ustxtxb_obs_1978_11_03_50_00012-00000_000.pdf

In a letter informing commission chairman Pearce Johnson of his agency’s selection, INATAPROBU president James Boren applauded the commission’s “articulate expression of bold irresolution in establishing and supporting parks in the great Lone Star state,” and reminded Johnson that “New Jersey has three times the acreage in its parks as Texas.” The Order of the Bird is given yearly by Boren’s organization to coax bureaucratic skeletons out of their closets and to reward “steadfast devotion to the principles of dynamic inaction [and] zealous pursuit of creative nonresponsiveness.” The commission is not the first Texas notable to attract Boren’s attentionGov. Dolph Briscoe got high marks last year for his nomination of a dead man to a state position. Chairman Johnson was invited to accept the awarda statue of a bald potbellied birdat the 1978 Bureaucrats Banquet and Happy Fiscal New Year Party in Washington, D.C., but he did not attend. Says Johnson, “Why would I want to go to something like that?” Viki Florence chaired by none other than Gaylord Armstrong, Exxon’s registered lobbyist; seat number two is occupied by Nancy weapon of well-heeled Houston Republicanism; and the third member of the committee is Larry Murdoch, county clerk of Dallas County. What’s so bad about Larry Murdoch, you ask? Nothing, for all we know; he might even represent the public interest. Painting White green As of October 1, Mark White had gone through more than a million Big Ones in his bid to become attorney general, and his financial support reveals that great wads of them have come from donors with more than a a casual interest in the officeloan sharks, realtors, auto dealers, bankholding companies, construction firms, and nursing home operators are just a few of the heavy White backers who will have business pending before the next AG. Real estate interests have been especially forthcoming for Whitethe Texas Real Estate Political Action Committee has kicked in $25,000 thus far to help get him elected, and individual realtors, developers, building suppliers and investors have contributed at least twice that amount. Residential construction interests in Houston, through their BIG 50 PAC, have donated another $11,000. Salt in your beer Does having to choose between Gusto and the King of Beers bore you silly? Do you flat-out not care if it’s Less Filling? Could the Eleven-Hundred Springs dry up without your even noticing? A beer is a beer is a beer, right? Wrong, says a group of environmental engineers at Texas A&M. They’ve been testing beer to determine its sodium content, and they’ve found startling variation from brand to brand. Why should you care? Well, high levels of sodium in foods are associated with many diseasesthey’re undeniably implicated in hypertension and heart disease. Of course, sodiumappearing principally as saltsneaks its way into every American’s diet, but it can’t hurt to try to keep your sodium intake as low as possible. Since the Observer doesn’t want any uninformed beer drinkers among its readers, herewith the test results as reported to us by A&M’s Harold Wolf and friends, in milligrams of sodium per liter of beer: Ballantine 49, Budweiser 27, Busch 26, Coors 44, Country Club 145, Falstaff 57,. Hanley 49, Heidel Brab 41, Lite 75, Lone Star 132, Michelob 24.5, Miller 64, Old Milwaukee 117, Pearl 113, Pearl Light 113, and Stag 47.5. They also tested several bottles of Pabst and Schlitz with widely varying results Pabst, 248, 224, 200, 160; Schlitz, 125, 110, 68. If all this is enough to make you cry in your beer, don’t. That would just raise the sodium level. Sharon Burrer Order of the Bird Texas has once again received well-deserved recognition of its classic approach to governmental lethargythe Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has been awarded the esteemed Order of the Bird by INATAPROBUthe International Association of Professional Bureaucrats. We found it All right, we confesswe knew what we were looking for when we asked around about a committee of the Texas Election Code Revision Commission that’s supposed to report soon on ways to improve the code’s financial disclosure and reporting requirements for Texas politicos. But, doggone it, we found it: the three-member committee is