his Monda
HHi ■ Texas A8cM
The
Serving the University community
Vol. 76 No. 96 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, February 14, 1983
Li
Hinckley will survive
overdose, doctors say
.« * Ihp
1*11^9911 1
—
staff photo by David Fisher
Reaching for it
Rick Beardon, a member of the Aggie lacrosse team,
battles with a University of Houston player for the ball
while teammate Joey Donahue, number 16, watches. The
Aggies won 13-3 Saturday at the main drill field.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Presidential
assailant John W. Hinckleyjr. took an
overdose of drugs in his mental ward
and was in serious condition today but
doctors said they expected him to sur
vive.
It was Hinckley’s third presumed
suicide attempt since shooting Presi
dent Reagan and three other men
March 30, 1981.
“He is presently in stable but se
rious condition. He is on the respir
ator. His vital signs are stable. He is
restrained somewhat,” said Dr. Jim
Levy, president of Greater Southeast
Community Hospital.
Hinckley, acquitted by reason of in
sanity last year of trying to kill the
president, swallowed the unidentified
drugs Sunday at St. Elizabeths Hos
pital and was rushed to Greater
Southeast Cornmunity Hospital.
One doctor said the dose was
potentially deadly and it would be 24
hours before it can be determined
whether Hinckley, 27, is “out of the
woods.”
A nurse was inside Hinckley’s room
today to monitor vital signs. Security
was tight at the hospital.
Hospital spokesman Wayne Pines
said Hinckley was found in his ward at
the mental hospital at 7:15 a.m. Sun
day and taken to the Southeast hospit
al for emergency care.
Levy told reporters Hinckley was in
“a serious but stable condition.” At 9
p.m. hospital spokeswoman Stepha
nie Mcneill said Hinckley’s condition
was unchanged.
Asked whether Hinckley was in any
danger of dying, Levy said, “Yes he
is.”
“I cannot give you a prognosis,” he
said.
“We have every reason to believe
he is going to be all right. We think he
is going to be all right. (But) I will not
be able to tell you until the next 24
hours whether he is out of the woods.
He is still in serious condition.
Officials said Hinckley was brea
thing with difficulty and looking blue
when he was taken to the hospital
where is stomach was pumped and
doctors administered cardiopulmon
ary resuscitation.
Hinckley had tried to kill himself
twice before. Pines said it was a
“reasonable assumption” that Hinc
kley again had attempted to take his
life, but a final determination could
not be made pending a full investiga
tion.
Levy and Pines declined to say what
drug Hinckley took but officials spe
culated it may have been his pre
scribed medicine.
“Hinckley did take a substance. We
have some ideas but would not want
to characterize it,” Levy said.
Pines said Hinckley was found on
the floor in his room in semi
conscious condition face up. There
was vomit next to him, he said, and
indications were he had fallen off his
bed.
Hospital officials said they expect
Hinckley to be returned to St. Eli
zabeths following an expected re
covery.
They said Hinckley’s parents, John
and JoAnn Hinckley of Evergreen,
Colo., had been notified.
The movie “Taxi Driver,” which
Hinckley has said sparked his linger
ing infatuation with actress Jodie Fos
ter, was shown on a Washington area
television station Friday night. Levy
said “my information is that he did
not” see the movie.
Hinckley has said he shot Reagai
to impress Miss Foster, who played
child prostitute in the movie, whicl
featured a loner stalking a politica
candidate.
In written responses to question
submitted by United Press Interna
tional last fall, Hinckley said he hac
hopes of being released from th<
mental hospital and declared, “I an
not suicidal.”
A federal jury acquitted Hinckley
June 21, 1982, of charges of attemp
ting to kill Reagan and shooting three
others. He was ordered confined at
St. Elizabeths indefinitely.
During his first suicide attempt,
Hinckley secretly saved an undis
closed quantity of an aspirin substi
tute at the federal correctional facility
at Butner, N.C., and took an overdose
one afternoon. Law enforcement
officials characterized the incident as
an attempt to harm himself.
T he second time, Hinckley jam
med the lock of his jail cell at the
Army stockade at Fort Meade, Md.,
and fashioned a noose from a jacket.
He hung for three to five minutes
before federal marshals could cut him
down.
Gramm calls election win
a victory for his principles
^Search for Texas
ugitives begins
United Press International
MEDINA, N.D. — Police sear
ched today for two members of a
paramilitary tax protest group
who killed two U.S. marshals
with machine gun fire, wounded
three other law officers and then
lied in an unmarked police car,
authorities said.
Local police, state and county
authorities, marshals and FBI
agents flown in from Washing
ton joined the manhunt for
parole violator Gordon Kahi, 65,
of Midland, Texas, and one of his
followers, identified as Scott
Faul.
Kahl’s son, Yorie, 23, was cap
tured shortly after the shoot-out
when he went to a Jamestown
hospital with a stomach wound.
A woman believed to be the
younger Kahl’s wife fled on foot
and was captured soon after the
shooting.
Both Yorie Kahl and the
woman were charged with aiding
and abetting the shooting of a
federal officer.
by Patrice Koranek
Battalion Staff
Phil Gramm called his victory in
Saturday’s special election “no acci
dent” and said that it was not a per
sonal victory, but a victory for the
principles he has supported — reduc
ing the size and budget of the federal
government — during his four years
as congressman.
Gramm received 55.1 percent of
the votes cast for representative of the
6th Congressional District. His closest
opponent, former congressman Dan
Kubiak, garnered 39.4 percent of the
vote. John Henry Faulk, who received
3.7 percent, was the only other oppo
nent in the 11-man race to receive
more than one percent of the vote.
“I’m very grateful to the people in
the district for the vote of confi
dence,” Gramm said. “The margin
was bigger than I expected and we
ran a little stronger than I thought we
would.”
Since Gramm received 55 percent
of the vote, a runoff election will not
be needed.
“I’m pleased to have defeated 10
opponents without a runoff,” Gramm
said. “I’m especially proud of the fact
that I carried counties that are tradi
tionally Democratic.”
Gramm telephoned President
Ronald Reagan Saturday night to in
form him of the victory. Reagan con
gratulated Gramm on the win and
said, “God bless you and welcome
back.”
Kubiak, the leading Democratic
candidate, said he thought he made a
good showing for what he called a
23-day “David and Goliath cam
paign.” He raised about $60,000 for
his campaign effort.
“We faced an incumbent with lots
of name recognition and actually a $ 1
million campaign,” he said. “We were
forced into the fight with one hand
tied behind us and nearly pulled it
out.
“We lost the election but we’re not
conceding. We’ll be around for two
years to expose the record.”
Kubiak said he plans to run for the
same office in the next election.
Gramm, who had $206,000 left
from his previous campaign and
raised another $500,000, used most
of his funds for radio and television
advertising.
Voter turnout in Saturday’s elec
tion was moderate with 34 percent of
the voters going to the polls. Turnout
in Brazos County was slightly higher
— 41 percent of the voters went to the
polls.
Gramm, former Texas A&M eco
nomics professor, gained overwhelm
ing support in three counties that col
lectively have almost half of the dis
trict’s voters. He won with a decisive
4-1 margin in Dallas County and took
Montgomery County by a 3-1 margin.
Turnout in those counties was consi
dered moderate to heavy.
In Brazos County, Gramm’s home
and the place where he began his poli
tical career, he won by a 2-1 margin.
Brazos County voters turned out to
give Gramm 66 percent of the vote
and Kubiak 28 percent.
Kubiak won six of the 14 counties
in the district, but most of those were
by slim margins. Overall he received
33,162 votes to Gramm’s 46,334.
Gramm forced the special election
when he resigned his seat as a Demo
crat in the U.S. House of Representa
tives on Jan. 5. Grarpm resigned after
Democratic leaders ousted him from
the House Budget Committee be
cause of his support of President
Reagan’s economic recovery plan.
Gramm’s success in the election did
not guarantee him a position on the
budget committee. Gramm, however,
said he will be named to the House
Budget Committee when he is sworn
in this week.
’olice report
•egins today
[Starting today, a campus police re-
port will appear daily in The Batta
lion. Today’s report is on page
four.
inside
Classified 8
seal 3
Rational 8
Opinions 2
1 sports 11
[tate 3
that’s up 10
forecast
lartly cloudy skies today with the
:pigh near 61. Southeast winds at 15
Bo 20 mph. Becoming mostly
Jloudy tonight with a 40 percent
■hance of thundershowers and a
ftnv near 49. Continued mostly
■oudy on Tuesday morning with a
■0 percent chance of showers.
Juesday’s high will be about 60.
almanac
United Press International
Today is Monday, Feb. 14, the
|Pj>thday of 1983 with 320 to follow.
This is Valentine’s Day.
Those born on this day include
B)lish astronomer Nicolaus Coper-
|i|cus in 1473, English economist
pomas Malthus in 1766, Amer-
in suffrage leader Anna Howard
law in 1874, and comedian Jack
snny in 1894.
EPA may allow
banned herbicide
to be sold, used
United Press International
BOSTON — Despite, a ban on a
herbicide containing dioxin, the
deadly chemical that has severely con
taminated at least 22 sites in Missouri,
the Environmental Protection Agen
cy may permit a chemical company to
continue to sell the substance, a Bos
ton newspaper reported.
According to a report in the Bos
ton Globe Sunday, the EPA is nego
tiating an agreement with Dow Che
mical Co., the company that makes
the herbicide 2,4,5-T, to allow wider
use of the chemical.
The report also said 2,4,5-T still is
being sprayed on thousands of rice
fields and cattle ranges in the United
States.
In 1979, the EPA issued a ban on
2,4,5-T that led government officials
to believe that the ban covered all uses
of the herbicide. However, it did not.
Charles Benbrook, staff director
of a congressional subcommitee that
deals with herbicide issues, initially
told a reporter that 2,4,5-T was ban
ned. After checking, he said he “was
surprised and a little disturbed” to
find that many uses of the herbicide
had never stopped.
Patrick Tobin, acting director of
the EPA’s criteria and standards divi
sion, said the July 1981 study was sent
to EPA deputy adminstrator John
Hernandez “months ago.”
Benbrook said the long delay in
publishing the study “is usual practice
when a study is contrary to the pre
vailing political stance of the agency.”
“Since they can’t change the study
without impinging on the rights and
research of the scientists, they just sit
on it and keep saying it is under re
view,” Benbrook said.
Dixoin is a byproduct of many che
micals, including 2,4,5-T, which is
used to kill broadleaf weed on rice
and cattle-grazing land.
Experiments on laboratory animals
show that the dioxin in 2,4,5-T causes
cancer, birth defects and damage to
the liver and other organs at very low'
levels of exposure.
A water-quality study completed by
the EPA but never published con
cluded that the form of dioxin found
both at the Missouri sites and in the
herbicide 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-
p-dioxin is “one of the most toxic sub
stances known.”
“It exhibits a delayed biological re
sponse in many species and is highly
lethal at low doses to aquatic organ
isms, birds and mammals,” the study
said.
Dow Chemical argues that “the
small theoretical risk posed by the
trace amounts of dioxin in 2,4,5-T is
well within acceptable limits.”
The company argues that use of
dioxin-contaminated 2.4,5-T should
be allowed because the risk is “lower
than other commonplace carcinoge
nic risks found acceptable by society.”
■
A'
■ -.
|r Ip
V
Mm.
4" ■ < -
'V *
'--v
-
■mm
Home at last
photo by Dena L. Brown
After a 24-hour field training exercise in to A&M. Eight helicopters deposited 50 to
Nacogdoches, Army ROTC cadets in the 60 “rangers” — cadets who want extra
Rudder’s Rangers Company return Sunday adventure training — at the polo field.