One alert FBvian alerts us to the fact that Kay Bailey Hutchison has proposed a compromise. “Through ticketing”? Come on.
Meanwhile, another diligent FBvian passes along some good stuff from a 1996 Observer article about Eddie Bernice Johnson:
Then there was the smelly airport deal. In 1988, the D/FW Airport Board angered blacks by awarding a huge newspaper concession stand contract to a company with an abysmal track record of minority participation. In a weak attempt at rectifying the problem, the board handed out to minority business people subcontracts for 11 concession stands. Two of the lucrative newsstand concessions went to state Senator Johnson, raising in and out of the minority business community immediate howls of favoritism.
The negative sentiment that Johnson’s sweetheart deal engendered at the time in the black community was summed up by one minority leader in an interview with Dallas Times Herald columnist Jim Schutze. “I always felt black officeholders were supposed to use their office and the public trust to open up doors for black business people, not for themselves,” the community leader said.
