Wednesday, June 4, 1986/The Battalion/Page 5
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by Kevin Thomas
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N»wi America Syndicate C New* Group Chicago, Inc., 1985
AUSTIN (AP) — The Consumers
Union called Tuesday for an investi
gation of the State Board of Morti
cians, which regulates the sale of fu
neral and burial services in Texas.
Carol Barger, Southwest regional
director of the consumers organiza
tion, told a news conference, “It is
obvious the board won’t clean up its
own act. It is time for the Legislature
to act to reform the board. Reform
ing the funeral law has not been
enough.”
A board spokesman said the
agency welcomes an investigation
and board members would cooper
ate in any way they could.
Barger said the request for an in
vestigation was sent to Rep. Brad
Wright, R-Houston, chairman of the
House Public Health Committee.
“He seemed very interested,” Bar
ger said of her conversation with
Wright.
Board Chairman James Brous
sard said, “We will cooperate in any
way we can. We think we earnestly
try to do our job. We do not oppose
an investigation. We don’t feel we
have anything to.hide.”
Barger’s request was backed up by
Grady Baskin Jr., a Tyler insurance
executive who was a public member
of the board for six years.
In 1984, Baskin made a personal
survey of 24 Texas funeral homes
and said he found only one in full
compliance with the law.
Barger said her call for an investi
gation was sparked in part by a re
cent report by Cable News Network,
which used hidden television cam
eras in visiting Texas funeral homes.
“The entire CNN report and
other evidence demonstrates misre
presentations and high pressure
sales tactics to bereaved families and
other abuses of the law are all too
common in Texas,” Barger said.
“Also, all too rare is any enforce
ment of the rules, or discipline to vi
olators by the State Board of Morti
cians,” she said.
Barger said the CNN report
shows “the funeral industry’s contin
uing blatant disregard for the law.”
She said the report shows funeral
home employees misrepresenting
the preservative qualities of embalm
ing, misrepresenting the protective
capabilities of caskets and liners and
failing to provide customers with a
price list.
Barger said a legislative investiga
tion “may find it necessary to change
the composition of the board, re
move some members from the
board, or put regulation of the fune
ral industry under some other body,
such as the Department of Health.”
In 1979, the Sunset Advisory
Commission recommended abolish
ing the board and giving the duties
to some other state agency.
The Legislature did not phase out
the board but did change its makeup
from six funeral directors and three
public members to five funeral di
rectors and four public members.
Barger said the Consumers Union
made a survey of Texas funeral
homes in 1985 and found that 58.3
percent were still not in compliance
with the law.
“We have had about 70 com
plaints since Dec. 1,” Broussard said.
“I venture that 30 or 40 of those
have no validity or should have been
directed to another state agency.
Under the statute we are doing the
best we can.”
Traffic murder
gets 30 years
for Austin man
AUSTIN (AP) — Manuel Espi
noza, 22, who prosecutors say
shot a man in the face because he
was driving too slowly, has
pleaded guilty to murder in ex
change for a 30-year prison sen
tence.
Espinoza was charged in the
Feb. 17 slaying of 44-year-old
Louis Garcia Jr.
Garcia was driving a friend
home when a car pulled along
side them on a city street, said
Brian Case, an assistant Travis
County district attorney.
The second car’s occupants
yelled obscenities at Garcia, then
drove up the street, stopped and
backed up to Garcia’s car, which
had stopped to allow the passen
ger out at his house.
A man in the back seat pulled a
shotgun from his coat and fired
point-blank at Garcia’s head be
fore the car sped away, Case said.
Garcia died shortly after.
Mexican president gets whirlwind tour of state of Sonora
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■JlERMOSILLO, Mexico (AP) —
restedb)Erlm steaming coast to desert, from
>s May B:tronics plant to sparkling new
outsb bakery, a presidential tour goes
received through the border state of Sonora
dressed41 a drill sergeant’s pace.
le straff M'he trip Sunday and Monday by
estaurar; President Miguel de la Madrid was
one of dozens he makes each year,
11(1 ' f pan of a Mexican political tradition
1 dating back decades.
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tours, are intended to take the presi-
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as intend
dent to all of Mexico’s 31 states each
year. It is part political campaigning,
part inspection of public projects
and other major — and not a few mi
nor— enterprises around Mexico.
“Is there anything left to inaugu
rate?” a reporter wryly asked de la
Madrid after two days of hopping
up on boats, touring plants and un
veiling plaques in a non-stop proc
ession through Sonora.
“Not for the moment,” the presi
dent responded with a robust laugh.
Officially, the tours are a way for
the president to carry the symbol of
government and keep in touch with
every point of this nation of nearly
80 million people marked by vast re
gional differences.
They also get the president out of
his office in the Los Pinos complex
of Mexico City and into the seats of
provincial power as well as the back
roads and byways of the nation.
Sonora, Mexico’s second-largest
state, haS a strong tradition of re
gional independence and resent
ment of the concentration of power
in Mexico City. Some here say there
generally is little enthusiasm for vis
its by any Mexican president.
Ceruunly little was evident among
the citizenry as de la Madrid whizzed
through the state by bus and plane
on this trip.
The plaza in front of the Palace of
Government in this state capital was
fairly full with a quiet group Sunday
night for what was billed as the pres
ident’s “greeting to the people of
Hermosillo.”
Occasionally small crowds gath
ered to watch the motorcade breeze
by.
One of the few moments of genu
ine excitement visible was when an
elderly woman watched from a
porch in the Gulf of California port
of Guaymas. She waved both her
arms high in the air in greeting, with
a huge grin on her face.
The tour staiirted Sunday in Guay
mas, where the annual Navy Day cel
ebration was held.
De la Madrid and his delegation
sailed out into the Bay of Guaymas
to observe naval ceremonies and ma
neuvers that included a simulated
cleanup of an oil spill.
Then the tour headed to Nacozari
for the inauguration of a $332.7 mil
lion copper smelter and ground
breaking for an accompanying acid
plant.
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