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.,kh and Associates 1117 West 5th Street Austin, Texas 78703 REALTOR CO RepreeentIng all types of properties In Austin and Central Texas Interesting & unusual property a specialty. 477-3651 the end of the year the company emerged as the leading contractor in dollar volume of awards for 1985, according to a Wall Street Journal report on April 29. The Journal noted that, for all the condemnations the company received in Washington, it enjoyed its third consecutive year of record profits. The company is still the subject of at least three grand jury investigations. A Los Angeles grand jury indicted the company and four executives in December on charges that they had conspired to cheat the government on a contract to develop the Sgt. York anti-aircraft gun. The charges are pending. The General Dynamics Fort Worth division makes the F-16 fighter plane. Smatterings of Sanity 1/ The Committee for a Sane Nuclear recently rated U.S. senators and representatives on the basis of 14 key votes having to do with military issues. Both Texas senators were rated poorly, with Sen. Lloyd Bentsen getting a 25 percent score and Sen. Phil Gramm an 8 percent score. Among Texas representatives, the highest rating from SANE went to Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Houston, who got a 100 percent score. He was followed by Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, at 86 percent; Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Beaumont, at 79 percent; Reps. John Bryant, D-Dallas, and Jim Wright, DFt. Worth, at 71 percent; Reps. Jake Pickle, D-Austin, and Ron Coleman, DEl Paso, at 57 percent; and Reps. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, Kika de la Garza, DMission, and Mike Andrews, D-Houston, at 50 percent. Several Texas Republicans were in complete disagreement with SANE’s stands and were given scores of zero. They were: Reps. Steve Bartlett of Dallas, Bill Archer of Houston, Jack Fields of Houston, Beau Bolter of Amarillo, Mac Sweeney of Victoria, Larry Combest of Lubbock, Tom DeLay of Houston, Tom Loeffler of Hunt, and Joe Barton of College Station. Ralph Hall of Rockwall was the sole Democrat to get a zero rating. Of the key House votes that SANE used for the ratings, two were on the MX missile, four were on space weap ons, five were on Central America on the Trident II, chemical weapons, and the military budget. ri The State Bar of Texas, always nervous about .”non-professionals” meddling in the legal system, has backed away from a confrontation with a group the Bar had said might be violating the law. Only lawyers affiliated with the Bar may be practitioners; all others are blocked by a vague Texas statute prohibiting “acts that constitute the practice of law” by non-members. Last June, the Bar sought to drive that point home to HALT, a legal-reform organi :zation based in Washington, D.C., that for several years had mailed its self-help legal publications to subscribing Texas HALT members. The Bar’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee wrote HALT a vaguely threatening letter, disclosing an investigation of the matter. Specifically, the Bar objects to HALT’s booklets on shopping for and using a lawyer, doing law library research, and helping yourself in divorce proceedings, small claims procedures, real estate, wills and estates, probate, and so on. Many lawyers consider these topics to be at least unglamorous, and some of the legal work entails paperwork with which most laymen could do with a little guidance. But the fees lawyers gain from such paperwork are nothing to sniff at. Hence HALT. The Bar’s stated intention is to protect Texans from shoddy legal practice. Piffle, HALT replies, it protects Texas lawyers’ high fees. To help needy people circumvent these fees, HALT tries “to do for the user of the legal profession what Consumer Reports does for the purchaser of an appliance,” HALT Executive Director Glenn Nishimura responded to the Bar last summer. “The State Bar may well wish to declare any communication about the law to Texans as the propri8tary domain of a lawyer licensed in Texas,” wrote Nishimura. But “I suggest to you that the U.S. Constitution does not afford you that much leeway, even if Texas law does.” The State Bar apparently agreed: after 4 months of silence on the matter, it backed down, notifying HALT that its investigation was closed for the time being. Meanwhile, HALT prospers. Just eight years old, the organization boasts a staff of 20, a $2 million budget, and over 110,000 members nationwide 12,000 in Texas says Communications Director Richard Hebert. Says Hebert: “We’re interested in opening up the industry to the widest possible competition.” n We finally made it! After years of working for a great boss, we now work for the best of all possible bosses OURSELVES. Our new enterprise is Futura Comunications, Inc., and all 33 of us will do our best to serve you. We are . EMPLOYEE OWNED AND MANAGED EILMUIRA COMMUNICATIONS, INC., AUSTIN, TEXAS THE TEXAS OBSERVEA,.