ustxtxb_obs_1994_03_25_50_00023-00000_000.pdf

Christian, anti-abortion groups packed Houston-area precinct conventions, elected delegates to the senatorial district conventions and passed a plethora of resolutions, urging the quarantine of AIDS patients, outlawing abortion and affirmation that civil government is subordinate to “God’s law.” Conservatives and this is a relative term shouted down Republican National Committeewoman Penny Butler when she tried to convince her precinct convention that Republicans were not extreme. Elsewhere, when a moderate offered a resolution condemning violence at abortion clinics, conservative standard-bearer Jim Kennedy, who led moderate Betsy Lake into a runoff for county chair, reportedly suggested that doctors performing abortions be treated the same way in which they have treated “unborn babies.” CRITICAL MASS. Sarah Weddington is an unlikely guest at a symposium studying the link between nuclear power and breast cancer, but there she was, seated in a back row for both days of an Austin conference sponsored in February by Women’s Action on the Environment. What made Weddington’s presence unlikely is her current employment as a lobbyist for Maine Yankee Atomic Power, whose nuclear plant, when decommissioned, will probably be disposed of in Hudspeth County. Weddington protested when a photographer tried to take her picture. “I’m just a private citizen here,” said Weddington, who is more widely known for her Supreme Court victory in the Roe v. Wade abortion-rights case than her nuclear industry lobbying. “How much are you paid each year to represent the nuclear industry a million dollars?” asked an environmental lawyer who caught up with Weddington in the lobby of the LBJ School auditorium. Weddington suggested that the lawyer “go look it up.” According to records at the Texas Ethics Commission, in 1993.Weddington earned between $10,000 and $ 24,999 from Maine Yankee. She also reported earnings form $10,000 to $24,999 for lobbying on behalf of State Farm Insurance. ON THE WATERFRONT. Laurel Entertainment of New York has bought a filmrights option to the story of Diane Wilson, who for the past five years has waged a fight against Formosa Plastic’s pollution of Upper Lavaca Bay, now closed to oystering by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimper, has requested a meeting with Gov. Richards and conducted three hunger strikes in protest of the Formosa plant and, with Calhoun County Resource Watch, has filed suit in state and federal courts. She is backed by Greenpeace, Communities Concerned About Corporations, and a local coalition of Vietnamese and Anglo shrimpers. According to a story that appeared in the Victoria Advocate, Formosa Plastics is also expanding inland, at another facility near Edna where the company is seeking to have land designated as a reinvestment zone to be used “for additional downstream manufacturing facilities.” EPA Secretary Carol Browner reportedly has agreed to meet with Wilson to discuss Formosa’s expansion. Formosa has already received state-agency permits required to dispose waste water in the bay. PRICE OF OPENNESS. Legislators who are trying to make public records a revenue source for state government may have given government bureaucrats a new way to hide their misdeeds: exorbitant fees for “public” documents. The General Services Commission on March 29 will act upon a proposal to levy extra charges for requests of more than five pages of public documents or those which required more than 15 minutes to locate. And the House State Affairs Committee is considering further revisions of the Open Records Act to “clarify its meaning and utility in light of the number of information files now maintained on computers.” This may be an opportunity to improve access to information, but there also will be interests in keeping “public” records shunted far off the information superhighway. CLASSIFIEDS WORK for single-payer National Health Care. Join GRAY PANTHERS, intergenerational advocates against ageism and for progressive policies promoting social and economic justice. $20 individual, $35 family. 3710 Cedar, TEXAS AIDS NETWORK dedicated to improving HIV/AIDS policy and funding in Texas. Individdal membership $25, P.O. Box 2395, Austin, D\( 78768, LESBIAN/GAY DEMOCRATS of Texas Our Voice in the Party. Membership $15, P.O. Box 190933, Dallas, 75219. SICK OF KILLING? Join the Amnesty International Campaign Against the WORK FOR OPEN, responsible government in Texas. 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