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^ WASHINGTON — A federal judge
. Pkg 0/ Wednesday dismissed atheist Madalyn
l Lb /(): Murray O’Hair’s lawsuit seeking to block
™,Pope John Paul II from celebrating mass on
Washington’s Mall Sunday.
U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch ruled
that 0 Hair had failed to “cite any author-
ty to support her argument that a reli-
ious group should be barred from conven-
ig on national park lands.
O’Hair, who won a landmark 1963 Su
preme Court ruling barring bible reading
.in public schools, had argued that permit
ting the mass would violate constitutional
S - - guarantees separating church and state.
E Gasch, in a seven-page ruling, refused
per request for an injunction blocking the
Kunday mass.
I The judge noted that the National Park
fService’s regulations covering use of the
411 and other park lands are neutral and
term it gatherings by both religious and
ion-religious groups.
He said the park service “has completely
ivoided any connection with or sponsor-
hip with the mass on the mall, and it has
reated the archdiocese like any other ap-
ilicant for the use of park land. ”
Gasch said while the park service is
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Too many people, too many cars
^Parking in the Northgate business area along University Drive has be
come more of a problem in recent years, along with the overcrowding of
finking establishments there. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
uit against mass
dismissed by judge
Northgate: two problems for CS
By SANDRA SEFCIK
Battalion Reporter
The Northgate shopping area is causing
problems for the city of College Station. At
a recent meeting, College Station City
Council discussed two student-related
problems of the area.
First, the Northgate area is short of park
ing spaces. Second, overcrowding of
Northgate establishments serving alcoholic
beverages has increased this semester.
Parking spaces are desperately needed
in the Northgate area, City Manager North
Bardell told the council.
Many of the spaces are being used by
students and Texas A&M University em
ployees. Most parking spaces are full by
7:30 a.m. and are not emptied until 5 p.m.,
Bardell said. This leaves no available room
for Northgate store customers.
Police Sgt. Mike Matthews told the
council that cars are given tickets to dis
courage parking in Northgate. This has not
been effective, however, because the tick
ets often aren't paid.
It is almost impossible to track down stu
dents to make them pay the ticket, Matth
ews said. Some students’ cars are regis
tered at Texas A&M under parents’ names,
and often Texas A&M doesn’t have a cur
rent address.
Matthews said it takes a lot of time and
personnel to track down the students —
time and personnel the police department
doesn’t have.
Two Northgate merchants approached
the council about one possible solution.
The city owns a parking lot between
Church and Patricia streets meant to help
relieve some of the parking problems along
University Drive. The two merchants want
to lease the lot from the city.
Bardell said the merchants would com
bine the city lot with an adjacent lot. In
addition, a parking attendant would be on
duty to make sure only Northgate custom
ers use the lot. The council asked Bardell to
begin negotiating a lease.
As for the problem of overcrowded
drinking establishments, Matthews said on
a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night the
Northgate crowd often numbers over 200
people. He said he has attempted to enter
the bars and make exact counts, but he
couldn’t send in an inspector on some
nights because the bars are so crowded.
The problem, Matthews said, is that
most of the students stand outside of the
bars: on sidewalks, in parking spaces and
sometimes on part of the west bound lane of
University Drive, Some incidents of bro
ken windshields and scuffles between stu
dents have been reported, he said.
Trying to do something about the over
crowding poses still other problems. Once
the crowds have gathered, the police de
partment cannot break them up. Police
Chief Marvin Byrd said a solution would be
to post officers in front of the bars around 7
p.m., before the crowds gather.
However, Byrd said the police depart
ment doesn’t have the time or the person
nel to do this during weekends. Also, the
presence of police would discourage cus
tomers and this upsets the bar owners, he
said.
Along with overcrowding, the bars are
violating fire codes. Fire Marshal Harry
Davis said the situation is hazardous, but
not much can be done because the bar
owners are more than willing to pay a $40
fine. They will pay the fine every night
because they can make an additional $1,000
or more serving the extra students.
Bars not in Northgate, such as Astraptes,
Sports Club and Studio 2818, are also too
crowded, Matthews said. The council de
cided to see if the city staff could recom
mend any solutions to the city-wide prob
lem of overcrowded bars.
The
Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 24
24 Pages in 3 sections
Thursday, October 4, 1979
College Station, Texas
US PS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
‘Killer bee’ senators tell
how they beat the system
providing normal additional police
strength for crowd control and electrical
outlets, the archdiocese of Washington is
providing the platform on the which the
pope will stand, “sound equipment, seat
ing, a chain-link fence around the platform
and portable toilet facilities.”
O’Hair, who contended the granting of a
permit for the mass violated the establish
ment clause of the First Amendment, said
following a hearing Monday that her appeal
already was prepared. She complained the
mass was “not an appeal to the public in
general” but amounted to preference to the
Roman Catholic religion. She said had she
known other religious groups had used the
park land previously, she would have filed
suit earlier.
The American Civil Liberties Union
supported the government in the case, say
ing the park service policy is “a clear ex
pression of the harmony” between restric
tions against government support for reli
gion and guarantees of rights to assemble
and exercise free speech in public parks.
The judge also formally dismissed a sec
ond suit by O’Hair naming the pope as
defendant on grounds he is the head of a
foreign state and out of the jurisdiction of
U.S. courts.
By MARY JO PRINCE
Battalion Reporter
The famous “Killer Bees ’ stung the 1979
Texas Legislative Session, attempting to
prevent passage of a bill that would have
allowed separate Republican and Demo
cratic primaries in 1980.
Wednesday night, two members of that
famous swarm — Sens. A. R. “Babe”
Schwartz, D-Galveston, and Gene Jones,
D-Houston — lighted on a Political Forum
audience, in Rudder, Theater and fold of
their involvement in the incident that cur
tailed legislative activities for five days in
May.
“We evolved a plan to break the quorum
on that Friday morning, and then hold out
to see what the reactions would be,”
Schwartz said.
Schwartz said that the disappearance of
the twelve senators during that last session
was to prevent a 1980 March Republican
primary, or, as the liberal-to-moderate
senators said, “a preferential presidential
primary,” that would give presidential
candidate John Connally a definite jump on
the 1980 race.
The walk-out turned into a wild goose
chase, with Texas lawmen searching all
over the state for the so-called law break-
When the search was over, the senators
emerged from a garage apartment three
miles outside of Austin.
Schwartz added that had the primary bill
passed, the cost to taxpayers would have
been five million dollars.
“What we achieved was in the best inter
est of the state’s political system — for both
the Republican and Democratic parties. ”
Schwartz referred to a lighter side of the
“Killer Bees” incident. During the hide
out, Jon^s was “allowed” to leave the legis
lators’ hide-a-way.
Jones did return to his Houston-area
home, and soon after, the news media had
reported his apprehension by Department
of Public Safety officers. But to the delight
and humor of the other “Killer Bees, ” Jones
reported that it was his brother who had
been “arrested” while stepping out to get
his paper.
Jones’s part of the program highlighted
the legislative decisions made during the
1979 session. He made special mention of
the “Sunset Legislation,” which created
positions for consumers, as well as profes
sionals, on professional state boards and
agencies, and provided for the deposit of
these boards’ funds in to the State Treasury
for allocation purposes.
Battalion photos by Lynn Blanco
Sen. A. R. ‘Babe’ Schwartz
Sen. Gene Jones
NRC official: FBI investigating nuke plant
United Press International
HOUSTON — The FBI has been inves
tigating construction of a Texas nuclear
plant, reportedly looking into suspected
falsification of records at a project that is
months behind schedule and $1 billion
over budget.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Re-
Stormy waters prevent capping
Runaway well still gushing
United Press International
MEXICO CITY — Four months
after Ixtoc I blew out in the Gulf of
Mexico, Mexico’s oil agency said
Wednesday it could not predict a
date for capping the source of the
world’s largest petroleum spill.
The crippled well has poured
more than 2.3 million barrels of
crude into the Gulf waters since its
blowout June 3. Large patches of oil
gushing out of Ixtoc have stained
U.S. beaches hundreds of miles
away.
“We have encountered many
problems but the worst has been the
weather,” said a spokesman for the
state oil agency Petroleos Mexicanos
(PEMEX). “High seas and strong
underwater currents have delayed
work on every project. Therefore we
can not estimate when the well be
capped. ”
Ixtoc I is located 42 miles west of
the Yucatan peninsula in the Gulf, a
hurricane-prone area. Several twis
ters have hit the region in the past
weeks.
He said a pumping operation,
which usually takes eight to 10
hours, took technicians four days.
PEMEX so far has undertaken
three projects: one to reduce the
flow, another to capture 80-90 per
cent of the crude and gas, and a third
to seal off the well. There also have
been skimming operations.
For weeks technicians have been
steadily pumping thousands of
tennis-sized lead and steel balls into
the well and have achieved some
success by cutting down the flow to
10,000 barrels daily from the previ
ous 20,000.
American divers working on cap
ping operations, however, claim that
Ixtoc is still spilling some 20,000 bar-'
rels a day.
When the well first went out of
control, it began dumping 30,000
barrels per day but thanks to several
valve maneuvers the stream was re
duced to 20,000.
Immediately after the accident
PEMEX began construction of two
relief wells, which the monopoly said
appeared as the best and only solu
tion to shut it off, and one of them
was scheduled to touch the mouth of
Ixtoc on Wednesday. But bad
weather again stalled drilling opera
tions.
The spokesman said one of the
wells, known as 1-B, was only 1,460
feet short of the mouth of Ixtoc I. But
again, he could not predict when it
would reach the 12,090-foot depth of
the petroleum deposit, believed to
contain 800 million barrels of crude.
The other well, 1-A, has only
reached a depth of 9,590 feet be
cause it had to be rerouted.
Last week PEMEX twice tried but
foiled to swing a 300-ton steel cone
above the wellhead to catch up to 90
percent of its flow. After the second
attempt engineers found cracks in
several hinges in the arm holding
the bell-like structure and had to
send the cone back to Houston for
repairs.
At the time, oil officials said they
hoped the Sombrero would be back
in 15 days but on Wednesday the
spokesman said it would take at least
20 days.
gional Director Karl Seyfrit said he under
stood the FBI in three months of inquiry
had found “essentially nothing” wrong in
construction of the South Texas Nuclear
Project at Bay City.
The FBI refused to confirm or deny the
inquiry.
Seyfrit disclosed the investigation of the
$2.7 billion plant while commenting on an
ex-inspector’s new charge — to be aired in
a television program today — that the plant
went five months without quality control
on concrete pouring.
“The FBI investigation has been going
on for about three months, and I think it’s
pretty well wound up now. My understand
ing is that they have found essentially no
thing,” Seyfrit said.
Seyfrit said the FBI had looked into a
“wide variety of things” on request of Rep.
Henry B. Gonzalez, D-Texas. The inspec
tion lapse charge was revealed Tuesday by
ex-inspector Dan Swayze, who claims he
was fired for zealousness.
Brown & Root Inc., building the plant
for utilities in Houston, Austin and San
Antonio, declined immediate comment.
Swayze has accused Brown & Root of firing
him on the false pretext of soliciting bribes
for approving faulty work.
Seyfrit said he would not consider a lapse
in inspections at the time Swayze cited a
serious matter because “very little work
was going on at the time, and it was not
critical work. ”
Swayze charged that a Brown & Root
construction foreman beat up a quality con
trol inspector in July 1977 and that the
company did not really want them to do
anything except fill out papers.
He said he and the six concrete inspec
tors he led had voted unanimously to stop
doing anything except signing inspection
approval forms.
“For five months, we did no inspection
whatsoever,” Swayze said. “We sat in our
office. We had radios. When they wanted a
(concrete) pour signed off, we went down.
The man assigned to that area went down,
signed the pour card, came back and played
cards for the rest of the day. ”
Swayze charged a foreman once
threatened to kill him because of construc
tion delays caused by inspections.
Land developer charged
with Texas lot sales fraud
Seyfrit said the NRC had verified a re
port of a construction supervisor hitting an
inspector last March 7. Seyfrit said the
supervisor was fired.
Seyfrit said Swayze had made a number
of other allegations, none ofwhich ever was
substantiated by federal investigators.
However, Seyfrit said Swayze never before
informed NRC about the five-month hiatus
in inspections in 1977.
Swayze said the lapse was not reported
before because “we didn’t have any faith in
NRC and didn’t know what to do.”
Swayze disputed Seyfrit’s assessment of
the lapse as not serious.
The ex-inspector said concrete pouring
started in March 1976 and the structures
that went without inspection were “Class I
safety-related structures. I don’t know how
much more critical you could get.”
Seyfrit said there is no way NRC officials
can inspect every phase of construction.
They rely on the companies to hire their
own inspectors to meet federal standards.
“But we don’t rely on records alone and
we feel pretty comfortable the overall job
has been performed in a satisfactory way,”
Seyfrit said.
Swayze will appear today on a CBS tele
vision network broadcast featuring a study
of the South Texas project.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A Federal Trade
Commission judge has ruled that Horizon
Corp., a major land developer, was in
volved in a “vicious consumer fraud” by
selling worthless lots in Texas, New Mexico
and Arizona for nearly $370 million.
The judge also ruled Wednesday that the
company advertised falsely, including one
television ad featuring talk show host Merv
Griffin plugging the land.
Ernest Barnes, an administrative law
judge for the agency, recommended the
commission go to court to seek refunds for
the victims — an action he said “may be the
sole remaining hope for any consumer re
lief. ”
Horizon sold lots around its home base in
Tucson, Ariz., and in Albuquerque, N.M.,
and Phoenix, Ariz., as well as Houston and
El Paso, Texas.
“Horizon, in almost every conceivable
way short of an absolute guarantee, repre
sented its land to be an excellent invest
ment, better than savings accounts, stocks
and bonds and insurance, and risk-free,” he
said.
In reality, Bames said, “Horizon’s lots
are not only bad investments they are
worthless as investments.”
A final decision in the matter will be up
to the agency’s four commissioners.
Yell practice
set for Tech
Whenever there’s an out-of-town
football game, somewhere, there is a
midnight yell practice the night be
fore. Saturday’s Texas A&M-Texas
Tech contest is no different, said
head yell leader Pete Greaves.
Midnight yell practice for the
Tech game will be in the parking lot
of South Plains Mall, at the intersec
tion of Loop 289 and Slide Road in
Lubbock, Greaves said.
Kickoff for the game is set for 7:30
p.m. Saturday at Jones Stadium in
Lubbock.
»