[he Battalion
72 No. 182 Thursday, August 9, 1979 USPS 045 360
ages College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611
Weather
Fair to partly cloudy skies with winds light and
variable from the East at 5 m.p.h. High today rang
ing from 93-95 and a low ranging from 72-74.
There is a 30% chance of rain today and tonight.
Congress protests
refugee problem
United Press International
HANOI, Vietnam — A 10-member
U.S. congressional delegation arrived in
Vietnam Wednesday to confront the
Hanoi regime over its policy of allowing
hundreds of thousands of refugees to flood
neighboring nations.
The delegation led by Rep. Benjamin
Rosenthal, D-N.Y., was almost barred
from Vietnam because of critical remarks
made by one member in Hong Kong, the
first stop on the group’s six-day, five-
nation whirlwind tour.
Final permission for the trip came from
senior Vietnamese officials less than 19
hours before the arrival of the delegation
from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Their plane was flown into Hanoi by
co-pilot Lt. Col. Douglas G. Glime, who
flew flighter-bomber missions inthe
Vietnam War.
The Americans were greeted by Vu
Hoang, an ambassador-at-large.
Vietnamese sources at the airport said
the delegation would meet senior officials
tonight.
Rosenthal said that while the members
intended to ask tough questions, particu
larly on alleged government organization
of the refugee exodus, he believed the
visit would result merely in an exchange of
views.
Most members of the delegation said
they favored establishment of diplomatic
relations with Hanoi, but without aid as a
precondition.
Rep. Robert Drinan, D-Mass., a former
anti-war spokesman, said there were three
problems with current Vietnamese policy:
Vietnam’s invasion and occupation of
Cambodia; the “inducing” of people to
leave Vietnam, and Hanoi’s pro-Soviet
policy.
He said Vietnamese invasion of Cam
bodia “was an outrageous demonstration of
arrogance, really.”
U.S., Mexico
join to clean oil
It was Drinan’s ironic criticism of
Vietnamese refugee policy in Hong Kong
last Saturday that caused Hanoi to cancel
the trip by the congressmen.
After 24 hours of diplomatic flurry in
Washington, New York, Paris and
Bangkok, the Vietnamese relented and
welcomed the delegation Wednesday as
scheduled:
In Malaysia earlier, the American con
gressmen toured the world’s largest
Vietnamese refugees camp on Pulau
Bidong island. The special committee
spent a whirlwind 90 minutes darting in,
out and around the island off Malaysia’s
coast, where nearly 33,000 Vietnamese
refugees are packed in.
“I find words inadequate to express the
conditions in these camps,” said Rep. Ben
jamin Rosenthal. D-N.Y., who is leading
the group on its six-day, five-nation tour.
“It’s an extremely difficult life style. I’m
surprised the people are as happy as they
are.”
Rosenthal’s group left for Hanoi almost
immediately after the Bidong Island tour,
pausing only for a brief news conference at
the Kuala Lumpur airport.
Las Vegas-style sports book
o open in Texas border town
What is this stuff?
Royce Dunlap (left) and Bob Ownes (center) exam
ine some chain mail made by Jeff Morgan (right).
Morgan was showing off his work at a demonstration
by the Society for Creative Anachronism on Wed
nesday afternoon at Rudder Fountain. The demon
stration, sponsored by the MSC Summer Pro-
\xicant a clean house 9
gramming Committee, also included calligraphy,
embroidery and other medieval arts and sciences
that the SCA study and practice. Chain mail is made
by weaving small metal rings into a flexible fabric
which can then be fashioned into armor or other
items. Battalion photo by Scott Haring
United Press International
IEV0 LAREDO, Mexico — When
Nuevo Laredo Turf Club opens next
Utwill bring Las Vegas-style sports
>ling within walking distance of the
border and allow Mexican
ipreneurs an opportunity to cash in on
Bndreds of millions of dollars Texans
i — legally and illegally — each
Las Vegas-style sports book opens
15 two blocks from the international
to accept bets on horse races at two
U.S. tracks and officials say they
toopen branches “in the near future”
iree other cities bordering South
pectaculos Y Deportes Del Norte will
} t the sports book in conjunction
a parimutuel horse-dog track
fokd to open in Nuevo Laredo next
I and its general manager, Luis
gsays the betting parlor initially will
t wagers only on horse races. He
however, bets on professional foot
ed basketball pools will soon be
■.along with other sporting events,
■turfclub, in final stages ofconstruc-
Bone block from the landmark Cadil-
>eross the Rio Grande from Texas,
for decades church bingo has been
■b semi-legitimate form of gambling
where voters have rejected
■hiel horse race referendums with
Hrity every couple of years.
The Mexicans will operate the sports
book from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily
(Mexico time) and later will open the
“Hippodrome,” a $10 million race track
under construction that will offer year-
around thoroughbred, quarterhorse and
greyhound racing beginning next year.
They note that surveys done by major
horse tracks in Louisiana and New Mexico
showed that 60 to 80 percent of their cus
tomers were Texans and contributed sig
nificantly to their $150 million a year in
bets.
Law enforcement authorities also esti
mate football buffs in Texas wager more
than $1 billion a year on professional
games alone.
Vinals boasts that his government will
not tax any winnings at the Nuevo Laredo
Turf Club, “and your winnings won’t be
reported to the United States govern
ment, either.”
Vinals said the full-fledged sports book
plans to open branches later in the border
cities of Matamoros, Piedras Negras and
Reynosa across the Rio Grande from the
respective sister Texas cities of
Brownsville, Eagle pass and McAllen.
Previously, a dog-horse track in Juarez,
Mexico, across from El Paso, was the only
legal gambling location along the Texas-
Mexico border.
Winnings at American tracks are taxed
by the Internal Revenue Service, with the
track collecting 20 percent off the top for
winnings of more than $1,000.
U.S. law only requires reporting cash-
in-hand on entering the country if the
amount totals more than $5,000, and
Vinals said, "these matters are not of our
concern.
“We want to have a clean house, just
like in Las Vegas,” Vinals said. “There’s no
reason to run a dirty house. It only ruins
business.”
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The United States
and Mexico are working jointly on a
U. S.-proposed contingency plan to
counter the environmental effects of oil
spills such as the one affecting the south
Texas coast, the State Department has an
nounced.
Spokesman Tom Reston said the two
governments are already working together
on cleaning and containing the oil slick
that developed from the Campeche
offshore well, some 550 miles south of the
Texas coast.
“We recognized at an early stage that
the rapid development of offshore oil in
the Gulf of Mexico held the the potential
for significant oil spills such as the dreadful
accident, which has occurred at the Cam
peche site,” he said.
He said the United States believes the
two governments should work out a “for
mal agreement” establishing joint con
tingency plan for handling oil spills in the
Gulf of Mexico.
“We have in fact proposed such an
agreement in the form of a draft con
tingency plan which is currently being
used by both governments, Reston said
in a prepared statement read during a
news briefing Tuesday.
“We hope this mechanism which we
have proposed can be used to minimize
the effects of incidents such as the Cam-
peche oil spill.”
wo workers exposed to
adiation at Harrisburg
I B Press International
FJJSBURG, Pa. — An ambulance
a worker cleaning up waste
i®e March 28 nuclear accident at the
Three Mile Island nuclear power
** ve been contaminated with radia-
••dang the announcement Tuesday,
hpwitan Edison Co. also disclosed
)a * c ^ ra d*°active waste ma-
accident was making a
•*ile highway joumev to a disposal
pHanford. Wash.
pTd spokesman David Klucsik said
iBDriter, identified as John Fulton, 30,
■nsourg. an employee of the Cataly-
^ Philadelphia, received 25 mil-
radiation to the left hand and
anbulanee driver who came into
■Owith Fulton, Melvin Hershey, of
^^“rrv Township, received 2 mil-
of radiation on one hand, the com-
tpokesrnatj said.
was overcome with heat exhaus-
•tole working on the decontamina-
■ the U nit No. 2 auxiliary building.
which adjoins the damaged reactor at
Three Mile Island, said the spokesman.
He was apparently contaminated later
when radiation on the outside of his pro
tective clothing came into contact with his
body.
Karl Abraham, a spokesman for the Nu
clear Regulatory' Commission, described
the exposures as “tiny.” The federal health
limit for radiation workers in one quarter
is 7,500 millirems, he said.
On the subject of the waste, Klucskik
said the shipment was the first to contain
any waste from the damaged nuclear reac
tor Unit No. 2.
He said the company also was making
arrangements to dispose of 600 more
drums of nuclear waste from the unit.
According to the NRC, the waste dispo
sal truck would travel on Interstate 81 and
1-80 through Pennsylvania, and then re
main on 1-80 through Ohio. Indiana and
Illinois.
In Wisconsin, Minnesota, North
Dakota. Montana. Idaho and Washington,
the truck will travel principally on 1-90 and
194, the NRC said.
Such a formal Mexican-American
agreement may be on the agenda of the
Washington meeting in September be
tween presidents Carter and Jose Lopez
Portillo. The Mexican leader is scheduled
to visit Washington Sept. 28-29.
Reston said that since the Campeche
well erupted several months ago, Ameri
can technicians have visited the well site
and are working together with Mexican
authorities.
“The Mexican government has re
quested, and we have provided, equip
ment and personnel as a part of the Mexi
can cleanup and containment effort. Regu
lar overflight of the spill area are being
conducted by U.S. Coast Guard, NASA
and NOAA aircraft especially equipped to
gather pertinent information.”
He also said, “The data on the location
of the spill and computer predictions on
the movement of the oil on the water are
provided on a regular basis to both gov
ernments.”
As the oil has moved toward the Texas
coast, Reston said, cleanup operations in
that area have intensified and a Mexican
liaison officer is now working with U.S.
officials in Corpus Christi, Texas.
"Agreement has been reached by the
two governments under which the United
States can begin cleanup operations in
Mexican waters as the oil moves toward
the coast of south Texas.”
“These operations have in fact already
begun,” the spokesman said.
Library struck
Lightening apparently struck the
upper southeast corner of the new
library shortly after 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday said Charles Smith, a
reference librarian who was in
the library at the time. Smith was
told of it by another librarian who
had met some students outside
who said they had seen it happen.
Smith called the University
emergency number, and they said
they would check for any remain
ing loose bricks or other hazards.
Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill
TWS wants part of
CS hotel tax revenue
Battafcoa phot* by Clay C orkriB
Plumb tuckered out
When junior-high schooler Roger King decided to take a chair and listen
to a little piano music at the Memorial Student Center, his 5-month-old
cousin Johnnie Lee Headge apparently decided to go somewhere else.
By LOUIE ARTHUR
Battalion Staff
The feud over who will get the College
Station hotel-motel tax revenue continued
Wednesday during heated debates be
tween council members, business repre
sentatives and the public.
Representatives of Texas World Speed
way (TWS) are requesting $ HD,000 of the
money "to help promote and advertise
TWS and the city of College Station,
Texas, said Mike Connor, director of ad
vertising for the racetrack.
Connor said there have been 16 major
events at the speedway since it re-opened
in 1976 and each event pulls in tl million
in revenues (not including the track’s prof
its) through motels, food services and gas
stations.
We spend $60,000 to promote and ad
vertise each event," Connor said. "Every
single item we advertise mentions Bryan
ana College Station. Texas.”
Connor mentioned several different ad
vertising forms that TWS utilizes that he
said are also “free promotion and free ad
vertising for College Station: bumper
stickers, pace cars, radio and television
ads. posters and a booth at the State Fair
of Texas among others.
We will show the council where every
penny goes. Connor said. "What we feel
we deserve is something supportive of our
efforts.”
Several council members objected to
Connor s request. Councilman Homer
Adams asked Connor what kind of finan
cial aid other tracks around the country-
received. Connor could not give any spe
cific figures but said that Daytona Interna
tiona] Speedway is a tax-free property. and
the tracks at Watkins Clen and In
dianapolis also receive some help from
their respective communities
Councilman James Dozier said he was
worried about possible repercussions if
they gave the money to the speedway and
questioned Connor's figure of $1 million
revenue generated by each major race.
“If we gave your organization this
money, where could we stop?” Dozier
asked. "Other organizations could come to
us with the same reasoning. Would you be
willing to cut us in on some of the profits?”
“This tax in a real good year amounts to
about $150,000 and you’re asking for the
bulk of it,* Vlayor Lorence Bravenec said.
He added that the council had considered
using the money for a community center.
The city council voted in 1976 to form a
committee to look into the possibility of a
community center for College Station, and
in 1977 the committee submitted their re
port. No action has as yet been taken on
those plans, but Mayor Bravenec said that
the council will decide on the center at
their regularly scheduled meeting tonight.
AAA says gas
available on
Texas highways
HOUSTON — The American Au
tomobile Association Wednesday said a
number of cities along Texas' freeways ex-
very good’ gasoline availability for
travelers through the weekend.
“These are places where stations have
very- good availability, most of them have
24-hour openings and operators say they
have plenty of gas.” a A.AA spokesman
said. "They all are near interstate or major
highway's
The spokesman listed. Schulenberg.
Aransas Pass. Colorado City, Pecos.
Brownwood. Van Horn. Fort Stockton,
Lubbock. Memphis. Midland. Odessa. El
Paso. Horizon
.Also included are Orange. Port Arthur.
Palmer. Winnie. Madisonville. Flatoma.
Big Bend. South Padre Island. San Benito.
Palestine. Onalaska, Point Blank. Rusk.
Lufkin. Hidalgo. Marion, and Fulton.