Battalion Serving the University community Vol. 75 No. 135 USPS 045360 36 Pages In 2 Sections College Station, Texas Friday, April 16, 1982 ck fails but it pulled the N with Houston at 43-351 Western Division pi Denver survived a H«j comeback that narrowdl Nuggets’ margin to83"lJ 7:()7 left in the third i Kiki Vandeweghe thenW straight baskets and Denvti led away lor the win, eagan, Galtieri xpress hopes or solution ^ liTT'" 1 ;—^-— —-—- .Mm n ^ / * = t & • I hompson hit lOofll^B United Press International goal attempts in just22b£WASHINGTON — President to lead Denver. Moses 51 Reagan summoned his National led the Rockets with 2/pi Seuinty Council into session today following a telephone talk with the gjn siHent of Argentina about the sim mering Falkland Islands crisis. ■ President Leopoldo Galtieri called Reagan about 5 p.m. EST Thursday aiu\ both restated their desire for a Raceful resolution of Argentina’s dispute with Great Britain, said depu ty White House press secretary Larry Speakes. ■ At about the same time, Secretary o| State Alexander Haig — beginning ;Re second round of his shuttle diplo macy — arrived in Buenos Aires to mfort-Flex™ stretch □ck pockets. Un : ted Press International SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A high- I stakes gambler so dreaded being tried by a federal judge known as “Max imum John” that he had him killed, I said a grand jury indictment of the narcotics kingpin, a hit man and three members of their families. The reluctant testimony of the hit man’s daughter apparently was the key to the indictments, which con cluded a three-year, $4.7 million in vestigation into the killing of U.S. Dis trict Judge John H. Wood Jr. Jamiel “Jimmy” Chagra, 35, an El Paso gambler serving a 30-year sent ence in Illinois for cocaine smuggling, and Charles V. Harrelson, 43, impris oned in Texas for drug and weapons violations, were charged Thursday with murder and conspiracy. Also named were Chagra’s lawyer and brother, Joe, 35, of El Paso; Jim my Chagra’s wife, Elizabeth, 28; and Harrelson’s wife, Jo Ann, 41. The indictment said Chagra gave $250,00()4to Harrelson to kill Wood, making Him the first federal judge slain in more than a century. The three others were held Thurs day in El Paso and Dallas, having failed to post bonds ranging from $250,000 to more than $1.5 million. Attorneys for the accused called the indictments amoral and claimed their clients were being made scape goats by the government. Grand jury testimony from Harrel son’s stepdaughter, Teresa Starr Jas per, 24, apparently allowed the gov ernment to conclude its investigation. She had spent three months in jail last year for refusing to testify, before fin ally appearing before the jury in October. A short time later reports circulated that indictments could come within a few months. Jasper went before the grand jury again Wednesday — 24 hours before the indictments were returned. The indictments claim Jimmy Chagra’s wife and brother encour aged him to have Wood killed and that he hired Harrelson, the son of former state prison guard, to do the job. Harrelson was acquitted of a murder-for-hire charge in 1968 and convicted in another hit killing in 1973. by Hope E. Paasch Battalion Staff The investigation into the building of the proposed University Hilton Hotel has raised some important legal questions, with one of the most prom inent concerning property taxes. The proposed site for the hotel is the northeast corner of the Texas A&M University campus. The six acres for the hotel would be leased from the University, meaning the hotel would be built on state-owned property and, some have said, might be exempt from property taxes. Property taxes are the primary source of funds for municipal ser vices, including street maintenance, police and fire protection, and sewer services, Brazos County Tax Asses sor-Collector Buddy Winn said. Joe A. Ferreri, owner of the Rama- da Inn in College Station, said: “I wel come the Hilton Hotel... if it will com pete on the same basis that all hotel and restaurant owners do in this com munity such as paying taxes, becom ing a member of the Chamber of Commerce and contributing to all loc al functions.” Ferreri expressed his views con cerning the Hilton Hotel in a state ment dated March 25 and printed as an advertisement in The Battalion April 5. “It would be of concern to all tax- paying citizens of this community and the state if the Hilton Hotel were built on the University because no ad valorem (property) taxes would be paid to our city and school system, yet the city has to provide municipal ser vices free,” Ferreri said. Winn disagrees: “I don’t believe (the proposed University Hilton) would be exempt from any taxes that other local hotels pay.” Brian Brown of the State Property Tax Board agreed with Winn. “The (proposed University Hilton) building would be fully subject to property taxes,” Brown said. “The lease-hold interest itself may even be taxable, especially if it is a very long term lease, which it most likely would be.” Ferreri said: “The Hilton Hotel should secure private property ... Twenty years ago, I applied to the Faulty scaffolding tentatively blamed in fatal bridge collapse United Press International EAST CHICAGO. Ind. — High way experts said faulty scaffolding may have caused an unfinished ele vated expressway ramp to collapse during concrete-pouring, killing 12 workmen and injuring 20. Searchers were told to look for more bodies today. Three spans of the 50-foot-tall bridge, each about 150 feet long and 15 feet wide, collapsed one-by-one in a chain reaction Thursday morning. The scaffolding that was supposed to support the structure until the con crete hardened, apparently buckled, officials said. The search for victims was called off at dusk. Eleven of the dead — some who tried to escape by jumping and were crushed beneath the rubble — were taken to a temporary morgue but the twelfth, who was not identi fied, was entombed in a slab of con crete. Officials planned to wait until daylight to attempt to free his body. At least two of the injured, who were taken to three area hospitals, were in critical condition. John Kouris, attorney for the Lake County Coroner’s Of fice, said more bodies might be found at the site when a search of the wreckage re sumed today. “Investigators from our office talked with workers at the scene at the time of the crash,” Kouris said. “We will work on the presumption there are more out there.” Authorities cautioned that because there were numerous contractors and sub-contractors at the site, it was diffi- A&M profs to offer ideas on New Federalism by Jennifer Carr Battalion Staff Two Texas A&M University professors have been chosen to serve on Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby’s Texas Academic Conference on New Federalism. Dr. Donald A. Sweeney, a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and Dr. Arnold Vedlitz, a political science professor, will meet with scholars from 41 Texas colleges and universities to discuss specific issues and problems resulting from President Reagan’s proposed New Federalism policy. Under the policy, the federal government will give block grants to states, and will not specify how the money should be spent. The conference, which will meet in Austin May 28 through May 30, will make recommendations to be used by Hobby’s Task Force on New Federalism. The task force was established to deal with the challenges resulting from Reagan’s proposal. Sweeney, who also directs a graduate program in health plan ning, will address the issue of Texas health policies and prog rams. Texas, like most other states, has different ideas than the federal government on how money should be spent, he said. “Instead of categorical grants,” Sweeney said, “in which the federal government said ‘This is the way the money has to be spent and you either spend it that way or you don’t take it,’ the block grants say ‘Here’s a pile of money for health, and you can spend it any way you want.’ “I think there will be some significant changes from the way the money has been allotted in the past, and some of them I think the people in the state may not be real happy with.” For example, he said, the Emergency Medical Services prog ram, which includes ambulance and emergency medical techni cian service, is now regarded as a municipal service. And, he said it is probably one of the programs that will be cut back. Vedlitz also has experience in the health and social services area, but sees his role in the conference as more of a policy analyst. Because of his experience in state and local politics, he said he will try to serve as a communications link between the scholars who will be providing the information, and the decision makers. He said he has worked for some time to establish a program similar to the one Hobby has set up, because he feels government should take advantage of the analytic and research skills scholars possess. “I think it (the conference) is a good opportunity for not only us at Texas A&M,” he said, “hut for policy scholars and social science scholars from around the state to participate and help our politicians make better decisions.” Many people consider New Federalism a budget-cutting de vice as well, Vedlitz said. Not only are states given responsibilities previously dictated by federal mandates, but they are given less money, he said. One idea behind New Federalism is that those closest to the issues will be able to decide how money should be spent. Both Sweeney and Vedlitz are concerned about how Texans will be able to affect the decisions. “I’m not sure that we really have a clear understanding of how the people in Texas want their money to be spent,” Sweeney said. “They’ve never really been asked that like they’re going to be.” inside forecast Today’s Forecast: Partly cloudy and breezy with a high near 90; low tonight in the upper 50s. Satur day’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid- 70s. (Texas A&M System Board of Re gents) for an on-campus hotel, and they turned me down. What makes this time different?” Eric J. Hilton Jr. of the Hilton Hotel Corp. said he is not aware of any tax exemption the hotel might receive because of its location on state property. The corporation will not consider a franchise hotel in the Bryan-College Station area unless they can build on campus at the requested location. “It’s the best site because of the ex posure and significance of being on the campus,” Hilton said. “If it were any other location, (the Hilton Hotel) would be just another hotel. We want it to be more than just another hotel.” cult to determine exactly how many workers were on the job when the structure fell. “It was like a chain reation,” Lewis Conley, a carpenter, said. “The first section fell — boom — without warn ing. The other sections hung for a while before dropping.” “It looked to me like the scaffold ing buckled,” said James Brannock, a carpenter and project safety repre sentative. “If you would have asked me yesterday, I would have told you the scaffolding would have held. But it didn’t.” Classified 16 Local 3 National 10 Opinions 2 Sports 17 State 5 What’s Up 10