiudad Guerrero serándestinados 350,000 pesosque se emplearán en lacontratación de personasdesempleadas por elcierre de empresas y ne-gocios.

El Jefe de GobiernoLuis Gerardo Hernández

Gómez agregó que la ciu-dad aportará una cantidadsimilar.

“Limpieza, manteni-miento de áreas públicas,desmonte de áreas verdes,encalado de guarnicionesy banquetas así como elremozamiento de oficinasmunicipales son algunasde las actividades que con-templa el proyecto”, dijoHernández.

El presidente municipalde San Nicolás, Manuel

Guadalupe González Vil-larreal dijo que el apoyode la federación se utiliza-rá para exportar la piedralaja e impulsar la produc-ción de chile piquín.

A su vez, Martín IrineoTovar González, Presi-dente Municipal de Main-ero, acudió a la SEDESOLpara reiterar su compro-miso de trabajar en bene-ficio de su comunidad yplantear solicitudes a estasecretaría.

NUEVA CIUDAD GUERRERO

Fomentarán empleo temporalTIEMPO DE ZAPATA

More than 20 linearblocks of historic down-town Laredo will be full oflive music, lots of food anda Mardi-Gras style atmo-sphere with the 2011 edi-tion of the UETA Jamboo-zie.

Set to begin Saturday at4 p.m., the 13th annual out-door festival will feature aheavy dose of local talent.

Forty-two acts have beenbooked for the event, whichwill feature six stages withabout seven performanceseach.

Headlining the show willbe the Grammy Award-winning Texas Tornadosand Laredo’s own Pete As-tudillo, who is about to re-lease a new album. Astudil-lo will be accompanied byRuido Añejo.

More than 35,000The UETA Jamboozie,

which also features a“Mayor’s March” paradewith Laredo Mayor RaulSalinas, is Laredo’s biggestoutdoor festival. Organiz-ers dub it “The biggest out-door festival in South Tex-as.” More than last year’stotal of 35,000 people isexpected to attend.

Beads, bright coloredcostumes and a variety ofmusic — with genres rang-ing from rock and reggaeto Tejano and Colombiana— will take over down-town, from the perimeterof San Agustin Plaza toaround the Old Mercadoblock, where the LaredoCenter for the Arts is locat-ed. The parade begins at 8p.m., at the corner of GrantStreet and San AgustinAvenue, and will windthrough the festivalgrounds, ending again atGrant Street.

A growing festival“Since its inception in

1997, Jamboozie has growntremendously with thecommunity’s support,”said Sandra Rocha Taylor,executive director of Lare-do Main Street. “We’re set-ting up tables and chairsfor people to come and en-joy the music.”

Taylor also said bandswill have the opportunityto set up their own tablesnear their respective stage,to be able to sell their mer-chandise.

This year’s lineup willinclude groups from as faras Honduras, and ofcourse, some fromSan Antonio, Aus-tin, CorpusChristi and oth-er parts of theLone Star State.

The focus,however, is todisplay local mu-sicians’ talents.The lineup will in-clude Laredo bandssuch as Fallen on Sep-tember, the ¿Qué Pasa?choice for Best Band in the“Best of 2010 Awards.”Other notable local actsinclude BacchanalianBliss, Automatic

Week-

end,Kash Kasano-

va, Minoritee Movement,Randy Tate, La Juventud,the Jolly Ranchers, the JoeGuerra Jazz Band, Joe Cas-tillo’s Zaz y Zaz, Shazz!,Vankuver and Phoebe Ma-rie. Still, many other localbands will perform.

“Jamboozie really high-lights local talent,” Taylorsaid. “We want to givethem an opportunity to geton stage and get out there.”

Taylor estimated thatabout 15 bands could notget in, simply because timeand space didn’t allow it.

New Orleans tripApart from live enter-

tainment, a large selectionof food will be available forthe party crowd. Taylorsaid there will be Cajunand Asian food to addsome variety this year.

New to this year’s Jam-boozie will be a free rafflefor a two-person trip toNew Orleans. The raffle’sgrand prize includes air-fare for two and a hotelroom in the Big Easy. Oth-er prizes will be awarded.To enter, people must fillout a form

and return it to one of thedesignated downtownstores or to the UETAbooths at the event. Aspray-paint artist will be atthe San Agustin Plaza ga-zebo.

Tickets are $7 presaleand $10 at the door. Presaletickets are available at allUETA locations, most IBCbranches, La Paletera atHEB Plus and Saunders lo-cations, at 2 Far Gone Tat-toos, Lazy Daze and TJ’sWestern Grill downtown.Taylor said presale ticketswill be sold at those loca-

tions until Saturday, oruntil they run out. The

idea is to help alle-viate a bottleneckon Saturday.

Free parkingwill be availa-ble in front of

El Portal, nearthe Rio Grande.

A trolley and buswill be taking peo-

ple to the Convententrance. There’s al-so the BBVA Com-

pass Bank garage asan option, but that runs

$10.(Emilio Rábago III may

be reached at 728-2564 orerabago@lmtonline.com)

2011 UETA Jamboozie is todayBy EMILIO RÁBAGO III

THE ZAPTA TIMES

Courtesy photo

PAGE 8A Zentertainment SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

Wisin y Yandel set for arena againThe Laredo Energy Are-

na and AEG Live havebooked the “duo dinámi-co,” Wisin y Yandel, for areturn to the arena.

The pair is set to per-form on Sunday, June 19,at 8 p.m. during its “LosVaqueros: El Regreso 2011”tour stop.

The duo has a new al-bum, titled the same: “LosVaqueros: El Regreso.”

Tickets go on sale today,at all Ticketmaster loca-tions including the LEAbox office. Tickets rangefrom $33 to $93, plus facil-ity fees.

For more information,call the LEA box office at523-7700.

El Gigante, others at Papagallos USAEl Gigante de America,

led by Lupe Esparza, theformer frontman for Bron-co, will be in Laredo onSaturday.

Still often called Bronco,El Gigante de Americawill be at Papagallos USAon Saturday night.

Presale tickets are $20and are available at Dan-ny’s, La Roca and Torta-mex restaurants aroundtown.

Other events scheduledat Papagallos USA areRicky Naranjo y Los Gam-blers for Friday, Feb. 4, andEl Pega Pega de EmilioReyna on Saturday, Feb. 5.

Wine Tasting Gala is next Saturday

The Boys & Girls Clubsof Laredo is hosting itsmost ambitious Wine Tast-ing Gala event to date, asorganizers prepare topaint the town “LiquidBlue.”

The 13th Annual WineTasting Gala will be onSaturday, Feb. 5, at the La-redo Country Club andwill feature music by Liq-uid Blue, a band from SanDiego that was namedAmerica’s Best DanceBand by the National Mu-sic Awards in 2001.

Also, wine master Tris-ten Beamon will be onhand to present an ex-traordinary selection offine wines.

Live and silent auctionswill feature unique itemssuch as luxury stays inSanta Fe, N.M. and Mus-tang Island; several pre-mier wildlife hunts; a U.S.Open Tennis TournamentPackage for two, includingtickets to the women’s andmen’s finals; original art-work; an eight-day Africansafari; and several dinnerand party packages. Afour-day trip for two to ei-ther New York City or San

Francisco will also be raf-fled.

Tables of 10 are availa-ble for $2500, or $250 perperson. The event beginsat 7 p.m.

For more informationor tickets, call C.Y. Bena-vides III at 763-8973.

Tino Cochino at Karma in February

Radio personality-turn-ed-artist Tino Cochino willbe in Laredo on Saturday,Feb. 12.

Born in Lubbock, TinoCochino became ratherpopular after hosting the“Whut it Dew” radio showin San Antonio on Power106.7 FM.

Through that gig, hequickly popularized hisname in the music indus-try. He consistently remix-es mainstream music, add-ing his own verses, to pop-ular tracks such asEnrique Iglesias’ chart-top-per “Tonight.”

Tino Cochino’s new sin-gle, “I Go Hard,” whichfeatures rap group Three 6Mafia, was produced byDJ Frank E, who is alsofeatured on “Tonight.” An-other current Tino Cochi-no single is “DriftingAway” produced by Wysh-master and features JoeyNotez.

San Antonio’s A.J.Hernz, born in Laredo asAlberto Hernandez, willopen up.

Siggno, Elida y Avanteat benefit dance

The South Texas Coun-cil on Alcohol and DrugAbuse, known by the ini-tials as STCADA, will havea Pre-Valentine’s Day Ben-efit Concert featuring themusic of Siggno and Eliday Avante.

Set for Friday, Feb. 4, atthe Casa Blanca Ballroom,the concert/dance beginsat 8 p.m. The dance is setfrom 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Tickets are $15 presaleand $20 at the door. Theyare available at GuerraCommunications, Casa deMusica Gauadlupe, South-side Grocery, Casa Raulsouth, STCADA and Lare-do Mini Mart.

For more information,call Guerra Communica-tions at 724-9800.

— The Zapata Times

COMING UP

SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Jorge Luis Nieto, 55,passed away Sunday, Jan.23, 2011, at Laredo Special-ty Hospital.

Mr. Nieto is preceded indeath by his parents: Aga-pito and Jacoba Nieto; andhis sisters: Maria Gonza-lez, Sylvia Guzman andMargarita Soto.

Mr. Nieto is survived byhis wife, Leana Kay Nieto;sons: Jorge Nieto Jr., Ger-ald Nieto, Steven (April)Newlin and Ted Moore;daughters: Dora (Fernan-do) Rodriguez and MistyNewlin-Nieto; grandchil-dren: Kassandra, Destinee,Sergio, Dayna and MarieNewlin; and a sister Azu-sena Nieto; and by numer-ous nephews, nieces, andfriends.

Visitation hours wereheld Wednesday, Jan. 26,2011, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.with a rosary at 7 p.m. atRose Garden FuneralHome.

The funeral processiondeparted Thursday, Jan.

27, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. for a10 a.m. funeral Mass atNuesta Señora Del Refugioin San Ygancio, Texas.Committal services fol-lowed at Martinez Cemete-ry in San Ygancio.

Condolences may besent to the family atwww.rosegardenfuneral-home.com.

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

JORGE LUIS NIETO

Lauro Garza Jr., 70,passed away Monday, Jan.24, 2011, at Laredo Medi-cal Center.

Mr. Garza is precededin death by his parents:Lauro and Cidelia Garzaand Trinidad and InesUribe; and his in-laws: Se-rapio Jr. and Beatriz Mo-rales.

Mr. Garza is survivedby his wife of 44 years, Ro-salva M. Garza; sons: Lau-ro (Lydia) Garza and Joe(Tabitha) Garza; daughter,Ana (Joe) Gray; grandchil-dren: Lily, Laura, Alexis,Joey, T.J. Garza, Krystynaand A.J. Gray; brothers:

Abel (Reda) Garza andManuel (Amparo) Garza;sisters: Belen (Eliseo) Gu-tierrez, Martha (Homero)Elizondo, Rosa Maria

(Juan Antonio) Guevaraand Patricia (Marcial)Gonzales; and by numer-ous nephews, nieces, andmany friends.

Mr. Garza served in theU.S. Army from May 23,1963, to March 30, 1965. Hewas a member of theAmerican Legion and alsoa Life Member of V.F.W.

Visitation hours wereheld Thursday, Jan. 27,2011, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.with a rosary at 7 p.m. atRose Garden FuneralHome.

The funeral processiondeparted Friday, Jan. 28,2011, at 9:45 a.m. for a 10

a.m. funeral Mass atNuestra Señora Del Refu-gio Mission in San Ygna-cio. Burial services fol-lowed at Martinez Ceme-tery in San Ygnacio,including full militaryhonors by the AmericanLegion Post 486 ColorGuard.

Condolences may besent to the family atwww.rosegardenfuneral-home.com.

Funeral arrangementsare under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonza-lez, funeral director, 2102Highway 83, Zapata.

LAURO GARZA JR.

Minerva G. Chapa, 70,passed away Friday, Jan.21, 2011, in Laredo.

Ms. Chapa is precededin death by her husband,Nicanor Chapa; parents:Amador and Florinda A.Garcia; and a brotherAmador Garcia, Jr.

Ms. Chapa is survivedby a son, Mario N. (Aida)Chapa; grandchildren: An-dria, Anissa and MatthewChapa; brothers: Felix (Yo-landa) Garcia, Jose Luis(Rosalinda) Garcia and Dr.Edmundo O. (Glenna) Gar-cia; sisters: Gloria (Marce-lo) Ramirez and Amada(Crispin) Gorham; sister-in-law, Aida Garcia; andby numerous nephews,nieces, other relatives andfriends.

Pallbearers were: Dr.Edmundo Garcia, FelixGarcia, Jose Luis Garcia,Crispin Gorham, Francis-co Garcia and TirsoAmesquita.

Visitation hours wereheld Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011,from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. witha rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose

Garden Funeral Home.The funeral procession

departed Monday, January23, 2011, at 9:45 a.m. for a10 a.m. funeral Mass atOur Lady of LourdesCatholic Church. Commit-tal services followed at Za-pata County Cemetery.

Condolences may besent to the family atwww.rosegardenfuneral-home.com.

Funeral arrangementsare under the direction ofRose Garden FuneralHome, Daniel A. Gonza-lez, funeral director, 2102Highway 83, Zapata.

MINERVA G. CHAPANorma Arredondo, 45,

passed away Saturday, Jan.22, 2011, at Laredo MedicalCenter.

Ms. Arredondo is pre-ceded in death by her par-ents, Pablo I. and Maria E.Arredondo; and her broth-ers Julian Arredondo,Adan Arredondo and Isa-bel “Chavelo” Arredondo.

Ms. Arredondo is sur-vived by her husband, JoeBenitez; children: MariaInez (Francisco) Barragan,Ronnie Lee (Mirella) Arre-dondo, Remigio EduardoGalvan and Abigail Betti-na Benitez; grandchildren:Alejandro Barragan, Da-niel Barragan, Janet Bar-ragan, Joel Adrian Arre-dondo and Aaron Mauri-cio Arredondo; brothers:Andres Arredondo andAlejandro (Olivia) Arre-dondo; sisters: Florinda(Eulogio Jr.) Martinez, An-ita Arredondo, Diana(Henry) Solis and DeliaArredondo; and by numer-ous nephews, nieces, andmany friends.

Visitation hours wereTuesday, Jan. 25, 2011,from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with

a rosary at 7 p.m. at RoseGarden Funeral Home.

The funeral processiondeparted Wednesday, Jan.26, 2011, at 9:45 a.m. for a10 a.m. funeral Mass atOur Lady of Lourdes Cath-olic Church. Committalservices followed at LasAlejandreñas Cemetery inChihuahua, Texas.

Condolences may besent to the family atwww.rosegardenfuneral-home.com.

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

NORMA ARREDONDO

to drop off approximately$38 in pennies, Bigler add-ed.

Bigler has seen a greatamount of participationfrom all the students andhopes to campaign for Pen-nies for Patients annuallyto continue to help thecause, she said.

Most students were in-volved in the campaign in-cluding third graders SofiaRamirez, Yasmin Peña,Jaime Chapa, Rey Muñoz,Angel Alaniz, Miguel Sali-nas, Hannah Gonzalez,

Cassandra Gomez, Alejan-dro Gonzalez, CarlosFlores, Jr., Daniel Gonza-lez, Kassandra Tejada, andJorge Vela, Bigler said.

Also helping in the cam-paign were third gradersMaricruz Quintanilla,Alexa Martinez, RicardoRamirez, Rene Del Bosque,Lizbeth Cantu, and JacobGonzalez, Bigler said.

The campaign endedFriday.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557.)

PENNIES Continued from Page 1A

PHOENIX — Arizonalegislators have reintro-duced legislation aimed atmaking President BarackObama prove his U.S. na-tionality by birth.

The measure in theArizona House would pro-hibit placing presidentialand vice-presidential can-didates on the state’s bal-lot unless they submitspecified documentationof their U.S. birth and oth-er constitutional require-ments.

Hawaii officials haverepeatedly confirmedObama’s birth in thatstate, but so-called “birth-ers” contend Obama wasactually born in Kenya,his father’s homeland.

The state House nar-rowly passed a version ofthe bill in 2010 but it diedin the Senate without avote in the closing days ofthe legislative session.Secretary of State KenBennett had voiced con-cerns about the 2010 legis-lation’s provision thatwould have prohibited hisoffice from placing a can-didate on the ballot if doc-uments submitted on be-half of a candidate leftreasonable doubt aboutthe candidate’s eligibility.

On Friday, Bennettnoted that the reasonabledoubt wording is not in-cluded in the 2011 version;instead, it mandates sub-missions of specific swornstatements and a copy of abirth certificate with spe-cific information.

Arizona wants proof of US birthBy PAUL DAVENPORT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PAW PAW, Mich. — Aman charged Friday withthe murders of two wom-en found buried near ablood-splattered trailer insouthern Michigan wastrying to buy the ruralproperty where the days-old graves were discov-ered, authorities said.

Junior Lee Beebe, 34,was arrested in the slay-ings of his cousin’s wife,Amy Henslee, and TonyaHowarth, whom Beebedated on and off for thelast few years. Both wom-en were shot multipletimes and likely diedMonday, the same dayHenslee was reported mis-sing, County ProsecutorJuris Kaps said.

Investigators didn’t ini-tially suspect foul play, be-cause it appeared Hensleehad voluntarily left herhome with Beebe. Butfriends in this small towninsisted she would neverintentionally abandon herhusband and their sons.

The women’s bodieswere found about five feetdeep in a wooded, ruralarea in Bangor Township,about 60 miles southwestof Grand Rapids, on prop-erty that Beebe was try-ing to buy from his uncle,said sheriff ’s Sgt. DavidWalker. Investigators don’t

believe Beebe was livingin the nearby trailer.

“There was bloodaround the outside of thetrailer and there wasblood inside the trailer,”Walker said. “The groundhad been disturbed andwe received informationthrough interviews withthe suspect where we’d beable to find the persons.”

Henslee’s familybrought in a private ca-nine tracking unit thatalerted the sheriff ’s officeto the trailer, Walker said.The crime scene wasabout a quarter mile intothe wooded property,whose entrance from a ru-ral two-lane highway wasguarded by signs warningof dogs and forbiddingtrespassers.

It was unclear whetherthe women knew eachother. Autopsies werescheduled for Friday.

Beebe, of Bangor, wasarraigned by video Fridaymorning on two counts ofmurder and possession ofa firearm during a felonyduring a hearing in Dis-trict Court in Paw Paw,the county seat.

Beebe didn’t enter aplea, but when Judge Rob-ert Hentchel asked himabout whether he under-stood the charges in Hen-slee’s death, Beebe re-sponded: “Did or didn’t?No, I didn’t.”

In this Wednesday photo, James Henslee attends a prayer meet-ing at the Hartford Community Center, in Hartford Township,Mich., for his wife, Amy Henslee, who had been missing sinceMonday. A man was charged with her murder Friday.

Photo by John Madill/The Herald-Palladium | AP

Mother, 2ndwoman found

By TOM COYNEASSOCIATED PRESS

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

mentary UIL directorJackie Pineda.

Zapata South fourth-grader Angelee Lopezplaced first in English oralreading and fourth-graderAndrea Gonzalez placedfirst for her perfect paperin music memory.

Also for Zapata South,fifth-grader Tisha Nuñezplaced first in numbersense, and Franco Arceplaced first in listeningskills.

Other winners includethird-graders Carlos H.Flores Jr., third in spellingand second place with hisperfect paper in musicmemory, and Sofia Rami-rez, third in music mem-ory.

Also, among fourth-graders: Rosanna Pinedaplaced third in Englishoral reading, Andrea Gon-zalez placed second inready writing, and AndreaMontes placed third inSpanish oral reading.

Among fifth-graders:Marian Saenz placed thirdin Spanish oral reading,Jackie Valadez placedthird in art smart, AbramGuerra placed third innumber sense, and Carlos

Garcia placed second inmaps, graphs and charts.

At Zapata North, third-grader Claudine Galunzaplaced first in the spellingcategory.

“She was the only firstplace winner, but othersreceived second and thirdplaces,” said librarian Be-lia Vela, Zapata North Ele-mentary.

“Unfortunately Bena-vides did not have anyfirst-place winners thisyear,” said counselor Blan-ca Gonzalez.

Second grader EnriqueSolis was Benavides’ onlywinner and placed sixthin creative writing, Gonza-lez said.

Lastly, Villarreal stu-

dents Emilae Hill placedfirst in storytelling, LuisMartinez placed second inSpanish poetry, SeleneGarza placed third in sto-rytelling and fourth placein ready writing, and Tri-ana Rodriguez took homethird place for ready writ-ing, said Garza.

“We’re so proud thatthey represented ourschool and that they didvery well,” Zavala said.

In the overall competi-tion Zapata South placedthird, Zapata North placedfifth, Villarreal placedsixth, and Benavidesplaced seventh.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557.)

Bottom row: Storytelling first place medallion Emilae Hill, Spanish poetry; second place medallion LuisMartinez; storytelling third place medallion and ready writing fourth place ribbon Selene Garza; andready writing third place medallion Triana Rodriguez. Middle row: Maps, charts and graphs fourth placeribbon Alinna Garcia; oral reading fourth place ribbon Maria Olivares; art smart fourth place ribbonNancy De Leon; spelling fourth place ribbon Javier Rodriguez; ready writing fourth place ribbon andnumber sense sixth place ribbon Andrea Nuñez; Top row: Oral reading fifth place ribbon Karla Ramos;art smart sixth place ribbon Juan Angel Barrientos; music memory sixth place ribbon Aaliyah Yameogo;and ready writing sixth place ribbon Annalysia Serna.

Courtesy photo

UIL Continued from Page 1A

our clients in Zapata.”In service for nearly 20

years, STCADA began inJim Hogg County andgradually spread to ZapataCounty, Rio Bravo, RioGrande City, Weslaco, Lare-do, and Hebbronville, saidSTCADA executive directorRomeo Rodriguez, Jr.

“Our motto is to help in-dividuals and their fam-ilies,” Rodriguez said.

Zapata was among manycommunities that were ne-glected for many years, Ro-driguez said.

“Unfortunately, problemsare not getting better,they’re getting worse,” Ro-driguez said.

Laredo and Zapata havethe highest cases of heroinuse among youth today,with some fatalities, Rodri-guez said.

“I’m sorry these prob-lems are happening in ourcommunity,” Rodriguezsaid.

Representatives of sever-al agencies attended the

ceremony in support of thenew location, includingBorder Patrol, ZapataCounty ISD, Zapata CountyChamber of Commerce,Webb-Zapata District Attor-ney’s Office and other.

“Drug addiction andchemical dependency areissues no one agency canhandle alone,” said DistrictAttorney Isidro Alaniz. “Ittakes a community and theefforts of a community andlaw enforcement as a wholeto address this problem.”

“This is a new era welive in now where the solu-tion is not merely throwingaway the key but to workwith these individualsthrough intervention andprevention programsthrough STCADA to saveone life at a time,” Alanizadded.

Three main programsSTCADA provides in Zapa-ta are youth prevention ser-vices, adult outpatienttreatment services and HIVservices, said STCADA ex-

ecutive assistant SoniaAdrienne Bernal.

The main focus of STCA-DA is prevention and inter-vention and the organiza-tion now is focusing onnewer methods to treat in-dividuals struggling withdrug and substance abuse,including Drug Court andfamily drug court pro-grams, Rodriguez said.

The Drug Court programhelps individuals on theverge of incarceration re-ceive treatment instead ofbeing incarcerated, Rodri-guez said.

The family drug courtprogram is in the processof being implemented inLaredo and will help re-unite families, Rodriguezsaid.

Drug Court programsare only available in Lare-do and will soon be imple-mented in Zapata, Rodri-guez said.

(Lorraine L. RodriguezMay Be Reached At (956)728-2557.)

AGENCY Continued from Page 1A

3.9 miles south of FM 3169to 1.2 miles south of FM3169, which includes a 2.7-mile upgrade from a two-lane, bi-directional road-way to a four-lane road-way with a grass medianand includes adjustmentsof utility elements fromthe Ramireño Water Sup-ply, Ramirez said.

A subcontractor has re-cently erected a 50,000-gal-lon elevated water tank inRamireño, Ramirez said.

“It is not operationalyet and still needs to bepainted,” Ramirez said.

Structure work has alsobeen done in the Ramire-ño project including exca-vation and embankmentof the roadway and the in-stallation of water lines,Ramirez said.

The two-year projectcosts nearly $10 million,Ramirez added.

“We still have a year ana half to go on this pro-ject,” Ramirez said.

TxDOT awarded twoother road upgrade pro-jects on US 83 to Ander-son Columbia Co.

One of the projects re-quires a 17.5-mile upgradeon US 83 by way of recon-structing the existingroadway, drainage struc-tures, bridge repairs, andadding passing lanes fromthe intersection of theStarr and Zapata countylines with the highway to6.4 miles north of FM2687, Ramirez said.

“The construction com-pany will be installing lat-eral pipe-crossing underthe roadway but are cur-rently not working onthat right now,” Ramirezsaid.

The project is estimatedat $25.6 million, Ramirezsaid.

The other project in-cludes a 5.8-mile long roadupgrade on US 83 whichcalls for reconstruction ofthe existing roadway and

drainage structures from9.5 miles south of FM 3169to 3.7 miles south of FM3169, Ramirez said.

This project is estimat-ed at $5.8 million, Rami-rez said.

In other business,TxDOT was pending ameeting with the ZapataCounty CommissionersCourt for solutions onhow to remove trash orprevent littering on thelast two scenic outlooks. Ifa plan cannot be workedout, the outlooks will beremoved, Ramirez said.

The court had suggest-ed several clean-up pro-grams in previous Com-missioners Court meet-ings but have yet toimplement anything.

TxDOT is giving thecourt more time to comeup with solutions, Rami-rez said.

(Lorraine L. Rodriguezmay be reached at (956)728-2557.)

ROADS Continued from Page 1A

Sports&OutdoorsSATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011 ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

HOUSTON — Top Americandistance runner Ryan Hall start-ed feeling good vibes even beforehe arrived in Houston for Satur-day’s U.S. half-marathon cham-pionships.

In 2007, Hall won the Houstonhalf-marathon in 59 minutes, 43seconds, becoming the first Amer-ican to finish the distance in un-der an hour. Later that year, Hallfinished the London marathon in2:08.24, a record for a U.S. debut.

“It’s good to be back in Hous-ton,” Hall said. “Just flying inhere, I get all reminiscent. I callthis the ’Land of Breakthrough,’because that’s what it was for mefour years ago.”

Hall is eager to study thecourse, learning the turns andtesting the road surface, as Hous-ton will host the men’s and wom-en’s U.S. Olympic marathon trialsnext year on the same course.

He’s also counting on this raceserving as a springboard to a bigyear.

“I come here and I just feellike, ’Ah, yeah, this is comfort-able,”’ Hall said. “I just feel atpeace here. You can only get thatby having a good experience

somewhere. It goes both ways. Ihave other cities, where I go thereand I can feel my own heaviness,because I’ve had bad experiencesthere.”

Patrick Smyth and BrentVaughn, who finished second andthird in last year’s race, are backin the field. Mo Trafeh, who post-ed the fastest U.S. half-marathontime in New York in 2010 (1:00.39),also is entered.

“I don’t know what (Saturday)holds,” Hall said. “But with thetrials and everything, I thinkwe’re going to see some guysbreaking through.”

Magdalena Lewy Boulet, the2009 U.S. half-marathon cham-pion, and Serena Burla, lastyear’s runner-up, lead the wom-en’s field.

Burla, 28, is racing again al-

most a year after having a tumorremoved from her right leg. Shefinished fourth in the New YorkCity Marathon last November.

“Running is something thatI’ve always loved,” Burla said.“But also, going through what Ifaced last year, it just opened myeyes to so many important thingsin life. You have nothing to loseand nothing to fear, because youdon’t know when your time isup.”

Organizers moved the half-marathon back to Saturday, so itwouldn’t interfere with Sunday’sfull marathon.

American Brett Gotcher leadsan expected field of about 9,000for Sunday’s race that starts infront of Minute Maid Park,weaves through a public park andRice University and wraps up at

the city’s convention center. Gotcher became the favorite

when last year’s winner, Ethio-pian Teshome Gelana, and Ken-yan Felix Keny pulled out be-cause of visa issues.

The 26-year-old Gotcher fin-ished seventh last year in 2:10.36,the fourth fastest debut time byan American.

“It was really nice last year, be-ing able to come in under the ra-dar, and have very little pres-sure,” Gotcher said. “The way Ilook at it, if you want to achieveyour ultimate goal of making anOlympic team, you’re going tohave to be in the spotlight atsome point. Might as well try toget used to it now.”

Another contender is IrishmanMartin Fagan, a 2008 Olympian.Fagan holds the Irish record forthe half-marathon (1:00.57) andtrains with Gotcher in Flagstaff,Ariz.

Ethiopian Ashu Kasim is thefavorite on the women’s side afterwinning the Istanbul-Eurasiamarathon in Turkey last October.Kasim set her personal best time(2:25.49) in Paris in 2009.

The top American-born femalecontender is Stephanie Rothstein,who finished 11th in the half-mar-athon here in 2008.

RUNNING

Houston gears up for marathonBy CHRIS DUNCANASSOCIATED PRESS Patrick Smyth and Brent Vaughn, who

finished second and third in last year’srace, are back in the field. Mo Trafeh, whoposted the fastest U.S. half-marathon timein New York in 2010 (1:00.39), also isentered.

NEW YORK — Houston isswitching to Major League Soc-cer’s Eastern Conference thisseason as the league realigns tomake room for expansion Port-land and Vancouver.

The league said Friday thatwith the Timbers and White-caps joining the Western Con-ference each conference willhave nine teams.

The 18-team MLS will have abalanced schedule, with eachteam playing all the otherstwice. All teams will play 17home games and 17 road games.The league season starts March15, with the Los Angeles Galaxyat Seattle.

Toronto and Vancouver musthave at least three Canadianplayers on their rosters. Therule will apply to Montrealwhen it joins MLS for the 2012season.

MLS

Dynamorealignedinto East

ConferenceASSOCIATED PRESS

GREEN BAY, Wis. — For a guy relatively new at giv-ing locker room speeches, Charles Woodson certainlyknows how to bring down the house.

Immediately after the Green Bay Packers beat theChicago Bears in Sunday’s NFC championship game,Woodson went to the middle of the locker room to ad-dress the team.

He had been thinking about President Barack Oba-ma’s promise to attend the Super Bowl if his favoriteteam, the Bears, were playing in it. And after the Pack-ers beat the Bears to earn a trip to the Super Bowl in-stead, Woodson used the President’s pledge to fire uphis teammates.

In a video clip posted on the Packers’ website, Wood-son is shown in the middle of the locker room. He be-

SUPER BOWL XLV

Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson celebrates aftersacking Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler during the secondhalf of a football game in Green Bay, Wis, on Jan. 2.

Photo by Mike Roemer | AP

Playingpolitics

Woodson directsCheeseheads to D.C.

By CHRIS JENKINSASSOCIATED PRESS

See PACKERS PAGE 2B

PITTSBURGH — Rashard Men-denhall walks through the lockerroom singing out loud, stops topoke fun at a teammate, shares afew laughs with a team employeeand settles near his locker.

Reporters gather around him,and Mendenhall turns into just an-other boring athlete. The Steelersrunning back answers questions ina calm, soft-spoken voice, carefulnot to say too much or provide anybulletin-board material for oppo-nents.

Once the cameras and recordersare turned off, Mendenhall is backto himself. He’s a prankster, a guywho enjoys making his teammateslaugh and helps keeps the moodlight.

“He’s a very charismatic guy,”right guard Ramon Foster said. “Hejust does some crazy, stupid stuff. Itdoesn’t matter when. He’ll do itanywhere. He’s the best moviequoter ever. Any type of Dave Chap-elle skit, he knows it. My favoritething is that ’Plead the fifth’ skit,Rashard does that.”

On the field, Mendenhall is allbusiness. He’s a tough runner anda major part of Pittsburgh’s of-fense. Mendenhall is coming off anoutstanding performance againstthe New York Jets in the AFCchampionship game. Similar suc-cess against the Green Bay Packerswould help the Steelers securetheir seventh Super Bowl title.

Mendenhall scored two touch-downs in a comeback win over the

SUPER BOWL XLV

RUNNING WILD

ABOVE: Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall (34) makes a catch during practice in Pittsburgh on Friday. The Steelers willbe facing the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, 2011 in Arlington. BELOW: Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Men-denhall runs against the New York Jets during the first half of the AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh on Jan. 23.

Photo by Keith Srakocic | AP

Mendenhall keeps Steelers on right trackBy ROB MAADDI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

See STEELERS PAGE 2B

PAGE 2B Zscores SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

Baltimore Ravens twoweeks ago. He had 121yards rushing and one TDon 27 carries in the 24-19victory over the Jets andRex Ryan’s vaunted de-fense.

“Every game is a differ-ent game,” Mendenhallsaid. “You want to takethe positives out of lastweek and try to maximizeyour performance.”

A strong running gamehas long been a staple inPittsburgh. From Byron“Whizzer” White to BillDudley, John Henry John-son to Franco Harris, Je-rome Bettis to Willie Park-er, the Steelers tradition-ally have won with agrind-it-out rushing at-tack and a menacing de-fense.

But Ben Roethlisberg-er’s strong arm and agroup of talented receiv-ers made the Steelersmore of a passing teamthe last two years. Thedays of the Ground Chuck

offense seemed long goneas Big Ben threw for morethan 4,300 yards in 2009.

Roethlisberger’s four-game suspension to startthis season contributed toa renewed emphasis onthe run. Mendenhall hadtwo of his three 100-yardgames in the regular sea-son during Roethlisberg-er’s absence, helping theSteelers to a 3-1 start.

After Roethlisberger re-turned, Mendenhall’s car-ries went down from anaverage of 22.3 per gamethe first four weeks to 18over the next five. But theSteelers relied more onMendenhall in the latterpart of the season and hefinished with 1,273 yardsrushing and 13 touch-downs. In two playoffgames, he’s carried theball 47 times for 167 yardsand three scores.

While most fans in oth-er cities prefer to see theirteam pass, the black-and-gold faithful turn it up a

notch when Mendenhallgets the ball.

“Running the ball anddefense are a traditionhere,” Mendenhall said.“You can wear down anopponent with the run-ning game and the fansfeel it. It’s one of thosethings where you can hearthe crowd and the towelswaving.”

Mendenhall is quiteaware of the Steelers tra-dition. He has a lot of re-spect for Harris and Be-ttis, who’ve spent timetalking to him and shar-ing advice.

“From talking to Francoand talking to Jerome,there’s things you learnoff the field on how to be aprofessional, how to carry

yourself in the organiza-tion, things like that,”Mendenhall said. “And,you learn about preparingyourself with the spotlightbeing on you, and takingcare of your body in theoffseason.”

The 23-year-old Menden-hall grew up in Illinoisand played for the Illini,but he paid more atten-tion to the Los AngelesRams than the ChicagoBears because of the Bus.

“Jerome was my favor-ite player when he was onthe Rams,” Mendenhallsaid. “I remember him forbeing a big guy, his feetand his movement, a lot ofpeople don’t see him beingso quick.”

The Steelers drafted

Mendenhall in the firstround in 2008, eventhough Willie Parker hadjust run for over 1,300yards. However, Menden-hall’s rookie season was adisappointment. He sus-tained a season-endingshoulder injury after fourgames and watched fromthe sideline when theSteelers beat Arizona towin the Super Bowl.

Mendenhall couldn’tplay because he was hurt.It doesn’t mean he didn’tlearn from the experience.

“I saw everything ittakes to prepare to win,”he said. “It means a lot tobe there and be a part of itthis time.”

Mendenhall credits theoffensive line and coaches

for his success runningthe ball. Against NewYork, tight end HeathMiller was a dominantblocker. Guard Chris Ke-moeatu also was a factorwith strong play on theline of scrimmage.

“He’s a unique animalat the tight end position,”Mendenhall said of Miller.“A lot of people look attight ends and look at howmany catches they have.He’s a guy that blockswell week in and week outand makes a big impact.”

The Steelers had theirlinemen do some pullingand combination blockingto keep the Jets off-bal-ance and open holes forMendenhall.

“He’s a hard runner andyou know he’s gonna tryhard to get that extrayard,” Foster said. “Youknow if you give him ahole, he can break it. It’sfun blocking for him.”

For teammates, it’s funbeing around him, too.

STEELERS Continued from Page 1B

After Roethlisberger returned, Mendenhall’s carrieswent down from an average of 22.3 per game the firstfour weeks to 18 over the next five.

PUIGPUNYENT, Balear-ic Islands — Alberto Con-tador intends to fight aproposed doping suspen-sion, saying he is a victimof a flawed system and in-sists it’s a “question ofhonor” to prove he did notcheat to win the Tour deFrance.

An emotional Contadorpromised to defend his in-nocence “until the end” ashe spoke publicly for thetime since learning of theproposed one-year banfrom the Spanish cyclingfederation for a positiveclenbuterol test that couldcost him his Tour title.

Searching for justice“In the next 10 days I’m

going to work and do all Ican to receive justice. It’sa question of honor, de-fending your pride andyour innocence,” said the28-year-old Spaniard,whose watery eyes werereplaced by a rebelliousglare at the end of thehour-long news confer-ence in Mallorca. “This isabout honor.”

Bad cut of meatContador blames his

positive result on eatingcontaminated meat, andhe characterized the Span-ish federation’s decisionWednesday to accept hisdefense yet still sanctionhim as “shameful.” Thereduced ban, instead ofthe standard two-year pen-alty, would still leave Con-tador stripped of the 2010Tour title and off thestarting line of this year’srace.

“They are recognizingthat I’m innocent andthen they give me a one-year ban,” the three-timeTour winner said. “I can’texplain that. I can’t de-fend that. I can’t do any-thing more.”

“Of course I feel like avictim — a victim of thesystem,” he said.

Fighting against timeContador has until Feb.

9 to present more evi-dence before the Spanishauthority’s disciplinarycommittee renders a finalverdict. That decision canbe appealed to the Courtof Arbitration for Sport byContador, the Internation-al Cycling Union or theWorld Anti-Doping Agen-cy.

Contador’s voice filledthe room as he spokeabout an anti-doping sys-tem that had dragged himfrom places such as movietheaters, family dinnersand birthday parties more

than 500 times without in-cident.

“What hurts the most isthat all of the scientistsknow I’m innocent,” saidContador, who vowed todo all he can to see thatthe rule on clenbuterol ischanged. “And this hurtsme. This is sad. Verysad.”

“To lose everything I’veachieved until now — nowI don’t believe in the anti-doping system.”

Plenty of backupContador appeared at

the news conference alongwith Bjarne Riis, head ofhis Saxo Bank-SunGardteam. Riis said the teamand its sponsors weresticking by Contador.

“It is extremely impor-tant we can distinguishbetween those who try tocheat on purpose andthose who take somethingby accident,” Riis said.

If Contador is strippedof the Tour victory, the ti-tle would go to runner-upAndy Schleck of Luxem-bourg. A one-year banmeans Contador wouldnot have to surrender 70percent of his salary, un-like a two-year ban.

Contador would not on-ly miss this year’s Tour ifthe ban is upheld, hewould also miss out onparticipating in the Span-ish Vuelta by three daysbecause the one-year banwould end on Aug. 23. Theban would be retroactive

to Aug. 24 of last year —the day he was informedof the positive control.

“To be at the next Tourmotivates me even more,”said Contador, who alsowon Tour titles in 2007and 2009.

Contador says he atemeat contaminated withclenbuterol on a rest dayduring the tour in July.

The case highlights agrowing concern thatclenbuterol can be con-sumed unwittingly by eat-ing meat from animalswho were fed the drug,which helps burn fat andbuild muscle. It is on WA-DA’s zero-tolerance list.

Italian cyclist Alessan-dro Colo received a one-year ban from Italian au-thorities after testing pos-itive for clenbuterol frommeat consumed in Mexicolast year. WADA is not ap-pealing the case while theUCI must decide by Mon-day whether it goes for atwo-year ban.

“The rules have tochange,” Contador said. “Idon’t know when, but thiscan’t happen to me and toany athlete in a similarsituation to me.”

Contador is one of onlyfive cyclists to win theTour, Giro d’Italia andVuelta.

“How can this affect mycareer any more?” hesaid. “My career has al-ready been so affected byeverything. The (Spanish)committee has to under-stand that the proposedresolution is not just.”

Contador fightsdoping charge

By PAUL LOGOTHETISASSOCIATED PRESS

Cyclist Alberto Contador speaks during a news conference in Puig-punyent, Spain on Friday. Spanish authorities handed Contador aproposed one-year ban, rather than the standard two-year penalty,after accepting his positive clenbuterol test at last year’s Tour camefrom contaminated meat.

Photo by Manu Mielniezuk | AP

gins by talking calmlyabout the team sticking to-gether as one — and thenhe cuts loose.

“And check this,” Wood-son said, his voice rising.“If the President don’twant to come watch us inthe Super Bowl, guesswhat? We’ll go see him!”

Amid the shouts fromhis teammates, Woodsonled a cheer: “1-2-3 ... WhiteHouse!”

Fair playWoodson even found a

good-natured way to talksome smack to the Presi-dent himself this week, au-tographing a jersey forObama with the message,“See you at the WhiteHouse. Go Packers.”

It’s the natural next stepin Woodson’s evolution asa leader.

He was The AssociatedPress Defensive Player ofthe Year last season. Andseveral teammates, includ-ing cornerbacks TramonWilliams and Sam Shields,have credited him withhelping them get better.

But he hadn’t been par-ticularly vocal in his lead-ership until now.

Leading the chargeAfter rotating captains

during the regular season,the Packers took a playervote to elect six captainsfor the playoffs. Woodsonwas selected, along withAaron Rodgers, wide re-ceiver Greg Jennings, line-backer A.J. Hawk, specialteams standout JarrettBush and kicker Mason

Crosby. The other five captains

then decided that Woodsonshould be in charge oftalking to the team.

“The other captainskind of nominated mewithout any voting pro-cess, they kind of pushedme out there to be the guyto do it,” Woodson said.“And it was fine with me. Ifeel like I’ve played thisgame a long time, played itat a high level. I feel likethe things I can say to theteam are things that meansomething to them, and Ican give them somethingthat maybe I’ve beenthrough and just shed alittle light on this process.So it just kind of happenedthat way.”

Rodgers knew he wasthe right choice.

“Anytime he speaks, Ithink he’s starting to real-ize he has a lot of respectin the locker room andguys listen to him, theyappreciate what he has tosay,” Rodgers said. “Andhe’s pretty good at it, too.”

Outside linebackerFrank Zombo, an undraft-ed rookie free agent whomade the team, said Wood-son commands respect inthe locker room.

“When he goes to speak,he’s got everybody’s atten-tion,” Zombo said. “Andyou know that’s comingstraight from the heart.That’s just a guy who’sbeen through it all, every-one has a lot of respect for.When he talks, everyonestops and listens.”

Rehearsed chaosWoodson isn’t just wing-

ing it up there. “You don’t want to just

go up there and rant,”Woodson said. “You wantto give it some thought be-cause you’re talking toyour peers, and at thesame time you’re talkingat a time where the gamesare bigger than ever.”

Defensive lineman Cul-len Jenkins said it’s work-ing because Woodson’s actis not over the top.

“I mean, he’s still thesame person,” Jenkinssaid. “He’s not runningthrough here every chancehe gets trying to make aspeech. He doesn’t do itway too often, but when hedoes do it, guys really lis-ten to it because you knowthat it has meaning to it.”

All that said, Woodsonremains one of the guys.Jenkins joked that Wood-son’s age (34) is the thingthat makes him most qual-ified.

“Anytime you’ve gotsomebody that’s as old ashim, he’s like the seniorcitizen of the team,” Jen-kins said.

In all seriousness, Jen-kins says Woodson is do-ing a great job.

“He’s a leader of thisteam,” Jenkins said. “Anytime that you look at a guywho’s had as much indi-vidual success as he has,for so long, and still seemhim motivated to accom-plish something as a team,it just rubs off and youcan’t help but look up to aguy like that.”

Woodson, who went tothe January 2003 SuperBowl with the OaklandRaiders and lost to TampaBay, said he’s driven to geta ring before he retires.

PACKERS Continued from Page 1B

KAPOLEI, Hawaii —People from all over theworld come to Hawaii tounwind, celebrate andheal. Peyton Manning isno different.

The Indianapolis Coltsquarterback is enjoyinghis 11th trip to the ProBowl, but still stingingfrom the Colts’ abrupt endto the season.

Manning didn’t havemuch to say about the roll-er coaster year for the de-fending AFC champs,which ended with a 17-16loss in the playoffs to theNew York Jets. He’s toobusy enjoying Hawaii,which is all he reallywants to discuss.

“This is a great trip. It’sa special week,” he saidFriday after team photosand practice.

The 34-year-old Man-ning will have plenty totalk about in the offseasonas the Colts try to re-signthe only four-time MVP in

league history. Team own-er Jim Irsay has said heintends to make Manningthe NFL’s highest-paidplayer.

Manning helped theColts reach the postseasonfor a record-tying ninthtime, win a seventh divi-sion title in eight years,set a career high in yards(4,700), threw 33 TDs, 17 in-terceptions and broke theNFL record for comple-tions in a season (450).

Back at the Pro Bowl,Manning is the player thatevery one, including theplayers, wants to bearound and have their pic-ture taken with.

“He’s been here for 40years now, so he kind ofruns the show,” TennesseeTitans rookie kick return-er Marc Mariani said.

In his 13th season, Man-ning is joining Brett Favreas the only quarterback tobe selected to at least 11Pro Bowls.

“It’s always been anhonor,” Manning said.“I’ve never taken it for

granted. “Being voted over here

by the players, coachesand fans, I’ve played in itevery time I’ve been votedin,” Manning said. “(Balti-more Ravens linebacker)Ray Lewis has done thesame thing.”

Of this year’s players,only Lewis has been tomore games than Man-ning as a 12-time selection.Atlanta Falcons tight endTony Gonzales also has 11appearances to lead theNFC.

“When you look at aguy like Peyton, when youlook at a guy like TonyGonzales, they appreciateit,” Lewis said. “When youget over, there’s a certainbrotherhood. The guys youwent to war against, nowyou come here and it’s allabout family and sharingand understanding.”

The question Lewis andManning get most oftenfrom the younger plays is:What is their magic potionto keep doing what they’vebeen doing for so long?

Peyton’s Pro Bowl inparadise for relaxation

By JAYMES SONGASSOCIATED PRESS

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES — Here’s how to work it:

FAMILY CIRCUS

SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011 THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

AARRTTIICCLLEESS FFOORR SSAALLEE 113366

AB Rocket! Cama para hacer ejercicios, $65,

Color Azul, call 857-1556For sale:6 pc. queen

bed set, all wood, $250 OBO call:744-5283

Valentine’s Arrangementsstarting at $30,fresh roses,balloons & stuffed animals.

Free Delivery. Call 724-1800

TTRRAANNSSPPOORRTTAATTIIOONN

TTRRUUCCKKSS FFOORR SSAALLEE 119988

1999 Kia Sportage EX,good cond.,4dr., std.,

$1,800 OBO call:725-0875

2001 Chev,Tahoe,Black, extras, $4,000

956-231-8949

CCAARRSS FFOORR SSAALLEE 220000

2004 Hyndai Accent, 4dr., 60K mi-les, good cond., $3,900 Call: SOLD

HHEELLPP WWAANNTTEEDD 112222

OwnerOperatorTeams.RegularScheduled Lanes from Michigan to Texas or

Canada to Texas. CDLRequired. Paid fuel

Surcharge. 800-334-5142 Fax:888-876-0870

PPEETTSS && SSUUPPPPLLIIEESS

PPEETTSS && SSUUPPPPLLIIEESS 112288

ACA FRENCH MASTIFFS 4F/4M,$1200ea.

OBO CALL 956-324-0303

MMIISSCCEELLLLAANNEEOOUUSS

HHEELLPP WWAANNTTEEDD

HHEELLPP WWAANNTTEEDD 112222

Truck Drivers WantedImmediately Local positionsavailable Also hiring in SanAntonio, Cuero, Gonzalez,Freer, Three Rivers, Dilley,

Victoria, and Rio Hondo. Signon Bonus for experienced driv-ers. Local work, regular sched-ule Day and night shifts avail-

able Class A CDL with Xendorsements. 18 wheeler or

Tanker experience needed. OurCompany offers Health Dental

Life and Vision insurance.401K and referral bonuses.

Applications are on our web-site. www.gulfmarkenergy.com

EOE GulfMark Energy, INC.800-577-8853

Dear Heloise: Regardingthe column about pet sit-ters: One important item isthe “PERMISSION TOTREAT.” If you are using asitting service, you need towrite a letter stating thatthe person doing the sittinghas the right to authorizetreatment (medical treat-ment -- Heloise) of the ani-mal.

Give this letter to yourvet, and give a copy to thesitter. Leave all phone num-bers, state that all minorproblems shall be treatedand that you agree to payall charges. Indicate that ifthe problem is more criti-cal, you are to be contacted.Thanks for all your goodadvice. -- Stephanie, via e-mail

Stephanie, excellentpoint! Give the letter toanyone watching your ani-mals, whether it’s a profes-sional pet sitter, friend,neighbor or family mem-ber. And have informationabout the closest animalemergency clinic handy,too. FYI: In the previouscolumn about bonded, in-sured and “licensed” petsitters, of course thismeans a business license,not necessarily a special-ized license. Woof, woof ! --Heloise

DOG WALKING 101Dear Heloise: I have

some hints about dog walk-ing, since I walk my three

dogs every day:Walk the dogs at

roughly the same time eachday.

I walk my dogs on thesidewalks, so they can’tmess up my neighbors’yards.

I make it a fun work-out for myself also, bywalking briskly.

-- A Reader in TexasIT’S IN THE BAGDear Heloise: I’ve no-

ticed that in your column,readers have advised using“leftover” plastic bags —newspaper bags, shoppingbags, etc. — for collectingand disposing of dog waste.Please encourage yourreaders to purchase biode-gradable bags instead. Typ-ical plastic bags can takehundreds of years to disin-tegrate, and birds and oth-er small animals often in-gest them or becometrapped in them. The biode-gradable bags disintegratequickly. I know they cost alittle more, but it’s the re-sponsible thing to do.Thank you. -- Steven Beck-ham, via e-mail

A smart way to help theenvironment and all of ouranimal friends. -- Heloise

HINTS BY | HELOISE

“HELOISE

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES Sports SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —The atmosphere was socordial at the Titans’ head-quarters Friday it washard to tell Jeff Fisher thatwas leaving the team.

He stood behind the po-dium thanking everyone inthe building before leavingwith a wave. Tennessee’stop executives expressedtheir gratitude for his workover the years, then dis-cussed how they will re-place Fisher after mutuallyagreeing they had reacheda point where “it was timeto move on” after 16 fullseasons.

“It is just time for achange,” owner BudAdams said Friday by tele-phone from his Houston of-fice.

Fisher declined to ad-dress details about the deci-sion, but acknowledged

some differences with theteam. He also looked muchmore relaxed Friday morn-ing than in weeks, callingit the best decision aftertwo difficult seasons.

The Titans reboundedfrom an 0-6 start to finish8-8 in 2009, then wasted a5-2 start in 2010 by losingeight of the final 10 gamesfor a 6-10 record.

“I’ve been coaching for24 years, and it’s time. Ineed a break,” Fisher said.“And I think timing-wisethis is a perfect opportuni-ty to do this so the organi-zation can move forwardwith their plan, and I’llmove forward with whatev-er happens in the future.”

The team announced thesplit Thursday night,shocking players, assistant

coaches and the rest of theNFL because Adams an-nounced three weeks agohe’d decided to keep Fisherfor the final year of his con-tract. Adams said teamsand coaches unfortunatelyalmost always reach apoint where change is thebest option.

“I believe both the teamand Jeff will benefit in thelong run from this move.Now I’m still confidentabout our future. I thinkwe have good players. I be-lieve in Steve Underwoodand (general manager)Mike Reinfeldt to find ournext head coach.”

The search to replaceFisher is already underway, and the Titans’ gener-al manager Mike Reinfeldtand Underwood, the seniorexecutive vice president,will handle the processwhose only timetable is “aslong as it takes.” Under-wood said reports of the

coach’s settlement at $8million were “erroneous”while declining to answerquestions about the pack-age.

Among the four majorU.S. sports, only JerrySloan with the NBA’s UtahJazz has been with thesame team longer thanFisher had been with theTitans. Andy Reid of Phila-delphia now takes over asthe NFL’s longest-tenuredcoach having finished uphis 12th season with theEagles.

Fisher, promoted fromdefensive coordinator to in-terim coach in 1994, guidedthe team’s relocation fromHouston to Tennessee andtook the Titans to theirlone Super Bowl appear-ance. He also had losingskids of at least five gamesin five of the last seven sea-sons.

He has coached moreNFL games for one fran-

chise than all but six Hallof Famers: George Halas,Tom Landry, Don Shula,Chuck Noll, Curly Lam-beau and Bud Grant. Heranks third among activecoaches in career winswith a record of 147-126, be-hind only Bill Belichick(176) and Mike Shanahan(160), and he is 20th in ca-reer coaching victories.

He could coach againthis season. A team execu-tive noted that’s up to Fish-er, but the coach wouldn’tspeculate when asked if hemight work on televisionfor a season.

“I think I need the rest.Those that coach 10 yearsthat take a year off arethree times better coaches... in year 11. I’m going totake time,” Fisher said.

Reinfeldt noted Fisher’sdeparture didn’t changethe Titans’ decision to ei-ther trade quarterbackVince Young or release him

later this offseason. Thegeneral manager also notedFisher just finished his17th season with this or-ganization and called thatunbelievable in a hard jobthat takes a toll.

“He was the face of thefranchise for such a longtime,” Reinfeldt said. “Atthe same time, I thinkchange is part of the NFL.You look other placeswhere change has hap-pened, change can be awonderful thing, and wecan use that change to getus to where we want to be.”

Fisher eluded to the pos-sibility of a contract exten-sion the day after the sea-son ended, but Adams de-cided to let his coach workthrough the final year ofhis contract. Fisher’s lastwinning record was 13-3 in2008 when the Titans wast-ed the No. 1 seed in theAFC by losing in the divi-sional round.

Titans, Fisher part ways after 16 seasonsBy TERESA M. WALKER

ASSOCIATED PRESSJEFF FISHER: oust-ed from Tennes-see on Friday af-ter 6-10 season.

SAN DIEGO — TorreyPines was supposed to bethe perfect place for afresh start, and it was ev-ery bit of that.

Just not for TigerWoods.

Sunghoon Kang, a 24-year-old from South Koreawho had never played aPGA Tour event until thisyear, handled the NorthCourse with ease Thurs-day in the Farmers Insur-ance Open for an 8-under64.

He had a one-shot leadover Rickie Fowler, wholast month was voted therookie of the year, andAlex Prugh, who also wason the 2010 rookie ballot.One shot behind wasChris Kirk, another roo-kie this year who shot 66despite getting a cortisoneshot in his foot on Tues-day.

“There’s a lot of youngguys playing well,” Fow-ler said. “There’s a lot ofyoung guys that are goingto be out here pretty soonthat you haven’t heard

about or seen on tour yet.So it’s pretty cool to be apart of that movement.And we’re not scared togo out and play, and defi-nitely be in contention.”

Woods had few com-plaints, except for theshots he left above thehole and the putts hedidn’t make.

He opened with a 3-un-der 69 on the slightly eas-ier North Course, a stress-free round in which hedidn’t make a bogey, butdidn’t make a birdie onany of the par 5s that areall reachable in two shotsif the drive finds shortgrass. Woods was in thedeep stuff all four times.

“I’m happy with theway I played, absolutely,”Woods said. “I could havebeen a lot better if I tookcare of the par 5s a littlebit more, but obviously, Ididn’t do that.”

Woods has won seventimes as a pro at TorreyPines, the most of anycourse he has played. Andwhile he was five shotsbehind, that was hardlyalarming.

Tiger Woods hits his tee shot on the second hole of the SouthCourse at Torrey Pines during the second round of the FarmersInsurance Open golf tournament in San Diego on Friday.

Photo by Lenny Ignelzi | AP

Fresh starts atTorrey Pines

By DOUG FERGUSONASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS — Ke-vin Love is putting up stag-gering numbers for theMinnesota Timberwolves.

Rebounds — 15.7 pergame, nearly 21/2 betterthan the next closest NBAplayer.

Points — 21.6, puttinghim on track to becomethe first player since MosesMalone in 1982-83 to aver-age at least 20 points and15 rebounds per game.

Three-point percentage— 44.7, tied for seventh inthe league.

But there is one numberthat threatens to preventhim from making his firstAll-Star team. It’s 10,which is how many victo-ries the Timberwolveshave this season.

“I feel like I’ve done thebest I could to show I’m anAll-Star type talent, but Iknow that wins come at apremium in this leagueand a lot of coaches are go-ing to look at that,” Lovesaid. “But hopefully, may-be, they can get past thatthis year and make an ex-ception.”

Love isn’t alone in hop-ing coaches look past winsand make him a reservefor the All-Star game onFeb. 20 in Los Angeles.

Golden State guard Mon-ta Ellis, Clippers forwardBlake Griffin and Mem-phis forward Zach Ran-

dolph are all putting uphuge numbers this seasonwhile playing for losingteams. The performancesare making it tough onWestern Conference coach-es who vote for the re-serves.

“There are going to be alot of hard votes, hard deci-sions,” Dallas Maverickscoach Rick Carlisle said.

Ellis is averaging 25.8points per game, fourth inthe league. Griffin hasbeen the breakout star ofthe first half with his fero-cious dunks. Randolph isputting up a double-doublenearly every night to helpthe improving Grizzlies(22-24) approach the .500mark.

Their numbers are cre-ating a debate among theNBA’s coaches. Is thereroom in the All-Star gamefor losers? Love, Griffin,Ellis and Randolph aren’tlosers, but their teamshave a combined record of

68-113. Love’s Timberwolves (10-

35) are tied for fewest winsin the West, Griffin’s Clip-pers (17-28) are still wellunder .500 despite a solidrun of late and Ellis’s in-credible scoring has donelittle to change the for-tunes for the Warriors (19-26).

“I don’t think there’sany formula for it,” Spurscoach Gregg Popovich said.“I think that everythingshould be considered. Ithink it’s natural for aplayer on a team with abetter record to probablyget the attention first. Butit does not preclude a play-er who has been outstand-ing on a team with a lesserrecord from being consid-ered.

“I think it’s a subjectivething. It depends what peo-ple think, how much theyrespect and value what aspecific player has done.”

Denver Nuggets coach

George Karl, while compli-mentary of Love’s progres-sion, was a little less diplo-matic.

“I think his numbers areimpressive enough to beconsidered,” Karl said.“But I like taking guys offthe teams that win games.”

The star power out Westisn’t helping their cause.Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul,Carmelo Anthony and Ke-vin Durant will start, withthe center yet to be deter-mined after the injuredYao Ming was voted in bythe fans. That leaves play-ers like Dirk Nowitzki, De-ron Williams, Pau Gasol,Lamar Odom, Tony Parker,Manu Ginobili, RussellWestbrook, Steve Nash,Tim Duncan and LaMar-cus Aldridge to vie for sev-en spots on the bench.

“The thing I’ll tell you,to be very frank, is that thecoaches’ vote is alwaystipped heavily toward win-ning,” Carlisle said.

NBA’sAll-StardilemmaWeighing W’s andL’s vs. numbers in

All-Star votesBy JON KRAWCZYNSKI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin, right, drives past Houston Rockets’ Chuck Hayes during the firsthalf on Wednesday in Houston.

Photo by Pat Sullivan | AP

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— It’s a cloudy morning atDaytona InternationalSpeedway, but Mark Ricco-bono can’t tell, nor does itreally matter to him.

He walks up to the driv-er’s side of a black, FordEscape Hybrid parked onthe start-finish line, opensthe door, sits down and ad-justs his seat. After a fewminutes the car revs upand takes off.

None of that’s unusual atone of the meccas of motor-sports racing, except forone thing: Riccobono isblind.

Saturday, Riccobono willtake part in a public dem-onstration, driving inde-pendently with the help ofnew nonvisual technologyand a specially modifiedcar. The event, spearheadedby the the National Feder-ation of the Blind, is part ofthe pre-race activities ofSaturday’s Rolex 24 eventat Daytona. Riccobono will

drive a portion of the samecourse as the drivers in therace.

“I pretty much shut outthe idea that driving waspossible, because I didn’twant to focus on that as-pect of something I couldn’tdo,” said Riccobono, 34,who has been legally blindsince age 5 and was select-ed from a group of testdrivers to be behind thewheel Saturday. “But Ithink this project is a clearexample that when youdream big and put yourheart and resources into it,you get to unimagined plac-es.”

The NFB, an advocacygroup of more than 50,000members, hatched the ideaa decade ago.

In 2004 it began theBlind Driver Challengethrough its Jernigan Insti-tute. The challenge encour-aged partnerships withuniversities and manufac-turers to create technologythat would enable a blinddriver to safely operate avehicle.

Saturday’s event hasbeen in the developmentalphase for the past threeyears thanks to the NFB’spartnership with VirginiaTech’s College of Engineer-ing and TORC Technolo-gies. The students devel-oped the equipment Ricco-bono will use. TORCintegrated those into aworking vehicle.

Several Virginia Techstudents teamed withTORC and won $500,000when they placed third in a2007 competition put on bythe U.S. Defense Depart-ment to build a fully robot-ic vehicle. So when Dr. Den-nis Hong, director of Tech’sRobotics and MechanicsLaboratory (RoMeLa),heard about NFB’s chal-lenge, he thought it was ano-brainer to get involved.

“We said, ’Hey, we al-ready have a fully-autono-mous vehicle, how difficultwould it be to put a personinside?”’ Hong said. “Wecouldn’t have been morewrong.

Blind driver to debut newtechnologies at Daytona

By KYLE HIGHTOWERASSOCIATED PRESS