[Clipping: Five decades later, some files on JFK probe remain sealed] Part: 2 of 8
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E2 | SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2013
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN | REAL AUSTIN. REAL NEWS.
INSIGHT
mi
Senators rich, but
not quite as rich
as candidate said
By Bill Wichert
PolitiFact New Jersey
Democratic U.S. Senate can-
didate Sheila Oliver said in
July: “Many of our senators
have not lived the life of an
average working-class person.
Most of the U.S. Senate is com-
prised of multimillionaires.”
That’s mostly on the money,
we found.
In 2011, most senators had
an average net worth of more
than $1 million, according to
an analysis of financial disclo-
sure forms by the nonpartisan
Center for Responsive Politics.
Still, the center says, less
than a majority were “multi-
millionaires.”
The center estimates each
senator’s average net worth
by subtracting liabilities from
assets as indicated by law-
makers on required financial
disclosure forms.
The most recent data, cov-
ering 2011, yields informa-
tion on all but two current
senators. The exceptions:
Jeff Chiesa of New Jersey, an
interim New Jersey senator,
and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
Of the others, 62 had an
average 2011 net worth of more
than $1 million, according to
the center, counting 13 with
estimated net worths of up to
$2 million - making them not
quite multimillionaires.
Six senators had net worths
between $2 million and $3 mil-
lion, according to the center,
while 43 had net worths of
more than $3 million.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn had
an average net worth of about
$423,000, according to the
center, while Sen. Ted Cruz’s
average net worth exceeded
$1.6 million.
The results suggest the
wealthiest senator was Mark
Warner of Virginia, who
had an average net worth of
slightly more than $228 mil-
lion, according to the center.
The poorest senator was Flori-
da’s Marco Rubio with nega-
tive $45,494 in average net
comprised of multimillionaires.”
worth, the center states.
The annual salary for most
senators is $174,000. Senate
leaders earn $193,400 per
year.
Since less than a majority
of senators had an average
net worth of several million
dollars in 2011, Oliver’s claim
about “multimillionaires” is
slightly off. Still, most sena-
tors at least had more than $1
million.
Political scientists said the
number of millionaires in
the Senate is related to the
expense of running a Senate
campaign and the prestige of
being a senator.
“The Senate is the big boy’s
and big girl’s... sandbox,”
Ross Baker, a political science
professor at Rutgers Univer-
sity, said in an email. “You get
all your calls returned.”
Richard Arenberg of Brown
University said wealthier indi-
viduals are more likely able to
meet the demands of running
for the Senate and maintaining
the office.
“My theory would be that it
is a challenge to live the life-
style expected of a senator,
including maintaining homes
in Washington and their home
states, if the senator is living
solely on a senator’s salary,”
Arenberg said by email.
Our ruling:
Oliver claimed: “Most of the
U.S. Senate is comprised of
multimillionaires. ”
In 2011, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics,
62 senators had an average
net worth of more than $1 mil-
lion. Then again, 49 - not a
majority - had average net
worths of $2 million or more,
the center’s research indi-
cates.
We rate the statement as
Mostly True.
SHEILA
OLIVER
Statement:
“Most of the
U.S. Senate is
POLITIFACT RECAP
These items are explained at greater length, with detailed source lists, on
our website, www.politlfacttexas.com.
STEVE STOCKMAN
Statement: A
new U.N. treaty
is“mandatinga
new international
gun registry.”
False
The con-
gressman from
Friendswood
was referring to
the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty
that has been in tjie works for
years. Stockman, in a fund-
raising letter, said the treaty
impinges on Second Amend-
ment rights and “sets the stage
for confiscation on a global
scale.” We found, though,
that the treaty is intended
to track conventional arms
such as tanks and warships as
they are transferred between
nations. This type of tracking
of weapons is not the gun reg-
istry that Stockman describes
and it does not apply to
individuals’ gun rights as
Stockman suggests.
DAVID DEWHURST
Statement:“l am everyyearthe
No.1 pick of
ail of the law
enforcement
agencies within
Texas.”
False
The lieu-
tenant governor
made this state-
ment during his
widely reported
phone call to the
Allen Police Department in an
attempt to help a relative who
had been arrested. Dewhurst
has been endorsed over the
years by several advocacy
groups that represent law offi-
cers, but those endorsements
come only at election time,
not “every year” as he said.
And those groups do not issue
rankings for officeholders, as
Dewhurst suggested. There
amply is no “No.^1 pick.”
Finally, Dewhurst’s use of
the phrase “law enforcement
agencies” implies that he’s
referring to police and sher-
iff’s departments and the like;
those official agencies do not
rank or endorse politicians.
JAY NIXON
Statement:
“Unlike Texas,
Missouri has
a perfect AAA
credit rating.”
True
Missouri’s
governor made
this statement
as he fired back
at Gov. Rick
Perry’s attempt
to lure Missouri businesses to
Texas. Nixon is correct that
Missouri’s credit ratings are
unblemished, according to
the three major bond rating
services. Texas enjoys top rat-
ings from Moody’s and Fitch,
but it received the second-best
rating of AA+ from Standard
& Poor’s. S&P expressed con-
cern at the state’s “budgetary
pressures, which are primarily
related to the growing propor-
tion of school revenues Texas
is required to fund, as well as
insufficient new sources of
recurring dedicated tax rev-
enues to support the increased
funding.” The report also cited
“increasing spending pres-
sure from public assistance
payments, including Med-
icaid,” plus uncertainty about
how the Obamacare law might
affect the state’s health-care
expenditures.
- Compiled by the American-
Statesman PolitiFact Texas team
Find coverage of Texas issues at
politifacttexas.com.
Contact PolitiFact Texas at
politifact@statesman.com
Twitter: @politifacttexas
Facebook: PolitiFact Texas
AMERICAN
DIGEST
‘I didn’t set a
red line. The
world set a
red line.’
President Barack Obama,
arguing that the regime of
Syrian President Bashar al-
Assad violated international
norms when it used
chemical weapons against
civilians, and that there
must be consequences.
‘We risk an
even broader,
bloodier
conflict as
costly as
Iraq.'
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett,
Central Texas lawmaker,
saying he opposes U.S.
military action against
Syria because he has “yet
to be convinced how a go-
it-alone strike that leaves
Assad in power would make
American families safer.”
‘This is a
dangerous
step we are
taking.’
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul,
Central Texas lawmaker,
saying Assad’s fall could
result in radical Islamists
gaining control of Syrian
weapons that could be
turned against Americans.
‘It’s
horrendous.
... But you
see, then they
don’t know
what I know.’
Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
chairwoman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee,
describing pictures
of chemical weapons
victims, yet acknowledging
“overwhelmingly negative”
public opinion toward U.S-
military involvement. *
‘The
credibility of
the United
States is on
the line.’
Secretary of State John
Kerry, pushing Congress to
approve U.S. action against
Syria despite the risks and
public sentiment.
‘What’s next?
Goats? Pigs?
Baby horses?
You are going
to open up
Pandora’s
Barnyard.’
Trey Hensley, a Silverado .
Ranch Homeowners
Association member,
opposing a neighbor’s
efforts to persuade the
Cedar Park City Council .
to ease its restrictions
on raising chickens on
residential lots.
THE TOP FIVE
Most popular news
headlines on statesman,
com (Sept. 1 to Thursday)
1. Police: Suspect in South
Austin SWAT call arrested
(and related headline)
2. British Airways to fly
nonstop Austin to London
3. Police: Woman
interfered as boyfriend
arrested for child’s death
4. Woman killed in far
North Austin.crash__
5. Driver tried to make U-
turn before fatal crash
EXPLORATIONS: A DOSE OF SCIENCE NEWS
Jorge Heraud, CEO of Blue River Technology, explains how the Lettuce
Bot works. Software engineer Willy Pell (second from left) is close at
hand. Lettuce Bot, a robotic machine, thins fields of lettuce, a job that
now requires hand work by 20 farmworkers, marciojose sanchez/ap
ROBOTICS
Robot labor may
revolutionize
produce farms
Farmworker advocates
say new machines will,
cost human jobs, mean
more pesticide use.
By Gosia Wozniacka
and Terence Chea
Associated Press
SALINAS, CALIF.-On a windy ■
morning in California’s Salinas
Valley, a tractor pulled a
wheeled, metal contraption.
over rows of budding iceberg
lettuce plants. Engineers fronj
Silicon Valley tinkered with
the software on a laptop to
ensure the machine was elimi-
nating the right leafy buds.
The engineers were testing
the Lettuce Bot, a machine
that can thin a field of lettuce
in the time it takes about 20
workers to do the job by hand.
The thinner is part of a
new generation of machines
that target the last frontier of
agricultural mechanization
- fruits and vegetables des-
tined for the fresh market, not
processing, which have thus
far resisted mechanization
because they’re sensitive to
bruising.
Researchers are now
designing robots for these
most delicate crops by inte-
grating advanced sensors,
powerful computing, elec-
tronics, computer vision,
robotic hardware and algo-
rithms, as well as networking
and high-precision GPS local-
ization technologies. Most ag
robots won’t be commercially *
available for at least a few
years.
In this California region
known as America’s Salad
Bowl - where for a cen-
tury fruits and vegetables
have beeil planted, thinned
and harvested by an army
of migrant workers - the
machines could prove revolu-
tionary.
Farmers say farm robots
could provide relief from
recent labor shortages and
lessen the unknowns of immi-
gration reform, plus reduce
CQSts, increase quality and
yield a more consistent
product.
“There aren’t enough
workers to take the available
jobs, so the robots can come
and alleviate some of that
problem,” said Ron Yokota,
a farming operations man-
ager at Tanimura & Antle,
the Salinas-based produce
company that owns the field
where the Lettuce Bot was
being tested.
Many sectors in U.S. agricul-
. ture have relied on machines
for decades, and even the har-
vesting of fruits and vegeta-
bles meant for processing has
slowly been mechanized. But
nationwide, the vast majority
of fresh-market fruit is still
harvested by hand.
In recent years, as the
labor supply has tightened
and competition from abroad
has increased, growers have
sought out machines to reduce
labor costs and supplement
the nation’s unstable agricul-
tural workforce. The federal
government, venture capital
companies and commodity
boards have stepped up with
funding.
“We need to increase our
efficiency, but nobody wants
to work in the fields,” said
Stavros Vougioukas, professor
of biological and agricultural
engirteering at the University
of California, Davis.
But farmworker advocates
say mechanization would
lead to workers losing jobs,
growers using more pesticides
and the food supply becoming
less safe.
“The fundamental ques-
tion for consumers is who
and, now, what do you want
picking your food: a machine
or a human, who with the
proper training and support,
can” take significant steps to
ensure a safer, higher-quality
product? said Erik Nicholson,
national vice president of
the United Farm Workers of
America.
On the Salinas Valley farm,
entrepreneurs with Moun-
tain View-based startup Blue
River Technology are trying to
show that the Lettuce Bot can
not only replace two dozen
workers, but also improve pro-
duction.
After a lettuce field is
planted, growers typically
hire a crew of farmworkers
who use hoes to remove
excess plants to give space
for others to grow into full
lettuce heads. The Lettuce
Bot uses video cameras and
visual-recognition software to
identify which lettuce plants
to eliminate with a squirt of
concentrated fertilizer that
kills the unwanted buds while
enriching the soil.
Another company, San
Diego-based Vision Robotics,
is developing a similar lettuce
thinner as well as a pruner for
wine grapes. The pruner uses
robotic arms and cameras to
photograph and create a com-
puterized model of the vines,
figure out the canes’ orienta-
tion and the location of buds
- all to decide which canes to
cut down.
Fresh fruit harvesting
remains the biggest challenge.
Machines have proved
not only clumsy, but inade-
quate in selecting ripe pro-
duce. In addition to blunders
in deciphering color and feel,
machines have a hard time
distinguishing produce from
leaves and branches. And
most importantly, matching
the dexterity and speed of
farmworkers has proved elu-
sive.
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Porter, David. [Clipping: Five decades later, some files on JFK probe remain sealed], clipping, September 8, 2013; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1596964/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.