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editorials |
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March 31 -- Rural South's not to blame for shootings (ARN Editorial): Last week's dreadful shooting spree in Jonesboro, Ark., has naturally enough spurred a search for causes. How could it happen that two boys, one just 11 years old and the other 13, could dress up in camouflage fatigues and fire semiautomatic hunting rifles into a crowd at their school, killing four girls and a teacher and wounding 15 others?
March 31 -- Printer's ink not yet erased by computers (Rheta Grimsley Johnson): In 1875 the folks at Remington asked Mark Twain to write a testimonial for their new typewriter. Here's how he answered: "Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulge the fact that I own a machine. I have entirely stopped using the Type Writer for the reason that I never could write a letter with it to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that I would not only describe the machine but state what progress I had made in the use of it. I don't like to write letters, and so I don't want people to know that I own this curiosity breeding little joker."
March 31 -- "Looking Glass" world coming to life (Bonnie Erbe): In the words of Lewis Carroll, things just keep getting, "curiouser and curiouser."
March 31 -- President aboard, sorry about that (George Will): SOUTH POLE, January 19, 2001 - President Clinton today apologized to Antarctica. Speaking to an audience composed of the traveling press, Clinton said he repented of America's "sin" of neglecting this continent except when America paid a kind of improper attention to it. He regretted that during the Cold War, U.S. policy "subordinated the true interests of Antarctica to geopolitical calculations arising from the conflict with the former Soviet Union."
March 30 -- Wind of March vents its force as month ends (ARN Editorial): The way the wind's been blowing, you'd think this was West Texas.
March 30 -- Flat tax - a patently absurd notion (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - In the Batty Ideas Department, one of my favorites is the repeal of the progressive income tax and the substitution of a flat tax. This charming notion - currently being pushed by the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, among others - has the deceptive appearance of fairness.
March 30 -- Clinton: Delay, deceive, deny, destroy (Cal Thomas): President Clinton has come close to an apology. Not for the growing number of laws he and Hillary allegedly have broken. Not for the lengthening list of women whose dignity he has apparently violated. But for something of which he is not guilty: slavery.
March 29 -- Eagle contract clearly points to two jetways (ARN Editorial): Jets and jobs are two of the nicest sounding words in the English language to those who keep an eye on Abilene's economic well-being.
March 29 -- Abortion to play major election role (Steve Ray): Anti-abortion advocates are quietly targeting judicial races and a contest for the attorney general's office in an attempt to restrict legalized abortion.
March 29 -- Cousin helped pave road to manhood (Leonard Pitts): I don't want to give you the impression that my cousin Dave was an angel, because he wasn't. He was blunt, cantankerous and unsentimental, a bald-headed, bandy-legged ex-Navy man with a glare that could freeze magma. Loved Camel cigarettes, women and jazz, probably in that order.
March 29 -- Men's fashion are words set in opposition (Dale McFeatters): Men's fashions for spring and summer are out, and once again, fashion-wise, I am out of it, too.
March 29 -- 'Payola justice' too much in evidence in Texas' top courts (CRAIG McDONALD Guest Columnist): In 1987 "60 Minutes" ran an expose on corruption in the Texas Supreme Court called "Justice for Sale." Ten years later, Texas' highest court is still mired in the same corrupting fund-raising practices that have made our highest civil court a national embarrassment.
March 29 -- Jonesboro dead may want to ask why, but they won't get an answer: WASHINGTON -- Their names were Natalie, Brittany, Stephanie and Paige Ann. In photos they wear fresh, impish smiles of 12- and 11-year-olds peddling Girl Scout cookies or heading for a pajama party.
March 29 -- Our African neighbors need our attention and our help (Tim Griffin Guest Column): President Clinton's trip to Africa might prove to be epoch-making in character. It is the longest trip to Africa of any sitting president and gives the American people the opportunity to focus on a continent that has been long overlooked.
March 29 -- Garage sale buff finds threads of local history (Sandra Terrell Guest Column): An avid, experienced garage sale nut, I had been anticipating the latest "Antique and Almost" estate sale at 1204 Vogel. My partner and I decided we wouldn't go the first day because we had to work and a $25 donation was required. We went at 4 p.m. on the second day, making our final stop in the garage at closing time.
March 28 -- Reporter-News Salutes: Recognizing groups and individuals who make a difference in the Big Country
March 28 -- GOP tobacco choice: Pass bill or die (Morton Kondracke Column): Congressional Republicans face what ought to be an easy choice: Pass comprehensive tobacco legislation this year and reap the credit, or get clobbered by Democrats if they fail to do so.
March 28 -- Our dot com boy gets shocking surprise (Bob Greene Column): I was blithely cruising along in my new incarnation as dot com boy, happy to be hitching a ride on the worldwide computer network on my own terms, when the shocking news hit me like an asteroid out of the blue.
March 28 -- How can we have a Social Security debate without facts?: The clock is ticking. That's what President Clinton said when he launched the " great debate" on Social Security reform.
March 27 -- Sprucing up can help others, not just yourself (ARN Editorial): The calendar says it's spring. The warm temperatures we've had this week say it's spring. And even if the threat of an April freeze is holding back the old mesquites, large numbers of us are now feeling compelled to engage in one of our time-honored seasonal rites - spring cleaning.
March 27 -- Neigborhood focus (ARN Editorial): While many of us are doing our individual spring cleaning this weekend, a whole neighborhood is tackling a more collective project on Saturday.
March 27 -- Black and white and re(a)d all over (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON - It was one of those controversies that rock the Bay Area as regularly as an earthquake. Can you judge a book by its color? The color of the author.
March 27 -- Senate abdicates advice-consent duties (George Will): WASHINGTON - Preoccupation with more glandular scandals is preventing proper scrutiny of a constitutional scandal. The matter of Bill Lann Lee illuminates a recurring dereliction of duty by the Senate and underscores the importance of West Virginia's Robert Byrd, the Senate's senior Democrat, as a defender of that institution's integrity.
March 26 -- Ardoyno, Albus leave gaps that need to be filled: (ARN Editorial) WANTED: Two extraordinarily civic-minded Abilenians willing to step up to a leadership role to fill big gaps. One paid position ($25,000), to manage the city's highly successful beautification and environmental efforts. One unpaid position, to volunteer for anything and everything and thereby maintain the community's legacy of outdoing itself on the national day of good deeds.
March 26 -- Gary Hart speaks out about sex again (Cal Thomas): Surely the nation's moral water table has reached drought level when Gary Hart feels it's safe to declaim again about whether infidelity should be a factor in determining fitness for public office.
March 26 -- Get ready for the spin when Jones loses: Conservatives had better start preparing themselves for the likelihood that Paula Jones will lose her case against President Clinton.
March 26 -- Time to pay what we owe U.N. (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - It can be argued that nonconformity is a good thing in and of itself. If we all marched in lock step, what a dull world it would be. Nevertheless, not conforming requires some judgment about when and why, and the United States of America is now out of step on some of the most obvious no-brainers in history.
March 25 -- We should have known cheap gas wouldn't last (ARN Editorial): Just as motorists are getting used to falling gas prices - as low as 75 cents for regular in a few places - the oil-producing nations are acting to send prices back up.
March 25 -- No to D.C. statehood (ARN Editorial): The House vote to allow Puerto Rico to vote on statehood has given new life to a bad idea: statehood for Washington, D.C.
March 25 -- NATO expansion filled with hazards (Linda Chavez): The U.S. Senate has put on temporary hold one of the most momentous foreign-policy decisions since the end of the Cold War - the expansion of NATO to include three former Soviet satellites: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
March 25 -- Noble notion takes dive in "Titanic" poll (Bob Greene): With all the talk about the movie "Titanic" - talk about the cost of the movie, about the special effects, about the 11 Academy Awards - perhaps the most intriguing discussion of all was initiated by three journalistic organizations in Minnesota.
March 24 -- Local visits help put human face on government (ARN Editorial): It's a cliche of modern American life that our government is a nameless, faceless, far-off manipulator that we have no contact with, let alone influence over. But in Abilene recently, we've seen signs that some government officials are trying to close this credibility gap and put themselves in direct contact with the public they are meant to serve.
March 24 -- Rediscovering Lincoln (ARN Editorial): The National Archives, the great repository of American government records, is so vast the archivists themselves don't know what all they have. The archivists don't lose anything, they just don't know it's there.
March 24 -- Politics of gender are turned inside out (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON - Not long ago, a friend's 19-year-old son discovered he was about to become a very unplanned parent. His not-quite-girlfriend was pregnant and determined to remain so.
March 24 -- Oil costs dropping faster than prices (George Will): WASHINGTON - Twenty-five years ago this October, the first "oil shock" supposedly ushered in an era of "limits" and "diminished expectations," small cars and Jimmy Carter's cardigan sweater.
March 23 -- Three cheers for a stand-pat federal budget (ARN Editorial): The Senate Budget Committee, thanks to its chairman, Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has produced a sensible, workable plan for federal spending in fiscal 1999.
March 23 -- Starr light, Starr bright (Joseph Spear): One wonders what the future holds for Kenneth Starr once he has purged the nation's capital of the Sodomites and fornicators who have befouled its marble hallways the past six years.
March 23 -- CNN's century of (liberal) women (Cal Thomas): Conservative media critics have occasionally referred to CNN disparagingly as the "Clinton News Network" because of a perceived bias in favor of the president. But a series running this month shows it is more the network of the wife of CNN Chairman Ted Turner and could be named JFN, "Jane Fonda's Network."
March 23 -- Molly's adventures in Medialand (Molly Ivins): NEW YORK - Adventures in Medialand during a feeding frenzy. When, in the course of human events, fate throws you into a book tour while the media are going bonkers about the president's sex life, you realize what it must feel like to be a heretic. There you are, and you're just not saying what everyone else is.
March 22 -- Texans should rethink drug rehab funding (ARN Editorial): We're all worried about crime. Abilenians, Texans, Americans - crime remains at the top of the list when people are asked to name what public issues concern them most.
March 22 -- Texas Democrats focus on dollar issues (Steve Ray): It's the money issues Texas Democrats think they can win on in November - pocketbook issues like taxes on bread and milk and high insurance rates on cars.
March 22 -- Conservative feminists do a flip-flop (Sara Eckel): When the National Organization for Women stated its support for Kathleen Willey, you could almost smell the disappointment. Dashed were the hopes of more tales of feminist hypocrisy, a favorite theme ever since the presidential sex scandals took to the airwaves.
March 22 -- You may be a winner, but you never are (Dale McFeatters): Lotteries and sweepstakes are aptly described as taxes on stupidity. Unlike any other tax, people will line up in a cold rain to pay this one.
March 22 -- In search of the real Middle Class: Debunking some of the defining myths: Much of political and cultural debate in this country has revolved around the middle class - most Americans - with both the left and right peddling stereotypical images of this group to promote their own agendas. Too often the media and social critics have embraced these stereotypes in portraying middle-class Americans as hopelessly intolerant, sanctimonious, conservative, angry and judgmental.
March 22 -- How dense can we get? The population figures show: As world population soars towards six billion, available land in rural areas is overplowed and overpumped. For many people in developing countries, the countryside offers only hardships brought on by high fertility rates, environmental degradation and diminishing resources.
March 22 -- Putting clergy in the White House not a loony idea (George Plagenz): With morality in the United States going to hell in a handbasket, President Clinton needs more than ever to appoint a "chancel cabinet" to advise him on the moral state of the country and what to do about it.
March 21 -- Reporter-News Salutes: Recognizing groups and individuals who make a difference in the Big Country
March 21 -- Titanic sales on (ARN Editorial): The Titanic was a huge failure as transportation, but the great liner has resurfaced as an entertainment giant.
March 21 -- Throwing in the towel on Clinton (Donald Kaul Column): "We love him for the enemies he has made." That was said by Gen. Edward Bragg in nominating Grover Cleveland for the presidency in 1884. It could as easily be said today of Bill Clinton.
March 21 -- Mook, mook, mook ... or marmaduke? (Bob Greene Column): MANITOWOC, Wis. -- This has been driving me to the verge of insanity.
March 21 -- The thing you hate the most could be just what hits you (Andy Rooney Column): Don't you hate it when:
March 20 -- NCAA hoops contest tonight not just a game (ARN Editorial): Local basketball enthusiasts were looking forward to watching former Cooper High standout Andrae Patterson lead Indiana into NCAA tournament action this weekend, especially after the university senior put up 26 points to propel the Hoosiers past Oklahoma in the first round. Fans know it always makes a game more than just a game to feel a personal connection.
March 20 -- Spring arrives, maybe (ARN Editorial): Spring officially begins at 1:55 p.m. today, the Vernal Equinox when day and night are each 12 hours long.
March 20 -- Spock no prophet of permissiveness (Ellen Goodman Column): BOSTON -- It was not a book that parents merely read. We clutched it like a steering wheel. We held on to it like a security blanket through the sleep-deprived terrors of early parenthood.
March 20 -- Phillies' third baseman real 'throwback' (George Will Column): CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The pregame music, piped out of the little ballpark's scratchy public address system, included Glenn Miller's "PEnnsylvania 6-5000." That tells you which age cohort is most heavily represented in the small crowds at weekday afternoon games in Florida's spring training Grapefruit League.
March 19 -- A bonanza for horse cutters, city's economy (ARN Editorial): If you've gone out to eat in Abilene this week, you might have noticed the crowds were a bit heavier than usual. And it probably didn't take Sherlock Holmes to help you figure out that the extra restaurant traffic had something to do with horses and the Taylor County Expo Center.
March 19 -- The Humphrey tapes: President Lyndon Johnson bugged the phone conversations of his own vice president, Hubert Humphrey, according to a new LBJ biography.
March 19 -- Banks win big, and guess who pays? (Molly Ivins Column): NEW YORK -- New and more horrible corporate rip-offs lurking in near future! Banks win big, and guess who pays?
March 19 -- The 'new' Dan Quayle steps forward (Cal Thomas Column): Former Vice President Dan Quayle returned to the national spotlight Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He was a different man, with a different look and sound, portraying a new self-confidence that indicates he will be a major player in the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the year 2000.
March 18 -- Old mesquites haven't put out spring's signals (ARN Editorial): By the calendar, Friday marks the first day of spring, and today's mild temperatures -- a high in the 70s is forecast -- suggest the calendar's right.
March 18 -- In search of 6 poets (ARN Editorial): From reprinting former editor Frank Grimes' famous poem, it's a logical step to remind readers of the Abilene Reporter-News' first ever poetry competition.
March 18 -- Transgressions in name of diversity (Linda Chavez): Maybe it's El Nino, but something is surely clouding the judgment of California educators.
March 18 -- Judge moves children from accused parents (Bob Greene): FOND DU LAC, Wis. -- Rejecting pleas from attorneys for accused child abusers Michael and Angeline Rogers that it would be a hardship for Mr. and Mrs. Rogers to move, Judge Steven Weinke last week ordered that they leave a house where they are living with four children.
March 18 -- Cheap gas brings spring joy to nation (Jay Ambrose): Americans, now enjoying just about the cheapest gasoline in the country's history, at least when calculated in inflation-adjusted dollars, should thank more than their lucky stars. They should thank the Asian financial crisis, first and foremost, and also El Niño, whose misdeeds this year have been accompanied by a good one, mild winter weather in much of America.
March 18 -- Polls show basic healthiness of American public (Dale McFeatters): The civic hand-wringers are fretting over a new poll that shows only about a third of Americans trust their government very much -- and that's up from 20 percent three years ago.
March 17 -- Moynihan puts privatization on reform agenda (ARN Editorial): Perhaps his precise formulation won't thrill the hearts of all those who want to privatize some portion of Social Security, but Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's acceptance of some elements of the idea is hugely important and may be seen later as a major step in the system's conversion and salvation.
March 17 -- Goodwill ambassadors (ARN Editorial): Abilene is well represented in Great Britain today.
March 17 -- Clinton crisis reaches adult moment (George Will column): WASHINGTON -- With Kathleen Willey's "60 Minutes" appearance, the crisis of Clinton's presidency reached an adult moment, and the mental mechanics of agnosticism became yet more difficult. What kind of person can continue the intellectual contortions necessary to sustain doubt about who is lying, Bill Clinton or the dozens of people that he, through his helpmate and hirelings, implies are engaged in a vast, orchestrated campaign of lying?
March 17 -- Americans confound culture warriors (Ellen Goodman Column): BOSTON -- By the eighth week of the longest running un-morality play in modern memory, all sorts of bit players had walked onto the stage in reversible roles.
March 16 -- Cancer's drop is one national success story (ARN Editorial): Back in 1971, President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, and today, nearly three decades later and following the expenditure of some $30 billion for research, new cancer cases and cancer deaths are both down.
March 16 -- NASA to the rescue (ARN Editorial): Just when it looked like a jumbo asteroid would come within a whisker of Earth in 30 years - and maybe even collide with the planet in a memorable and devastating thud - some scientists at NASA have saved the day with a little mathematics.
March 16 -- Bill Clinton acquires another aplogist (Cal Thomas): As a strategy, David Brock's multi-media "apology" to President Clinton for writing the American Spectator story that led to the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit may be good for his journalistic career. It also helps the Clinton defense team's strategy divert attention from the president's alleged behavior to tangential issues. But even Brock in his Esquire magazine mea culpa and in his numerous television appearances has not denied the substance of what he was told by those Arkansas troopers.
March 16 -- Political campaigns need to get a duck (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Scratching for something encouraging to say about the Texas primary: To the surprise of many, more D's than R's voted in the thing, but since the turnout was so pathetic (11.5 percent of eligible voters - ouch), not much joy there. For some reason, I seem to be short on moral indignation at the moment. Let me just say: Tut, tut, you slackers.
March 15 -- Abilene needs jet service to move forward: Today is Abilene's birthday, and as Jay Moore's guest column reminds us, the city owes its very existence to the 19th century's most advanced form of transportation, the railroad.
March 15 -- This may not be Garry Mauro's year (Steve Ray): It was kind of a one-two punch. On Thursday, the Scripps Howard Texas Poll showed Land Commissioner Garry Mauro was still 46 points behind in his quixotic campaign against incumbent Republican Gov. George W. Bush.
March 15 -- Local fund-raising project initiated by TV station, not Abilene Fire Department (Diane Sutter): I have read with interest last week's letters to the editor concerning RescueCam, the effort currently under way to acquire new, advanced technology for the Abilene Fire Department. The Fire Department did not initiate this program.
March 15 -- Welcome to Pepsi Cola High School (Dale McFeatters:) The early warning signs are everywhere.
March 15 -- Abilene's past sounds through the night like a train whistle (Jay Moore): From my house, I can hear the whistle blow. Late at night, I can hear the whistle and low rumble of the passing trains. Our house is six blocks from the tracks, and in the night air I hear the trains announce their arrival.
March 15 -- Privatizing Social Security is a step backward, not forward (Glyn Hammons): On Feb. 5 the Opinion page had an article by Robert W. Tracinski, senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, "Is Social Security moral?" Tracinski makes misleading and inaccurate statements about Social Security in an attempt to make a case for privatizing the system.
March 15 -- Experiencing an entirely different sort of public school (Candace Shelton): Imagine teaching in a school where students must fill out applications and write explanations of why they want to finish their education. In addition, imagine a school where there are no detentions, no in-school suspensions or other disciplinary plans because the students want to be in school.
March 15 -- Oil royalty collections costing untold millions (Jim Polk): The United States has an opportunity to fix a broken system that is costing taxpayers millions of dollars and causing a morass of litigation.
March 14 -- Reporter-News Salutes: Recognizing groups and individuals who make a difference in the Big Country
March 14 -- Taking scare tactics out of the Social Security debate (Bernard Starr): The "Great Debate" about what to do with Social Security is going on the road with President Clinton kicking off town hall meetings and forums across America in April. But despite extensive discussion of the crisis and excruciating examination of alternatives over the past few years, Congress seems paralyzed in its inability to act.
March 14 -- 'Unreasonable risk of harm to children' (Bob Greene): CHILTON, Wis. -- The time has come for the Rogers children to be told by a judge whether they will be ordered to have visits with their parents -- Michael and Angeline Rogers, each charged with 10 felony counts of child abuse against those children.
March 13 -- Time is near for sun to set on tax code (ARN Editorial): In defending the federal tax code the other day, while attacking a Republican plan to scrap it and replace it with something else, President Clinton said, "No one concerned about fighting crime would even think about saying, 'Well, three years from now we're going to throw out the criminal code and we'll figure out what to put in its place.' "
March 13 -- Schools' fault lies not in Venus, Mars (Ellen Goodman Column): BOSTON -- Have you noticed the trendiest curriculum for education reformers seems to be astronomy? These days, when politicians try to fix the problem of inadequate or unequal schools, they want to send the girls to P.S. Venus and the boys to P.S. Mars.
March 13 -- Questions over Puerto Rican statehood (George Will Column): WASHINGTON -- Congress is showing astonishing unseriousness regarding two serious matters. Its almost flippant handling of possible Puerto Rican statehood violates Jefferson's rule against undertaking large steps on slender majorities. And regarding NATO expansion, there has been neither presidential explanation nor Senate debate sufficient to produce a meaningful public majority of any sort.
March 12 -- A clear lesson: Move primary back to May (ARN Editorial): March is just too soon to hold primary elections, and it's time the Legislature listened up.
March 12 -- Victorian culture wasn't all so great (Molly Ivins Column): AUSTIN -- When in the course of human events life calls upon one to span a civilization or two, I personally side with Lewis Carroll's White Queen, who observed to Alice: "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
March 12 -- Imposed 'settlement' means nothing (Cal Thomas Column): The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is so concerned about what it regards as credible reports of a peace settlement imposed by the United States, it dispatched the prime minister's director of communications, David Bar-Ilan, to Washington the other day to talk to a few journalists, Jewish-American community leaders and members of Congress.
March 11 -- Starr should move quickly to finish probe (ARN Editorial): It was four years and $30 million ago that Kenneth Starr began his Whitewater investigation, since expanded to include, among other subjects, issues surrounding the question of whether President Clinton had sex with a White House intern.
March 11 -- Jones case has risk for conservatives (Linda Chavez): As the Paula Jones case enters another critical juncture later this week, conservatives would do well to remember the old adage: Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
March 11 -- Visits with parents will begin, unless... (Bob Greene): CHILTON, Wis. - Michael and Angeline Rogers did not say a word in court during the two days of hearings at which Judge Donald A. Poppy ruled that their five children will be split up and sent to four different foster homes.
March 11 -- Greek tragedies updated like, ugh, on the Oprah show (Dale McFeatters): NEWS ITEM: The University of Pennsylvania Press has commissioned modern writers to freshen up the classic Greek tragedies, using contemporary language without regard to the length or meter of the originals. When updated, said an editor, the themes will be like some of the topics on "Oprah."
March 11 -- Ask the Grammar Lady: You are writing a complaint letter to some airline or kitchen appliance store. You are ticked off. You want to let them have it. But, right in the middle of your screed, you find yourself wondering if you are defeating your purpose by using bad grammar.
March 10 -- Vote Democrat or Republican, but vote today (ARN Editorial): Texans of all political persuasions should hope for a large turnout for today's primary elections - not because that would necessarily be an advantage to either party or to any particular candidate but because a representative democracy like ours works best when most of its citizens participate in the selection of its officials.
March 10 -- Experiment in civility (ARN Editorial): The eyes of Texas will be on Taylor County today and not just to see who wins and loses. Abilene is the site of a new experiment in democracy. In fact, given the partisan animosity between Republicans and Democrats that has grown harsher in recent years, we could also call this an experiment in civility.
March 10 -- The bottom line of organ donating (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON - At least it isn't China. In that benighted country, prisoners are subject to both the worst of the old totalitarian ways and the crudest of capitalism.
March 10 -- Line-item veto deserves shortened life (George Will): WASHINGTON - The short, unhappy life of the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 should end soon. A federal judge has declared it unconstitutional, a ruling that probably will be quickly reviewed by the Supreme Court, which should put this misbegotten law out of its misery by July.
March 9 -- Mattox' future biggest draw on Democrat side (ARN Editorial): The biggest interest in Tuesday's statewide Democratic primary is focused on the political fortunes of former Attorney General Jim Mattox as he takes the first step to try to regain his old job.
March 9 -- For our public schools (ARN Editorial): Between intense local races and more distant statewide ones, one contest on the Taylor County Republican primary ballot has perhaps escaped notice. Along with the rest of District 15 -- which stretches beyond Lubbock and covers more area than most congressional districts -- Taylor County must choose a representative to the State Board of Education.
March 9 -- Graham to Clinton: Go and sin no more (Cal Thomas): Evangelist Billy Graham told "Today Show" viewers Thursday morning that he forgives President Clinton because "I know the frailty of human nature. He has such a tremendous personality that I think the ladies just go wild over him."
March 9 -- Banks balk at lower student loan rates (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN -- Eeee-yew, gross! Watch 5 million students get backhanded so bank profits can rise from excessive to obscene. Watch Congress sell out both the students and the nation, which needs all the educated citizens it can produce, in exchange for campaign contributions. What a country. What a mess.
March 8 -- Endorsements that count are made by voting (ARN Editorial): During the past two weeks of early voting, thousands in Taylor County have made their endorsements in Republican and Democratic primaries. On Tuesday, thousands more will do the same. Those are the endorsements that really count -- the ones voters make at the polls.
March 8 -- New tools, but voting's value remains (James Denley Column): Through the years I've seen a lot of different polling places, but I voted in a shopping mall for the first time the other night.
March 8 -- Quality of election depends on turnout (Steve Ray Column): Few Texans are expected to vote Tuesday when the state's Democrats and Republicans will choose who they want to lead the Lone Star State into the 21st century.
March 8 -- Are our kids as dumb as Cal Thomas says? No way! (Charles Hundley Guest Column): Did you read Cal Thomas' March 2 Opinion Page column, "Our kids are dumb because schools stink"? It made us in the Abilene Independent School District feel like the Old Testament Philistines. The Bible says they were attacked with the jawbone of an ass.
March 7 -- Reporter-News Salutes: Recognizing groups and individuals who make a difference in the Big Country
March 7 -- They want nothing to do with this girl (Bob Greene Column): CHILTON, Wis. -- Of all the sad things that have gone on in the case of the little girl who was found locked in the dog cage -- of all the things that move you to the edge of tears -- perhaps the saddest is this:
March 7 -- Husbands don't need proof: Women rule: (Leonard Pitts Jr. Column): We were at dinner, my sister's boyfriend and I, on a night when she was working late. As we studied our menus, a smile spilled slowly across his face. For once, he said, he could eat what he wanted without my sister nagging him about his blood pressure. My almost-brother-in-law gazed longingly upon the menu, all but drooling over the sinful promises of steaks and cakes. Then the waitress came.
March 6 -- Judicial races call for careful voter attention (ARN Editorial): As long as we're still electing judges to our two highest courts, we ought to do as good a job of it as we can. While the required political contests for these positions don't garner as much attention as races higher on the ballot, these jurists make decisions that often produce great impact on our lives.
March 6 -- Family planning, medical necessity (Ellen Goodman Column): ATLANTA -- Now for a brief conversation about the pill. Yes, that one, the oral contraceptive that was dropped into midcentury American mores with such an impact that it was forever after known simply as The Pill.
March 6 -- Family planning, medical necessity (George Will Column): WASHINGTON -- Has New England lost its once formidable mind? Evidently, given the goings-on at the University of Connecticut, and with a senator from Vermont.
March 5 -- New sponsors should be found for Science Fair (ARN Editorial): An excellent opportunity now presents itself for an Abilene organization that wants a project to tackle. The Abilene Junior League's decision to discontinue its longtime sponsorship of the Abilene-area Science Fair leaves our student scientists without a venue to demonstrate their talents, unless another local group is willing to step in to take up the slack.
March 5 -- Statewide positions (ARN Editorial): Agriculture commissioner and railroad commissioner, with contested races on both sides of the March 10 ballot, are important jobs that need the best people in place.
March 5 -- Subsidizing the so-called 'right to die' (Cal Thomas): Just four years after Oregon voters narrowly approved physician-assisted suicide, "right-to-die" advocates are now telling taxpayers they have an obligation to subsidize poor people who wish to end their lives.
March 5 -- Oprah rich enough to fight nonsense (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Some you win, some you lose, and some are too weird to call ... The First Amendment got a nice little boost from the Amarillo jury in the Oprah Winfrey/veggie libel case.
March 4 -- Cornyn has best grasp of role for attorney general (ARN Editorial): On the Republican side of the March 10 primary, the attorney general's race features three different conceptions of the office that reflect the character and qualifications of the candidates.
March 4 -- White House dupes the press again (Linda Chavez Column): You'd think the press would have learned a lesson or two over the last five years in its dealings with Bill Clinton's White House, but apparently not.
March 4 -- The children must live with this forever (Bob Greene Column): CHILTON, Wis. -- Before ordering that the five Rogers children be split up and sent away from each other, Judge Donald A. Poppy tried to put into words his feelings about what Michael and Angeline Rogers have done to those children.
March 3 -- Abilene faces key decisions next Tuesday (ARN Editorial): The odds are stacked against a large voter turnout here for next Tuesday's statewide primary elections. Voting, in general, seems to be declining. Fewer voters traditionally participate in primary balloting than in November general elections. March is too early in the year for many people to attend to politics. A week has been cut off this year's early voting period, which ends Friday.
March 3 -- Deadline for election letters: Just a reminder -- to have your political letter considered for publication before the March 10 primaries, it must be in the Abilene Reporter-News’ office by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
March 3 -- Immigrant argues against preferences (George Will column): LOS ANGELES -- Guatemala's civil war was one motivation to move. Another was the 1976 earthquake that killed 23,000 and would have killed Alvaro Cardona if his head had still been on the pillow where the large adobe brick fell.
March 3 -- 'Was,' 'is' inadequate for Alzheimer's (Ellen Goodman Column): BOSTON -- There are times when words really do fail us. We don't always have the vocabulary -- the nouns, the adjectives, the adverbs -- to properly describe the range of experience.
March 2 -- Win for Oprah doesn't help the rest of us (ARN Editorial): The fun and games are over in Amarillo, and Oprah Winfrey, who had beaten the rap on a "veggie libel" charge, has proclaimed from the courthouse steps that "free speech not only lives, it rocks."
March 2 -- Starr's free speech error (ARN Editorial): Kenneth Starr is calling off the hunt for White House staffers who may have leaked nasty stories about prosecutors in his office to the press, but he could not resist trying to justify his previous plans to haul some of those staffers before a federal grand jury.
March 2 -- Our kids are dumb because schools stink (Cal Thomas): The public school monopoly can be expected to trot out the same explanations for the culture of failure they've created: inadequate buildings, poorly equipped science labs, underpaid and uncertified teachers, too little money (despite the huge amounts of money it currently receives).
March 2 -- El Paso proves Texas politics still wild (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - And some people have the nerve to claim that colorful politics in Texas are a thing of the past. Pish. Piffle. Poppycock. Consider, just for fun, the case of state Rep. Gilbert Serna, Democrat of El Paso, who is slightly beleaguered these days as a consequence of an 18-month El Paso Times investigation.
March 1 -- Bush deserves nomination for education policy (ARN Editorial): While gaining his party's nomination for a second term seems a foregone conclusion, Gov. George W. Bush does have an opponent on the March 10 GOP primary ballot, Round Rock contractor R.C. Crawford, who has no experience in public office.
March 1 -- Perspective trampled in rush to relay news: 'The work of television is to establish false contexts and to chronicle the unraveling of existing contexts; finally, to establish the context of no context and to chronicle it," wrote George W.S. Trow in his 1981 critique of the media, Within the Context of No Context.
March 1 -- Texas justice for sale, or just cheapened?: The question of whether Texas justice is for sale has come full circle.
March 1 -- Not everybody marching over that '00 bridge (Dale McFeatters Column): President Clinton and Hillary Clinton have appropriated the year 2000 as their personal celebration. That's surprising because the second millennium would seem to go against their deeply held convictions on multiculturalism, especially hers, and she is in charge of the White House Millennium Project.
March 1 -- Book on Potosi soon to join fate of vanished pioneers (Juanita Zachry Guest Column): How do you say good-bye to a publication? Especially if it's a book you've nourished and the first you published? When it's been around well over the norm, you know it's time for it to go.