Thursday, September 1,1988/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
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State poverty level
passes 18 percent
for 1980’s decade
AUSTIN (AP) — The number
of Texans living below the fed
eral poverty line has increased by
more than 1 million since 1980,
bringing the state’s proverty rate
to more than 18 percent, a new
study says.
By the end of 1987, an esti
mated 3.07 million Texans lived
in poverty, an increase of 1.03
million over the 1980 total.
Under federal guidelines, a
family of four earning less than
$11,200 in 1987 was considered
to be living in poverty.
According to the state-spon
sored study, Presidio County in
West Texas had the highest con
centration of poor residents.
More than half of that county’s
citizens, 55.11 percent, lived be
low the federal poverty line,
according to the study conducted
by the Texas Department of Hu
man Services and Texas Depart
ment of Health.
State officials said they weren’t
surprised by the growing number
of poor.
Brian Packard, an associate
commissioner with the Depart
ment of Human Services, specu
lated that the state’s sluggish
economy, particularly in the pe
troleum industry, helped spark
the increase.
Between 1980 and 1987, the
period of the study, the state’s
population grew to 17 million.
Carol Daniels, chief of the
health department’s bureau of
state health data and policy analy
sis, said the poverty figures will be
used to help the two state agen
cies channel funds to the appro
priate counties.
Because of the growing needs
for their services, both depart
ments are asking for increased
funding from the Legislature for
the 1990-91 budget period.
The health department was al
located about $311 million for
1988-89 and seeks $438 million
for 1990-91. The human services
department expects to spend
about $2.4 billion in 1988-89 and
seeks $3.5 billion in state funds
for 1990-91.
:ii) Bentsen’s records
’give wrong amount
lyard T
call a a
1 for if
HOUSTON (AP) — The blind
trust of Democratic vice presidential
nominee Lloyd Bentsen invested
about $564,000 — more than twice
the amount previously disclosed —in
a holding company that was formed
by his son last year but has con
ducted little business since then, a
published report said Wednesday.
The Houston Post also reported
that the company has been paying
the financially strapped Lan Bentsen
nearly $10,000 a month for his serv
ices as president and board chair
man, according to a record of his tes
timony in an Aug. 3 divorce hearing.
id wall
Bentsen, the Texas senator, den
ied Tuesday that he influenced the
investment decision and said he saw
nothing unusual about the trans
action. He acknowledged, however,
that trust administrators probably
based their decision on what he
would have done in the same cir
cumstances.
“I don’t consider it unusual to
consider how a father would feel
about the investment in his son’s
buisness,” Bentsen said. “I consider
it an investment in my son’s future.”
Senate records show the invest
ment originated as a personal loan
Bentsen made to his son in October
1986 for between $100,000 and
$250,000.
Black man’s murder sparks
life in East Texas resident
HEMPHILL (AP) — The black
man’s violent death and the circum
stances surrounding it registered in
Vollie Grace’s chest, a nightmarish,
suffocating feeling like he was stand
ing in a dark tunnel and the walls
were closing in.
His discomfort those days in early
January was puzzling, Grace remem
bers now, for while it occurred only
a few miles from his home, the fatal
beating of Sabine County prisoner
Loyal Garner Jr. seemed to have
little obvious bearing on what Grace
considered a happy existence.
Like Garner, Grace is black. But
in his 47 years, most of them spent
near this East Texas village, he had
always been treated fairly by whites.
He had carved out a comfortable life
for himself and his family with hard
work, owned a cement finishing
business and kept his mouth shut.
In his version of the American
dream, Grace could come home at
the end of a day, eat his favorite
meal of steak and rice, and plop
down on a padded sofa in a cool liv
ing room in front of his color TV.
To Grace, if injustice indeed
existed, it existed elsewhere.
But then, on Christmas Day last
year, while Grace and his family
“He would hardly talk before this came about. Now I
just can't seem to keep up. There's something differ
ent every month, something else he needs to look into
or explore. Now he'll tell you what he’s thinking. ”
— Alice Grace
dined on holiday ham. Garner, a 34-
year-old truck driver from Florien,
La., just east across the border, was
arrested in Hemphill for suspicion
of drunken driving. Two days later
Garner was dead in a Tyler hospital
from head injuries delivered in jail
by three white law officers, subse
quent criminal charges alleged.
Hemphill was hence lugged un
willingly into the national spotlight.
At the same time, for reasons he still
doesn’t fully understand, the gentle
life of Vollie Grace was changed for
ever.
Today, the man once so oblivious
to problems outside his own life both
leads and epitomizes a black awaken
ing spawned in Hemphill by Gar
ner’s death and its aftermath, an
awakening that has turned this quiet
Piney Woods town on end.
“I had no business whatsoever
fooling with this,” Grace said re
cently of Garner’s death. “It didn’t
have any business worrying me. But
if I didn’t do something I would suf
focate.”
Days after Garner died Grace
formed Concerned Citizens of Sa
bine County to organize the black
community where no organization
had existed before, and thereby as
sumed the mantle of black lead
ership here.
And eight months later, on a swel
tering day in early August, it was
Grace who joined Garner’s widow to
lead 300 people, most of them black,
on a loud march through Hemphill.
The unprecedented demonstra
tion, organized by Grace, protested
the July acquittals of suspended
Hemphill Police Chief Thomas
Ladner and suspended Sabine
County deputies James Hyden and
Bill Horton, who were accused of vi
olating Garner’s civil rights.
Grace now is president of the
fledgling Sabine County chapter of
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, is a
newly appointed minority represen
tative to an East Texas government
council and is still president of Con
cerned Citizens.
Even Grace’s wife of 21 years
finds the turnabout in her husband
curious.
“He would hardly talk before this
came about,” Alice Grace, 44, said.
“Now I just can’t seem to keep up.
There’s something different every
month, something else he needs to
look into or explore. Now he’ll tell
you what he’s thinking.
“Now he’s thinking about it all day
and dreaming at night about some
thing he needs to do.”
Don Coleman, Grace’s close
friend from nearby Jasper, thinks
there is a Vollie Grace in every rural
community in America, waiting to be
summoned by circumstances to lead
ership.
Paper says official paid for appointments
AUSTIN (AP) — A state official
under investigation for allegedly of
fering a $100,000 contract in return
for the hiring of a state employee
made a similar offer to the commis
sioner of the Texas Higher Educa
tion Coordinating Board, the Austin
American-Statesman reported
Wednesday.
Gene Shelton, whose resignation
as deputy director of the Texas De
partment of Commerce takes effect
Thursday, is one of several people
under investigation by federal au
thorities for an alleged deal in which
an Austin-based job-training pro
gram partly funded by the U.S. De
partment of Labor was offered the
state contract in April 1987, the
newspaper said.
It said the investigation concerns
whether in return for the contract,
the jobs program director, David
Duke, agreed to hire Jane Johnson,
then an employee of the Texas De
partment of Community Affairs.
Duke eventually hired Johnson.
Shelton at the time was assistant
director of the TDCA, which writes
contracts with private programs and
other state agencies to disburse La
bor Department funds.
Sources in state government and
people familiar with the investiga
tion told the newspaper that Shelton
previously tried to get Ms. Johnson
hired at the Coordinating Board.
The sources said that at the same
time, he either offered to expand
the board’s TDCA contract, or
threatened or implied the contract
could be rescinded.
Johnson apparently was unaware
of the alleged efforts in her behalf.
Higher Education Commissioner
Ken Ashworth, asked about Shelton
allegedly tying Johnson’s job to the
contract, said: “I’m reluctant to re
spond to that. My understanding is
that this may end up in litigation.
I’m aware there are some investiga
tions going on.”
Shelton said he met with Ash
worth to ask if Johnson could be
hired at the Coordinating Board,
but he added: “I don’t think we ever
talked about the contract the Coor
dinating Board had with TDCA.
“Without any question at all, there
was never any implication or cer
tainly any direct threat to Ash
worth,” Shelton said. “I would have
avoided any type of implication like
that.”
The American-Statesman re
ported that its sources said Ash
worth was told a dropout prevention
program funded with TDCA money
would receive more money if John
son was hired, but that Ashworth
flatly rejected the offer. One source
said Shelton then threatened to re
scind the contract unless Johnson
was hired, the newspaper said.
The contract in question funded
Youth Opportunities Unlimited, a
program lor disadvantaged teens.
Correction
In a story in the Aug. 30 issue
of The Battalion, it was incor
rectly reported that permits for
the parking garage currently un
der construction on the north
side of campus cost $150 per se
mester.
They cost $150 per year.
Also, Robert Smith is the vice
president for finance and opera
tions, not the interim vice presi
dent for fiscal affairs as was re
ported.
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Problem: Solution:
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Linear Algebra with Applications
^ Deci$fON ANALYslis^
Elements of Econometrics
Tbsrd rdltfesn
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[ « | MUMtKKM MSWCKH I
COlUEOS PHYSICS
X Advanced
Engineering
b Maihemaiies
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