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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1983)
The Battalion Serving the University community :s 1.76 No. 90 USPS 045360 30 Pages In 2 Sections College Station, Texas Friday, February 4, 1983 *'■ Marl! ‘ittachtd; it the h um Eat it'get. be asset Fuel price action attacked by White United Press International AUSTIN — Recent action by the Public Utility Commission to change the way utilities recoup fuel costs was “not nearly good enough,” a sharply critical Gov. Mark White said. White claimed the PUC was trying to disguise the controversial fuel ad justment clause through a cosmetic change in rules instead of actually abolishing the charge. “I want to make it very clear,” White said Thursday at a Capitol news conference. “When I said I wanted to see the fuel adjustment clause abolished, that’s simple En glish. I want it abolished. I don’t want them to hide it, I want them to abolish it.” The fuel adjustment clause, which is listed as a separate item on fuel bills and often exceeds base rates, current ly is charged on a monthly basis. The PUC voted earlier this week to re quire utilities to estimate fuel costs a year in advance. “That’s not nearly good enough,” White said. The governor has proposed that the three-member PUC be elected rather than appointed and said he would push for legislation that would strike down the fuel adjustment clause — one of White’s foremost campaign pledges in last fall’s guber natorial race. “I think every day they (PUC com missioners) prove my case in every way, that the Public Utility Commis sion needs to be elected,” White said. “They take action for many of the wrong reasons. They seem to be ca tering to the bond analysts rather than worrying about the public in terest.” In other matters, White said he and his advisers still were trying to formu late his executive state budget and had not decided whether the gov ernor’s priority programs could be fi nanced without new taxes or in creases in certain state fees. “We’re taking a little out here and putting a little in there and it’s not an easy job,” White said of the budget making process. “I’m trying to make certain that when we add it all up, we won’t need a new tax or increased fees. If we do, we will then discuss that matter.” )pie$ .staff photo by Rob Johnston Going my way? Drivers going down Texas Avenue know where to stop and get their cars washed now, thanks to the gorilla in front of Mission Car Wash. The mechanical gorilla works for bananas, and draws customers too. Too bad he doesn’t do windows. A&M scientists develop DNA transfer method English program named ne of most improved by Michael Raulerson Battalion Reporter he English graduate program e has been named one of the four jst improved English programs in I nation, according to a recent fudy done by a Conference Board of BSociated Research Councils com- ittee. “It’s an honor to Texas A&M be- Ise we’re known for our agrieul- |lre and engineering,” said Dr. For- ist Bird, director of the graduate En- ph program. The other three schools that wed outstanding improvement in duate English departments are the University of California at Irvine, the University of Delaware and the University of Pennsylvania. The committee ranked the prog rams by evaluating the quality of stu dents in the program, quality of re search libraries, competence of the fa culty, faculty publications and the success of its graduates in Finding jobs. Bird said the graduate English program has been improved by the addition of competent faculty in American literature, rhetoric and composition. The faculty also has be come more active in publishing books and articles in scholarly journals, he said. The nine disciplines evaluated in the humanities study were art history, the classics, English, French, German, linguistics, music, philosophy and Spanish. The report is the second of five to be published on the quality of gradu ate education in the United States. The first — on mathematics and phy sical sciences —- was published in Sep tember 1982. The council also plans to complete reports on engineering, the biological sciences and the behavioral and social sciences. The reports, when com pleted, will include 26 disciplines. by David Marchand Battalion Reporter A new method of supplying genes that could cure some hereditary dis eases caused by missing genes has been developed by Texas A&M gene tic researchers. Dr. Garret Ihler and Dr. Charles Roessner, both of the medical bioche mistry department, said Thursday that cures for many of the diseases caused by gene deficiencies may be realized sooner than expected. Two methods of supplying genes haven’t worked, but a new method — developed by Roessner, Ihler and Dr. Douglas Struck, also with the medical biochemistry department — seems to show greater promise, Ihler said. The three-step method involves transferring DNA from bacter iophage, or naturally occurring organisms, to man-made cells called liposomes and then to desired cells. If the method proves to be effi cient, as Roessner said it could, treat ment for genetic diseases might fol low quickly. The researchers’ goal is to deter mine the efficiency of the process and to find the conditions under which it is most effective, Roessner said. Ihler, who studied at Harvard Uni versity under James D. Watson, one of the discoverers of the hereditary code carrier DNA, said the idea of human mutants being produced by genetic engineering — as in the movie “The Blade Runner” — still isn’t feasi ble. Science is no closer to that now than it was at the turn of the century, he said. “Most people don’t think you should be playing around with pa tients at this point in time — and I agree,” he said. Ihler and Roessner said they will be moving their research to a new build ing near the Veterinary Medicine Complex in June. A new electron mic roscope and a DNA synthesizer are part of the equipment that will be sup plied with the new building. Truckers leader foresees no early strike settlement Jnemployment rate drops; irst decline in 1V2 years United Press International WASHINGTON — The U.S. un- Bployment rate dropped to 10.4 ■rent in January, the first decline in IS months, the Labor Department re- ||ted today, with increased manu- ■turing and construction a major Ictor in putting Americans back to §k. The department’s Bureau of or Statistics said 11.4 million lericans were out of work last month, according to data adjusted for seasonal factors, for a drop of 590,000 from December. December’s 10.8 percent jobless rate was the highest since the end of the Great Depression. The report is good news for the Reagan administration and congres sional leaders who are struggling on legislation to provide jobs for the long-term unemployed. The 11.4 million officially consi dered as unemployed do not include 1.8 million so-called discouraged workers who have' given up seeking employment, or millions of others who have accepted only part-time jobs because of the recession. Economists, however, have shied from saying that data is any sign of an improvement in the long-t'erm job lessness picture because many work ers have exhausted unemployment benefits but are still without a job. United Press International The Independent Truckers Asso ciation worked up a list of demands to present to the federal government to day, and its violence-ridden strike forced an Ohio plant to close and drove consumers to stockpile pro duce in the Northeast. ITA President Mike Parkhurst said he sees no immediate settlement to the strike, which truckers hope will force Congress to rescind the 5-cent fuel tax and higher road-use fees.. Shoppers stocked up on fruits and vegetables in anticipation of spot shortages next week. Prices on pota toes and Valentine flowers were ex pected to rise because of the strike. Distributors arranged to receive ship ments by air, which is more expensive than trucking, or rail, which is slower. The five-day strike has been marked by almost 1,000 violent inci dents and 75 injuries. Typical of truck stops around the nation, four truck stops at the entr ance of the Ohio Turnpike near Tole do reported business was off as much as 50 percent. “We’re usually packed at this hour,” said George Brokenshire, manager of the Truck Stops of Amer ica Restaurant, while looking around the dining room where only about 10 truckers were eating. “We’re hurting now. This is the most organized strike I’ve ever seen and it’s slowing down almost all aspects of the industry.” The ITA says about 65,000 of the nation’s 100,000 independent truck ers are striking but many of them admit that only the shootings, fires and vandalism are keeping them off the road. Most drivers are driving only dur ing the day and some are receiving “combat pay” for their runs. Depart ment of Transportation officials said deliveries were most seriously affected from New York to Chicago because drivers are afraid to go through Pennsylvania and Ohio, the two states with the most reports of violence. Teamster driver George F. Capps, the only person killed in the strike, was buried Thursday and eulogized as a man who “loved to shift those gears; he loved to hear those wheels hum.” The reward for information about his killers has grown to $20,000. Parkhurst, who blamed the vio lence on “wackos, sickies and Teams ters,” said: “I don’t see any settlement soon. We frankly think that the wait ing game is on as far as the govern ment is concerned. I haven’t seen any legislation that would help.” inside forecast poudy with a 60 percent chance of in and a high of 48. almanac United Press International Today is Friday, Feb. 4, the 85th av of 1982 with 880 to follow. Charles Lindbergh was born eb. 4, 1902. Theologian Dietrich ionhoeffer was born on the same late in 1906 and actress Ida I.upi- ioalso was born Feb. 4. in 1918. On this date in historv: In 1988, Adolf Hitler seized control of the German army and jut Nazi officers in kev posts as art of a plan which was to cause Aorld War 11. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, 191 laughter of San Francisco pufi sher Randolph Hearst, was spi tted away from her apartment in erkeley, Calif., by urban guerril- Jury to begin deliberations in the Chagra murder case United Press International JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A gov ernment prosecutor told a federal court jury it would be “a travesty” if it failed to convict Jamiel “Jimmy” Chagra of the murder of a Texas fed eral judge. The defense, however, asked Thursday for an acquittal as “a tri bute” to the judge’s memory. U.S. District Judge William Ses sions said he would give final instruc tions to the jury on questions of law beginning at 9 a.m. today. Then the jury, which was sequestered Thurs day night, will begin its deliberations. Chagra, 39, a Las Vegas, Nev., gambler and convicted narcotics traf ficker, is being tried on charges he paid $250,000 to convicted hitman Charles V. Harrelson, 44, to kill U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr., who was scheduled to preside at his narco tics trial in Texas. Wood was shot in the back with a high-powered rifle as he was entering his car in front of his San Antonio home the morning of May 29, 1979. The trial was moved tojacksonville because of the extensive publicity in Texas surrounding the only assassi nation of a federal judge in this cen tury. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Jahn of San Antonio, who spent nearly two hours Thursday rebutting defense arguments, called the jurors — 12 women and three men (three alter nates won’t find out who they are un til the case goes to the jury) — that they represented “the community.” “And because of the nature of this case, the community is nationwide,” he said. Jahn quoted from a document written by Harrelson in which he said he wanted his ashes to be dropped from the air over the “John H. Wood courthouse in San Antonio.” Harrel son adds, “What a travesty!” an appa rent reference to the government in vestigation of him going on then. “I say to you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,’’Jahn concluded, “that an acquittal in this case would be nothing more or less than a travesty.” He said Chagra had “damned him- selF’ through numerous admissions during more than 12 hours of secretly tape-recorded conversations on the telephone and at Leavenworth feder al penitentiary in Kansas, in the visit ing room with his wife, Elizabeth, and brother, Joe, and in the cell of fellow inmate Jerry Ray James. Oscar Goodman, Chagra’s Las Vegas attorney, said the government had failed to allay reasonable doubts about Chagra’s guilt. He argued that Chagra was “a braggart” in his deal ings with other inmates at Leaven worth, spoke in a “light” vein with his wife and brother and several times said he didn’t know Harrelson. Goodman asked the jury to listen again to the tapes again with an ear toward sorting out “the fantasies,” weigh the testimony of some “incredi ble” witnesses and ignore the fact that Chagra is a convicted narcotics smug gler serving a 30-year prison term with no parole. y Referring to the question of mo tive, Goodman noted that govern ment and defense attorneys had been only five years apart in maximum prison exposure — 15 versus 10 — in plea-bargaining talks in 1979 and that “if you’re going to kill anyone you kill the witness against you (Henry Wal lace), not the judge.” He said Chagra told an interviewer he thought Wood was prejudiced against him and tried through legal maneuvers to get the judge to disqual ify himself. “Would a man who has openly de clared his position participate in the assassination of a federal judge?” Goodman asked. “I submit to you that the ultimate tribute you could pay to the honor able John H. Wood Jr., who swore to uphold the laws of this country when he became ajudge, would be to return a verdict of not guilty,” he said. staff photo by Irene Mees Art at Rudder Tower Rudder landscape got a new look Thursday after an engineering design major put up these cardboard statues. The statues are a take-off on the statue beside the Memorial Student Center, “Planned for the Future.”