It
tros SDiritife>
’Hen anldf..
le - tried t? .
i Craig [|J|
n Ping bid,
)ase.
s hurt tie|
ams Si,,-/
! to hold a v.
ith.
low if yu[
"You dos
WI had
i^hting
■art. We
>odyhad
alive exl
ial Le;
eord
ost gul
■n throui
t addox
The Battalion
Vol. 74 No. 33
14 Pages
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Wednesday, October 15, 1980
College Station, Texas
US PS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Yesterday
Today
High
85
High
90
Low
60
Low
67
Humidity. . .
75%
Humidity
. . . . 94%
Rain
. . . 55 inches
Chance of rain . .
. . slight
Storm causes
power outage
4 runner
ny in 19tljpi
Lisa .Mdj
isworth
Little Detroit
Staff photo by Pat O’Malley
Ralph White, a senior Texas A&M University mechanical engineering
major, works on a home-built car for his mechanical engineering 485
class. Watching White are John Conzen (left), and Derrick Johnson. The
chassis for the car was scratch-built and covered with polyurethane
foam, which was sanded down to a pre-designed shape, and will later be
covered with fiberglass. After the fiberglass has hardened, it will be
removed and the urethane shell destroyed. The fiberglass forms will
then be put back on the car to make up the finished body.
By SUZANNE HEMBY
Battalion Reporter
A sudden thunderstorm brought high
winds and brief, but heavy rainfall to the
Bryan-College Station area late Tuesday
afternoon.
Out at Easterwood Airport, wind gusts
reached 51 mph, and the rain gauges indi
cated that more than a half inch of rain fell
in a 45-minute period, a spokesman for the
FAA Flight Service Station said.
The intensity of the storm caused many
problems for area the residents, including
the loss of electical power and cable.
Richard Moore, a disc jockey for KTAM,
said that the radio station received many
calls from people whose cable and electric
ity were out.
He added that KTAM had no trouble
since they had their emergency generator
ready to go.
KAMU radio and television stations
were not so lucky. Doug Zimmerman, a
disc jockey for KAMU radio, said that the
station went off the air from 6:20 to 7:20
p.m. when its transmitter was hit by light
ening.
He said that they wouldn’t know the ex
tent of the damage until engineering crews
could examine the transmitter later today.
Brian Rhodes of KAMU-TV said that the
station had to operate on manual when the
transmitter went out by patching into the
computer that controls the radio station.
The television station was also off the air for
an hour.
Troy Kimmel, weather director for
KBTX-Channel 3, said that the power went
out for about 4 minutes during the weather
broadcast. Kimmel said his last words be
fore the cut off were “we’ll be back ... if we
come back.’’
Greg Hanccck, an assistant dispatcher
for the College Station Electrical Depart
ment, said he received 45 to 50 calls report
ing electrical failures all over the city.
A spokesman for General Telephone said
that, because of its scattered repair sta
tions, there was no way of knowing how
many people lost phone service.
The Northgate area was also hit with the
problem of no electricity and cable. Bart
Matto, assistant manager of Dudley’s
Draw, said that the power went off about 8
p.m., but that it didn’t seem to hurt busi
ness. He said that they used candles for
light and that the crowd was having a “pret
ty good time.”
Search group
to meet Friday
A search committee, created to advise
the Texas A&M University System Board
of Regents concerning the selection of a
new president for the main University,
will meet for the second time Friday.
Regents chairman Clyde H. Wells, who
also chairs the 22 member search commit
tee, said the group is prepared to begin the
process of screening applicants for the job.
“No timetable has been set for the selec
tion process. We are willing to take the
necessary time, however long that may be,
to insure that we obtain the services of the
best possible person to lead Texas A&M
University in the years ahead,” Wells said.
lay ton’s money ‘legitimate political contribution’
xas State,!
iwest Mi
Inct toil United Press Internationa]
9 ISaidfl HOUSTON — The first defendant to testify in the federal
’ ,V ; Brilab trial says he believed a conversation about giving cash to
^ ’ House Speaker Bill Clayton referred only to a legitimate political
Contribution.
Austin lawyer Donald Ray also testified Tuesday he and his
partner and co-defendant, Randall Wood, became involved with a
plan to re-open bidding on the $76 million state employees insur
ance contract because of a promise of a retainer from an FBI
formant posing as a Prudential Insurance Co. consultant.
I Ray testified he was never asked to do anything illegal and said
he turned away every overture that suggested impropriety during
pveeks of conversations with the bogus insurance man, Joseph
Hauser.
Asked by his lawyer to define his role, Ray replied he believed
he was “representing Prudential Insurance in their effort to bid on
a state insurance contract.”
Defense lawyer Ed Mallett called attention to a government
tape recording that included a specific offer of money for Ray to
“grease the way” if necessary to reopen bidding.
“I never told anybody I needed any money to grease the way for
anything on these tapes or off these tapes, ” Ray testified. “I didn’t
need money to grease the way. All I needed was information to
show how we could save the state $1 million.”
Ray said he and Wood believed they were doing research and
lobbying that could lead to them being placed on a $2,000 monthly
retainer by Prudential. He said their work was complicated by
delays and lack of detailed information from the purported
Prudential agent.
Ray said he was never told that Clayton had been given $5,000
in cash by the informant and Deer Park, Texas, labor leader L.G.
Moore. He said, and the tapes showed, that Ray and Wood were
told Clayton had been given a “nice political contribution.” Ray
testified he never doubted Clayton would report it.
But prosecutors directed their questions to a meeting of Ray,
Wood, informant Joseph Hauser and Moore that occurred one
day before Moore and Hauser were to meet Clayton.
Moore remarked that Hauser and his associates — undercover
FBI agents — were “prepared to help his (Clayton’s) ass, but they
ain’t prepared, nor am I or you, to cast bread on the (expletive)
waters unless there’s some return.”
Moore also said the purported insurance agents had “no
problem of doing something for him (Clayton).”
Wood advised Moore not to “run out on a limb. If it feels right
and looks good, you’re gonna feel it.”
Prosecutors suggested the conversation made clear that
Clayton was to receive money if he was receptive to their appeal to
re-open bidding on the insurance contract.
Ray insisted there was nothing wrong with giving Clayton a
contribution.
Clayton had admitted accepting the money and said he did not
report it because he planned to return it. When the state report
ing deadline passed, he was questioned by an FBI agent and
denied receiving any money.
Clayton, Ray, Wood and Moore were indicted June 12. Moore
is to be tried later. Wood and Clayton were expected to testify
later this week.
Numerous character witnesses have testified Clayton would
never have accepted a bribe and that Ray and Wood had long
standing reputations for honesty.
etworks broadcast
Abscam videotapes
MSC net budget goes up 5.3%
United Press International
WASHINGTON — With a tall glass of
bourbon in his hand, former Rep. Michael
Myers, D-Pa., listened to an undercover
FBI agent offer to pay him $50,000 to intro
duce legislation in Congress on behalf of an
Arab sheik.
“You’re going about it in the right way.
Money talks in this business, and it works
the same way in Washington,” the ousted
congressman told the agent, unaware their
meeting was being recorded on videotape
by other FBI agents.
y “Where I can be of assistance is where
^legislation can be introduced, ’’ Myers said.
Myers, who had been sitting on a couch
listening to the agent explain that there
could be much more money for him in
future deals, then stood up and accepted an
envelope containing the money from the
agent.
With a green light from the Supreme
Court, the television networks Tuesday
broadcast portions of the Abscam
videotapes showing Myers taking a $50,000
bribe from undercover FBI agents posing
as representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik.
As a result of his conviction on the charge
of agreeing to take a bribe, Myers was ex
pelled from Congress Oct. 2.
The networks also prepared to seek re
lease of similar tapes involving Rep. John
Jenrette, D-S.C., the second congressman
convicted in the sweeping scandal.
The Supreme Court, in a ruling Tues
day, rejected arguments by Myers and his
three co-defendants airing the tapes would
hurt their chances in appealing their Aug.
30 convictions.
By JANE G. BRUST
Battalion Staff'
MSC Council members approved a net
budget increase of 5.3 percent when they
approved the 13 revised MSC Directorate
committee budgets Monday night.
Keith Shurtleff, MSC Council vice presi
dent of finance, said the increase was small
because while most proposals showed in
creases, others showed decreases.
Committee budgets are planned eight
months prior to taking effect, which means
the committees operate under budgets
which the previous year’s officers pre
pared.
Shurtleff said annual budget revisions
are not unusual because of expense fluctua
tions and changes in project plans.
For example, the MSC Aggie Cinema
Committee decided to show six movies at
the Grove instead of 10, which decreases
that budget by $3,000.
The MSC Camera Committee’s $500
budget decrease will have students provide
their own photography supplies instead of
receiving them from the committee. This
savings will pay for a fee increase for photo
contest judges and photography instruc
tors.
The MSC Hospitality Committee de
cided to feature students, instead of outside
models, in its modeling seminar which de
creases that budget by $600.
The MSC Travel Committee also pre
sented a budget decrease, a difference of
$10,000.
“The club hasn’t cut out any trips — in
fact, they’ve booked a cruise and a trip to
Ireland — they just don’t need as much
money as originally thought,” he said.
The MSC Political Forum Committee,
whose money is used primarily for speak
ers’ fees, presented a $1,000 decrease.
“Their (speakers’) professional fees drop
ped because during an election year,
speakers call you and ask to speak here,”
Shurtleff said.
. Five other MSC committees — Commit
tee for the Awareness of Mexican American
Culture, Great Issues, Outdoor Recrea
tion, Arts and Amateur Radio — needed no
budget revisions.
Eight budgets, including that of the
council, requested budget increases for
their activities.
The MSC Basement Committee, which
hopes to have Shake Russell sing in Aggie-
land once again, needs an additional $2,800
to present shows in Rudder Theater until
renovation of the Basement Coffeehouse is
completed.
The MSC Recreation Committee re
quested a $900 increase for equipment ren
tal, and the MSC Video Committee re
quested a $1,000 increase to cover repro
duction costs and media equipment rental.
The MSC Council received a $6,000 in
crease to finance the MSC All-Night Fair,
Lost and Found, and Christmas projects.
The two MSC committees with the
largest budgets. Town Hall and the Opera
and Performing Arts Society, also re
quested budget increases. OPAS re
quested a 54 percent increase totaling
$110,000 and Town Hall requested a 19
percent increase totaling $11,000.
Shurtleff said the bulk of these increases
will finance performers’ fees.
“They book high-quality professional
acts after their budgets have been set, ” he
said, “so it’s easy to have budget deviations
of $10,000.”
Both the MSC Cepheid Variable Com
mittee and MSC Free University Commit
tee received $12,000 increases. Cepheid
Variable wanted more money for the
AggieCon science fiction covention, and
Free University needed additional funds to
cover teachers’ fees.
Two other MSC committees. Black
Awareness and Student Conference on Na
tional Affairs, wall present their budget re
visions by December, Shurtleff said. He
said those were not presented with the
others because their plans have not yet
been finalized.
Iraqi troops near Abadan
United Press International
BASRA, Iraq — Iraqi troops fought their
■ way to within 3 miles of the oil refinery city
of Abadan today, and Iran threatened to
line the Strait of Hormuz if Persian Gulf
states aid Iraq in the war.
I Fighting also flared near Ahvaz, the
|| capital of Iran’s oilrich Khuzistan province,
and the two adversaries battled in a moun
tainous frontier area in the northern war
zone.
In Washington, the Pentagon said it was
skeptical of Iran’s ability to block the Strait
of Hormuz by mining, but an official said
mine-sweeping helicopters aboard two
; U.S. carriers in the Arabian Sea would
l “sweep the mines as fast as they laid them. ”
At the United Nations, the Security
■Council announced a special session today
J on the war, now in its fourth week, and said
delegates from Iran and Iraq were sche
duled to attend for the first time.
With the war in its 24th day, Iraq rained
artillery fire on Abadan and poured more
men and artillery into the battle for the
pranian city, whose oil refinery is the
largest in the Middle East.
The refinery townn has been attacked by
tilery and from the air since the first
eek of the war and every one of the 152 oil
torage tanks has been hit, observers said.
Under the artillery barrage, the Iraqi
ground force slogged to within 3 to 5 miles
of Abadan.
But Iran said its defenders repulsed the
Iraqi attempt to penetrate Abadan, which
sits on the Shatt al-Arab waterway, part of
the disputed boundary between the two
warring OPEC nations.
Tehran also appeared to have repelled an
Iraqi advance on Dizful, another oil town of
200,000 at the center of the 350-mile war
front, and a key objective in the Iraqi push.
Late Tuesday, Iran again threatened to
mine the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic
artery for 60 percent of the West’s oil at the
other end of the Persian Gulf if Gulf states
help Iraq in the war.
“The commander of the Iranian navy said
Iran will strongly rebuke the gulf states and
sheikdoms if they offer help to the Iraqi
regime,” Radio Tehran said in a brief Ara-
bic-language broadcast.
The broadcast, quoting the evening
Ettelaat newspaper, stressed “freedom of
international navigation in the gulf region
and the Strait of Hormuz is guaranteed by
Iran.”
“However, if it becomes necessary, we
will mine the Strait of Hormuz and the
gulf,” the report quoted the commander as
saying, and stressed its actions were
directed against Iraq.
The report said Iranian gunboats suc
cessfully blocked ships heading for Iraq,
but gave no indication of what supplies
were on the ships and what flag they were
flying.
Iraq said it had begun moving foreign
ships out of devastated Khurramshahr har
bor, which is under Iraqi control, and four
vessels have been moved to the Iraqi port
of Basra.
But a spokeman for Iranian President
Abolhassan Bani-Sadr told the BBC the
rest of Khurramshahr, about 10 miles north
of Abadan, is still in Iranian hands.
Observers at the front said a final all-out
assault could be launched within hours.
But an Iraqi spokesman implied a final push
was not imminent — ironically because Ira
qi air raids and artillery have wreaked so
much damage to the city they cannot risk
sending men into it.
According to a British journalist who was
evicted Monday, Iran war effort is fast
approaching a halt because of a gasoline
shortage.
Bruce Loudon, who spent three weeks in
Tehran trying to get permission to report
for the London Daily Telegraph, wrote said
“Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic re
public is (being) worn down by shortages of
petrol and military spares.”
Students trying to design
car that operates on -beer?
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — In the history of science, discoveries
have turned up in all sorts of places, from Einstein in his study
to Newton under his apple tree. Now several dozen Louisiana
college students are seeking energy from a source previously
unnoticed — but certainly not untapped.
They are designing cars that run on beer.
Dr. Sedric Walker, assistant professor of biomedical en
gineering at Tulane University, said Tuesday the idea came to
him quite naturally.
“One day I opened a can of beer and it sprayed all over me,”
Walker said. “I thought ‘There’s a lot of energy in there.’”
He passed the idea along to 32 of his seniors in the form of an
assignment: design, build and test a car that uses a can of beer
to get from Point A to Point B. It did not matter what part of the
product they used or what scientific principle, as long as it
moved the car.
“It’s one way for students to try and harness a form of energy
that is normally wasted every time they open a can of beer, ”
Walker said.
The only limitation placed on the project was that it cost no
more than $60.
So far. Walker has heard of plans to use the unopened can
as a weight to wind a spring, much in the style of a
grandfather clock. Another student has suggested shaking up
a can and releasing the pressure in a controlled way. Still
another, reducing things to their lowest terms, is distilling
the alcohol and using it as fuel.
“The serious purpose is to make students go out and build
something under the guise of an alternate energy source just to
make it a little more fun,” Walker said. “It’s a serious topic and
this is just a lighthearted way of getting into it.”
The cars, which will probably be no bigger than toys, are
expected to complete a one-block course on campus Saturday.
The car that travels the farthest on a single can will win, with
a stopwatch used to break any tie.
Walker said his students consider the assignment an enter
taining way to address a serious topic — although no one
pretends malts and hops will replace oil, gas or coal in the near
future.
“They thought it was a lot of fun,” Walker said, “and they
wanted to know if there’d be extra beer for them to drink after
the race.”
With only about a dozen tiny cars racing and a local brewery
donating 10 cases of beer, the students and their professor
agreed the chances for leftovers looked promising.