The Battalion
'Ol. 72 No. 72
Pages
Wednesday, January 3, 1979
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Pre-season
4
showing
The Battalion, like the hoary
groundhog, will poke its nose out
with another edition on Wednes-
it will be out of the hole on a regular
basis starting the 15th, the first day
of spring semester classes.
day, Jan. 10. Shadow or no shadow,
fexas-size freeze
curtails gas, power
By EDWARD FULTON
United Press International
.rassed natural gas companies, includ-
oe giant LoVaca Gathering Co. of
I Texas, Tuesday cut or curtailed
lies of natural gas at spots in every
m of Texas in their struggle to keep
jis warm following a bitter polar
immediate result was that public
companies, some operating with no
l gas to fuel their generators, ex-
ced power drains. The Texas Public
Commission appealed to busi-
and the public to use only neces-
lectricity to prevent blackouts or
outs.
National Weather Service pre
lows in the teens in most areas of
early Wednesday, following lows
freezing early Tuesday in all areas of
ite. A gradual warming trend was
ed late today.
aca, which supplies about one-
ofTexas’ total natural gas needs, cut
“s by 50 percent to electric power
land by 100 percent to commercial
ether industrial users. LoVaca
ks gas directly to most of south and
P Texas, and sells its surplus to other
Inies.
aca cut its sales to Lone Star Gas
north and east Texas from a high of
illion cubic feet a day to the con-
minimum of 220 mcf.
Simon Barker-Benfield, public affairs
director, said the curtailment did not af
fect heating for homes, schools and hospi
tals.
“This morning’s (Tuesday) demand was
extremely high, a rate of about 3 billion
cubic feet per day,” Barker-Benfield said.
“The company anticipated this surge with
a procedure called Tine packing.’ How
ever, that pack has depleted and it has to
be replaced by more gas. The only way to
replace the pack is by curtailment.”
He said the freezing weather also af
fected several areas of LoVaca’s operation,
including compressors, treating plants and
gas wells themselves.
“Gas contains moisture as it comes out
of the ground and it is freezing at the well
head and causing delivery problems,”
Barker-Benfield said. “For example,
offshore platforms in the Gulf off of
Matagorda Bay have been delivering 15
million thousand cubic feet, instead of (the
normal) 50 mmef. ”
The cutback was severe in Dallas and
Fort Worth, where natural gas supplies
were cut to industrial and commercial us
ers, leaving Dallas Power & Light Co. and
some Texas Power & Light Co. generating
plants without natural gas.
DP&L Vice President Bill Aston Tues
day said a telephone campaign early Tues
day to major business customers asking for
voluntary cutbacks helped considerably.
oor driving blamed
r holiday death rate
United Press International
e Department of Public Safety Tues-
Mributed many of the state’s 39 New
i holiday deaths to poor driving con-
ti caused by a weekend winter storm,
aid the greater fault lay with drivers
refused to slow down even on ice.
aal DPS traffic figures indicated 39
ins died on state highways from 6 p. m
ly through midnight Monday. Eleven
e deaths during that 78-hour period
|,on city streets, an unusually large
j)er for a holiday period when most
Occidents occur on the highways.
( was the icy roads,” said a DPS
Isman who earlier had issued warn -
for Texans to stay home during the
jend.
p'e ice kept some people off the roads,
lot enough. For the those who were
the ice just made it that much more
erous.”
st year 30 persons died during the
period. The DPS considered that ex-
ely high.
it during the 1978 Christmas traffic
bj, 57 persons were killed in 78 hours
ig dry, warm weather. The DPS pes-
itically predicted at least 35 deaths for
4ew Year, but no one had foreseen the
t of the weather.
polar front trailing snow, sleet and
’.ing rain struck Texas early Sunday
and made roads extremely hazardous
across the Texas Panhandle, where snow
fell, to the pine thickets of East Texas and
as far south as Austin. Freezing tempera
tures glazed over highways even in the
generally tropical Rio Grande Valley
Monday night.
The worst of the holiday wrecks oc
curred Monday when a car carrying three
persons in Nt Caney in Montgomery
County was smashed by a train. All three
persons in the car, Daniel Thomas Parker,
30, Sharon Rose Geary, 26, and Brian
Raymond Jr., 6, were killed in the acci
dent. Four others were injured.
The first reported fatality of 1979 was
Danaso Anthony Olivares, 21, of San An
tonio who skidded his motorcycle off a city
street and was killed. The DPS said his
death occurred one minute after midnight
New Year’s Day, and on an ice glazed
street.
He was quickly followed by Candelario
Martinez Blanco, 52, of Raymondville who
was struck by a car about 1:23 a.m.
Monday a mile north of Lyford on U.S. 77.
A few minutes later Charles Bohner of
Perryton ran off an icy road in Dallas and
was killed.
The DPS said the 39 deaths occurred in
35 accidents. Six were pedestrians, four
died in auto-train crashes and there was
one motorcycle crash.
and that the danger of brownouts or black
outs was receding.
“If they (businesses) had not responded
we still probably would have gotten
along,” he said. “But we were on the
fringe where if we lost a generator, or had
some other machinery malfunction along
with a heavy output which we had then,
we might have had one.”
Alan Erwin, member of the Public Util
ity Commission in Austin, said the threat
of brownouts or blackouts existed
statewide.
“Due to the unusual weather conditions
and the resulting curtailment of natural
gas throughout the state, a critical condi
tion has developed in which natural gas
electric generating units are not capable of
operating to their maximum extent,” he
said.
“Unless the weather improves a poten
tial for additional brownouts throughout
the state exists. The Public Utility Com
mission asks that all industrial and com
mercial enterprises in every sector of
Texas take whatever steps possible to
minimize their use of electricity. The resi
dential sector is also asked to curtail usage
to the maximum extent possible.
Natural gas companies supply fuel based
on priorities established by the state. Top
priority goes to residential users, followed
by hospitals, nursing homes, industrial
users (including electrical generating
companies) and then to commercial users.
Most schools in Dallas-Fort Worth
closed, and numerous businesses either
closed or opened late in the day Tuesday.
Texas Instruments, one of the largest em
ployers in north Texas, did not open until
the second shift in its Dallas, Lewisville,
Plano and Sherman plants.
By midday Tuesday, there still were
10,000 customers in Dallas without power,
but that was due to the New Year’s holiday
ice storm, and most were in areas where
falling trees not only broke power lines but
also pulled wires out of the houses.
Alton Hafter, spokesman for Entex Inc.
of Weimar, 80 miles southwest of Hous
ton, said the city lost its natural gas flow
completely at 8:30 a.m. because of a
mechanical problem in the pipeline. The
Weimar City Hall, heated by electricity,
was one of the few warm buildings in town
until Entex corrected the problem later in
the day.
Corpus Christi Tuesday reported a
blackout. Bob Noster, spokesman for Cen
tral Power and Light, said the outage af
fected 2,500 people on the city’s southwest
side, and was caused by the heavy cus
tomer demand.
John Poerner, chairman of the Railroad
Commission which regulates utilities in
Texas, said distribution was the problem.
“There is no shortage of natural gas,” he
said. “The system of distributing the gas
itself is just not suffiencient to handle the
quantity of gas that is in demand for these
low degree mornings.”
Ben Schoal, spokesman for San An
tonio’s City Public Service, said it was
converting to fuel oil in its generators.
“There’s only so much natural gas that
can be packed into the transmission lines
into the city,” he said. “This is not new.
This happens every winter when you have
a severe cold snap.”
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Chillier than Anchorage
One of the harshest cold fronts ever to hit Texas left higher than freezing yesterday, ice can still be
much of the state looking like a crystal fairy land. found on roads, cars and trees.
With temperatures in Bryan-College Station barely Battalion photo by Karen Comeiison
Airline flights interrupted;
renewed violence hits Iran
By SAJID RIZVI
United Press International
TEHRAN, Iran — Hundreds of Ameri
cans and other foreigners fled Iran’s up
heaval in U.S. Air force transports and
commercial airliners Tuesday while more
antishah demonstraters fell under the gun
fire of soldiers.
State Department officials in Washing
ton described the air traffic situation
around Tehran as “confused” and they said
they have received reports that two airlin
ers — one British, the other Irish — were
intercepted by Iranian Air Force planes
and forced to return to Tehran’s Interna
tional airport. The officials said both
planes were permitted to take off again.
In addition the American Broadcasting
Co. reported a chartered plane flying out
its television film had been intercepted
and ordered back to the airport.
Officials in Dublin reported a plane
leased by the Guinness Peat Brokerage
firm, bringing out 37 British and Irish
women who worked as cabin crew mem
bers for Iran air plus eight passengers and
a crew of nine, apparently was intercepted
by an Iranian air force jet near Tabriz and
told to return to Tehran. It complied and
left again several hours later without inci
dent the officials said.
Creative glasstvork
Hobby brings profits
Battalion photo by Ed Cunnius
ionnie Walton puts the finishing touches on one of her stained glass'
windows. Walton teaches people how to make their own stained glass
vindows and other things at her studio in College Station.
By RUSTY McDONALD
Battalion Reporter
The sound of breaking glass fills
the air. But, this sound doesn’t
mean bad luck to Bonnie Walton,
just money in the bank.
The 29-year-old Walton owns and
runs Walton Stained Glass Studio at
3810 Texas Ave., and the sounds of
breaking glass mean that she and
her students are at work making
stained glass windows.
“It sounds like Santa’s workshop
in here,” Walton said.
Walton was in Houston working
on her medical technology degree
from Herman Hospital when she got
interested in stained glass art.
“I worked in the hospital at night
and had the days off,” Walton said,
“so to kill time I enrolled in a class at
Bolton’s Stained Glass Studio. After
doing one window, I was hooked.”
Walton said she taught at Bolton’s
for five months and then she and her
pharmacist husband, Tommy,
moved to College Station. She said
that Bolton’s helped her set up a
studio in College Station and she
bought the Houston company out,
when she “got on her feet.”
Walton said she has taught about
800 people how to make stained
glass windows and lamps. She said
about half have come back to make
more.
“People start out wanting a
stained glass window and than find
the price prohibitive. Then I show
them how to make it themselves at a
much cheaper price,” Walton said.
Walton charges from $30 to $40
per square foot to make a window,
but says it costs about half that to
have a person do it themselves.
“they use their time, not mine,”
Walton said. “People like doing
things with their hands, and I get a
feeling of accomplishment when I
see my students finish their projects
and see how proud they are.”
Walton said that this is a some
what expensive hobby to get started
in. Her class fee is $20 and she said
the supplies, not including glass,
run from $35 to $40. The cost of the
glass depends on the quantity and
type, Walton said.
Besides teaching classes, Walton
also does commercial or custom
work and repair work on stained
glass windows and lamps. She said
she has done work for Danver s,
Serendipity, McDonald’s, Taco
Villa, French Royal Tot and
French’s Care-A-Lot.
Walton said her favorite windows
are the two she did for French’s
Care-A-Lot which were of Raggedy
Ann and Raggedy Andy.
Walton said that stained glass
adds color and gives character to a
room.
“It gives the room pizazz,” Wal
ton said.
“We are not just limited to win
dows and lamps, either,” Walton
said. “We can also do front doors,
room dividers, anything you can
think of to put stained galss into, we
can probably find a way to do.”
Washington State Department officials
said that in the light of the incidents, one
of the American military flights was sent in
to Tehran with the specific purpose of find
ing out if U.S. flights would be forced
down. The plane was not impeded, the
officials said, and other military flights fol
lowed to take out U.S. government de
pendents.
Premier-designate Shahpour Bakhtiar
in an emotional broadcast vowed:
“I shall not let this country be destroyed
even if I have to die. ” He promised to free
all political prisoners, allow political op
position and end martial law “gradually.”
But demonstrators who earlier shouted
“Death to the shah” took up a new slogan,
“Death to Shahpour Bakhtiar, henchman
of Amferican imperialists.”
Plainclothes men who demonstrators
said were Savak secret policemen attacked
opponents of Shah Mohammed Reza
Pahlavi and even passersby in Mashad, the
industrial city of Ghazvin west of Tehran
and the west Iranian city of Kermanshah.
The opposition claimed an estimated
700 died. Other sources claimed the death
toll might be even higher.
In Rafsanjan, in southern Iran, uniden
tified gunmen fatally shot the mayor of the
town. Radio Iran reported.
Doctors’ homes were set on fire and
physicians were beaten in Mashad and
Ghazvin in the worst backlash to the op
position movement. One doctor was killed
in Mashad, witnesses said, and several
were wounded in Ghazvin.
At least 24 people were killed Monday
by plainclothes men who drove around
Mashad in private cars firing into the air
and at street crowds, witnesses said.
In Firouzabad in south Iran, anti-shah
demonstrators attacked the Savak secret
police headquarters and freed people im
prisoned in an underground jail.
Several Savak officers laid their weapons
down, reports reaching Tehran said.
Military Premier Gen. Gholam Reza
Azhari resigned officially Monday. He was
told by the shah to stay on until Bakhtiar
forms a cabinet.
Parliament was expected to meet before
the Iranian weekend starts Thursday. It
will vote on his premiership and his
cabinet, which Bakhtiar said Monday was
“complete.
The relative optimism on the political
scene failed to calm public feelings. Nearly
half of the people queuing up at Tehran’s
Mehrabad airport Tuesday were Iranians
anxious to get out of the country.
Several Western airlines were expected
to cancel flights. Air India, PIA and the
Iraqi airways canceled operations in Iran
Monday, denying the frantic passengers
any connections to nearby Middle East
airports.
An estimated 700 American and British
expatriates and their dependents were
evacuated to Bahrain, in the Persian gulf,
in airplanes provided by oil firms Monday.
Davis retracts testimony;
prosecutor voices doubts
By STEVEN R. REED
United Press International
HOUSTON — The retraction of a por
tion of the testimony of T. Cullen Davis
has muddled his position on the critical
topic of conversations he claimed he had
with a Fort Worth lawyer while seeking
advice about the propriety of discussing
several slayings.
Davis last week testified he acted to pro
tect himself last summer when he feared
an employee was trying to lure him into
incriminating conversations about arrang
ing the murders of five persons.
Davis said he felt compelled to join in
the talks with David McCrory but feared
he was being trapped and could be prose
cuted. He participated in the potentially
dangerous discussions, he said, because he
believed that was what the FBI wanted
him to do in order to abort an extortion
scheme in which McCrory was a suspect.
But Tuesday Davis deleted his divorce
judge from the list of names he said he
supplied Hershel Payne when checking
with the attorney to see if he was breaking
the law by “talking about” killing people.
“As I remember it now, I didn’t (men
tion District Judge Joe H. Eidson),’’ Davis
testified of his inquiries with Payne.
“Did you have conversations with Mr.
Hershel Payne in which you talked about
killing people?” asked defense lawyer
Richard “Racehorse” Haynes.
“I don’t think so, if I did I didn’t mean
to,” Davis replied.
“Did you have conversations with Mr.
Hershel Payne in which you talked about
talking about killing people?” Haynes
asked.
“Yes,” Davis said.
Prosecutor Tolly Wilson noted Davis
had contradicted his earlier testimony and
. read from Davis’ explanations of last week
when he listed Eidson and four other per
sons as having been mentioned in conver
sations with McCrory.
“And it’s your testimony now that you
never did tell Hershel Payne that you
were having conversations with David
McCrory concerning killing Judge Joe
Eidson, is that correct?” Wilson asked.
“Yes,” Davis replied.
Prosecutor Jack Strickland said he in
terpreted Davis’ most recent testimony,
ending his four-day appearance as a wit
ness in his own defense, as recanting all
five names but said it would be up to
jurors to make their own conclusions.
Strickland said Davis was “stuck with
his testimony.
“I don’t see how he could reasonably be
expected to recant everything he said,”
Strickland said.
Davis was arrested Aug. 20 after meet
ing with McCrory on a restaurant parking
lot. McCrory testified Davis gave him
$25,000 in exchange for evidence Eidson
had been killed, although the judge actu
ally had not been harmed.
Davis denied the money was his, claims
he was returning it to McCrory and never
believed anyone would be killed as a result
of his encounters with McCrorv.