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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 1979)
Battalion said 'yes.’ M s do it’ andj ’ages Wednesday, January 10, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Spring registration starts at A&M Registration for spring semester classes at Texas A&M University began this morning. “We’ve pre-registered 22,000 and expect a total enrollment between 28,000 and 29,000,” said Associate Registrar Don Carter. Registration will be held in the Exhibit Hall of the Rudder Com plex. Drop-adds will be in G. Rollie White Coliseum. r Joe Unis! at the teaiin :edure. The.f • score tiedSj to put all d jumpingai Unis said, cs. Keep; ; it. I didn't lie/ being nervo;| ave Iran .S. hopes hah will izes about/ 1 iddenly it m us Joe wask second halt ■ game] waso Dave Huffis d over tile never over, it different! pen in footk g happened minds gota 1. “We start 1 United Press International SHINGTON — In an attempt to iBhe civilian government in Iran, nled States has shifted its policy to- the shah and agreed that he should the country permanently, officials sec! Tuesday. y said that the policy change was oiled to U.S. Ambassador William in, who talks almost daily to the shah iran. His former instructions were to icommital on the subject of the shah g or staying. new instructions, the officials said, to agree, if asked, that the shah I leave the country. Sullivan was also ed not to volunteer the recom- ition to the shah. he present situation, it is regarded as ly that the shah would return to ^eleven a short “vacation would be* pount to a permanent departure, ^wer, a U.S. Task Force, operating ^■ndersecretary of State David pm, came to the conclusion that a ^fcrnment would have a much bet- Hce of giving a credible image of endence if the shah were not in the I iw’licy change followed a practically op debate within the administration /pears to mean that the State De- snt has come to the conclusion that » has no future in his own country, ver the outcome of the current aking sides confine war United Press International JHINGTON — Americans like to sides, whether they’re watching a Hard contest, a political race — or a nost Americans are hard put to ^^__.ho to support in Southeast Asia e Vietnam troops reportedly are past the capital deep into bibring Cambodia. ^ i State Department has had its own ems sorting out the good guys from ■ §§ in the conflict. When the dispute I for the United Nations, the de- icnt found itself in a very difficult oil over which it had little or no con- e country — Vietnam — had invaded _ei’s territory. The other — Cam- ■ — had apparently practiced ide against its own people. ■department concluded the higher Clayton third term as speaker Five Missouri-Pacific Railroad tank cars contain ing vinyl chloride gas that derailed Friday were moved out of Bryan Tuesday. Dow Chemical and Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. railroad workmen righted the cars after placing them on a set of replacement wheels; the cars had remained on the tracks over the weekend. Investigation proceeding in Friday train derailment ed for a I pie is territorial integrity, and has ;h for the ed that as repugnant as they find it, (ilvertheless will support Cambodia photo by Paifi debate. ——^M^gbest U.S. diplomatic efforts are titrated on trying to keep it from ing the next level — confrontation gin China and the Soviet Union, !|at some point could involve both nunist giants in other parts of the | and in other relationships, ulti- y affecting the United States, ina has strongly supported the Pol OdGH 6 ®' 1 " 6 * n Cambodia, and the Soviet Saias been a supporter and supplier 'ijary assistance to Vietnam, te Department officials report a fur- ...,/uildup of Chinese aircraft and troops 33S6Q Wlietnam’s northern border. They could DtiflQ FOOlT rrn re P orts °f a Soviet troop build- igChina’s border, but sources said !S laX. nited States is concerned the Soviets Jither create, or threaten to create, -afTy border incidents to divert 10 /lUUr esc troops. .partment spokesman Hodding Car- II said Monday Vietnam’s invasion 1ES0AY's the danger of wider conflict and a SPECIAL epartment concerned “that the re- Fried Sled m conflict could involve other Q rav ,, e United States already' has sup- d U.N. Security Council action on Potatoes at conflict, and Hodding Carter if one othe'badowed the position America will etable * n the debate when he told reporters: iread andf nam is guilty of aggression. ” g or Tea e apparent collapse of the Pol Pot rnment, however, has thrown into t any U.N. action. The Vietnam- ;d People’s Revolution Council says it total control of the country and would se any U.N. action. By DOUG GRAHAM Battalion Staff An investigation is proceeding to dis cover the cause of Friday' s derailment of five tank cars filled with flammable and potentially explosive liquified vinyl chloride gas. Roughly 250 people were evacuated from their homes. Two of the Missouri- Pacific cars remained upright, but three overturned in soft mud beside the track. The accident happened around 3 p.m. one half mile west of the 1200 block of College Avenue. Nearby businesses, homes, and an apartment complex were evacuated, but the residents were allowed to return to their homes by Friday night. Willard Schultz, Missouri-Pacific’s re gional public relations manager, said that no injuries occurred and that the tank cars were undamaged and no gas escaped. The cause for the derailment has not yet been determined, Schultz said, but he suggested probable cause was equipment or human failure. A spokesman for the vinyl chloride manufacturer, Dow Chemi cal Company, said that if an explosion had occurred, “It would be a terrific force. The only damage that did occur, Schultz said, was to the track. Approximately 140 feet will have to be replaced, he said. The cost would be around $1,500 he said, excluding the cost of the construction crews needed to right and place the cars back on the track. The train. Local 966-04, consisted of 50 cars and was waiting to join a second train from Valley Junction. The combined train was destined for Fort Worth to deliver 4 cars of raw petroleum derivative to Diamond Shamrock, who could use it to make anything from PVC pipe to rain coats. However, the Valley Junction train was 30 minutes late and Local 966-04’s crew decided to back up to stop blocking street crossings. Schultz said the derailment oc curred while the train moved backwards at 4-5 mph. Jack Heard, Dow’s spokesman, said that Dow sent four experts to Bryan upon learning of the derailment. Two were from Dow’s Oyster Creek plant, which loaded the chemical, and two were from the Dow complex in Freeport. One of the men was an expert in chemical effects on ecology, he said, and another knows about handling vinyl chloride in dangerous situations, he said. That individual helps^ local fire depart ments in emergencies, he said. “People are not as familiar with these products as we are,” he said, adding, “after all, we make the stuff. In addition, Missouri Pacific, Schultz said, carries computer print-outs with every train that lists which cars carry dangerous materials and the precautions and methods used in the event of derail ments or fires. “It used to be the firemen used to say, ‘we don’t even know what it is that we re fighting,’ he said. “Now that isn’t the case.” He said both the engineer and conduc tor carry copies of the list in case one or the other can’t be reached. Forty-two percent of derailments in 1976 are the result of track failure, Schultz said, with 21 and 23 percent the fault of equipment failure and human error, re spectively. Other causes account for the remaining 14 percent, he said. “So if you made the right-of-way per fect,” he said, “you’d still have 60 per cent. Schultz said railways have a superior safety record to trucks which also carry hazardous materials “through the center of town. The regional director of safety for the Federal Railroad Administration, Robert Johnson, said his agency would not probe the derailment. The FDA investigates rail accidents, Johnson said. But it does not investigate unless a fatal or serious injury, serious danger to a community, or derailment of 40 or more cars occurs, he said. The agency would investigate the acci dent if a serious accident occurred in the near future in the same place. Friday’s derailment was the first in re cent Brazos County history, said Raymond Janac, Bryan’s fire marshal since 1959. He and his firemen drew compliments for their cooperation from Schultz. “We re ceived a wonderful response from the Bryan Fire Department,” he said. The two upright cars were on track by Friday, and the overturned ones were ready to roll by Saturday. By ROLAND LINDSEY UPI Capitol Reporter United Press International AUSTIN — Speaker Bill Clayton easily won re-election to an unprecedented third consecutive term Tuesday, and warned lawmakers it will take a miracle for the 1979 Legislature to resolve conflicting citi zen demands for tax relief and additional state services during the 140-day session. Clayton’s supporters turned back at tempts to force a secret ballot on his bid to become the first speaker in Texas history to serve three consecutive terms, and the Springlake farmer was elected with only eight dissenting votes. There were no other nominations. The move for a secret ballot in the speaker’s race was the opening round of an expected hassle concerning a series of rules proposals aimed at diluting the power of the speaker and giving individual House members more control over com mittee assignments and the handling of legislation. Debate on the rules will not begin be fore today, when the Legislature will meet in joint session to hear Gov. Dolph Bris coe’s budget recommendations and farewell address. The Senate quickly adopted its rules for the session, voting for the first time to open to the public executive sessions for consideration of confirming appointments by the governor. Lt. Gov. William P. Hobby appointed Sen. Grant Jones, D-Abilene, to succeed the retired Sen. A.M. Aikin Jr., D-Paris, as chairman of the powerful Senate Fi nance Committee. Senators meeting in closed caucus be fore the session convened at noon failed to agree, however, on whether the wife of a Texas labor leader should be retained as sergeant-at-arms. Marceil Hubbard, wife of Texas AFL-CIO president Harry Hub bard, was appointed to the position during the summer, but must win Senate ap proval to retain the job during the remain der of the session. The House must decide a challenge to the re-election of Rep. Don Cartwright, D-San Antonio, before moving on to other business, and Clayton said he will not an- Batt to return Braving threats of ice, a few staff mem bers produced this holiday edition of The Battalion last night. The newspaper will resume daily publi cation Monday with the beginning of spring classes. Also scheduled for next week is Thurs day publication of focus. The Battalion’s weekly feature and entertainment sup plement. Clubs and organizations that want to place announcements in the daily “what’s up” column should deliver the notice to the newspaper office at least two working days in advance. Offices are located in Room 216 of the Reed McDonald Build ing. Letters to the editor and questions for President Jarvis Miller also should be sent to The Battalion office. Letters require name, address, telephone number and academic classification for verification. dentists to study cash, projects _.i!!^rantsmanship — the art of securing j^ls for research — is the subject of at t one part of the annual meeting here scientists in the Texas Agricultural Ex- iment Station. ome 500 scientists from the 13 re- •'ch and extension centers and smaller Y SPECIAM around sta * e b e g an a series of meetings this morning that will run ID EVEPjugh Friday. RKEY Dll'hey will attend the grantsmanship 'ed with linar and other professional develop- >rry Sauce tit sessions Thursday morning. Other ad Dressinfes include national agricultural Bread - Buries, trends in research funding and 3 0 r Tea methods to make projects t Gravy re attractive for continued funding, 'hoice of afi ' Pe P J ac ’k Hightower of Vernon was pnetable »h‘led to address the opening session he conference this morning.' exas A&M University President Jarvis Vr was to introduce Hightower, who represents the 13th Congressional District in North Texas. Miller was director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station be fore he became president last year. The current director. Dr. Neville Clarke, also was scheduled to speak. This afternoon, heads of departments ranging from agricultural communications to veterinary science will conduct sessions across the campus. Commodity and special interest sessions are scheduled for the scientists Thursday afternoon. The scientists will receive out-of-state advice Friday morning on trends in ag riculture and how to protect their research programs. Dr. Perry L. Adkisson, vice president for agriculture and renewable resources at Texas A&M, also is scheduled to speak to the group. Stratospheric ‘sudden warmings' Weather predicted miles up United Press International COLLEGE STATION — Snow in Florida and budding trees in arc tic Alaska could have something in common. They might someday even help predict what years Texans need to invest in snow tires. James McGuirk, a Texas A&:M meteorologist, says there is a rela tionship between certain kinds of colder-than-usual winter weather and a phenomenon known as stratospheric sudden warming that occurs miles above the earth. McGuirk wants to look at the last 80 years of weather information in the United States and Canada to see if certain signs can warn of the kinds of severe winters suffered na tionwide in late 1976 and January 1977. No one quite knows the whole picture, says McGuirk, because very cold winter weather is not al ways tied to anything in the stratos phere, the behavior of which is also not completely understood. Huge distortions in the jet stream develop, explains McGuirk, and at any one time it may warm Alaska to the point where trees bud, while snow falls in tropical Florida. “These distortions, which accom pany stratospheric sudden warming, apparently have occurred in about half the years since 1952. Perhaps half of those have resulted in severe surface weather and unseasonable conditions,” he said. By examining pressure and tem perature data compiled since 1900, McGuirk says he hopes to pin down the relationship of stratospheric sudden warmings and what is hap pening on the ground. If patterns emerge, they could serve as warnings for scientists about the likelihood of future stratospheric sudden warmings and the results they might have on the surface thousands of feet below. ’5' <3-n*L*r'' In plotting weather summaries on maps, McGuirk has demonstrated that the 1977 reports of snow in Florida, warm weather in Alaska and dry weather in the West all had similar counterparts during January of 1958, 1963 and 1971 — times of stratospheric sudden warming dis ruptions. His efforts have received support from Organized Research, a special fund established by the Legislature to foster research of benefit to Tex- nounce committee assignments until the election dispute filed by Republican Kae Thomas Patrick is resolved. Rep. Bob Close, R-Perryton, pushed the move to have the speaker s race settled by a secret ballot, saying the secrecy was necessary to avoid undue pressure on members by the speaker. Only one other Texan, M.D.K. Taylor in the late 1800s, served three terms as speaker, and no two of those terms were consecutive. “This is an era which historians will write about,” Clayton said, noting the state has its first Republican governor in 104 years, record budget surpluses for three consecutive terms, and his election to a third consecutive term. “I know we will face some of the hardest decisions ever,” Clayton said. “I know it will take a miracle to accomplish all we need to in 140 days, particularly in light of the general attitude of our citizenry, tax relief on the one hand, additional services on the other. “But you know, I believe in miracles.” Secretary of State Steve Oaks, who called the House to order and presided until Clayton’s election, told the lawmak ers the citizens of Texas are frustrated be cause inflation and government excesses are destroying the prospects for what he called the American dream — home own ership, providing education for children and an opportunity for happiness. “Where government has needlessly complicated the lives of the citizens it serves, it must cease and desist. Where government has wrongfully intruded into the lives of our fellow Texans, it must withdraw at once. Oaks said. “Texans are petitioning government to address our common problems with com mon sense, hard work and straight talk. They want government to become less concerned about perpetuating govern ment, and more concerned about the people it serves. 3 Texas A&M regents’ terms expire today From staff and wire reports AUSTIN — The six-year terms of three Texas A&M University regents, including the chairman and the vice-chairman of the Board of Regents, are scheduled to expire today. Gov. Dolph Briscoe had been expected to name the appointments before the Legislature convened next Tuesday, but failed to make the re-appointments or new appointments Tuesday. The governor’s appointments are subject to the approval of the Texas legislature. Chairman Clyde H. Wells of Granbury, Vice-Chairman Richard A. Goodson of Dallas and Mrs. Wilmer Smith of Wilson are the Texas A&:M regents whose terms are now expiring. Briscoe also failed Tuesday to announce three new appointments to the Board of Regents of the University of Texas Tues day, but a Briscoe aide said the reason was due to a technicality. Andy Kever, Briscoe’s appointments secretary, said Briscoe’s decision to wait and name the new regents later in the week was based on an attorney general’s decision stating that officially the regents’ terms expired on Wednesday. He said Briscoe’s decision was not affected by the UT Board of Regents current negotiations to name a new president to replace Dr. Lorene Rogers. “The governor’s business is indepen dent to that (the selection of a new presi dent),” Kever said. Kever said Briscoe would name the new UT regents today or Thursday. Sources in the governor’s office would say only that the governor will make the Texas A&:M appointments before he leaves office. Allan Shivers and Ed Clark, both of Austin, and James Bauerle of San Antonio are the UT regents whose terms also ex pire today. By not announcing the appointment be fore the Legislature convenes, the incum bent regents can serve until the new ap pointees are confirmed by the Senate. “If an appointment is made prior to the Senate convening, then that person can serve immediately, Kever said. “If the Legislature has already convened, then the old regents serve until the new ones are confirmed by the Senate.” Buck Weirus, executive director of the Association of Former Students at Texas A&:M, said that since the decision of ap pointment rests upon the governor, the regents do not campaign or actively seek reappointment. He said that it is his opin ion that the three Texas A&M regents will accept if reappointed to the board. Both Wells and Goodson said Tuesday that they would accept if reappointed. Smith could not be reached for comment. Wells has served for three terms on the board, while Goodson and Smith are finishing their first term.
