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4i t ‘ Inl ir ais a 4PA.g 4/71-‘e 11114;711. ”’ 11;ik t .. 1111″ July 26, 1974 9 subcommittee that the agency is investigating interlocks among bank and corporation directorates. Such connections do not necessarily violate anti-trust laws: the FTC is attempting to determine whether they have anti-competitive effects. The agency has not disclosed whether First City is one of the financial institutions already being studied. It’s the time of year when Texas Parade magazine and Fortune release their rankings of corporations. The creme de la creme in both lists the top 50 of Fortune’s 500 industrials and the top 20 of Texas Parade’s 100 Texas companies are rated about the same as they were last year \(two entries, into 49th and 50th places, into Fortune’s elite; one, into 19th, in Both magazines call last year the best ever for their rated companies. Both noted the exceptional-even-in-an-exceptional -year performance of oil, gas and related companies. Fortune’s fabulous 50 includes 17 oil or petrochemical firms four of the top ten. Ten of Texas Parade’s 20 are O&G-related, and 30 of the top 100, the magazine notes, “derive the majority of their sales and net income from petroleum-related operations.” The median increase in profits for all oil companies in Fortune’s list was 53.3 percent, as against a 39 percent jump for the 500 as a whole and a 32.4 percent increase for all U.S. industrials. New radio An interesting agglomeration of San Antonio minority honchos, artists, architects, environmentalists and community organizers has applied for an FCC license to operate an FM non-profit community radio station. This indigenous group apparently has gotten the upper hand on the UT broadcasting empire, which earlier had expressed interest in acquiring FM frequency 89.9 to augment its Austin radio station. Pleas McNeel, former editor and publisher of the Eagle Bone Whistle, and prime mover behind the project, says the station’s broadcasts will be “bilingual .. . focusing on the unique cultural heritage of San Antonio, the interests of its varied ethnic groups and the specific educational needs of all segments of our society.” The concept for this non-profit station is similar to that of the Pacifica Foundation. McNeel has plans for a network of neighborhood studios and a roving van, plus open telephone lines “to promote intensive local coverage and communications between individual citizens and the agencies designed to serve them.” The group is in the process of hustling federal grants and matching funds to finance the station. Contributions would he welcomed at San Antonio Community Radio Corp., 225 W. Castano, San Antonio, Tex. The on-again, off-again San Antonio Expressway may be on again for good. Construction on the freeway has been halted since before the flood by objections to its proposed route, which cuts through Brackenridge Park. Last year, Congress ended all federal funding for the project, at the request of the Texas Highway Department, so that environmental restrictions in federal law would no longer apply. Environmentalists insisted in court that such action was an obvious mechanism for taking away their legal recourse against the project, but the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the legislative switcheroo and ruled that construction may resume. Shut down again Where’s the Civil Liberties Union when you really need it? Cen,sorship! First Amendment freedoms infringed upon! The Fourth of July parade in Round Top is one of the state’s more traditional celebrations of the nation’s birthday. The annual festivities there sometimes border on a parody of a small-town Fourth, but their charm is such that folks come from as far as Houston to enjoy the patriotic oratory, floats and fireworks. This year a cheery group of local folks, a few beers to the wind, decided it would be great fun to have a float commemorating the area’s most famous business establishment the very popular but now-defunct Chicken Ranch. Said idea was greeted with general applause and arrangements were made. A spangled float and the means to pull it were found. Ronnie Klump, a noted local thespian, was cast as Marvin Zindler, the Houston TV type who played a key role in getting the celebrated whorehouse closed. There were to have been chickens, a large brass bed and some putative ladies of ill repute on the float. Then, alas, the float was censored. Fayette County Sheriff Jim Flournoy got wind of the project, called the float’s sponsors and strongly suggested that the float be pulled from the parade. He feared bad publicity, going so far as to suggest, according to one reliable source, that the appearance of a Chicken Ranch float could ruin Round Top., The float’s sponsors chickened out, as it were. There were rumors that Zindler himself had threatened to bring a camera crew to the parade and raise hell about the, float, but Zindler says that although he did get a tip about the float, he wasn’t quite clear on what the tip was about and certainly didn’t plan to do anything about it. Zindler told the Observer that he would be happy to address the Rotary Club or other such groups in the area in defense of his Chicken Ranch reportage. When told that he was more likely to be lynched than listened to if he ventured into that part of the state again, he said reflectively, “They do have a lot of good ol’ trees around there.” The first Texas Gay Conference was held in Fort Worth in late June. During a workshop on “Dealing with Public Officials,” a Houston group called Integrity released the results of a poll it had sent to members of the Legislature. To the question, “Do you favor the imposition of religious or moral convictions on one group by another?” 15 percent of those who responded answered, “yes.” We realize that State Treasurer Jesse James’ numerous detractors keep insisting he’s never made it into the twentieth century, but this is ridiculous. In a treasurer’s report on Investment Funds as of May 31, there is an item listed for $159,500: The Lunatic Asylum Fund. Yankee Doodle was born on July 4th on South Padre Island. Yankee may have been the first Atlantic Ridley turtle to hatch in this country in the last 25 years. Yankee’s mom was one of some 1,200 Atlantic Ridleys hatched on the island between 1963 and 1967 in a re-turtleization project sponsored by the Valley Sportsmen’s Club. The sportsmen brought Ridley eggs up to Padre from Tampico, Mexico, and Yankee’s mom was the first Mexican-import hatchling to return to Padre to lay her own eggs. Over a hundred little Ridleys have popped out since the Fourth and all the girl Ridleys are expected to come home again when they get ready to have their own little Ridleys. Dimmie Johnson, 19, of Houston, was elected Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in early July. He is the youngest Grand Dragon ever elected. Johnson explained to reporters that he owed it all to a Dale Carnegie personality improvement course. He said the course had really helped him with his Klan work. MARTIN ELFANT SUN LIFE OF CANADA LIFE HEALTH DENTAL 600 JEFFERSON SUITE 430 HOUSTON, TEXAS 224-0686