New techniques
for minor surgery
See page 3
Texas A&M
The
»xt 0i Vol 78 No. 84 CISPS 0453110 16 pages
'bt
Soviet Union reacts
to Reagan's speech
Battalion
Serving the Gniversity community
College Station, Texas
Friday, January 26, 1984
'thitiji
job, i|'!
1 insbu
irn lb,,
se.
(i.for,
Jrwlij
md k|]
'HI is,
if it in
it a rei t
i say in
ondtrij
agio
ihen n
tedattt
er a »1
Inessoi
You*
leday i
an’isat
undl
ought
Senators
rote down
Day raise
K United Press International
| WASHINGTON — The Senate,
3t w ithout a fight, voted Thursday to
11 an election-year pay raise of'
1,443 that all members of Congress
:gan receiving Jan. 1.
■he legislation passed 66-19 in the
mate, where nearly a third of the
embers are facing re-election, and
asient to the House. Prospects for
tssage are also good in the House,
■he measure cleared the Senate
ter multimillionaire Sen. Howard
■enbaum, D-Ohio, charged some
the repeal supporters with a lack of
Brage,” and said, “I don’t know if
eir victory is not shallow.”
Betzenbaum directed his attack on
H. Don Nickles, R-Okla., and Jake
chanct.’B 1 ’ R-Utah, calling “unadulterated
-j ala;key” their claim that calling off
ne p|jje pay raise would help balance the
Jdgr:
or My he 3.5 percent pay raise, which
e l ‘' a ent into effect Jan. 1, raised the
iesse ilanes of members of Congress from
9800 to $72,243.
'’‘g - Members of Congress received t he
iente 1 jy raise along with most federal gov-
ig e 0 nment employes. The legislation
l our j SS (. ( | Thursday would repeal the in-
mucli -ease on iy f or senators and con-
soft tessmen.
Iso plasff
'‘^"l^arly last year, the Senate raised
)n 1 pay of its members f rom $62,600
“o )$() ( J,800 and imposed a cap of 30
can ercent of salary on honoraria,
me amp
IlingrBlickJes, Cam and Sen. David
■n, D-Okla., said they were spon-
■ ime “Btg the repeal as a signal to Amer-
ut ans that all must sacrifice, as the gov-
nnient seeks to cut deficits, and be-
’11 It: , n
iuse the pay raise went into effect,
ithout a vote, during the recess,
i But Metzenbaum said the legisla-
irs supporting the repeal were “kid-
S ctl ing Americans,” and said it was “un-
■aterated malarkey, telling us we
' rk ‘ egoing to balance the budget.”
^ Noting the savings would be $ l .39
azor illion a year, Metzenbaum sug-
:sted that the sponsors fight as hard
-, r ’ ^closing lax loopholes, cutting the
:fense budget and putting a ban on
pkj'j' moraria.
16 JF ha t ta ^ es courage,” he said. “It
^ lk aesn’t take courage to make col-
0, | 11 agues stand up for a 3.5 percent
' ! ictease.
ougn< 9
time. ^Senator, you’re going to win but I
; losinfln't know if the victory is not shal-
rce b jw," he said.
r a H^Betis. John Chaffee, R-R.I., and
/erV: Ian Simpson, R-Wyo., accused Met-
2,incln|nbaum of launching a personal
owh jtack on colleagues — forbidden in
jast s ie Senate.
pped^I, was a personal attack,” Simpson
‘id. “I certainly heard it that way.”
-st tiniilSimpson added, “I’ve never heard
Oganitiniuch guff in my life.”
d.
Photo by ERIC EVAN LEE
Long shadows
Camille Smith, a program advisor in the Student Programs
Office, enjoys reading on the stairs outside of the
MSC on her lunch hour. The warm weather brought
many students and employees outside Thursday.
tough sentences not guaranteed
U.S. woman killed
in Salvadoran attack
United Press International
SAN SALVADOR — An Amer
ican woman was shot to death Thurs
day when caught with her husband
and two children in a combat zone,
the U.S. Embassy and other sources
said.
There were conflicting reports on
who killed the woman, whose identity
has not been released.
A Salvadoran priest who adminis
tered last rites to the woman said lef
tist guerrillas “apparently” shot her,
but a Salvadoran official told the
embassy that government soldiers
fired at her.
There was a lot of combat on the
road, the “Military Route,” said the
Rev. Jose Luis Calderon, who gave the
unidentified woman last rites of the
Catholic Church in the eastern border
crossing of El Amatillo.
The priest said he had received
unconfirmed reports that one Salva
doran civilian was killed and another
wounded in the fighting.
Father Calderon, in a telephone
interview with United Press Interna
tional, said the man, woman and the
two children were traveling in “a large
bus” from western El Salvador toward
the Honduran border when the vehi
cle came under fire. The bus appa
rently was the family’s private vehicle.
“Apparently it was the guerrillas,”
the priest said when asked who was
responsible for the shooting.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Donald
Hamilton said the mission had re
ceived information from an unidenti
fied Salvadoran official that govern
ment soldiers fired on the vehicle.
“According to a Salvadoran offi
cial, someone missed a roadblock near
Santa Rosa de Lima. Soldiers opened
fire and one U.S. citizen was killed,”
Hamilton said.
Two U.S. consular officers flew in
a helicopter to the area to investigate
the report, Hamilton said.
Hamilton said the embassy could
not give details on the American
citizen killed because of Privacy Act
restrictions.
A Defense Ministry spokesman
said he had no information on the
incident.
Residents of Santa Rosa de Lima,
67 miles east of San Salvador, re
ported heavy combat at three points
on the Military Route highway west of
the city Thursday.
The incident reportedly occurred
near a hamlet called El Limon, 5 miles
west of Santa Rosa de Lima, Father
Calderon said.
The priest said the woman’s family
were tourists apparently traveling to
Honduras.
“I was called from the border. She
was a Catholic and I went to give her
last rites. She was already dead when I
arrived,” he said, adding that when he
left the border post at noon a helicop
ter was arriving.
Military sources said the body was
flown in a helicopter to the port city of
La Union, capital of the province of
the same name, where judicial au
thorities would register the death.
In response to recent guerrilla
bombings of a civilian plane, the
American Embassy ordered all U.S.
military advisers to stay off commuter
flights, a spokesman said Thursday.
Last Friday, a rebel-planted mine
exploded underneath a commuter
plane landing near San Miguel, 70
miles east of San Salvador, where four
American military advisers were wait
ing to take off aboard another flight.
A 50-year-old passenger died at
the scene, the pilot died Tuesday of
injuries suffered after one leg was
amputated and four civilian passen
gers were seriously injured in the
attack.
U.S. advisers have been ordered
not to fly on civilian commuter air
lines as a result of the incident, the
spokesman said.
Radio Venceremos vowed to con
tinuing fighting the advisers, “who
have invaded our country to help the
dictatorship and to make war against
our people.”
Negotiations to reduce
federal deficit underway
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Treasury Sec
retary Donald Regan said Thursday
“everything is on the table” in negotia
tions to reduce the massive federal
deficit, but made clear the administra
tion will fight anyone who reaches for
a tax increase.
Appearing before the congression
al Joint Economic Committee to give
his “State of the Economy” message,
Regan predicted a continued strong
recovery this year without high infla
tion.
But much of the discussion fo
cused on plans for high-level discus
sions between the White House and
congressional leaders on ways to re
duce the $180 billion deficit.
Democrats have said they fear Pres
ident Reagan will not yield to any
effort at trimming defense spending
or raising taxes, but Regan said, “No
thing is non-negotiable. Everything is
on the table.”
At the same time, when asked if a
tax increase would be acceptable, he
replied, “In a down payment situa
tion, it is not necessary.”
He said his idea of a “down pay
ment” on the deficit would be to trim
about $ 100 billion over three years —
$20 billion in fiscal 1985, $30 billion in
1986 and $50 billion in 1987.
“Why bother to increase taxes
when you can get it through loophole
closings,” he said.
Regan predicted that closing tax
loopholes would generate about $31
billion over three years. He refused to
give a list of specific loopholes, but did
offer an example of the “type of thing
we think should be closed” — invest
ment tax credits for non-profit opera
tions such as colleges and city govern
ments that sell their buildings to in
vestors seeking tax shelters and then
lease them back for nominal fees. A
bill now before the House Ways and
Means Committee deals with such
situations.
Regan said the administration de
cided against proposing contingency
taxes — which would be put into
effect only after specific spending
cuts were approved this year because
a similar proposal was “laughed out of
existence last year in Congress.
Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., asked
Regan to outline where spending cuts
should come and referred to recent
reports that Budget Director David
Stockman has said that in practical
terms there is little room left for cuts.
“We can cut in all areas of the
budget,” Regan said.
Regan also said the president’s fiscal
1985 budget, to be sent to Congress
next week, would include a recom
mendation to increase the limit on
tax-deferred individual retirement
accounts. Under the proposal mar
ried couples with only one earner
would be allowed to put $4,000 into
an IRA, up from $2,250 now.
In his formal message, Regan pre
dicted inflation will rise from 3.8 per
cent in 1983 to about 5 percent next
year and said unemployment should
drop from 8.2 percent to about 7.7
percent. He said the gross national
product — the overall measurement
of the nation’s goods and services out
put — would grow at a healthy 4.5
percent rate this year.
Drunk driving laws reviewed
the
By KELLEY SMITH
Staff writer
[though the Texas congress has
asst-cl new “tougher” laws against
hinkdriving, Brazos County District
udge W. T. McDonald Jr. says the
Ws are no guarantee of tougher sen-
gting.
■You can write all kinds of tough
iws. but you have no guarantee of
%her sentencing,” McDonald said.
It|all in the application of the law.”
ttaws are changed all the time, he
fl. “These new laws are no revolu-
ion they’ve just received a lot of pub-
iciiy, probably an inordinate
ufount.”
McDonald said the laws against
lr|nk driving have always been
||gh The laws are not effective as
■ should be when they are not ap-
$£d correctly, he said.
■Historically what’s happened has
•cen the stiffer the laws, the more
ffort to circumvent them,” McDo-
1 said.
IcDonald said he has always asses-
H tough sentences against persons
’ guilty of driving while intoxi-
Ifd.
“I’ve been giving them tough sent
ences all along,” he said “We’ve had
tough laws on the books, but the ap
plication has been lenient.”
Battalion graphics by Karl Franklin
McDonald said most attorneys that
come through his court know he gives
tough sentences — penitentiary sent
ences. That’s why the attorneys usual
ly asks for a trial by jury.
“The tougher the judges get, the
more jury trials,” McDonald said.
Jury trials can either result in an
acquittal, a hung jury, which would
result in a mistrial, or light sentenc
ing, he said. The chances for the de
fendant are a lot better with a jury,
McDonald said.
The judge acting on the case can
see through more because he sees it
every day, he said. The defense attor
ney stands a better chance of dazzling
the jury than a judge, he said.
McDonald cited 11 cases his court
handled this summer within a period
of two weeks. All were tried by a jury.
Nine of those resulted in either hung
juries or not guilty verdicts. McDo
nald said the results would have been
different had he ruled on the cases.
However, there are a few things
about the new laws that make them
appealing from the court’s point of
view, assistant county attorney Jack
Phariss said.
The appealing factors are the legal
intoxication guideline, the use of
videotapes during arrests and the
admissibility in court of refusal to take
an intoxilyzer, blood or breath test,
Phariss said.
A person with a blood alcohol con
centration of . 10 is legally considered
intoxicated rather than being pre
sumed to be intoxicated. The new law
alleviates the courts from having to
decide whether a person was drunk,
Phariss said. The videotape machines
will also help in the courtroom to let
the jury or judge see if a person was
acting drunk at the time of arrest, he
said.
The courts now have enough
ammunition to counteract people
wanting to take a case to court, he
said. While the defendants have less
to lose, they also have less chance to
get away, he said.
While Phariss said tests such as the
intoxilyzer will help take the doubt
from thejudge’s andjury’s mind as to
a defendant’s intoxication, the de
fense will be working to bring doubt
about the validity of the tests.
Local attorney Tyler Moore said
the tests are not an accurate measure
See DWI page 10
In Today’s Battalion
Local
• Bryan’s Midwest Video and Community Cablevision
will soon become one company — so look for higher cable
subscription prices. See story page 3.
• Now’s your opportunity to race through campus in a
sports car. For more info see page 6.
• Texas A&M’s men’s and women’s tennis teams begin
action for 1984 this weekend. See story page 13.
State
• An Austin man cashes in $1,200 in pennies. See story
page 7.
• Baylor dorm students are now allowed to put their
posters of nude girls and beer products back on their walls,
after being told to take them down. See story page 12.
National
• A 66-year-old Florida man becomes the First person to
be executed in 1984. See story page 3.
World
• Poland reacts to the nuclear war film “The Day After.”
See reaction page 5.