ustxtxb_obs_1997_04_11_50_00017-00000_000.pdf

news control to the managing editor will only formalize what already goes on at the Texan. Bullock should stay out of the State Board of Education business. “Just yesterday at breakfast, Pete Laney told me she was out there in his district trying to defeat him. Sounds to me like she’s awfully active, politically.” LOBBYISTS’ LOBBYIST. Former Corpus Christi state rep Eddie Cavazos might look like a rumpled, lumbering, tonsured monk, but he is a quick study. When the House committee on taxation and public education funding proposed taxing the earnings of lobbyists, Cavazos saw the opportunity to sign up some new clients. “I’ll talk to the lobbyists and represent them,” Cavazos said outside. “I can be the lobbyist for the lobbyists.” LEARNING EARLY. U.T. students are bemoaning the fate of the university’s much-honored student newspaper, The Daily Texan. On March 21, the heavily faculty influenced Texas Student Publications Board attempted to dismantle student elections for Texan editor, transforming the editor from a student-elected post to a TSP Board-appointed one. The board eventually decided instead to formally strip the editor of final news control, giving it to the already board-appointed managing editor. The change infuriated the Texan staff. Editor Tara Copp editorialized that removing editorial control from the studentelected editor takes the paper away from U.T. students. “The board has effectively made your vote meaningless. Sure you still get to vote. But the 11 board members will have real power over The Texannot you.” Texan Editor-Elect Colby Black wrote that the change “disempowers the students, our customers and constituents.” The complaint that the move will erase the students’ voice at the paper may already be too late. Insiders say that in practice, the Texan’s managing editor already has virtually full editorial control: he or she decides which story will run on page one, which story needs further coverage, and who will be the paper’s news editors’ and news reporters. The editor has control only over page fourthe opinion page. Thus, the board’s decision to give final that the Glazers illegally conspired to close the AEESC facility in order to enhance their own property value. Many of the allegations were filed under the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organization Act. RICO suits are generally brought by the government against individuals allegedly involved in. organized crime. Glazer, represented by Austin attorney Mary Sahs, filed a motion for dismissal, arguing that the RICO suit is clearly a SLAPP suit \(“strategic lawsuit against abridge the defendants’ first amendment rights. Glazer has filed a counter suit. Despite the closure, the ultimate fate of the AESSC facility remains unclear. It was after a brief shutdown in 1994 that former owners Mobley Environmental Services sold the facility to AEC. TNRCC representatives say they will hold the company responsible for detecting and cleaning up groundwater contamination at the site. The company press release indicates that Winona operations may be routed to the AEC Robstown facility, which’ also has a hazardous waste injection well. WINNING & WHINING IN WINONA. American Ecology Corporation has announced plans to close its American Ecology Environmental Services Surecycle hazardous waste processing facility in Winona. A March 20, AEC press release, placed much of the blame for the closure on Phyllis Glazer and the community group Mothers Organized to Stop Environmental Sins. For nearly a decade, Glazer and MOSES members fought the facility, alleging that hazardous emissions and pollution from the facility caused severe health problems including cancer and birth defects in community members. “At each step of the way, the protestants involved themselves in an obstructionist manner,” said the press release, which alleged that the efforts of those contesting AEESC hazardous waste permits “translated into a barrage of harassing and baseless motions with only the prospect of more to come as well as an army of high-priced experts…to respond to the unnecessary array of experts marshaled by the protestants against the company.” AEC acknowledged that the Winona facility lost $7.4 million in the fourth quarter of 1996. Phyllis Glazer, president and founder of MOSES, said she simply did what most community groups cannot afford to do: she hired industry environmental experts and in the process spent “more money than most people make in a lifetime.” “We were asking them to abide by the environmental laws there to protect public health and the environment and they couldn’t do it…they don’t belong open,” Glazer said. She also criticized state and federal regulatory agencies for lax regulation of AEESC. “I’m proud that I had the balls to fight back.” said Glazer. “Now they’re whining like little puppies.” But they’re not just whining. In October, AEC, AEESC and affiliate company U.S. Ecology filed a lawsuit against MOSES, Glazer, her husband R. L. Glazer, her mother Mildred Kreuger, as well as the family business \(Glazer’s NOT SCARY! His tax plan may be teetering, his speeches leaden, but the whispers about a George W. Bush presidential run are still loud enough to carry across the country. The Los Angeles Times’ Ronald Brownstein recently wrote that “National Republicans laying down the early line on the 2000 presidential field always rate Bush near the top.” Closer to home, Austin American-Statesman editor Richard Oppel lately spoke favorably of young George’s prospects. While circumspect about Bush’s intelligence \(the governor’s favorite reading is the sports . “sophisticated knowledge of fiscal policyhis oft-stated aversion for taxing capital, for example,” and his unthreatening demeanor: “Bush is the least scary of all Republicans.” \(Camand Ford weren’t Einsteins,” while higher-IQ leaders Carter and Nixon had their share of problems. Implication: You don’t need to be that smart to be president. And Bush isn’t really that smart. Looks like we’ve got a contender. “‘”11111014177471r 14.7ii 7 111 frpritri -ifIrripepitirmwthwcifirgrixigiv ,ormAffigtr? 117; 4p, 711 41,