The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 04, 1983, Image 5

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    Tuesday, Octobers 1983/The Battalion/Page 5
Using third world ways
Lab classes make bricks
staff photo by Gin!
II, son of Lt
II, the firsl
essor at Texas Ail
sever, Bluford
r and brother are
laving an astronaut:
by Chappelle Henderson
Battalion Reporter
While some lab classes in
volve sitting in a classroom
waiting for something excit
ing to happen in a test tube,
this wasn’t the case last Thurs
day or Friday in Civil En
gineering 315.
A device used in third
world countries to compact
mud and clay into bricks is
being used in the labs to help
develop a stronger more dur
able brick.
“Lots of places in the world
have used this method,” Dr.
Leonard D. Webb, associate
professor of civil engineering,
said.
The CINVA-Ram was in
troduced in 1952 by the Inter-
American Housing and Plan
ning Center in Bogota, Col
ombia, to aid third world
countries by producing a
material strong enough to
build with, Webb said.
The lab involves using dif
ferent additives such as lime
and portland cement or con
crete to stabilize the soil, Webb
said.
The students added water
to dirt, making sure it was not
too wet. They then took the
dirt and added different
amounts of lime or cement to
get different types of bricks
which then were placed indi
vidually into the CINVA-Ram
— a box about one foot long
and eight inches deep with a
pole about six feet long
attached to the lid — to apply
pressure and compact the dirt
to form the bricks.
The bricks are labeled and
dried before going into the
Final stage of the experiment
— testing for strength under
pressure.
Alan Pond, graduate
teaching assistant, said the lab
will produce about 30 types of
bricks from which the class
will build a wall to see how
long the adobe will last.
staff photo by John Makely
Joey Panazzo from Sugarland and Mark
Haynie from Corpus Christ!, make bricks
in their civil engineering class, both are senior
building construction majors.
Suspects’ flight ends
in surrender, death
United Press International
PADUCAH — A man and his
son, on the run for killing two
Minnesota bankers, decided to
get out of their dead-end situa
tion with a suicide and a surren
der, Cottle County Sheriff
Frank Taylor said Monday.
James Lee Jenkins, 46, was
found dead about 6:30 p.m.
Sunday on an abandoned farm 4
miles north of the west Texas
community of Paducah. Steve
Jenkins, 18, showed Taylor
where he could find the father’s
body.
Taylor said the younger
Jenkins indicated he would
waive extradition Monday and
return to Minnesota to face two
second-degree murder charges
in the slayings of Rudy Blythe,
42, president of the Buffalo
Ridge Bank in Ruthton, Minn.,
and loan officer Toby Thulin,
37.
“I guess they talked it over.
The father decided he’d end it
out there and the son decided to
give himself up,” Taylor said.
Jenkins’ body was found in
the middle of a road leading to
the farm. He shot himself
through the mouth with a 12-
gauge shotgun.
The younger Jenkins surren
dered to Paducah police at 6:30
p.m. Sunday and told author
ities his father had committed
the shootings, Taylor said.
The pair had spent most of
Sunday hiding out in a partially
burned building on the aban
doned farm, Taylor said, and
apparently were on their way
back to Brownwood in south
west Texas, where they used to
work.
Lincoln County Sheriff Abe
Thompson of Minnesota told
Taylor officers from his office
would arrive in Texas Monday
afternoon togetjenkinsafteran
extradition hearing.
Jenkins gave himself up to a
police dispatcher who called
Taylor, ending a three-day, 800-
mile flight for the teen and his
father.
In October 1980, the Buffalo
Ridge Bank foreclosed on Jenk
ins’ farm and then bought an
interest in it, according to Lin
coln County, Minn., court re
cords. Jenkins later filed for
bankruptcy, court officials said
last week.
Upon losing his farm, Jenk
ins lived in Texas for about a
year. Brownwood police Friday
reported Jenkins worked as a
night guard and maintenance
man at the school there for a few
months.
Jenkins recently bought a
farm near Hardwick, Minn., but
was having trouble getting the
Buffalo Ridge Bank to grant
him credit to buy cattle, Minne
sota authorities said.
They said neither Blythe or
Thulin was involved in the fore
closure on Jenkin’s first farm.
Ijunate 'harassed'
UH honors politician
from South America
Prison worker sued
when asked if
like to be an asiti
lunger Bluford
[ have time to thinia
lit now all I mtrv« United Press International
hrough college,"ftl WASH INGTON — The Sup-
■me Court Monday let a deci-
■m stand allowing “jailhouse
\ -pv /A VJ filLver” Allen Lamar to seek
/ ly 11'images from a Texas prison
X ■iployee for harassment, even
lough it failed to stop the hi
sses during the l!|L e f rom filing lawsuits,
hat crashed in 1™
lid decline of oil pi The high court’s decision
as Banking Cornu means Lamar, a 46-year-old
iam Aldridgesaidi convicted thief who was serving
the failed banblS-year sentence for robbery
lecame depositors'by assault, will return to a Hous-
iank of Odessa* ton magistrate court to have a
ransaction. ly assess damages against
C spokesman Alai longtime Texas Department of
d the assumption Corrections employee Len
:iy the new banblthur Steele,
ed for a payoff ■
rank’s accounts, llamar was released from the
Keral prison in Leavenworth,
itney added itabten., 12 days ago, his attorney
possible losses todtlln Boyd said. He was transfer-
h accountsabovciiift to federal custody after tes-
isured limitofSIDifying in a case which led to
Beeping reform orders of the
^ , iexas prison system.
■ Odessa bank tw
Permian Basin b®; r to .
Inn three monthP^ 6 ’ n ° W an aSS,Stant war '
anking Board i
Bank of Midland]
late July. ]
idland bankrec]
ing Monday
iperating undfi
Mid-Cities N'
Ben at the TDC diagnostic unit,
is a building major at I DC’s
lis Unit in Huntsville when
mar filed the lawsuit that led
■ a favorable magistrate jurv’s
Blinoun 1080 J 7 3
filing in 1980.
iLamar, known as a “writ wri-
T an , d J- ailh ouse lawyer” be-
Pe h , e frequently filed law
threatened him because of a
series of lawsuits filed over con
ditions in the nation’s largest
prison system.
Lamar said Steele burned his
legal documents, asked an in
mate to assault him, asked
another inmate to kill him, in
vited him to pick up a small knife
while Steele held a large knife
and promised to send him home
in a “pine box” if he did not
cease his activities as a writ
The trial included testimony
— over Steele’s objections —
that the TDC official had asked
inmate Bertrand Bennett to kill
another writ writer and lhat in
mate Lawerence Smith, who
died bef ore trial, said Steele had
threatened to harm Lamar if he
continued filing lawsuits.
The magistrate’sjury ruled in
1980 that Steele had harassed
Lamar, but decided against
awarding him damages. U.S.
Magistrate Calvin Botely in
Houston awarded Lamar a
nominal $1 in damages, as well
as $7,992.33 in attorney fees to
be paid by Steele.
Steele appealed, saying no
damages should be awarded be
cause there was no injury if
Lamar continued to file his law-
SU1 whH-h P t ite i )fthe harass ment
— ivhith he described as harsh
language often necessary for
prison management. Steele also
raised objections again about the
inmate testimony.
Lamar cross-appealed, saying
the questions put to the jury
were confusing and the panel
should have been allowed to
assess damages.
The jurors had found that
while Steele had tried to intimi
date Lamar from filing his law
suits, it did not believe he had
“unnecessarily and wantonly in
flicted emotional distress” on
Lamar.
The negative response to the
second question incorrectly pre
cluded jurors from considering
damages, Lamar argued.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld inclusion of tes
timony about the other inmates’
claims and Botley’s award of
attorneys fees but sent the case
back to him for a new trial “sole
ly on the issues of actual and ex
emplary damages.”
The Supreme Court Monday
let stand that decision, which
means Lamar now will get
another chance in court.
Court documents show that
Lamar — who has spent time in
eight prisons in Texas, Califor
nia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, In
diana and Tennessee — was
usually unsuccessful in his hun
dreds of lawsuits but had some
notable exceptions.
United Press International
HOUSTON — A South
American educator, physician
and political leader will be hon
ored by the University of Hous
ton this week and will receive an
award for his work in education.
Dr. Jaime Lusinchi, a candi
date for the presidency of Vene
zuela and member of the
“Accion Democratica” party,
will be given a special award
Wednesday designating him as
“Distinguished Social and Edu
cational Leader of the Amer
icas,” said UH president Dr.
Charles Bishop.
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