THE THUMB AWARDS

Thumbs Down: To County Commissioner David Pickett, for applied reasoning after his recent announcement for the Democratic nomination for the new 265th District Family Court judgeship. Pickett indicated that he would be well-suited to the job of family court judge because he recently got a divorce.



Thumbs Up: To Alvin Granowsky, Director of Reading/Language Arts at the DISD, for successful implementation of his “Partnership in Learning” program. If DISD summary reports are accurate, this teacher-parent-student cooperative program has been extremely well-received on all levels. That means reading and writing may be making a comeback in the DISD.



Thumbs Down: To District Attorney Henry Wade and the Dallas DA’s office, for their insistence upon prosecution in cases of misdemeanor marijuana possession. While other major U.S. cities are making needed adjustments in legal procedure to expedite the new, more lenient penalties, Wade and company persist in full-scale courtroom prosecution, further clogging the already jammed court dockets at enormous costs in time and money. Meanwhile, the Wade office is managing to bring fewer than 10 percent of the rape, murder, and armed robbery cases to jury trial.