ustxtxb_obs_1974_03_01_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

Jacobsen indicted After sitting on the information for more than two years, the Justice Department finally indicted Jake Jacobsen and his estranged partner, Ray Cowan, for allegedly misapplying $825,000 in funds from the First Savings and Loan Association of San Angelo. The former partners are charged with one count each of conspiracy, one count of misappropriation of funds and four counts of participating in mishandling of funds. In addition, Jacobsen was charged with false declaration to the grand jury. Jacobsen, an Austin lawyer, played supporting roles in both the Sharpstown and dairy industry scandals \(see Obs., Dec. And speaking of Sharpstown, Mimi Crossley of The Houston Post reports that water and sewer pipes laid in Frank Sharp’s Houston suburb only 15 years ago have rotted away. It’s going to cost Houston at least $1.8 million to repair the lines. Meantime, city taxpayers are still paying off the $21 million in water district bonds floated to construct the pipes in the first place. Poop from D.C. Texas’ own Republican senator, John Tower, received the 1973 L. Mendel Rivers Award for Legislative Action. The award is given by the 160,000-member Noncommissioned Officer Association. Tower, congratulated on the Senate floor by Sen. Strom Thurmond, the first recipient of the award, waxed self-effacing and said, “I think really a man should not be rewarded for pursuing the objective of keeping the United States of America strong and free. I think that is the duty of us all, and I hope the day will come when everyone is of like mind, that the United States must never allow itself to fall into a position of military inferiority to the other great superpower of this world.” U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen has filed reports with the General Accounting Office and the Secretary of the Senate showing that he has accumulated $363,675 in campaign funds for future races. No other senator has collected that much as yet. U.S. Rep. Jim Wright of Fort Worth may well become chairman of the House Committee on Public Works next year. Wright is presently the second-ranking Democrat on the committee, and Rep. John Blatnick of Minnesota, who has been ailing, does not plan to run for re-election. Wright is whip of the Texas delegation and is increasingly counted a power in the House. He led last year’s fight to keep Political Intelligence highway fund money from being used for mass transit, using his influence in Public Works to good advantage. He is also a staunch supporter of the Trinity River Canal project. Thanks, Charlie has lately been expatiating learnedly on the finks who stand in the way of a Big Thicket Biological Preserve. We had all, until Wilson explained it, been laboring under the misapprehension that the opponents of the Big Thicket preserve were the lumber industry interests and their minions. But, no, lo, Charlie assures us the folks about to do the Big Thicket in are “bog studiers and fern fanatics.” It seems that these nature nuts, like John Tower and Lloyd Bentsen, favor a Big Thicket Preserve of up to 100,000 acres. Wilson assures us that “botanists, biologists, academics of various sorts and freelance nature lovers” fail to see the sufficiency of a park of 84,000. Wilson originally wanted a park of not more than 74,000 acres, an increase of over 100 percent vis-a-vis what was proposed by his predecessor, that great statesman and recently imprisoned perjurer John Dowdy. Some folks I guess you might call them bog studiers and fern fanatics tell us that 100,000 acres is a dead, absolute minimum and that even that may be inadequate for maintaining the ecological system that supports the incredibly beautiful and totally unique and irreplaceable Big Thicket. On the record A friend called the Observer a while back to report that he had read elsewhere that Gov. Dolph Briscoe was heard at last fall’s Southern Governors’ Conference talking with Louisiana’s Governor Edwards about the possibility of a Texas-Louisiana oil embargo to force states with tough environmental standards to relax them so that energy reserves could be developed. Bob Hardesty, Briscoe’s press secretary, says no, the governor is not given to suggesting crypto-secessionist ideas; our friend must have heard a rather misquoted version of a recurring Briscoe theme these days. In case other readers have, heard the same rumor, we herewith present a recent reading of the “fair share” idea, this one from Briscoe’s Jan. 25 speech to the Texas Press Association: “[0] ther states must do their share. Texas has produced much of the energy to fuel the nation’s homes and economy in both war and peace. We have committed our resources; we have drilled off of our shores; we have built refineries; we have taken environmental risks. So have some of our neighboring states. All states must now do their part. “There are indicated oil reserves off the coasts of other states. Those reserves should be drilled immediately. There are massive deposits of coal in other states. That coal should be mined immediately.” Overreacher: the University of Plano has offered Alexander Solzhenitsyn a professorship. The teaching job would not be in greater, metropolitan Plano, but at the University’s campus in Washington, D.C., which isn’t open yet. The University of Plano boasts 450 students. There is a school of thought that holds that Speaker of the House Price Daniel, Jr., is taking his new position as president of the constitutional convention too seriously. Daniel keeps seeing all these bumper stickers around that say, “Impeach the President!” and it makes him nervous. Mrs. Walter Richter of Austin is organizing Texans who are tired of gagging on other people’s cigarette smoke. Among her goals are city ordinances and a state law making smoking in specified public places a fineable offense. In a recent capitol news conference, Mrs. Richter, the wife of a former state senator, said that those who insist on their “right” to smoke must face “our own more logical and long-standing right to breathe clean air.” The Congress bears initial responsibility for drafting rules to restore confidence in the election system. . . . The shock of Watergate may, of itself, make the system run clear of heavy-handed corruption for a time, but that only hides the evils until another day. Somewhere we trust will arise candidates who openly advertise of their sources of support and there will emerge a corps of supporters proud of their candidate. Compromised principles and outright purchase of votes have surfaced in 1972 on a scale never documented before. To let the episode remain effectively unchallenged would be as disgraceful as the scandals themselves. San Antonio Express editorial, Feb. 4, 1974. March 1, 1974 U.S. Rep. “Timber Charlie” Wilson