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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1979)
Battalion \Iq\. 12 No. 144 I2 Pages Friday, April 27, 1979 College Station, Texas Sunday gas closings now News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Two can play the game The Texas House of Representa tives has approved a bill, already passed by the Senate, that would enable victims of crimes to recover compensation from a special state hind. See page 6. Battalion photo by Howard Ervin It’s lonely at the top Alworkman drills holes in the top of Zachry Engineering Building to ‘ provide a mount for a pendulum similar to the one that hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. It will be hung later this week and will be on display through the end of the semester. Spring forward; fall back United Press International WASHINGTON — Most of the nation >es on Daylight Saving Time Sunday — i you have two days to figure out how to Wt your clocks and watches. An expert in the Transportation De- irtment, which administers the time tenges, confides he uses the popular pe words to keep things straight when E switches from standard time to daylight (neand back again. The words: “Spring forward; fall back.” Early next Sunday — it’s always the last teday in April — 2 a.m. instantly be- Itees 3 a.m. This means setting your teepieces one hour ahead. Most people find it convenient to do this pnigh before instead of the next morn- Kpie hour you lose will be returned October. |he resetting of clocks every six months called for by the 1966 Uniform Time ( But the idea has been around, off and since 1918, when Daylight Saving 'e was tried out to save energy during rid War I. tudent Government sitions available Man; positions are open in the 1979-80 sas A&M University student govern- Hh Positions available are executive ,ra nch offices and places on University ^nuB^ees. ^ Place s open include: Judicial Board chairman. Election Commissioner, cutive Vice President, Executive Sec- ■y, Comptroller and Director of In- ^Bon. Others are. Campus Chest Director, Cents’ Day and Muster chairmen, and cutive branch coordinators for business [continuing programs and freshman Also open are spots on the Judicia board and all University committees. Many students are selected each year to help coordinate various University func tions and activities through the University committees. Applications may be picked up in the student government office in Room 216 of the Memorial Student Center. They are due at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Appointees will be announced by the student body president and confirmed by the student senate early in the fall semes ter. common throughout U. S “People couldn’t stand it, ” an authorita tive source recalls. “It was so ‘popular’ it was repealed the next year.” Some states continued to try it now and then, and it was used during World War II. After hours of argument each year. Congress enacted the change annually until it adopted the permanent Uniform Time Act in 1966. Under that law, all of the United States observes six months of daylight time, ex cept for states and territories that have exempted themselves. Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and all of Indiana, except for 12 countries around Gary and Evansville, ob serve standard time the entire year. Saving energy also was the goal of Richard Nixon when he persuaded Con gress to enact year-round Daylight Saving Time in 1973-74 because of the Arab oil embargo. But many parents complained about sending their children to school in dark ness and the idea was dropped. California’s highway-happy motorists lined up 15 deep at 24-hour stores charg ing a “bargain” 99.9 cents a gallon this week and Sunday closings became the unwritten law of the land. UPI’s weekly Gas Watch survey, taken Thursday, showed three Chicago service stations pushed pump prices through the $l-a-gallon mark, joining New Yorkers and Hawaiians. Stations everywhere announced Sunday closings to try to conserve the last of their April allocations. Robert Jacobs, of the Il linois Gasoline Dealers Association, pre dicted nearly all Chicago-area stations would shut down this Sunday. Experts, indicated Sunday closings would hit 66 percent of the stations in Denver, 50 percent in Florida and west ern Pennsylvania, 45 percent in Iowa, 35 percent in the Dakotas, and 25 percent in Michigan. In Kansas City, Getty Oil Co. padlocked the pumps at 17 Skelly stations to prevent their underground gasoline tanks from running dry. Lines of six to 15 cars waited to fill up at the few San Francisco stations open for business Monday and Tuesday, but many motorists found signs saying $5 limit on gas.” In northern California, the 24-hour Short-Stop chain attracted hoards of motorists who waited patiently to pay 99.9 cents a gallon for premium unleaded gasoline. EPA gets over fuel United Press International WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency — in th first case of its kind — is asking for $159,000 in civil dam ages from Texaco Inc., 11 service stations and a distributor for allegedly selling leaded gasoline as unleaded. The agency said the case was the “most serious instance of fuel switching ever prosecuted by EPA.” Named in the complaints were Texaco Inc., Houston; Calleri Oil Co., San Lean dro, Calif.; and 11 Texaco stations in Alameda County, Calif. A Texaco spokesman said the company had “no knowledge of the alleged co mingling (of gasolines) on the part of the (San Leandro) distributor,” and denied “any wrongdoing on the part of our com pany.” Texaco said the firm “for many years” has sold its petroleum products to inde pendent distributors who then service their own customers, including retail serv ice stations. He said the products were serviced at the time they were picked up in the distributors’ own trucks, and “after that it belong(ed) to the distributor and he is responsible.” Leaded gasoline, when used in cars that require unleaded fuel, damages and ul timately ruins the catalytic converter, a pollution control device used to break down exhaust elements harmful to human health. The EPA has estimated as many as 10 percent of cars that should be using un leaded gas are actually running on leaded fuel, in part because of the higher prices of unleaded gas. However, it said, Thursday’s action is the first major case where motorists who were willing to pay the higher price of un leaded were actually being sold leaded. An EPA spokesman said profit, not shortage, was the apparent motive for the alleged fraud, since leaded gasoline is cheaper and more money can be made if it Couple shocked when ‘dead’ son walks in room United Press International COLUMBUS, Ohio — James and Maxine Blakenship had notified relatives of their 23-year-old son’s death and were discussing funeral arrangements, when he shocked them by walking into their West Side home Wednesday night. The Blankenships had been told by Franklin County sherifFs deputies their son, Kenneth, had been killed several hours before in a motorcycle crash in Lin coln Village South. It turned out the man killed actually was Kenneth’s best friend, John C. Snyder, 22, of Columbus. Snyder was riding Ken neth’s motorcycle. Kenneth’s aunt, Louise Burden, arrived at the scene of the accident as the covered body was being put on a stretcher. She said she did not look at the body because deputies did not ask her to, but told offi cers she thought it was Kenneth. Deputies, in turn, thought she had seen the body and positively identified the victim, so they told Mr. and Mrs. Blan kenship their son was dead. “Were converting our pumps to more than a dollar,” said Short-Stop President John Roscoe said. “Were in the emergency gas business.” Price pressures at the pump escalated from coast to coast this week. A spot check by UPI found gasoline spurted 5 cents a gallon this week in San Francisco, 4 cents in Oklahoma, 3.7 cents in western Massachusetts, 3 cents in Maine and parts of Florida, 2.5 cents in Louisiana, 2 cents in New York and 1 cent in Colorado. A full-service Texaco station in downtown Honolulu had the stiffest price in the nation — $1.02 a gallon for pre mium unleaded — and two pump- ityourself Exxon outlets in Dallas offered the best bargain of the week at 68.3 cents a gallon for regular leaded. In Chicago, three stations were charg ing $1,014 a gallon for premium unleaded, but 11 had passed the $1 barrier before the Department of Energy made price gouging inspections during the week. In Dallas, the consumers are striking back. Motorists are driving into Dallas self- service stations with rags covering their license plates, filling up and then speeding off before the attendants can collect. One Dallas station owner has closed two out side islands to combat consumer rip-offs and another waits in a pickup so he can give chase. In a breakdown of gasoline prices by grade, the UPI survey found regular leaded gasoline sold for a high of 97.9 a gallon at full-service stations in Honolulu this week to a low of 72.9 cents a gallon in Washington, D.C., Dallas, Atlanta and Baltimore. Prices for the motorist willing to do the pumping ranged from the Dallas bottom of 68.3 cents a gallon to a nationwide top of 86.9 cents a gallon Minneapolis self- service stations. Regular unleaded gasoline at full- service stations went for 74.9 cents a gal lon in Dallas up to 99.9 cents in Honolulu. At self-service pumps regular unleaded ranged from 71.8 cents in Dallas to 89.9 cents in Honolulu. UT newspaper fights censor hot switch is sold for unleaded prices. The case was uncovered by the Alameda County Department of Weights and Mea sures in response to a citizen’s complaint, EPA said. EPA said it is stepping up its efforts to stop fuel switching by forming enforce ment teams in Washington, D.C., and Denver, which will seek out violators na tionwide. The teams, it said, will concen trate on dealers and car repair shops as well as gasoline stations. By DOUG GRAHAM Battalion Staff The Daily Texan, the University of Texas’ student newspaper, is resolving a dispute over who has the power to censor material: the students or the faculty. The censorship dispute arose over a car toon by Daily Texan cartoonist Berke Breathed in which a four-letter synonym for sexual intercourse was used. Faculty member and editorial manager Robert Hilburn cut the cartoon. On April 19, The Daily Texan’s editorial page carried a blank space with a note that the cartoon strip, “Academia Waltz” was censored because it violated obscenity guidelines in the Texas Student Publica tions (TSP) Handbook. The next day an editorial by editor Gary Fendler was censored. The editorial used the word and cited court cases supporting use of the word was upheld. Fendler, in a telephone interview, said he had to appeal the censorship of the car toon and editorial to a three-man board of the TSP within 24 hours. The board decided against him. He then appealed to the entire 11-man TSP board where he won an 8-2 (with one absent) victory. Assistant Editor Mark McKinnon said that by that time. Breathed had already changed his cartoon. “Berke changed the last frame, which we would rather he had not done,” he said. Fendler said he was fighting the censor ship system of the TSP. At UT, the paper’s editor is elected by the student body, and the editorial man ager reads all material going into the pa per. He decides what gets printed. At The Battalion, Texas A&M Univer sity’s student newspaper, the editor is chosen by a publications board, but has complete discretion about the paper’s con tent. McKinnon said that the conflict was not with the editorial manager. “Hilburn was with us on our side when we went up to the TSP board,” he said. “He said all he wanted to do was get a clarification of the vague TSP handbook guidelines.” Fendler said Hilburn was popular with the students. “He’s a great guy. If you’re not down here to see what happens, it is easy to make him a villain. Generally, most letters to the editor supported the student editor’s decision to run the cartoon. Fendler said the present UT editorial system may be overhauled. He said he, the editor-elect Beth Frerking, and Hil burn will meet soon to reach an agreement on handling censorship in the paper. He said the committee will probably increase the student editor’s power to make those decisions. But the committee probably won’t re write the TSP handbook, Fendler said. The UT Board of Regents would be un likely to pass the changes the committee would make, he said. McKinnon disagreed, saying the Board of Regents would pass a new set of TSP handbook regulations, if they were pres ented. CS to get new computer set-up By KEVIN D. HIGGINBOTHAM Battalion Reporter The College Station City Council ac cepted the recommendation of A. E. Van- dever, assistant city manager, on a choice of bids for a new computer system Thurs day night. Vandever suggested the council accept the bid of National Cash Register (NCR) for $140,940 for a complete system. Initially, the new computer system will handle budgetary control, payroll and util ity billing for the city, City Manager North Bardell said. Later, the system will be expanded to include property tax statements, in ventories, cost control, and court and police records, he said. The bid includes the purchase of three cash registers to aid in cash handling and posting of bills. The council was wary of purchasing the new computer system because of prob lems with the four-year-old system cur rently in use. “Do you think the National Cash Regis ter equipment will do the job?” Council man James Dozier asked Vandever. Vandever assured the council the equipment would meet the city’s needs. The old system is outmoded partly be cause of the transient nature of College Station’s population, Bardell said. He estimated that about 4,000 utility accounts are changed each year, mostly due to students moving. The old system also was hampered be cause apartment complexes are now using individual metering systems instead of master metering systems. The old machine was not sophisticated enough to handle this workload, Bardell said. Another problem with the old computer system, Bardell said, was that it was not readily expandable to handle the growth of the city and its accounting needs. The new NCR system though, will be expandable, Vandever told the council. Vandever said he expects the new sys tem to last about seven to ten years before any extensive changes would have to be made. He also expects the conversion from the old to the new system to take eight months at the most. In other business, the council voted to purchase a new breathing air compressor system for the city fire department. The new system. College Station Fire Chief Doug Landua said, will allow the firefighters to maintain an adequate supply of air for firefighting purposes. This will enable them to fight the fire from the in side, he added. The new system will cost about $16,000. Lets get this synchronized Several Aggies demonstrate freestyle foot-cooling in the Rudder fountain during some recent warm weather. The forecast for the Bryan-College Sta tion area calls for a high temperature in the low to mid 80s. Winds will be north-northeast at 15-20 mph, switching to north-northeast at 10 mph gust- ing to 18 by mid-afternoon. Wind warnings are out On area lakes. Battalion photo by Bill Wilson