The West News (West, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 25, 1999 Page: 2 of 12
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T
Page 2
Thanks for listening
January 1 has come and gone
and so have 99 percent of my new
year's resolutions so that leaves
me with Lent. Ash Wednesday
was February 17 and my way of
sacrificing something is to give
up sweets and cold drinks, two
immensely loved foods as far as
I'm concerned, so therefore, a
huge sacrifice. I also plan to get
back on my walking kick -
something I threw out the
window sometimes back. I plan
to eat less and lose weight. I
must! I really must stick with
this. So don't offer me any goodies
and if you see me walking, don't
offer me a ride.
And while I'm on this
particular subject, it brought to
mind the new pictorial directory
the Catholic Church put out. I
picked mine up after Mass
Sunday before last. I probably
spent at least an hour sitting at
the table looking through it that
very same day. It is a wonderful
book and full of great pictures.
Everyone I saw looks good and
what I really enjoyed about it is
that I can now put names with
faces. Being away from West for
such a longtime, makes it difficult
for me to remember the names of
people. (This also has something
to do with my age.) People are
always coming up to me and
talking to me and when they walk
away, I'll say to myself, "Now
who was that?" Or I'll see people
on the street, at work or even in
church and recognize them, but
"what are their names?" Bill is
always saying to me, "You
remember him." And then he'll
try describing who his parents
are, or who his sister or brother
is. And usuallyl don't remember
him and certainly not his parents.
So now, with the new pictorial
directory', I can look it up. This is
truly a great book and very
informative.
It sort of reminded me of high
school annuals. Back when I went
to school, and I'm sure it's
different now, we received our
annuals for one school year the
following school year. When you
were a Freshman, Sophomore or
Junior, it was okay, because you
could always get your friends to
sign the annual. But when you
were a senior, you were out of
school and so the senior annual
never had as many autographs
or signatures because everyone
had gone their separate ways. I
By
Jeanettc
Colley
Legal Matters
Identify Theft
The West News - Thursday, February 25,1999
You may have missed some
of this wheat and chaff
Ii
remember it was always cool to
get as many people to sign your
annual as possible, sort of like a
contest - the more the better.
Some kids didn't like their picture
so they would write their name
right across their "mug shot," as
my dad used to call them.
Margaret and I shared one
annual. When she was a senior
and I was a freshman, we only
bought one. Her friends signed
in the front and my friends in the
back.
Which brings me to something
else. We should have people sign
the pictorial directory. Wouldn't
that be fun? I think I'll start with
Father Ed. Who's going to follow?
But no fair signing your name
across your face.
So remember. If you see me
walking around town and I have
a book and a pen in my hand,
don't wonder why. I'll be killing
two birds with one stone. Think
about it.
Another Point of View
This past week the U.S. Senate
voted to acquit Bill Clinton of the
impeachment charges voted
against him by the House. Let it
be noted that our Senators both
voted for impeachment. They are
to be congratulated for having
the good sense to recognize that
the president broke the law by
lying under oath and thus became
a felon. The constitution explicitly
prohibits a felon from holding an
elected office, regardless of the
reason for the offense The cri mes
of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton
were the same. The difference
was that Nixon finally faced the
fact that he was a crook. Clinton,
so far, has lacked the courage to
do so.
To compound his other crimes,
some of them proven, others
unproved it has been reported
that Clinton has vowed to get
revenge on those who voted for
his impeachment. In his
umteenth apology the other day,
he said "ifyou expect forgiveness,
you must forgive." He was either
lying again or he doesn't expect
forgiveness. The president's
aides spent the last several days
trying to squelch the reports of
revenge but he had made his
plans clear to so many democrats
that the story was being
circulated all over Washington.
Another problem that is
becoming apparent with the
acquittal is that Clinton feels he
now has the leverage to get a lot
of his socialistic agenda passed
by the scared to death
Republicans. There is no doubt
that the ten Republicans who
voted against impeachment did
so out of fear that they would be
attacked by such mental giants
as James Carville and some of
his ilk.
Have we heard the last of the
scandal? I don't think so. There
are too many of the liberal media
that have come to depend on this
subject for their viewing
audience. What they call news is
not news but infotainment. As
far as I am concerned, their
programs have the same
credibility as the supermarket
tabloids. As congress tackles the
problems of the country that the
polls say "the people" are wanting
them to get on with, will we get.
any of the goodies promised us?
Don't count on it. What we are
going to get is more of the tax and
spend that we got under 40 years
of democratic majority rule in
congress. I have a question for all
of you who think that Clinton is
KEITH
PECK
doing a good job. If he has given
us the large surplus that he has
been taking credit for since last
year, how come the national debt
has gone up billions of dollars?
I was more disappointed in
the lack of courage shown by the
Senate, than in the fact that they
were derelict in their sworn duty.
It was a forgone conclusion that
the votes were not there to
impeach, but it was hoped that
the courage was there to vote
their convictions. It wasn't. We
can live with another two years
of the great liar, but I do not
think that I will accept at face
value a single statement he
makes from now till he is out of
office. For months, I have found
myself disbelieving just about
everything our president says. I
really think he is a pathological
liar who does not know the
difference between truth and
falsehood. He is a danger to
himself and the country.
Professional
degree
Earning climbs with learning
Census figures show how Texans' incomes climb at
each successive rung ol the educational
ladder. On average, those at the highest
educational levels earn more than four times as
much as those who drop out before finishing high
school
mwmm
Texas avera
Doctoral
degree
K1BSEBF Master’s degree
WES333SH Bachelor's degree
nyi*«kmr Som«c©ltef», no degree
■BEnaEflF Wgtvschod diploma
*aisr1£s»z&'”dw“”
Educational level
GRAPHIC DwaJn Osborne
SOURCE U.S Dopartment of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
"An Award winning newspaper"
"The oldest business In West, established In 1889"
214 W. Oak • P.O. Box 38 • West, Texas 76691 • 254-826-3718
The West Times The West News
Established in 1889 Established in 1909
Consolidated January, 1913
Larry Knapek Linn A. Pescala
Editor Publisher
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Texas Press Association member
To Out Valentine...
Mom Zafumial^
A Belated Valentine
tvishforadthe
nice things you do
for ad of us invest.
DENTITY THEFT IS quickly
becoming the crime of the ‘90s.
It occurs when one person uses
another’s identification * name,
address, social security number,
mother’s maiden name - to obtain
lines of credit, open checking ac-
counts, rent apartments, or even
obtain jobs.
Because of the nature of the
crime, many victims are unaware of
what has happened until they are
denied credit. By that time, their
credit history may have been ru-
ined.
As your Attorney General, I am
prohibited by law from giving legal
advice to private citizens, but I can
offer some general tips on how to
protect yourself and what to do if
you ever become a victim.
How it works
Identity theft begins with a lost
or stolen purse or wallet. Rather
than risk using a check or credit
card that may have already been
reported as lost or stolen, identity
thieves will use a victim’s credit
cards and ID to open new accounts
With the information from your
driver's license and social security
card, a thief can also open a check-
ing account and wnte bad checks in
your name.
With a few exceptions, most
states treat the party that has lost
money (the merchant who honors a
stolen credit card) as the victim.
Because of this attitude, many vic-
tims of identity theft have spent
months, even years, attempting to
restore their names and credit re-
cords.
Congress is considering legisla-
tion that would make it a federal
crime to use someone’s identity
without permission.
How to protect yourself
If your wallet or purse is lost or
stolen, immediately call and cancel
your credit cards. If you have a
number of cards, you may want to
consider enrolling in a credit card
registry service. Such a service will
notify all of your creditors after one
call from you.
As soon as possible, file a theft
report with the police. Many banks
and credit agencies require such a
report before they will believe that a
theft has occurred.
Be sure to call your bank and
cancel your ATM card. Addition-
ally, you should put a “stop pay-
ment” on your lost checks. Be
aware, however, that many banks
require your signature or a signed
affidavit to initiate a stop payment
order and a fee may be imposed.
If you are a victim of theft, you
may get a call from someone posing
as a bank representative or law
enforcement official. The caller
will say that information is needed
to expedite a replacement card. Do
not give out any of your account
information. You have no way of
knowing who is really on the other
end of the phone.
You should contact the three big
credit reporting bureaus - Equifax,
Experian (formerly TRW) and
Trans Union - to have them place a
fraud alert on your report Such an
alert instructs creditors to call you
personally to verify applicant infor-
mation
Periodically check your credit
reports and write to creditors if they
have not removed closed-out ac-
counts from the files.
For further information
While we hope this never hap-
pens to you, knowing how to protect
yourself can save you a lot of head-
aches. For more information on
ways you can protect yourself, call
your bank, local police department,
or local prosecutor
Would you say 99.9 percent
perfect is close enough? It isn't
really. If we all worked on the
99.9 percent perfect principle,
the following would happen:
• 22,000 checks will be de-
ducted from the wrong bank ac-
counts in the next hour.
• 1,314 phone calls will go
wrong in the next minute.
• 12 babies born today will be
given to the wrong parents.
• 811,000 rolls of defective
camera film will be loaded in
cameras each year.
• 2,000,000 documents will be
lost by the IRS in a year.
• 2,500,000 books will be dis-
tributed with the wrong cover
this year.
• Two plane landings at
O'Hare airport will be unsafe
today.
• 18,322 pieces of mail will be
mishandled in the next hour.
• 20,000 medical prescrip-
tions will be wrong this year.
• 315 entries in Webster's new
dictionary will be misspelled.
That's what being wrong only
.01 percent of the time can do.
If the U.S. Government kept
its books the way the IRS re-
quires businesses to keep theirs,
the national debt would not be
nearly $6 trillion dollars, but
nearer to $18 trillion. It is an
amount about three times larger
than the total domestic output
generated by this country in one
year.
If elections in the United
MAKING
THE MOST
OF YOUR
MONEY
Preserve Your
Retirement Savings
With
Disability
Insurance
(NAPS)—The percentage of
Americans who own stock doubled
between 1990 and 1997 (National
Association of Securities Dealers
Survey, reported in the Wall
Street Journal, 2/24/97) and,
while many are investing for
retirement, few are considering
ways to preserve those savings
against the risk of a disability.
Consider these points:
• A person is nearly 5 times
more likely to be disabled than to
die at age 35 (1985 Commissioner’s
Individual Disability Table).
• One in 5 people aged 35 will
experience a disability for three
months or more before age 65
(1985 Commissioner’s Individual
Disability Table).
Long term disability insurance can
help preserve those retirement sav-
ings, if you should become disabled.
Long term disability insurance
usually insures your take home
pay. If you’re out of work due to
an injury or illness, disability
insurance may pay a portion of
your income. This insurance can
help you avoid using your invest-
ments and assets to stay afloat
when you can’t work.
“People who are investing for
retirement need to consider how
they will preserve their savings
against an event they can’t fore-
see—a disability,” says John S.
Roberts, Senior Vice President of
Unum Life Insurance Company of
America, the nation’s leading dis-
ability insurer (Employee Benefit
Plan Review, 5/97).
An investment in long term
disability insurance now, may pre-
vent financial problems in the
future.
Protect yourself
tation
and your repu-
Ipfhank Youf^
We would like to take this opportunity to thank
everyone for making our dinner last Sunday a big
success!
A special thanks to the cooks, servers, auctioneers,
bartenders, dish washers, to those that brought desserts
and items for the auction and to everyone that helped
clean up.
This could not have been possible without all the
wonderful people that came to eat and take part in the
auction.
Members of
Sokol West, SPJST Lodge #54
& Lone Star Hall
States really could control big
government and assure life, lib-
erty and the pursuit of happi-
ness for the people, it would put
so many restraints on ourelected
officials that voting would be
declared illegal and voters pun-
ished.
According to court rulings in
Morse vs. the United States
(IRS), a citizen becomes a tax-
payer if anyone files in their
name: "Accordingly, when re-
turns were filed in Mrs. Morsel's
name, declaring income to her
for 1994 and 1995, she became a
taxpayer within the meaning of
the United States tax code."
If such is the case, if you never
filed, or nobody filed for you, you
are not a "taxpayer" under the
IRS tax code. Don't bet your
bippy on it, however.
Robert Hemphill is a former
official of the Federal Reserve
Bank. In a recent speech he said:
"We are completely dependent
on banks. Someone has to 'bor-
row' every dollar we have in cir-
culation, either cash or credit. If
the banks create enough syn-
thetic (counterfeit) money, we
are prosperous: if not, we starve.
We are absolutely without a per-
manent money system. When
one gets a complete grasp of the
picture, the tragic absurdity of
our hopeless position is almost
incredible - but that's the way
it is.
"It is the most important sub-
ject intelligent persons can in-
vestigate and reflect upon. It is
so important that our present
civilization may collapse unless
it is widely understood and the
defects remedied."
If that doesn't bother you, con-
sider that we have the largest
debt of any nation the world has
ever seen, which grows daily.
IRS agents actually stole $5.3
million dollars directly from tax-
payers, according the an inves-
tigation by the GAO (General
Accounting Office), between
1995 and 1997. One employee
altered taxpayer checks made
out to the IRS by putting a pe-
riod after I and R and adding
"mith" to the S and deposited
the checks to the account of a
bogus I.R. Smith. He later with-
drew the money and closed the
account.
A study published in the Jour-
nal of the American Medical As-
sociation (JAMA), reveals that
between 76,000 and 137,000
people died in 1994 from pre-
scribed medications. That's more
than died from diabetes or pneu-
monia — and many times more
than died from abuse of illegal
drugs. Adverse drug reaction is
about the fifth leading cause of
death in America.
Fanners Can Be Prepared For Crop Disasters
Sales Closing Dates For Crop Insurance Approaching Fast
(NAPS)—“No farmer can afford
not to have crop insurance these
days,” says Ralph Paige, Executive
Director of the Federation of
Southern Cooperatives, speaking of
the government’s crop insurance
program. “And at $50 per crop per
county, every farmer can afford at
least minimum coverage.”
This year the government is
making a major effort to reach
farmers—380,000 letters will go
out soon—encouraging all farmers
to buy federal crop insurance by
the sales closing date (February
28 or March 15). USDA especially
wants to get this message out to
at-risk minority and low-income
farmers who may have not consid-
ered coverage before or stopped
buying it. The government is also
emphasizing that the $50 process-
ing fee for the minimum level of
insurance coverage will be waived
for qualified low-income farmers.
Many farmers already know
that crop insurance is a good idea.
Beenie Butler of Calhoun County,
Georgia, who farms 300 acres of
peanuts and 143 acres of cotton,
tells a familiar story: “In 1997,
there was a drought and cold
weather that caused me to lose
about 40 percent of my peanut
yield. Without crop insurance, I
would not have been able to meet
my financial obligations. 1 was able
to pay my operating loan current.”
Another Georgia farmer, Erick
The U.S. Department of Agri-
culture is reminding farmers
about crop insurance closing
dates. The USDA is also letting
farmers know that for low income
growers, the $50 processing fee
is being waived.__
Hopkins of Seminole County, also
credits crop insurance with saving
him from disaster. “I had over a
30 percent loss on 70 acres of
peanuts this year because of the
drought. If it had not been for my
crop insurance, 1 would not have
been able to pay my land rent and
farm next year.”
Farmers need to contact private
crop insurance agents before the
sales closing date (February 28 or
March 15) to sign up for the level of
insurance coverage they want.
Agents can supply all details of the
federal program and help farmers
select the best kind of insurance to
fit their needs. A complete listing of
crop insurance agents is kept in all
Farm Service Agency offices.
Texas Has Your
Child Covered.
- *
Good News! Texas law now requires that
most insurance plans cover childhood
immunizations for children under age 6—
with no deductible or co-payment.
Remember, immunizations are important
to your child's health. Now, you don't
have to worry about money
to cover your child's vaccinations.
/
r*
When it comes to the health of your
children, we've got you covered!
Call 1-800-252-9152 For more information
TDH
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
k
4
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Knapek, Larry. The West News (West, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 25, 1999, newspaper, February 25, 1999; West, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth715568/m1/2/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting West Public Library.