The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1997 Page: 5 of 32
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7fe (ZaHAdiciKRECORD
THURSDAY 13 NOVEMBER 1997
5
State Capital Highlights
By Lyndell Williams & Ed Sterling
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
AUSTIN —With ticket sales
down $1 billion over the past year,
the Texas Lottery Commission
fired its executive director
Lawrence Littwin last week.
The slump comes after five
years of record-breaking sales.
In the past year, however, the
agency also has been troubled by
negative publicity over its con-
tract with lottery operator
^ GTECH and a new mandate by
the Legislature that places a
higher percentage of lottery pro-
ceeds into the state budget.
Littwin, who had been lottery
chief since last June, blamed the
Legislature for the agency’s trou-
bles.
“When the public catches on to
the fact that they are basically be-
ing ripped off by the lottery, they
are going to stop buying tickets
altogether,” Littwin said. “This is
a serious, serious problem for this
lottery, and one that the Lottery
Commission is unwilling to ad-
dress.”
To build more funds into the
1988-89 state budget, the Legisla-
ture lowered the payouts for in-
F stant games (scratch-offs).
Sales will only get worse,
Littwin said, because later this
year the lottery will pay out less
than 50 percent of money taken to
balance games now being sold at
higher pay-outs, the Austin
American-Statesman reported.
Littwin said his investigation
of whether GTECH made cam-
paign contributions to state law-
makers may have had something
to do with his filing, but GTECH
* spokesman Marc Palazzo said the
company had no role in the com-
mission’s decision to fire Littwin.
Bush for Anti-Fraud System
Results of a yearlong study
suggest that the Lone Star Imag-
ing System does not work. The
system—part of a $1.7 million wel-
fare reform program—uses fin-
gerprint images to detect when
welfare recipients are doubling up
on applications for cash or food
9 stamp benefits.
The study was conducted at 10
Department of Human Services
offices serving Bexar and
Guadalupe counties.
“We don’t have any evidence to
suggest that this would be an ef-
fective tool to detect or deter the
recipient of duplicate benefits,”
said Deanna Schexnayder of the
University of Texas at Austin’s
Center for the Study of Human
Resources.
Schexnayder said only one
person was caught applying for
duplicate benefits.
Despite the study’s conclu-
sions, Gov. George W. Bush still
supports implementation of the
fraud-detection program state-
wide, his spokesman Ray Sullivan
said.
Expansion of the program,
which is projected to cost $13 mil-
lion over the next three years, is
expected to foil cheaters who re-
apply for benefits in counties
other than where they reside.
Prisoners and Personal
Data
Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock asked the
Senate Joint Committee on Crimi-
nal Justice to determine what t ype
of personal information about
Texans that inmates have access
to while working in prison.
Bullock, who presides over the
Senate, said he wants lawmakers
to make sure prison inmates are
not able to misuse information
they get w’hile working in a prison
industries.
“Strong policies must be in
place to ensure prisoners don’t
have the chance to violate the pri-
vacy of anyone. While it is impor-
tant for inmates to work to help to
repay their debt to society, safety
must always come first,” Bullock
said.
Other Capital Highlights
•State agencies are cutting
payrolls and laying off workers to
comply with a Sept. 1 cap on the
number of state employees. The
Texas Department of Health
plans to lay off 165 workers and
the Texas Department of Human
Services, 266.
•Land Commissioner Garry
Mauro, w'ho still hasn’t formally
declared his intention to seek the
Democratic nomination for gover-
nor, told supporters he is in a sta-
tistical “dead heat” with
Republican Gov. Bush, “Polling,
focus groups and mall test-
ing...have convinced me that I can
win the governor’s race in 1998,”
Mauro said.
■The University of Texas at
Austin’s student body is the na-
tion’s largest, totalling 48,866 stu-
dents this semester. Second is
Ohio State University with 48,278
students enrolled.
■Texas school districts should
not tempt students to take “cream
puff’ courses because of a new'
state law' that requires public uni-
versities to admit students who
finish in the top 10 percent of their
high school graduating classes,
Education Commissioner Mike
Moses said last week.
■Following an investigation by
the Texas Department of Human
Services, the state of Texas has
sued five nursing homes and an
unlicensed care home for inade-
quately caring for residents. The
Attorney General is asking courts
to fine homes $10,000 per violation
and order the unlicensed home to
cease operating without a license.
opinion
Secrets and good government
Continued from Page 2
ciary wfas clearly granted an exemption under the
Act, the telephone records that were subject to the
request were administrative in nature, not judicial.
The state Supreme Court, in w’hat we believe was
a good faith disagreement rejected our ruling, and
reading the law very literally, said that all of their
records were exempt and they had no intention of
releasing any of them.
It will surprise no one that lawyers disagree. We
interpret the law differently than the Supreme
Court. But that disagreement can serve as an oppor-
tunity for all of us to look beyond differing interpre-
tations of the law. We must never lose sight of the
spirit of our open government laws wrhich articulate
a moral obligation for Texas government to operate
openly in the light of day. We must never lose sight
of the plain truth that darkness breeds secrets.
Honest, open government is the essential obliga-
tion of every person whose salary is paid by tax
dollars. No one is excluded from that obligation, not
presidents or governors or attorneys general or
judges.
The preamble of the Open Records Act (since
renamed the Public Information Act) says it best: “It
is the policy of thus state that each person is entitled,
unless otherwise expressly provided by law', at all
times to complete infonnation about the affairs of
government and the official acts of public officials and
employees. The people, in delegating authority, do
not give their public servants the right to decide what
is good for the people to know' and wrhat is not good
for them to know’. The people insist on remaining
informed so that they may retain control over the
instruments they have created.”
Sudden weakness or numbness of the face,
arm or leg on one side of the body
Sudden dimness or loss of vision,
particularly in only one eye
I V V v
Loss of speech or trouble talking or
understanding speech
Sudden, severe headaches with no
known cause
Unexplained dizziness, unsteadiness or
sudden falls with no previous symptoms
American Heart 4
Association^
Fighting Heart Disease
andStrvkg
For moie information, call the AHA's Stroke Connection at 1-800-553-6321
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1997, newspaper, November 13, 1997; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth521023/m1/5/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.