Quote of the Week: “It’s like a ketchup bottle. You smack the bottom, you smack it, you smack it — and you don’t get any ketchup. You keep on smacking it, and all of a sudden you’ve got ketchup all over your plate.” — Scott McCown, director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, on trying to persuade the Texas public and politicians of the necessity of a state income tax.
Former state attorney general and 2002 gubernatorial candidate Dan Morales was indicted last week on 12 federal corruption charges (see p.25).
Mayoral candidate Marc Katz‘s federal lawsuit challenging Austin’s $100 limit on campaign contributions is set for a hearing Thursday, March 13, by Senior U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth. If the judge grants Katz’s request for an injunction, the deli impresario and other candidates in the May 3 City Council election will not be bound by the cap, approved by voters in 1997 and reaffirmed last year. The filing period for the May 3 ballot ends at 5pm March 19.
At press time, Delma Banks was scheduled to become on Wednesday the 300th person executed in Texas since the resumption of capital punishment, barring a 30-day stay by the governor or intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case of Banks, whose 1980 trial was tainted by bias and misconduct even by the lax standards of East Texas, has drawn even more than usual criticism from across the nation and the world, including from former FBI Director William Sessions and several active and retired federal judges. The Chronicle‘s Jordan Smith was one of the last journalists to interview Banks on death row; look next week for Smith’s report.
Regular readers know how we feel about Hyde Park Baptist Church, but we are still happy to report than nobody was injured when a tour bus carrying church members exploded in Louisiana.
This article appears in March 14 • 2003.