The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 28, 1985, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    ints
v/s
i dollars and It-
B rad ley, D-N.J.
hat would clim-
iost deduction
es; about 70 ptt
'ould pay at a l|
Fpl I
ompfained tlia
;m “is grossly it
i mental to tit
n part because!
ton that the rid
;r share of thtit
ol lector.
,or of’ a "Hat tat'
itier allowing!
n exemption
ie at 10 perceiii
I ■
Aggie Invitational
wiilliii
l®» : v
Page3
Softball team gears for tourney
Page 11
The Battalion
Vol. 80 Mo. 121 GSPS 04536014 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, March 28,1985
lercia
ons
5xico
d Press
t, Mexico -
United Stata
exchange polio
i commercialrt-
threatens tit
says the head
sociation.
on to halt tit
ertain product
Jnited States
>. ban on citnis
cico requires in-
i Jose LuisTrt
the Monterrev-
Foreign Cora-
northeast sec-
government an-
■ weekend thatil
• to U.S. impora
tales announced
lad again closed
>orts of Mexicat
evels of Mexicat
ere discoveredii
Motion to close
A&M-Galveston
surprises official
By TRENT LEOPOLD
SvdtY Writer
The College Station campus coor
dinator for Texas A&M University
at Galveston said Wednesday that as
far as he had heard, it was a surprise
to everyone that the House Appro
priations Committee voted to close
A&M-Galveston.
The committee, searching for a
balanced budget, voted Monday to
shut down A&M-Galveston and the
University of Texas of the Permian
Basin at Odessa.
However, the committee said
Tuesday it might reconsider the
plan.
Houston Rep. Pair! Colbert made
the motion to close the two schools.
He said the schools aren’t needed
and the state could save $61 million
by closing them.
“It’s fish or cut bait time,” Colbert
said of closing the 541-student Gal
veston college that trains harbor pi
lots and marine scientists. “It’s defi
nitely time to cut bait.”
Colbert said UT-Permian Basin
and A&M-Galveston aren’t able to
attract students.
“It (A&M-Galveston) is just flat
out not doing it, folks,” he said.
Dr. Garland E. Bayliss, College
Station campus coordinator for
A&M-Galveston, said although
A&M-Galveston does have a small
enrollment, he had the impression
the enrollment was up last fall.
The committee approved the
same plan for both colleges.
Under the plan, no new students
would be accepted in the fall and the
colleges would be closed in 1987.
The plan, if not abolished, still has
to be approved by the House and
Senate.
Bayliss said he would be surprised
if A&M-Galveston was closed next
fall.
Committee Chairman Jim Rudd,
D-Brownsville, said he would decide
later whether to allow another
House Appropriations Committee
vote.
Enough votes do exist to abolish
earlier House committee decisions,
lawmakers said Tuesday.
Bullock eats words
at jovial breakfast
Associated Press
AUSTIN — State Comptroller
Bob Bullock, who sparked the ire of
university officials by saying they en
joy a $3 billion bowl of gravy, en
joyed a good-natured biscuit-and-
gravy breakfast Wednesday with the
University of Texas’ chief lobbyist.
Afterward, Bullock presented the
UT System with a piggy bank in
which to keep the local funds he says
the universittes have collected.
“1 didn’t want to take everything
out of the trough, Gerald,” Bullock
told UT lobbyist Gerald Hill. “I just
wanted to be able to count the hogs.”
The jesting breakfast, organized
by Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, drew state
senators and officials. Hill, ladle in
hand, dished out grits to accompany
the biscuits and gravy.
Last week, Bullock said state uni
versities collect $3.4 billion in va
rious “local fees,” which the schools
spend as they wish.
“These schools have their noses in
a $3 billion bowl of gravy which is in
their local bank accounts and which
the Legislature trever sees,” he
charged.
At Wednesday’s breakfast, Bul
lock was kidded about his criticism
and joked in return about the reac
tion of university officials statewide.
Bullock quipped that the break
fast was “the first of 48 we intend to
have — one for each college.”
Bunny Hop
The Easter Bunny is hoppin’ around town
this week trying to prepare for Easter on
April 7. McDonald’s coaxed him into posing
for some pictures Wednesday.
Soviets: slain officer was in restricted area
U.S. says zone was no longer off-limits
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The U.S. army major
shot by a Soviet sentry in East Germany was
taking photographs of military equipment in
an area that earlier was off-limits to American
observers, senior State Department and Pen
tagon officials said Wednesday.
However, the officials said, the Soviets re
moved the restriction on Feb. 20, apparently
after completing military maneuvers there,
notified the U.S. liaison mission and did not
deter other American observers present a
week to 10 days later.
Challenging a Soviet account, the two offi
cials reiterated there was no justification for
the slaying of the unarmed officer, Major Ar
thur D. Nicholson, Jr.
“We feel that the use of deadly force, as t he
Soviet sentry did in the case of this tragic
event, is totally out of keeping with the rules,”
a State Department official said.
At the White House, spokesman Larry
Speakes said the Reagan administration is
considering diplomatic steps against the Sovi
ets.
The Soviets called the shooting “regretta
ble” but said Nicholson had been spotted tak
ing photographs through the window of a
storage building on a restricted Soviet mili
tary installation by a sentry.
According to the Soviets, the U.S. major
had been spying, which the press agency said
was a violation of the 1947 agreements under
which the United States, the Soviet Union,
Britain, and France maintain military liaison
missions in their respective zones of Ger
many.
The U.S. officials rejected tne account by
the Soviet press agency Tass as “designed to
justify the killing of Maj. Nicholson.”
They insisted he was not in an area desig
nated by the Soviets as restricted or engaged
in espionage.
In fact, one of them said, the Soviets noti
fied the U.S. mission in writing that the area
was no longer out of bounds.
“He had the right of access, of free transit,”
the Pentagon official said of Nicholson. At
most, he said, the Soviets could have detained
Nicholson — as Soviet observers were held in
West Germany only a few days earlier.
The briefing was held on condition the
LUS. officials would not be identified by name
or title.
Copies of the instructions for U.S. Army
personnel in West Germany were distributed
to reporters.
“Detention may be effected by any member
of the U.S. forces,” the instructions say.
“When making detention, no force should be
used or lives endangered.”
On several occasions, the officials said, So
viet officers entered restricted U.S. military
areas.
On March 20, four days before Nicholson
was shot, two Soviet officers were detained
for eight hours when they were intercepted
by West German police. They were then re
leased.
“You can tell the difference how we treat
them,” one of the officials said.
The officials said both U.S. and Soviet ob
servers routinely carry cameras even though
taking of photographs is prohibited and films
are confiscated.
State Senate
- j approves
hunger bill
$18.4 million
asked for needy
Associated Press
AUSTIN — The Senate Wednes
day approved a bill authorizing
$18.4 million aimed at helping mal
nourished old people, pregnant
women and children who can’t af
ford meals.
A 26-3 vote sent the bill to the
House.
A special Senate committee re
ported that hunger is a serious prob
lem among thousands of Texans,
said Sen. Hugh Parmer, the bill’s
sponsor.
“There is indeed hunger in Tex
as,” Parmer said. “We do not have
starvation but what we have is Tex
ans who regularly miss meals.”
The bill would add $12 million to
a program known as Women, In
fants and Children. It also appropri
ates $3.5 million for meals for the el
derly home-bound. Parmer said
22,000 elderly are on a waiting list to
receive such meals.
The hill also would provide $2.5
million for an emergency nutrition
program for the “new poor”, those
who have worked all their lives and
are now facing hunger, Parmer said.
He said many Texans eligible for
existing food programs are not re
ceiving assistance because of insuffi
cient funds, lack of awareness of
services and complex application
procedures.
Parmer said the requests for food
at Houston private charities has
gone from 23,000 in 1979 to
236,000 in 1983.
“Our private charities in Texas
are drowning with requests they
can’t meet,” Parmer said.
Senate Finance Commute Vice
Chairman Ed Howard, D-Texar-
kana, asked how the program would
be funded. He said the state can’t af
ford to give state employees pay
raises, much less appropriate $18.4
million for a food program.
Parmer replied, “Feeding hungry
old people that go hungry is more
important than a pay raise.”
Sen. J.E. “Buster” Brown, R-Lake
Jackson, said the Senate “should wait
until we see what happens with the
rest of the budget. We can’t do this
with budget restraints.”
Brown, Grant Jones, D-Abilene,
and Roy Blake, D-Nacogdoches,
voted against the bill.
In other action, the Senate tenta
tively approved a bill by Sen. Lindon
Williams, D-Houston, that would bar
cities from requiring municipal
workers to live within the city limits.
Sen. Cyndi Krier, R-San Antonio,
opposed the bill because San Anto
nio has such a residency requirement
for its employees.
Sen. John Leedom, R-Dallas, said
the state would be taking action to
override city charters if the bill was
passed.
The Senate also:
• Approved a bill, 29-0, placing
on the November ballot a constitu
tional amendment authorizing
Bexar, Dallas, El Paso, Harris, Tar
rant and Travis counties to improve
turnpikes. The measure now goes to
the House.
• Approved a bill, 29-0, keeping
the Texas Commission on Alcohol
ism in operation until 1997. The bill
now goes to the House.
Subway vigilante indicted by grand jury
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Bernhard Goetz
was indicted by a grand jury on four
counts of attempted murder
Wednesday, a month after a first
panel charged him only with illegal
gun possession for shooting four
youths on a subway train Dec. 22.
“It’s probably the best thing,” said
Goetz, a 37-year-old self-employed
electronics technician. “Hopefully
this will end the controversy.... The
story would have come out one way
or the other anyway.”
The indictment in the interna
tionally publicized case was an
nounced by District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau one day after Goetz re
fused to testify before the grand jury
in a dispute over how much immu
nity he should be granted.
Goetz, who claimed he was de
fending himself against being
robbed and terrorized, became a fig
ure of tremendous controversy im
mediately after the shootings.
Many New Yorkers and people
around the country hailed his ac
tions as a blow against crime, while
some questioned whether the shoot
ings werejustified.
Barry Slotnick, Goetz’s attorney,
said he would move to dismiss the in
dictment “because it was brought im-
providentially by the district attor
ney for partisan reasons.”
“The chief judge has said a grand
jury will indict a ham sandwich if the
district attorney wants it to,” Slotnick
said. “Bernie Goetz today turned out
to be a ham sandwich.”
Attempted murder is a felony
with a maximum penalty of up to 25
years in prison.
Goetz faced up to seven years in
prison on the felony gun possession
indictment handed up by the first
grand jury.
When Morgenthau announced
earlier this month that he would
seek an indictment for a second
time, Goetz predicted he would be
cleared no matter how many grand
juries are called.
The shootings occurred Dec. 22
on a subway on which Goetz, the
four youths and about 20 other peo
ple were riding.
Goetz shot the youths — two of
them in the back — with an illegal
.38-caliber handgun.
Goetz said he fired after the
youths surrounded him and one of
them said, “Give me $5,” with his
hand thrust menacingly in his
S ocket. Goetz, who had been robbed
efore, said he was only defending
himself against a certain robbery
and beating.
But two of the youths have said
that only Canty approached Goetz,
and that he merely asked, “Can I
have $5?” Canty’s lawyer likened it
to a pandhandler’s request.
One of the youths, Darrell Cabey,
remains paralyzed below the waist
and suffering from brain damage.
Goetz, a 37-year-old self-em
ployed electronics technician, was to
have testified before the panel on
Tuesday. But he walked out of the
Manhattan Criminal Courts building
without testifying after prosecutors
insisted he sign a blanket waiver of
immunity from prosecution.
Goetz and his lawyers insisted that
the waiver only apply for questions
involving events on Dec. 22 and Dec.
30, the day before he surrendered.