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WE WE SOW OFF MOWN KIPS TON ACQUIRED TWO DARLING NEW ONES WHO DIVE IN A SLUM IN SRI LANKA. LEAVING THE CIIIIP RAISING To A .108C0NTRAcTog SAVES So 100 TIME AND SPARES US So MANY OF TIE HEAPoF PARENTING! Schools, clo+ites,-food oriho cloniu re , piano lessons are ail so much cheaper offshore” and those pesky U.S. laws and reguia+ions? Forgei Aovt’eml I PONT CARE IF YOU DON’T WANT A SUMMER SWEATSHOP JOBS SON. WE CAN ALWAYS GersomE NEW KIDS IN vanym! GLOBALIZATION HAS ITS ADVANTAGES ! oursoung FAMIGNAW Y IIR TODA Glohokiels.;;” N /f backing Fisher will outspend him. Early filings at the Texas Ethics Commission have Fisher well ahead of Staples, with Fisher reporting $181,379 raised to Staples’$29,603. \(None of the five trial lawyers who won $17.3 billion for the state in the tobacco lawsuit has yet to make ples in large contributions, several from lawyers such as John Foster of Arlington and Joe Tonahill of Jasper at $10K each. \(Tonahill is the former law partner of IULY 7, 2000 David Fisher’s grandfather, Joe Fisher, the senior federal judge who died in Beaumont Mark Stiles, a former state rep from Beaumont who voted for many of the tort reform measures that have made access to the court much more difficult for injured parties, workers, and consumers suing corporate defendants. Staples’ biggest donor was the Texas Realtors PAC, which provided him $6,000. Yet early contribution filings can be de ceiving. If past legislative races are any indication, Republicans will write their checks late, then make huge media buys. “They’ll wait ’til the last minute to collect their contributions, then spend millions on radio and mail,” a veteran Austin lobbyist said. If no other Senate seats change hands, the outcome of the race to replace sex pistol felon Drew Nixon \(convicted for carrying an unlicensed weapon while soliciting a prostitute which party controls the Senate when the state’s legislative district lines are redrawn. And if Governor George W. Bush is elected president, Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry will become governor and the Senate will select a new lieutenant governor. So the S.D. 3 race will be a money magnet; observers are predicting $4 to $8 million total spending in the most costly legislative race in the state’s history. It’s no surprise that trial lawyers will be backing David Fisher. But Todd Staples won’t go begging. BEAUTY OR BEAST? The OdessaAmerican reports that the Keep Odessa Beautiful Campaign honored the Huntsman Corporation as its “Star of the Month” for June, in honor of the landscaping of its corporate office on South Industrial Avenue. Director Rosie Lopez said the Campaign is to “re-instill community pride and recognize business for keeping Odessa beautiful.” Huntsman plant manager George Rybiak said, “We take a lot of pride in our plant and in our position with the Odessa community.” Forgive Rybiak’s neighbors for being skeptical. Last winter Huntsman smogged nearby neighborhoods with so much smoke from its chemical flares that citizens submitted more than 3,000 health complaints to the T.N.R.C.C. \(The complaints remain about Huntsman’s “beautification” award, which includes a sign and a plaque: “You almost expect to see someone leap from the brush beside the sign to yell, ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!'” THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17