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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1994)
ION W Thursday • June 2,1994 Thursda Medical center to be built on A&M campus in Temple Scott and White to share $11 million construction By Christine Johnson The Battalion Texas A&M and Scott & White Memorial Hospital are building an $11 million medical education and research center at Texas A&M’s Temple campus. At its Friday meeting, the A&M System Board of Regents approved $10,000 to begin plan ning the construction of the fa cility at the College of Medi cine’s clinical campus. The Texas A&M University Educa tion and Research Building will be located adjacent to the Scott & White health care facilities at the clinical campus in Temple. Texas A&M and Scott & White will share the cost of con struction. Dr. William Mobley, A&M system chancellor, said the cen ter will improve A&M’s presence in Temple. “This further solidifies the bond between A&M, Scott & White, and the other health care facilities in Temple,” he said. “It is a very positive de velopment and an example of good partnership.” Mobley said the facility could also lead to some employ ment and internship opportuni ties for A&M students. Students of the College of Medicine will complete their first two years at A&M and their last two years at the Tem ple campus. Dr. Robert Myers, president and CEO of Scott & White Memorial Hospital, said the hospital has been planning this facility for years. The building will allow more space for students, research and physicians, he said. “It is a positive step for both of us,” he said. “We can gain more working together than singly.” Dr. Elvin Smith, associate vice president for health affairs, said A&M is currently leasing space from the clinics and hospi tals on the clinical campus. “This building will bring A&M much needed visibility in Temple,” he said. “Right now there is no University building on that campus and we are only existing in borrowed space.” Smith said two-thirds of the building will be used as research labs for faculty. There will also be a computerized student learning center and an auditori um with a capacity of 300. The auditorium will be sepa rated into four smaller confer ence rooms for faculty meetings and equipped with “state of the art” telecommunication systems, he said. The building would not in crease enrollment, he said, be- Please see Center/Page 7 JD Jacoby /The Battalion Last but not least After a long night on campus James Talmage, a senior wildlife fishery sciences major, sheds light on the Zachry parking lot when he opens his car door. King loses bid for punitive damages LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rodney King lost his bid for punitive damages from any of the police officers involved in his beat ing. The jury’s verdict Wednesday ended an ordeal that wracked the city for three years. The panel found that former policemen Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell, who were convicted in the beating, acted with malice, but shouldn’t have to pay King. Punitive damages are intended to deter behavior, not compensate an injured per son. The jury earlier ordered the city to pay King $3.8 million in compensatory dam ages for the beating. In a countersuit filed by acquitted offi cers Theodore Briseno, the panel found that King battered Briseno, but refused to hold King liable for punitive damages. The verdict came in the jury’s 11th day of deliberations in the trial’s second phase. The jury said four other defendants, for mer Officer Timothy Wind and officers Briseno, Rolando Solano and Louis Turria- ga, did not violate King’s rights and did not act with malice. Those defendants had not been convicted in any other court, while Koon and Powell were found guilty of violating King’s feder al civil rights last year and are serving 30- month prison sentences. The courtroom was hushed as the ver dicts were announced by U.S. District Judge John Davies. Only Wind was pre sent. The jury’s action was likely the last act in a searing drama that consumed Los An geles since the March 3, 1991 beating, which was captured on videotape and broadcast around the world. The outcries against police brutality and the riots that followed the acquittals of LA.crew in Discriminatory auto insurance practice under state official scrutiny LOS ANGELES (AP) — A third wave of “blue flu” swept through the ranks of the Police Department today despite the mayor’s plea that officers accept mediation to break a contract impasse, > , , v','\ Of the 317 officers and sergeants scheduled for today’s early shift, 212 called in sick, said Police Department spokesman Don Cox. Officers from the Tuesday evening shift were held over for 16-hour double shifts to cover for those out. The department has been on a modified tactical alert because of the sickouts that be gan Monday. The Police Protective League, the officers’ union, endorsed Mayor Richard Riordan during his election campaign but has criticized him for failing to support a larger pay raise for the nearly 7,700 officers. r v y/;. •- Contract talks have been on and off since 1992, and the city has been reluctant to offer officers more money because of bud get constraints. Last week, police rejected a 6 percent raise over two years. Among other things, the union wants retroactive pay raises for the two years that officers have worked without a contract. Starting pay for a rookie officer is $33,157, 12 percent less than the amount earned by new deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. The city’s police pay ranks 78th among law enforcement agencies statewide, the union said. On Tuesday, 602 of 1,414 lieutenants, sergeants, detectives and patrol officers called in sick for the day shift, Officer Rigo Romero said. On Monday, 226 of 494 officers called in sick for the evening shift. AUSTIN (AP) — State offi cials Wednesday accused por tions of the insurance industry of illegal discrimination in the sale of auto insurance policies. An analysis of underwriting guidelines used by insurance companies shows that many companies price auto coverage based on factors other than dri ving record, the Office of Public Insurance Counsel said. “In too many cases, these guidelines create barriers to af fordable insurance for whole groups of people for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability to drive,” said Amy Johnson, who is leaving the counsel’s post. “These guidelines have the effect of excluding people for the best coverage just because they don’t fit the ideal profile, whether or not they have a good driving record,” she said. Jerry Johns, an insurance in dustry spokesman, denied the allegation. “Current law in Texas ade- CONTACT LENSES ONLY QUALITY NAME BRANDS (Bausch & Lomb, Ciba, Barnes-Hind-Hydrocurve) $ 118 00 TOTAL COST.. .INCLUDES EYE EXAM, FREE CARE KIT, AND TWO PAIR OF STANDARD FLEXIBLE WEAR SOFT CONTACT LENSES. SAME DAY DELIVERY ON MOST LENSES. Cali 846-0377 for Appointment CHARLES C. SCHROEPPEL, O.D., PC. DOCTOR OF OPTOMETRY 505 University Dr. East, Suite 101 College Station, TX 77840 4 Blocks East of Texas Ave. & University Dr. Intersection MSC Summer Dinner Theatre Season Tickets in association with Aggie Players "Rumors" comedy by Neil Simon June 23-25 & 30-July 2 Reception Following "The Pinchpenny Phantom of the Opera" murder mystery musical by Jack Sharkey & Dave Reiser July 28-30 & August 4-6 Dinner Proceeding Season Tickets On Sale Rudder Box Office, 845-1234 $20 students $30 Non-students Adult Language and Situations Persona with disabilities please call us at 845-1515 to Inform us of your special needs. We request notification three (3) working days prior to the event to enable us to assist you to the best of our ability. four officers on beating charges in state court toppled a mayor, a police chief and restructured the face of city government. Asked after the verdict if he thought it was the end of his ordeal, Wind said, “It’s the King case. It’s never over with. It’s made a wreck of our lives, a wreck of the city and of our profession.” King’s attorney, John Burris, said the verdict was surprising. “It sends the wrong message to police of ficers, that they may not be held account able for acts of misconduct if they blame it on the city,” he said. “It appears the jurors concluded enough is enough and the officers had suffered enough,” he said. Deputy City Attorney Don Vincent, who represented two of the officers, said he thought the verdicts were “just for every body.” Man accused of shooting spokesman has criminal record quately protects the public from the repugnant, illegal and rep rehensible practice of unfair dis crimination,” he said. The report on auto under writing guidelines is the first of its kind since the Legislature gave OPIC access to the infor mation. The report showed that 58 percent of the market considers the nationality of an applicant. “Canadians are generally ex empted from scrutiny, but for eign nationals from Mexico may be denied coverage in the stan dard market because many un derwriting guidelines specifical ly instruct an agent not to offer this coverage to Mexican nation als,” Ms. Johnson said. “This kind of blatant discrim ination is illegal, but it’s right there in the underwriting guide lines of 58 percent of the Texas auto insurance market,” she said. Johns responded, “To suggest that insurers discriminate on the basis of national origin is lu dicrous.” RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — The man accused of shooting former Nation of Islam spokesman Khallid Abdul Muhammad shot and killed his own brother in 1975 and was acquitted by a jury that found he acted in self-de fense. James Edward Bess, a de frocked minister from the Nation of Islam, faces six counts of attempted murder in Sunday’s attempted assas sination of Muhammad. Four of Muhammad’s bodyguards and a bystander also were wounded in the at tack in a parking lot after Muhammad’s speech at the University of California, Riverside. A crowd of up to 70 people beat the gunman before po lice rescued him. According to decades-old newspaper articles uncovered Tuesday, Bess has an exten sive criminal record. A jury in Fresno acquitted Bess in 1975 in the fatal shooting of his brother, Elvin O. Bess Jr., the Fresno Bee reported at the time. Bess admitted to the shooting, but said he acted in self-defense because he believed his brother was about to shoot him. No gun was found. In 1965, an all-white jury convicted Bess and another brother, Henry, of felony as sault on a man who refused to buy a Muslim newspaper. It wasn’t clear from the Bee’s article what sentence James Bess received. Henry Bess was sentenced to nine months in jail. During that trial, accord ing to Bee’s article, evidence was submitted that showed James and Henry Bess were convicted in 1964 of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison in Caruthersville, Mo., then paroled the same day. The article didn’t provide addi tional details. Police said Tuesday they were wrapping up their in vestigation of Muhammad’s shooting and are certain the gunman acted alone. “With this crime, we’re not dealing with a whodunit. Wet know whodunit, and there is no mystery about that,” said Hank Rosenfeld, chief of campus police. “We have a suspect, we have eyewitnesses and we have the guns which can be compellingly tied to the sus pect,” university spokesman Jack Chappell said. Three 9mm semiautomatic pistols and a rifle with a Ghost sto elude the 1 Ml Sumn By F scope found near the shoot- the 1994 T< ing scene have been linked to Bess, Chappell said. Muhammad, 46, who was shot in the legs, was in stable condition, spokesman for Riverside Community Hospi tal said. He had two body guards at his bedside and two bodyguards and two po lice officers posted outside his room. Bess, 49, was in fair condi tion at an undisclosed hospi tal, police said. All others wounded in the shooting were released from hospitals except bodyguard Vernado Puckett, 34, who was in good condition with gunshot wounds to his left shoulder and abdomen. For five al performe residents t< Rudder Thi In its se’ presents cb in June, as tral perforr Headlim ist Ruggier Bianconi, t Western Ai Shostakovi For Wer the event a the shows i Bryan/Coll mer month And he: shows as a Irts trio. “It’s won I I I i Battauion MARK EVANS, Editor in chief WILLIAM HARRISON, Managing editor ANAS BEN-MUSA, Night News editor SUSAN OWEN, Night News editor MICHELE BRINKMANN, City editor )AY ROBBINS, Opinion editor STEWART MILNE, Photo editor MARK SMITH, Sports editor WILLIAM HARRISON, Aggie!ifeeditor Staff Members City desk— james Bernsen, Amanda Fowle, )an Higginbotham, Sara Israwi, Shellie (enkins, Christine Johnson, Monique Lunsford, Geneen Pipher and Nancy Treacy News desk— Andreana Coleman, Sterling Hayman, Kari Rose and Stacy S.anton Photographers— Darrin Hill, J.D. laroby, lennie Mayer and |ohn Williams Aggielift Tra^ Travis, Margaret Claughton, Christi Erwin, (ennifer G-'-ssett, Jeremy Keddie, Warren Mayberry, Paul Neale and Larry Whitfill Sports writers— Josh Arterbury, Brian Coats and Constance Parten Opinion desk— Chris Cobb, Josef Elchanan, George Nasr, Jim Pawlir jwski, Frank Stanford and Julia Stavenhag< t Graphic artist— Wiil Brooks Cartoonists— Boomer Cardinale, David Deen and Jos£ Luis de Juan Clerks— Jennifer Lambert and Elizabeth Preston Writing Coach— Timm Doolen The Battalion (USPS 045-360) is published daily, M- iday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Monday through Thursday during the summer sessions (except University holidays and exam periods), at Texas A&M University. 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