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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 27, 1977)
-i^r- TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION Lw/^ 1977 The Battalion weather Partly cloudy, hot and humid today. No rain. High today 92, low tonight 75 with southerly winds 8 to 16 m.p.h. No change for tomorrow. Vol. 70 No. 129 6 Pages Monday, June 27, 1977 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Xl9' Zw . 6 £l5< .Oi 54 ( nes |10 0z. Pkgs. Committee considers presidential nominees THIS VEERS I /MURE: | auceri PIECE i = By LEE ROY LESCHPER JR. Battalion Editor Texas A&M University could have a new president by late July and he will come from a list of candidates university officials have opened to public nomina tions. The faculty committee considering nominees for the presidency will recom mend finalists for the job before the A&M Board of Regents meeting July 29, Chan cellor Jack K. Williams said Friday. The committee makes its final recommenda tions to Williams. Williams, who will make a final recom mendation for the presidency to the board at that meeting, said the regents may or may not appoint a new president at that time. Williams is acting president until a new president is appointed. ‘Tm sure they’ll want to interview these people before making a decision,’’ Wil liams said. The 12-man Faculty Advisory Commit tee to the President, made up of represent atives elected by secret ballot from each of the colleges of the University, is review ing a list of 41 nominees, with the chancel lor, Williams said. That list included 11 nominees from within the University sys tem and 30 from “outside”. The committee will try to fill the post with someone from within the system be fore considering outsiders, Williams said. “We’ve spent one day removing people from the list that don’t meet the qualifica tions,” he said. The regents earlier established a set of criteria the new president must meet. Those requirements include: an earned doctorate in an established field of study; “considerable experience” in education at a land grant university or system; class room teaching experience; good charac ter and health, and age of 45-60 years. The board originally required someone 45-55 years old, but someone up to 60 would be acceptable, Williams said. “We re seeking the men,” he said- “We re not interested in having the men seek us.” So the committee is accepting nominations for the presidency from any one interested in submitting them, he said. “We’re pleased to have nominations from anyone. Or comments anyone may have on the presidency for that matter,” he said. Going, going, gone Battalion photo by Mary C. Becker Prospective bidders inspect one of the 25 bicy cles auctioned off Saturday at the Grove Theatre. rosecutors to get evidence The Texas A&M Wheelmen and Alpha Phi Omega collected $1098.25. A red tricycle sold for $11. Youth sets fire to padded cell, gases kill 42 prisoners, visitors Business associate Yarbrough forged claims car title United Press International iOUSTON — A Houston newspaper is wrting that Travis County prosecutors get evidence today alleging Texas )reme Court Justice Donald B. Yar- ugh participated in the forgery of an omobile title last month in his Austin itel. n a copyrighted story in its Sunday edi- i, The Houston Post said the matter been turned over to Travis County strict Attorney Ronnie Earle. 'he Post, in its Saturday editions, re ported Yarbrough sought to have a former banking business partner, Bill Kemp, kil led for $2,500, and have the body taken out of the country. The murder-for-hire plot was hatched because Kemp could in criminate Yarbrough before a grand jury, the article said. District Attorney Carol S. Vance of Houston said the matter is alleged to have occurred during the time Yarbrough has served on the state’s highest court. “This did occur while Justice Yarbrough was a member of the State Supreme )iZ company to drill veil on A&M land .b. 98' 77' .Lb. Pkg.l 19 99 By JERRY NEEDHAM Drilling of a 23,000-foot depth oil and well will begin soon on Texas A&M liversity-owned land six miles south- :st of the main campus, say Getty Oil impany spokesmen. The site of the proposed well is east of ite highway 50 on a 3,192-acre tract of id adjacent to the Brazos River in Burle- n County. Skelly Oil Co. obtained a three-year ise on the land at a public auction on \. 25, 1977, at a cost of $430,928 or $135 acre. Skelly has leased the land for the it five years and conducted extensive sts in the area. Six days after obtaining the lease, Skelly erged with Getty Oil Co. Another oil company was in serious impetition for the lease, said James »nd, attorney for the Texas A&M Uni- :rsity System. fficers still looking or suspected killer of three Girl Scouts United Press International LOCUST GROVE, Okla. — The hun- reds of civilian volunteers that searched lie dense undergrowth of Skunk Moun- lin are gone, but scores of law enforce- lent officers still are busy following leads i their search for the suspected killer of Iree young Girl Scouts. Four SWAT teams from the highway atrol and FBI searched a section of hill ountry about three miles long and half a lile wide yesterday for evidence that light indicate Gene Leroy Hart was hid- ig in the area. Authorities have said they believe Hart, Cherokee Indian born in the area, has ieen hiding there since his escape from lil four years ago. Hart fled from the Mayes County jail at earby Pryor in April, 1973. He had been fought to the jail from the McAlester rison, where he was serving a 140-year entence for rape and kidnaping, to appear s a witness in another trial. Most of our men are back in and we ave nothing so far,” Lt. Kenneth Van loy, highway patrol information officer, aid yesterday afternoon. “It’s been about he same as yesterday, we really have noth ng very productive to report. ” He said the undergrowth was so dense, man “could be two to three feet” from earchers and still be hidden. Roving patrols keep watch at night over he tree and brush covered rolling hills learCamp Scott, where Lori Lee Farmer, I, and Michelle Guse, 9, and Doris De- dse Farmer, 10, were found murdered »nd sexually asaulted June 13. Ray Faudry, a spokesman for Getty’s regional office in Houston, said the it will take about a year to complete the well at an approximate cost of $6,000,000. Allen Weatherby, a spokesman for Amoco, Getty’s operator for the project, said yesterday that final arrangements on a contract to drill the well are still ongoing, but that a deal should be consummated within three weeks. Meanwhile construction of the founda tion for the drilling platform has already begun. The three-year lease can be extended indefinitely at a cost of one dollar per acre per year as long as the company is produc ing oil, gas or sulfur in paying quantities. The lease provides that if the company strikes oil, gas or sulfur, the Texas A&M University System gets paid one-fifth of the profits. Any royalty money collected by the University System would go into a special mineral fund. Bond said. The royalties themselves are not ever used, Bond said, but interest on the money is used for per manent improvements on university sys tem land. Court. I don’t want to get into any details of the case whether it involves a Supreme Court justice or just a lowly man on the street,” Vance said. “It will be up to him (Earle) to deter mine how to proceed from there. I can’t go into the details of the case which might be pending before a court.” John William “Bill” Rothkopf, 58, a former business associate of Yarbrough, claimed he was with the justice May 16 when he forged the title to a 1974 Chev rolet Monte Carlo, the Post said. The car initially cropped up in a Harris County civil court trial in January, when Yarbrough testified he deeded the car over to Rothkopf in return for what he owed a builder for construction of book shelves. Yarbrough then produced a purported receipt signed by Rothkopf in an effort to show that if anyone owed for the book shelves it was Rothkopf, the Post said. Rothkopf told the Post the car belonged to Yarbrough when he was in control of the Commercial Bank of Victoria in 1974. He said Yarbrough gave him the car in return for leaving the area and staying out of sight when any legal actions came up involving the Houston businessman and attorney. Rothkopf told the Post the complex maneuver of obtaining a title in a third person’s name for Rothkopfs use involved license plates from an unknown county in Alabama. He said the Austin forgery was the next step in getting a Texas title and license plates. United Press International COLUMBIA, Tenn. — Authorities said the foam in a padded cell would be analyzed today to determine the “toxic- agent” that apparently killed 42 prisoners and visitors in a fire in the Maury County jail. The fire, allegedly started by an emo tionally disturbed youth in the padded cell during visiting hours yesterday, was con fined to the 6 by 10-foot cell, but black smoke and gases spread through the vent ilating system. “This two-inch thick foam padding was what caused the killing gases. We re going to get it analyzed,” said assistant fire chief Wayne Hickman. Dr. George Mayfield, a local physician, said blood samples were taken from eight of the victims and autopsies would be per formed on two of the dead to determine the “toxic agent” that killed them. He did not rule out simple carbon monoxide. Sheriff Bill Voss said Andy Zimmer, 16, a fugitive from a home for mentally dis turbed children in Dousman, Wis., set fire to his cell, possibly with a cigarette given him by someone visiting another prisoner. Around 75 persons were in the one- story, cross-shaped jail when the fire broke out about 1:30 p.m. CDT. “I’m on fire,” Zimmer screamed, and the cry of “fire!” rose above the buzz of conversation in the jail. Panic ensued. Jerry Wayne Dickey, the sheriffs crim inal investigator, ran back to open the cells and collided with visitors stampeding to ward the jail entrance through the smoke. “All the visitors tried to get out the door where I was, and they pinned me against the wall, and I dropped my keys. I shouted for the dispatcher to call and get a bulldozer over here so we could push the wall down and get the people out,” he said. The lethal gas took its toll so quickly that the screams from the jail stopped within four minutes after the fire was dis covered. Four members of one family were believed to be among the victims. Ambulances shuttled 75 persons to Maury County Hospital. Hospital officials said early today that 42 persons were kil led and 33 were injured. Of the injured, 12 were transferred to Nashville hospitals, six were treated and released and 15 were hospitalized here. One witness said Zimmer’s padded cell “went up like wildfire.” Chief deputy Bob Farmer and jailer Willie Cummings dragged Zimmer from his smoking cell as the ventilation system gushed blinding smoke through the build ing. Firemen rushed to the jail from their station a block away and began punching a hole in the back wall. They cleared a hole about the time Dickey, alternately run ning outside to get fresh air and then grop ing along a smoke-filled corridor, found the keys. That was about 12 minutes after the fire began. “That place was so full you could hardly walk in it,” said ambulance attendant Eugene Ford. “It was absolute hell.” Most of the dead were found piled in a corner of the back wing. “The apparently heard us trying to get them out,” the sheriff said. Most of the bodies were cov ered with soot, but few were burned. Zimmer was rushed to a Nashville hos pital, where he was reported in critical condition with burns over 25 per cent of his body. Bishop defies Pope Paul — could he excommunicated United Press Internationa) PARIS — Rebel Roman Catholic Bishop Marcel Lefebvre has defied Pope Paul VI and left himself open to excommunication by ordaining a traditionalist priest and promising more this week in violation of a direct papal order. The 71-year-old French bishop Sunday ordained Benedictine monk Augustin Marie in the monastary of Flavigny sur Ozerain in Burgundy, a Lefebvre spokes man in Paris told reporters. He said Lefebvre, who was suspended last year from all preistly functions by the Pope, still plans to ordain 13 priests and 22 subdeacons Wednesday at his traditionalist seminary in Econe, Switzer land, despite a papal warning. The former archbishop of Dakar, Senegal and Tulle, France, was suspended for his rejection of the liturgical reforms ordered by the Second Vatican Council. Annual pay raise for members part of Congress’ busy agenda Battalion places second; editors receive awards The Battalion received two first place awards for journalistic excel lence in feature and editorial writ ing during ceremonies Thursday at the 1977 Texas Press Association convention in Galveston. The Battalion placed second in its division of Texas newspapers with circulation 8,000 to 150,000, and was the only student newspaper in the TPA awards program. The award-winning articles were written by former Battalion Campus Editor Lisa Junod and Battalion Sports Editor Paul McGrath. Ms. Junod’s feature story on the antics of Dr. Rod O’Connor on the first day of class in Chemistry 101 and McGrath’s editoral on illegal search and seizure of fireworks in the Corps dorms were judged best in a field of 10 other Texas news papers by a team of Florida judges. Accepting the awards for The Bat talion were fall editor Jamie Aitken and Student Publications Director Gael Cooper. The TPA convention brought some 400 representatives of daily and weekly newspapers from throughout the state. United Press International WASHINGTON — Members of Con gress will be faced with two strictly self- interest roll call votes amidst a busy week in advance of a 10-day recess over the July 4 holiday. The $12,900 annual pay raise which members accepted four months ago with out a vote is back this week, as well as a vote on whether to pass up an annual cost of living increase due members in October unless they vote to spurn it. On Tuesday the House calls up a $941 million appropriations bill to finance Con gress and related agencies in the 1978 fis cal year beginning Oct. 1. The emotional issues of abortion and school busing face the Senate, meanwhile. Both are included in a $60.7 billion money bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare. The House’s embarrassing pay prob lems start with a Senate-passed bill that calls for skipping an estimated 5 per cent cost of living pay boost for Congress, top executive branch officials and the judiciary. The measure is expected to pass easily, as it did in the Senate. It will set the stage for a tougher fight over cutting of the 29 per cent pay boost Congress got March 1. Opponents of the increase complained because a roll call was avoided when the raise was adopted on recommendation of an independent panel. Now, House Speaker Thomas O’Neill says critics will have their chance to see a vote on the issue because an amendment will be offered to cut the current $57,500 a year pay back to $44,600 when the con gressional appropriations bill is consid ered. In the Senate, the most explosive issue this week is a provision in the HEW budget which says no federal money can be used for abortions except to save a wo man’s life, in a medical emergency, or if a woman is a victim of rape or incest. A House-passed version of the bill pro hibits federal money for abortions under any circumstances. A similar anti-abortion measure approved last year is now before the Supreme Court. In a hand-written letter to Lefebvre made public last week, the Pope warned the ordinations would be “making-irrepar able the break with the unity and charity of the Catholic communion” — a warning that excommunication would follow. As news of yesterday’s act of defiance by Lefebvre reached Rome, the Pope ap peared at the Vatican balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square for his regular Sunday blessing of pilgrims and appealed for “firmness in the Catholic faith.” Some observers said the pontiff was ask ing the faithful to remain firm in the face of Lefebvre’s challenge. The heart of the quarrel lies in Lefebvre’s refusal to accept the Second Vatican Council reforms, which, among other things, allow the mass to be celeb rated in languages other than Latin and require the priest to face the congregation rather than the altar. Lefebvre has said of his quarrel with the Pope, “I am not the revolutionary, he is,” and has publicly labeled the Pontiff a “heretic,” “schismatic” and a “tool of com- unism.” One of Lefebvre’s spokesmen, asked about the new papal warning, said, “The threats do not impress us. We are used to them.” Earlier this year a group of Lefebvre supporters occupied a Paris church and demanded they be given their own church in which to conduct the traditionalist mass. The French government owns most church buildings in the country. The county giveth and the county taketh away Battalion Stall Photo College Station’s City Council has decided to ac cept bids on a new modulance-type ambulance for the city. That modulance would be similar to the unit the city now has on loan from Brazos County (shown above). County commissioners earlier this month gave the city notice that the county wants its unit back, to be loaned to Mid- Tex Ambulance of Bryan.