ustxtxb_obs_1982_08_20_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

HALF-PINT GIFT SALE Photo by Steve Clark TWO FIVEMONTH GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE . . . ONLY $9 Sign up a friend for our halfpint 2-for-1 summer gift sale and sign up a second friend for free. They will both receive five-months of summer fun and fall election news from the liveliest voice in Texas. This offer good through August. My Name Address City/State Zip Send my first $9 five-month gift to: Name Address City/State Zip Send my FREE five-month gift to: Name Address City/State Zip Sign gift cards Bill me later. Payment enclosed. The Texas Observer 600 West 7th Austin, Texas 78701 lators will undertake the heady, vital job of campaign finance reform in 1983? Maybe by then we will have returned Governor Clements to his desk at Sedco. Let’s hope so. In any case, his idea of initiative and referendum should be pursued but only after it is taken away from him by legislators who study the California system and those in other states and come up with a really open, democratic, people’s proposal. Nothing could break open the money-polluted democracy in Texas faster than initiative and referendum. Well, these are just for openers. What do you propose? Write me what you think the legislature should do in 1983, and I will keep up a running report on the subject in this column. Sarah’s Triumph For some time supercilious members of the Washington press corps have bullyragged Sarah McLendon, the hardworking, 72-year-old Texas reporter, because she stands up to presidents in their press conferences and talks back to them when she thinks she needs to. The other night was no exception: Sarah kept after Reagan, and the asssembled reporters, as if to reassure the President that they aren’t like that, laughed at her. So, in fact, did Reagan, trying unsuccessfully to turn her aside with a jest. But what was different about the other night was the accolades that Sarah received, from Bill Moyers on CBS to the Washington Post, for keeping after Reagan when he was obviously trying to mislead her about a report on sexism in government that he had already been briefed on. “Right on, Sarah,” wrote Haynes Johnson in the Post.. “It’s about time these tepid news conferences are enlivened by some really tough, persistent, digging questioning.” And maybe we could use Sarah some Friday morning at 11 o’clock during one of Governor Bill Clements’ regular press conferences. Rural Doctors I am informed by Dr. Sam A. Nixon, chairman of the State Rural Medical Education Board, that I must have gotten an idea from reality without realizing it. Texas already has a mechanism for in effect making contracts with some medical students that when certified as doctors, they will practice for a specified time in medically underserved areas, as I proposed should be done in a recent column. The board makes educational loans to students who want to practice medicine in a rural area of Texas. As of the first of the year, 157 medical students and 82 residents were participating, and so far nine doctors have entered practice in rural Texas counties as a result of the program. Off Guard The Texas State Teachers’ Associa tion, which has 95,000 members, endorsed Atty. Gen. Mark White for governor. The campaign manager for Gov. Bill Clements responded, “It does not surprise us at all. They are just a prounion organization.” He really did. But if you think that’s a gas, how about what Bill Turque reported in the Dallas Times-Herald concerning the Demolican mayor of Dallas, Jack Evans. Responding to some criticism, His Honor said, “I couldn’t care less what a few people think. The people who really count in North Dallas have given me their sup port.” R. D. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3