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ANSWER ING &vat,. eevat SERVICE KATHLEEN O’CONNELL P.O. BOX 3005 477-8278 AUSTIN, 1X 78764 ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICE’S TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AITSTIN,TEXAS 7r731 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip TARP N INNS A Walk on the Beach, A Breath of Fresh Air, A Discovery of A Shell, And Yourself .. . P.O. Box 8 Port Aransas, TX 78373 PLASTIC The free advice you get at a cocktail party is usually worth about what you paid for it At Futura, the advice is free, but the results can be invaluable. Our friendly account representatives are trained to help you through the toughest print job and they’re backed by years of experienced, professional service. Call us at 442-7836 for a prompt quote on your next project. AUSTIN, TEXAS 1714 S. Congress 442-7836 Data Processing Typesetting Printing Mailing V After grappling with 25 mostly arcane constitutional amendments on this November’s ballot, voters will face the question of whether to allow betting on horseracing in Texas. The statewide referendum will be on the question of lifting the 50-year-old ban on parimutuel betting. Another vote \(which in some must be held by each county wishing to establish legalized betting in that county. Another referendum will ask voters whether the state Board of Education should remain an appointed board, or whether it should revert to elections in 1989. The Wife and I V Rep. Foster Whaley, the conservative Democrat from Pampa who distinguished himself in the recent legislative session by publicly offering to castrate convicted sex offenders with a “darn good stock knife,” will not be running for re-election. In his nine years in the House, Whaley served the useful function of being one of the most colorful throwbacks to an earlier age he was a living reminder of the past we are happy to have left behind. Whaley told the Amarillo Globe-News that voters have gotten a bargain in his representation because his wife Lois worked full-time by his side. “The wife and I ran for state representative in 1978 on a platform of giving them two for the price of one,” he said. For our part, we think he was worth every penny of his $7,000 state representative salary. And he was always good copy. He will be missed. V Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, who has usually been given kind treatment in the state’s daily press, ran into trouble in August when United Press International reported that he had received a number of personal loans from his political backer Jess Hay, the Dallas mortgage banker, who at the same time benefited from a state contract to run the Veteran’s Housing Program, which is administered by Mauro’s Land Office. The Houston Chronicle, in an editorial, put it plainly: “Public officials should know better than to conduct private business with people to whom they have awarded public contracts.” The UPI story received good play in San Antonio and Houston \(where Chronicle reporter R.G. Ratcliffe stayed in purpapers, where Jess Hay’s company, Lomas & Nettleton, does business. v A Texas Poll conducted in late July and early August found that President Reagan’s popularity is continuing to slide in this state. Whereas two-thirds of those polled in January of 1986 gave Reagan a good to excellent rating, that number is now down to 49 percent. Nationally, Reagan gets a 46 percent favorable rating, according to a July NBC poll. Eighteen percent of those polled in Texas said Reagan is doing a poor job as president. V Some conservative Christian activists feel their prayers were answered when Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby announced that he will not seek re-election. Adrian Van Zelfden, writing in the Texas Grassroots Coalition newsletter, said Hobby “has been noted as an ardent foe of the prolife forces in Texas, and the single greatest proponent in the state of convenience abortions.” Van Zelfden expressed relief that Hobby voluntarily stepped down without the Lord having to call him home. “I know that many of you have been praying that he would be removed from office,” he wrote. “A voluntary resignation like this is preferable to scandal, death, or disability.” THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15