ustxtxb_obs_1997_02_14_50_00017-00000_000.pdf

std A \\ +4, Border Patrol, added that the soldiers “were in no way patrolling the border, making arrests or exceeding their authority.” Intelligence-gathering, not patrolling, get it? Jonathan Jones, coordinator for the Valley Coalition for Justice, called the in2*’ cident a “prime example” of the violence that results from stationing soldiers along the border: “If this isn’t militarization, I don’t know what is.” YOU MIGHT HOT STARVE. “It’s kind of disturbing for conservatives, that whenever you hear about welfare cuts, it’s always about how people will suffer,” Mike Krusee told the Dallas Morning News. Krusee, a Republican state representative from Round Rock, argues that it’s hard to “quantify all the suffering in the welfare system as it currently exists.” Krusee will oppose requests from legislators attempting to exempt 25,000 childless adults from food stamp cuts just because they live in parts of the state where unemployment rates are at least 20 percent higher than the national average. And although Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Michael McKin ney doesn’t oppose additional welfare reform, he finds some benefit in the current system. “Knowing that if you don’t get a job, you get $188 a month for a family of three. You can’t live on that. There’s no way you can live on that. That is a pretty good motivation to get a job. Yeah, you might ilot starve. But that’s all.” FOUL BALLS. Who wants the movie rights to USYSA v. UBNthe United States Youth Soccer League’s fight with United Broadcasting Network talk show host \(and Observer tower? Hightower suggested listeners call USYSA offices to urge them to stop “authorizing” the use of soccer balls manufactured by child labor in India, Pakistan, and other countries where children as young as three work at home with their parentsor are “bonded to” factory owners. Nike and Reebok had already responded to an anti-child labor campaign by establishing “stitching sheds” where only adults will be permitted to work. And the American Youth Soccer Organi zation has come out against child labor. So Hightower suggested his listeners call the USYSA and urge them to do the same. “We don’t authorize soccer balls,” USYSA director Ray Thomsett said in response, and demanded that Hightower “correct the sentence.” Hightower said he did clarify on his show that the league might not authorize the balls: “But they do allow these manufacturers who use child labor to come to their national trade shows to promote their merchandise to the local leagues.” They are, Hightower said, “being semantically cute….I may get sued but I’m not worried about it. We’ve told the truth and are going to keep telling the truth.” CHEAPER THAN MOTEL 6. Prison and jail capacity in Texas has increased from 50,000 beds in 1991, to 145,000 in 1995, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. And prices are falling: along with the expansion, average daily cost to house a prisoner has decreased from $44.90 per day in 1994 to $39.51 per day in 1996the same rate it cost to house prisoners in 1989. PETE AND NEWT. Among the first votes freshman Republican Pete Sessions cast in Congress was an obsequious gesture toward House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Dallas Democrats seized upon it as the beginning of the 1998 campaign. Their campaign to unseat the son of former FBI Director William Sessions, who in November defeated Dallas Democrat John Pouland, begins with the question: “For Pete’s sake, why did Sessions vote against Gingrich sanctions?” \(Look for it to be reduced to bumper-sticker length representatives in the 435-member body to vote against the reprimand and $300,000 fine the House levied on the Speaker for ethics violations. Dallas Morning News political columnist Sam Attlesey reports that one Democrat with an eye on Sessions is Victor Morales, the Mesquite high school teacher who lost to Republican Senator Phil Gramm last year. LAWYERS LOSE. One casualty of Gover nor Bush’s proposed tax reform may be big law firms, which could be hit hard by Bush’s proposed “business activity tax.” The State Bar and the trial lawyers are calculating their potential tax casualties and are not yet ready to take a position, according to Robert Elder Jr. and Richard Connelly of Texas Lawyer. Should the lawyer lobby join physicians, accountants, and other professionals who would be hit hardest by the tax, the Governor’s plan will be even harder to get through the Legislature. HARASSING HENRY. How long does it take a special prosecutor to determine if one government official lied to the FBI? At least two years, according to Texas Lawyer. Henry Cisneros left the Clinton cabinet and is now President of the Spanish-language television network, Univision Communications. Yet the investigation of whether Cisneros gave his former mistress, Linda Medlar, no more than $10,000 at one timeor $42,000 to $60,000 as the Justice Department reportedhas now cost taxpayers more than $902,000. That’s how much special prosecutor David Barrett has spent, trying to answer those questions over the past two years. And a letter obtained by a Legal Times news editor promises one more year of investigation. The letter, mailed January 1 to clients of the law firm where Deputy Special Counsel Lawrence Scalise has worked, advised them: “It now appears that the service by Larry as deputy independent counsel will require his absolute full-time involvement for at least an additional twelve months and possibly longer….Due to the time and effort that he will be devoting to his position as deputy independent counsel, Larry will no longer be available to our firm.” What’s taking so long? Legal Times editor Naftali Bendavid raised the question in his article republished in Texas Lawyer. “Any ordinary prosecutor,” he wrote, “with other cases competing for his or her attention, would have wrapped the Cisneros case long ago, many assert.” At least Medlar’ s lawyer has a sense of humor: “I have some young men who have never had the opportunity to Washington…to do some sightseeing.”