ustxtxb_obs_2009_05_15_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

4.0 UNPRECEDENTED COVERAGE OF THE LEGISLATURE AT OUR NEW BLOC: FLOOR8PASS NEWSPAPER CAPITOL BUREAUS CLOSING OR REDUCING STAFF._ Not The Texas Observer. we have one of the biggest reporting staffs covering the Texas Legislaturebigger than Houston, bigger than Dallas. And we’re darned proud of it. You II find ins irresistible: Multiple Daily Posts from the Capitol Interviews and Hearings Exclusives: Breaking News, Legislative Investigations, Documents Capitol People: Profiles/Interviews with Legislators, Lobbyists, Staff, Activists 1300KM A 11.K: WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG/FLOORPASS Get Important New and Alerts from The TexaS Observer , bushws$60exasobserver.org or JOIN OUR HST ttnlitte at www.texasobserver.org expansion hope that the “local control” provision in the constitutional amendment will give them enough cover to vote yes. Then, they hope, legislators can come back next session and write the rules. Meanwhile, Quintanilla and other gambling proponents are already looking forward to next sessiontwo years and several million campaign dollars later. Unless President Barack Obama is still signing stimulus checks in 2011, the state will again be looking for the quick cash gambling licenses and taxes can provide. “Gambling could pump $3 billion to $4 billion in revenue to the state, which would make it very appealing,” Quintanilla said. Whatever happens in the Legislature’s final stretch, you can be sure of one thing: Austin hasn’t seen the last of the casino moguls and gaming lobbyists. “The gambling industry has plenty of time and plenty of money,” says Wheat. “They’ll be back.” MONITOWER Blinded by “Science” Let’s quote the experts on the matter of global climate change: “The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and potential impact of human emissions of green house gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied.” That doesn’t come from some lefty environmental group, but from a 1995 report by scientific and technical experts working for the Global Climate Coalition. Who? The GCC was a front group organized and funded by Big Oil, automakers, utilities, and other major greenhouse gas polluters. Throughout the 1990s, this coalition tried desperately to debunk findings by most environmental scientists that industrial pollutants were indeed causing Earth’s drastic climate change. The coalition ran a multimillion-dollar PR and lobbying campaign to create doubt that global warming was even happening, much less that GCC members had any responsibility for it. Yet internal coalition documents have been released revealing that GCC’s own advisory committee told the corporate interests nearly 15 years ago that climate change was happening and that they were a central cause. When the committee’s 1995 report was issued, however, this inconvenient conclusion was deleted, allowing the industries and their political enablers to insist that the scientific community was “divided,” thus forestalling any governmental action on the climate change. Tobacco giants used the same ploy for decades to deny links between smoking and cancer. Corporate interests have learned that they don’t have to prove their innocence, but just puff up a pseudoscientific smoke screen to dupe the media and government. You might remember this ploy the next time you hear corporate interests spouting science to defend their abusive practices. MAY 15, 2009 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15