SA daily pulls Laredo staff after drug cartel hit rumors

LAREDO — The San Antonio Express-News pulled reporter Mariano Castillo out of its border bureau after a federal source warned him a Mexican drug cartel was planning a hit — an execution — on a U.S. reporter operating in Laredo.

“This was a tough call. In January 2006, some Express-News journalists, led by editor Robert Rivard, attended an Inter American Press Association forum in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, aimed at bolstering the courage of their brethren covering the drug trafficking scourge in the region, ” Bob Richter, public editor, wrote in a recent column.

At the time, Castillo told Richter: “With each byline on a narco story, I get a little more paranoid when I’m in Nuevo Laredo. The cartels have lookouts ... on many street corners. I’m always checking my mirror and taking a different road if I think someone is following me. ”

Rivard called Castillo’s recall “prudent,” Richter wrote. More than 20 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1998. One of them, Philip True, was the Express-News’ 

Marshall weekly folds

MARSHALL — The Lone Star Eagle published its last edition July 26.

The newspaper was founded in 2001 as the Stateline Speaker in Waskom but moved to Marshall in 2004 and changed its name under owners Rusty Howell and Vernon Lewis, who later added partners and created Signal Publishing.

According to the July 26 edition, the resignation of the business manager and editor within a two-week period led to the decision to close the weekly.

ACM buys 2 Kan. papers

DALLAS — American Consolidated Media LLC, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Miami Newspapers, Inc., purchased the publishing assets of Kimberling City Publishing Co., Inc., in Kansas, which includes the Columbus Daily Advocate, The Baxter Springs News and a shopper.

ACM appointed Larry Hiatt as publisher of both newspapers. Hiatt was a previous owner of The News and briefly was publisher of the Fort Stockton Pioneer.