Monday, January 13,2(K
THE BAIT ALIO'
iucs roll
ver 49ers
By Fred Goodall
r H E ASSOCIATED PRESS
STATE
THE BATTALION
7
Monday, January 13, 2003
Lobbyists vie for attention
at Texas’ 78th legislature
['he Tampa Bay Buccanee:
■use finally played as well
r defense in the playoffs.
3rad Johnson returned fro
lonthlong layoff to thrc
196 yards and two (ok
^ns, and the NFL’s i(
ked defense shut downJi
cia and Terrell Owens
t the San Francisco
6 on Sunday.
['he victory sends lair,;
to Philadelphia for in
iday’s NFC championst
ic against the Eagles, *
ed the Bties’ season in
t round of the playoffs
t two years,
fhe Bucs have lost allsh
ir road playoff gam;
[tiding twice in the NF
mpionship game.
\t home against the 49ers,fe
just about everything right,
dike A1 stott scored on a[
2-yard runs, and John:
:w TD passes of 20 yards
Jurevicius and 12 yard:
key Dudley after missrl
last two regular-seasf
tes w ith a bruised back. ;
lohnson led three longscffT
drives in the first ha!
rick Brooks intercept:
cia at the 49ers 26 to sett
tott’s second TD for a
I time lead.
lohnson completed 15 of
ses with one interceptio:
Keyshawn Johnson h,
■ receptions for 85 yards.
Fhe Bucs also rushed fori
ds. most of them coming
second half.
ate
mtinued from pageS
University of Iowa, and tl
versity of Hawaii.
Among the recruits kept ,
nchione are defensive
>n Jack from Humble, lir;
ker Justin Warren from Tyl(
defensive back Steplt;
Jge from Richardson.
‘(Texas A&M’s recruitit
s) certainly has the chance to!
the u^p five," said recruitit
ert David Sandhop. "They;'
d to close with three or tourer
recruits, with those recmi
ig Jorrie Adams and Red Btya
n Jasper, Xavier Lawso
inedy from Duncanville, asw
mother (junior college) linem
d St. Preaux, and wide recei'
vin Taylor."
Taylor is the younger brotlr
current Aggie wide recei'
laar Taylor. Adams is ratedt
ond-best offensive tackle
nation, according to ESP
ruiting analyst Tom Lemmii
Morrie is the prototypical oft
: tackle with good, quick ft
real long arms that tackles tie
eep the defensive end frotnp
; around them,” Sandhop sai
rrie is considered by me
erts as the No. 1 offensive tat
n the country. He would pi
be the biggest impact line"'
:M has picked up on sigil
since Ty Warren in ‘99.’'
Coaches are bound by NCAj
ulations not to comment
ruiting . until after natiot
ning day Feb. 5.
omen’s baskets
ayer Moore retire
exas A&M senior women's
ball player Kim Moore deck
: last week to retire from'
m due to personal reasof
id coach Peggie Gl
lounced on Thursday,
loore was leading the team
ounding this season witlr
rage of 9.1 per game. Thek
s good for second in the Big
iference in rebounding,
loore was also the team's
1 leading scorer with an avei
12.7 points per game.
We are disappointed to see
ve because she has been
et to the team the past two
is,” Gillom said. “We resf ;
decision and wish her the P'
h her future endeavors.”
he announcement was r
'd of its kind for the Agf
ce October. Senior
nahan, the team’s leading^
last season, and junior rese"
ina Johnson both retired f r
game due to injury.
By Kelley Shannon
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Outside the Texas House
chamber, chatter rises from a
cluster of smartly dressed men
and women who wait for pre
cisely the right moment to ply
their trade.
They come here on behalf of
oil companies, banks, utilities,
hospitals and newspapers. Their
mission: To meet with state law
makers to make sure certain
bills are passed — or killed.
Collectively these folks are
known as the lobby.
During every legislative ses
sion, paid lobbyists flood the
Capitol to influence legislation
in the state House and Senate.
The timeworn tradition will
carry on Tuesday when the 78th
Texas Legislature convenes for
its 140-day run.
“1 imagine that there were
probably lobbyists when it was
the Republic of Texas. They
probably just didn’t wear as nice
of clothes,” said Tony Proffitt,
an Austin consultant and former
aide to the late Democratic Lt.
Gov. Bob Bullock.
Spending on lobbying grew
to a record $230 million during
the 2001 legislative session,
according to a report by Texans
for Public Justice.
Lately, consumer advocates
have criticized Gov. Rick Perry,
Lt. Gov.-elect David Dewhurst
and presumptive House speaker
Tom Craddick, for placing lob
byists in key staff and transition-
team positions. But lobbyists
and others say sweeping criti
cism of the profession is unfair.
“I think most people have a
rather jaded view of lobbyists
because they hear about lobby
ists representing, quote, special
interests, unquote,” said Ralph
Wayne, a former legislator and
now the president and a regis
tered lobbyist for the Texas
Civil Justice League, a tort
reform group.
But Wayne noted that teach
ers, doctors, grocers and people
in other fields hire lobbyists.
“Lobbyists represent a lot of
good people who need assis
tance in Austin,” he said.
Some lobbyists spend hours
in legislative committee meet
ings, where much of the work of
lawmaking is done before a bill
reaches the House or Senate
floor for a vote, and they meet
with legislators and their aides.
u
We’ve had lots of
instances where it’s
clear that the
lobbyists write the
law. ”
— Craig McDonald
Texans for Public Justice
These days, a lobbyist’s
work can include computer
research on issues, lawmakers
and their districts. Successful
lobbyists, Wayne said, are
those who supply legislators
with accurate infonnation.
When the Legislature is in
full swing and the contents of
bills are changing rapidly,
many lobbyists linger outside
the House and Senate cham
bers to meet for a few minutes
with a targeted lawmaker.
Lobbyists aren’t allowed on the
floors of the chambers.
The crowded lobby scene
outside the Texas House is
known to Capitol insiders as
“the pit.”
“You have to go out there
and hang out and wait and wait
and wait. Lobbying is some
times like stalking,” said
Proffitt, the Bullock aide
turned consultant.
Lobbyists register with the
Texas Ethics Commission, stat
ing whom they represent and
their range of pay. Some have
salary ranges as low as $ 10,000
or less. Others are $200,000
or more.
At the beginning of
December, there were 1,288
registered lobbyists in Texas —
more than seven for each of the
181 state legislators.
Big businesses such as
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Phillip
Morris have lobbyists. So do
industry groups such as the
Texas Automobile Dealers
Association and the Texas
Restaurant Association.
The United Way, Public
Citizen, Common Cause and
other charitable or consumer
groups do too. But consumer
lobbyists aren’t nearly as
numerous as business lobbyists
in Texas, said Craig McDonald,
director of Texans For Public
Justice, a government-watch
dog group.
McDonald contends the cor
porate lobby goes virtually
unchallenged in Texas.
“We’ve had lots of
instances where it’s clear that
the lobbyists write the laws,”
he said, citing a pollution regu
lation law enacted in the 1990s
as an example.
Lobbyists also can affect
lawmakers by coming up with
campaign donations or threat
ening to give to a lawmaker’s
opponent, McDonald said.
Dewhurst, who will preside
over the Senate, and Craddick
each held fund-raisers in
December where lobbyists
were welcome. Legislators and
state elected officials may not
accept campaign contributions
during the legislative session.
That ban began Dec. 14.
Spending on lobbying keeps
rising. In 2001, SBC
Communications Inc., parent
company of Southwestern Bell
Telephone, was the biggest
spender, shelling out up to $7
million on 96 lobbyists,
according to Texans for Public
Justice.
Texan takes copyright case to
U.S. Supreme Court for ruling
CLEVELAND (AP) — The son of a former
Cleveland Indians owner is doing what he
believes his maverick father would have done if
he had seen an injustice: He sued.
The copyright dispute involving Peter Veeck,
son of former Indians owner Bill Veeck, has gone
all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is
expected to decide by May whether it will take
the case.
The 61-year-old retired airline pilot runs an
Internet site from his home in Denison, Texas,
that provides residents in northern Texas and
southern Oklahoma with free news and informa
tion about their communities.
His site used to include the municipal building
codes of Anna and Savoy, Texas, until a group
that he never heard of, the Southern Building
Code Congress International, said it had a copy
right on the codes and that he was violating it.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-
6 in Veeck’s favor in June.
Veeck told The Plain Dealer for a story on
Sunday that the question over who owns the law
is simple.
“How can the law be owned by somebody?”
asked Veeck, whose father owned the Indians
when they won their last World Series in 1948.
“In a monarchy, we have the king’s law, where
the king owns the law. In a dictatorship, the dic
tator owns the law. In a democracy, the people are
supposed to own the law.”
Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery is
one of 1 1 attorneys general who has filed court
papers agreeing with Veeck.
“You’ve got to pay some exorbitant fee to have
access to the law,” said Montgomery’s
spokesman, Joe Case. “That’s just not right.
We’re saying it makes no sense for an independ
ent organization to have such power over what is
the people’s law, what is the property of the peo
ple.”
It isn’t so simple, said Brad Ware, staff lawyer
for the group.
Evidence shows that the government has
relied on private agencies to write standards for
years and that those copyrights always have been
respected.
“No one was trying to hide anything,” he
added. “It’s kind of a red herring, the argument
that access to the law was not made available.
That’s simply not the case.”
Lakewood Building Commission Charles
Barrett said his office used to provide copies of
building codes for anyone who wanted them until
he found he was not supposed to.
“People still come in and say, T want a copy
of this and a copy of that,’ and I have to tell them,
T can’t give you a copy.’”
Ohio’s model building code was written by a
nonprofit organization known as Building
Officials and Code Administrators International,
which charges nonmembers $83 for a copy of the
2002 state code.
The Ohio plumbing and mechanical codes are
another $61 apiece. All three together run $189.
The legal question of who owns the law is
complicated by the fact that the groups that write
the model building codes adopted by states and
municipalities perform a service that public agen
cies lack the resources and expertise to match.
Texas women sent
harassing letters
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -
Police investigating a series of
harassing letters sent to women
in the East Texas area have told
Shreveport police to be on the
lookout for similar letters.
However, there have been no
reports or indications that any
have shown up in Shreveport or
Bossier City, police said.
They said they got the alert
from police in Tyler, Texas,
where pharmaceutical salesman
Tommy Dale Woodard, 52, was
arrested last week on nine
counts of harassment.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Most of the letters were left on
women's cars, Tyler police
spokesman Chris Moore said.
Plane still missing
after four days
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - Rescue
crews still had not located a miss
ing small plane Sunday, more
than four days after it vanished
from radar near here.
Coconino County sheriff's offi
cials were continuing to search
an 81-square-mile area. The
searcl for the white twin-engine
Piper PA-23 was made more
difficult because they were
looking in an area covered by
snow, officials said.
The plane disappeared from
radar Wednesday while traveling
from Las Vegas to Midland, Texas.
South Padre set to
get a new causeway
The Texas Department of
Transportation has finalized a
contract with a Houston-based
consulting firm to begin looking
for a potential location for a new
causeway to South Padre Island.
Transportation officials and
engineers will meet with repre
sentatives from various South
Texas entities on Wednesday to
begin collecting information.
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