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TribBlog: You Want Me to What? Really? [UPDATED]

"There's really no e-mail to send you my questions?" Nope, she said, you'll have to fax them. Fax?! No e-mail?!?

The DeLorean was first produced in 1981, shortly after the modern fax machine came into wide use in the mid-1970s. The fax apparently continues to be the primary mode of communication at the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

So, this is day two of trying to get the chairwoman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Rissie Owens, to answer some questions for a story I'm working on. After leaving about a half-dozen messages with her secretary today and yesterday, Owens called me this afternoon to tell me she was in a hearing and too busy to talk with me. But maybe, she said, she'll have some time tomorrow.

A few minutes later, Owens' secretary, Barbara called me. Barbara asked if I would send her some of the specific questions I want to ask Owens so that she can be prepared to talk with me. No problem, that's a pretty routine request, so I asked her for an e-mail address to send the questions to. There isn't one, Barbara said. What?!? "There's really no e-mail to send you my questions?" Nope, she said, you'll have to fax them. Fax?! No e-mail?!? Okay.

Now, I've got to go find a DeLorean so I can fire up the flux capacitor and travel back to 1998 to find a fax machine. 

UPDATE: So, I found a DeLorean, got my flux capacitor revved up to 1.21 jigawatts, found the circa 1998 fax machine and sent my questions to Owens. About noon today, I got a message on my cell phone from a board lawyer. She was looking for my e-mail address so she could e-mail me a response to my questions. What?!? For real?!? Yup. A few minutes later an e-mail shows up in my in-box from the general counsel for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. And the e-mail is CC'd to rissie.owens@tdcj.state.tx.us. Well, I guess that's one mystery about the parole board solved.

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Criminal justice State government State agencies Texas Department Of Criminal Justice