Wednesday, May 27, 1998

Shafted by AG's office

I have been reading about women being shafted by the Texas attorney general's office. I never paid much attention to it until this year.

My wife over the past two years has really gotten the ripoff from them. A year ago she was to receive around $8,000 from a tax return. This year she was supposed to get $7,500. But what's funny about all this is after she finds all this out and calls back after being told when she should get it, they all of a sudden can't find it anywhere.

Sounds kind of crooked to me. This money is collected from the IRS and should be sent to the people who deserve it. This money is needed by the women it is supposed to go to.

An enormous amount of money is owed by her son's father, and she receives some small check per month. I myself am disabled and draw a check from Social Security, and so does this man's son whom I am responsible for. We live on a fixed income, and it would sure help out sometimes.

The Social Security is more honest and humane by far than the attorney general's office.

Anyway, for all those women who have trouble with the AG's office, I sure feel for them. I think they should have an in-house investigation.

GERALD BUTLER

Sweetwater

Story off the mark

Your recent article about satellite-based pagers missed the point entirely.

The problem has nothing to do with "old vs. new" technology but with putting all your eggs into one basket. This is a basic business principle that most people learn somewhere between college and the school of hard knocks. The new national paging companies (and some local ones) have either forgotten or ignored this rule. They have a few mega-terminals in major cities and send all messages, even those meant for local service only, through one satellite.

PageOne (Mobile Phone of Texas, Inc.), in providing local, statewide and nationwide paging services, uses a combination of smaller terminals in each town with telephone lines and radio links (and very little satellite) to insure that any interruption of service will be very isolated.

Except for a very few outlying areas, our pagers have experienced no problems because of the recent satellite outage; not because we use old technology but because we use more reliable technology. It is more expensive to control the system this way but the added dependability makes it worthwhile.

DAVE O'CONNOR

Abilene

Passion for people

I believe Billy Enriquez would be an excellent city councilman.

I first met Billy in the Hispanic Leadership Council and continued to work with him, tutoring at Ortiz Elementary School. I was most impressed with his compassion for children and the elderly, which he expresses adamantly and follows with dedication and hard work.

They say, "Find a person's passion, and you will find their heart." I believe Billy's passion is helping people, so we know where his heart is. He will be an excellent member of the City Council if elected. I urge you to support Billy Enriquez.

ADELINA ZAMARIPPA

Abilene

Airport personnel

Lonnie Edwards has a point: "If we do not watch our elected officials, they will rewrite the rules" to suit their needs. But tell us all, Mr. Edwards, how do you know what these people are about to do in reference our new airport manager?

I personally hope that fella who had something to do with an additional 600-plus jobs at his current job gets a fair shake. Surely city officials can see that another double-dipping colonel is exactly what we do not need.

MIKE MURPHY

Abilene

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