The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, June 27, 1984, Image 9

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Wednesday, June 27, 1984/The Battalion/Page9
Around town
Science students must toke exam
Any junior or senior in the College of Science who has not taken
the English Proficiency Examination should plan to do so this se
mester unless they have completed English 301 with a minimum
grade of C. Students in the College of Science are required to pass
either English 301 or the test in order to qualify as a degree candi
date in the College of Science.
The English Proficiency Exam will be administered by the En
glish Department. Students in the Departments of Biology, Chemis
try, Mathematics, and Physics should register for the exam in 152
Blocker by June 29.
Driver safety course begins Friday
The TAMU After Hours Program will sponsor a Driver Safety
Course on Friday and Saturday. This course may be used to have
certain traffic violations dismissed and to receive a 10 percent dis
count on automobile insurance. Registration is held from 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. Monday through Friday in room 216 MSC. For more informa
tion, call 845-9352.
SCAVMA sponsors dog bath and dip
The SCAVMA Auxilary will sponsor a dog bath and dtp on Sat
urday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the vet school parking lot. A veteri
narian will be available to answer questions. The cost is $5 per dog.
You must bring your dog’s leash and a towel.
Texas drug ring
‘used torture’
United Press International
TYLER — Federal authorities
Tuesday confirmed they have
cracked a major Texas drug conspir
acy whose ringleader allegedly used
steel-fortified apartments, torture
and dummy businesses to build a
million-dollar empire.
“The illegal take was enormous, a
million dollars is a very conservative
estimate,” said Assistant U.S. Attor
ney Jim Jacks. “They made a num
ber of trips across the country to buy
drugs. On one trip alone they
brought along $300,000 cash.”
The alleged ringleader — Bonnie
Burnette Erwin — held controlling
interests in Erwin Produce Co., a
North Texas watermelon farm, and
Catfish Oasis Restaurant, both of
which were money laundering oper
ations, said a 33-count indictment
unsealed Monday.
They were strictly “shell busi
nesses ... whose legitimate activities
were minimal,” the indictment
charged.
The investigation was launched
two years ago when Dallas police
stumbled into a string of apart
ments, lined with steel walls, Jacks
said.
“They knew this had to be a well
organized thing when they found
these little fortresses,” he said. “The
apartments were designed to pre-
Fort Bliss wants cheaper beer
vent them (drug dealers) from being
identified by undercover cops. They
could easily dispose of the drugs if
police raided the place.
“The steel walls also kept other
criminals from ripping them off.”
Erwin, whose bond was set at $1
million, had not been captured
Tuesday, Jacks said. Sixteen of 23
others named in the indictment were
in custody, including Erwin’s son,
Tyrell Defaris Erwin; brother, Don
Wayne Erwin; and daughter, Taran-
tha Esmeralda Erwin.
The two men were being held in
lieu of $250,000 bond each. The
daughter, accused of selling cocaine
and amphetamines from the forti
fied apartments, was held on
$10,000.
Erwin, 42, was charged with or
dering the death of Patrick Brooks,
allegedly for embezzling drugs and
money.
Authorities believe Brooks was
bound, gagged and tortured, and
later beaten to death with a shovel
and buried on Erwin’s watermelon
farm. His body was found a year
later.
The indictment also charges Er
win, his brother and son lured Dallas
women to California, New Mexico
and Nebraska to buy amphetamines
and painkillers. The drugs were
later sold in South Dallas.
Man sues
Ehj oy music
and
theatre?
Want to be Involved
in a great Christmas-
Renaissance tradition?
MSC
mADRIGAL
DINNERS
Vice-Chairmen applications available for:
DIRECTORS OF: PROMOTIONS, PUBLIC RELA-
TIONS,OPERATIONS, DECORATIONS, FINANCE;
SECRETARY/PHOTOGRAPHER
ARTISTIC ASSISTANTS(2)
If you are interested,please pick up an appli
cation in 216 MSC, by TTiday,June 29.
Interviews will be held on July 2 & 3. For more
information,call Trade Woods at 696-2633.
Suds battle erupts in West Texas for Sooner
United Press International
EL PASO — The Fort Bliss mili
tary base is waging a battle of sorts
against civilian distributors of beer,
claiming they charge too much for
the brew and has threatened to take
its business elsewhere.
If the brass at Fort Bliss gets no
satisfaction, they say they’ll take
their thirsty business — worth nearly
a million dollars annually — to New
Mexico.
“I have no wish to take Fort Bliss
business to New Mexico,” said Maj.
Gen. James P. Maloney in a letter
Monday to wholesale beer distribu
tors, obtained by the El Paso Herald
Post. “Quite the contrary. But with
out some pricing accommodation on
the part of the El Paso distributors, I
feel that I will have no other choice
(than to purchase beer out of state).”
Charles Hurd, president of Hurd
Distributing Co. Inc., which handles
products of Anheuser-Busch,
claimed it would be “very unfair” to
retailers to slash prices for the mili
tary, but not for ordinary customers.
“Major distributors are up in
arms” with the notion of dropping
prices in this special case for the mili
tary, he said.
Besides, the government would
scarcely save money by switching to
New Mexico beer distributors, since
law in that state requires the bever
age be sold at a price fixed near the
national average.
Maloney backed off from his ini
tial estimate of savings — roughly
$150,000. At the general’s request,
El Paso distributors examined Malo
ney’s figures and concluded the post
would not save much by buying out-
of-state because of increased person
nel, equipment and handling costs.
After modifying his estimates,
Maloney still said he could save al
most $59,000 annually by purchas
ing beer in New Mexico.
tickets
SBA goes after deadbeats
United Press International
HARLINGEN — The Small Busi
ness Administration reports imme
diate results from a crackdown on
deadbeat borrowers in the Lower
Rio Grande Valley —some who have
put off paying disaster loans dating
back to Hurricane Beulah in 1967.
SBA District Director Rodney
Martin said if the threat of lawsuits
keeps flushing out people well able
to pay their share of $25 million in
delinquent loans in seven valley
counties, the Corpus Christi area will
be next in line because residents
there have neglected to pay about
$20 million in overdue SBA home
and business disaster loans.
Martin and McAllen attorney
Darrell Davis, special assistant U.S.
attorney to head the collection ef
fort, both blame many of the delin
quencies on a “myth” among many
borrowers that nothing will happen
to them if they do not pay back the
easy-term, low-interest SBA loans or
that Congress has or will “forgive”
the debts.
Martin said the Llarlingen SBA
district, which includes most of deep
South Texas including Corpus
Christi, is the first in the region in
cluding Texas, New Mexico, Loui
siana, Oklahoma and Arkansas to
get tough on delinquents, although
similar crackdowns have occurred in
New York, Boston and Columbus,
Ohio.
“In just a week and a half, we’ve
collected $16,000 and that’s money
that never would have been gotten
otherwise,” Martin said.
He said his goal is to collect $1
million in the valley delinquencies
during the first year, well offsetting
the $75,000 to $80,000 a year he
projects the crackdown will cost.
“To preserve these programs we
have to give credibility and let peo
ple know they’re not grants —
they’re loans,” he said.
The threat of hauling long-time
deliquents into court already has had
a salutory effect on people who have
fallen behind on other SBA ac
counts, Martin said, with a flurry of
people making two and three pay
ments at a time to keep themselves
off the delinquent list.
Martin said that Daniel Hedges,
the U.S. attorney for the Southern
District of Texas in Houston, should
get much of the credit for the crack
down. Hedges cooperated in having
Davis appointed as special Justice
Department representative as well as
SBA attorney. This speeds up collec
tion without overburdening Hedge’s
staff, which already leads the nation
in caseload.
He said in most cases SBA districts
“are at the mercy of the U.S. attor
ney” in how tough they can be on
collecting past due loans.
Davis filed 23 civil suits against
valley businessmen and homeowners
in federal court at Brownsville to col
lect delinquent loans ranging from
$1,200 to $24,900 and plans up to
300 more. Assets not covered by the
Homestead Exemption can be seized
in the anticipated judgments.
Martin said most SBA delinquents
are able to pay the unsecured gov
ernment disaster loans, but decide
not to.
Martin stressed that none of a
possible 300 lawsuits planned in the
Valley are directed at “hardship
cases” — unemployed people, wid
ows or divorcees — but at people
able to pay who refuse to do so.
“We not picking on the valley.
We’re just discouraged at going out
to collect and having people laugh at
you and say ‘there’s nothing you can
do.’ We want to put some teeth into
it,” the SBA director said.
United Press International
OKLAHOMA CITY (UPI) —The
State Supreme Court returned to a
lower court Tuesday a decision on
whether an attorney or his ex-wife
will have custody of six season tickets
to the Oklahoma Sooners home
football games.
The tickets at issue are for 50-
yard-line seats for the 1984 season in
the University of Oklahoma’s
70,000-seat Memorial Stadium,
which is sold out for every Sooner
home game.
The university had objected to
giving the tickets to George Moth-
ershed, saying the tickets always had
been in the name of Post Oak Oil
Co., which a divorce court judge
awarded to Mothershed’s ex-wife,
Carrie Abernathy Bell.
Oklahoma University attorney
Stan Ward said the Sooners’ athletic
scholarship donor policy prohibited
transfers and required tickets in such
cases to go to the next person on a
2,000-name waiting list.
Post Oak paid $250 per ticket
each year for the privilege of pur
chasing the tickets. Ward said.
The high court ruled unani
mously that District Judge E.M.
“Mike” McDanel erred in ruling
against Mothershed without first
hearing witnesses. The justices or
dered McDanel to conduct a full
hearing on the issue of the universi
ty’s policy.
Mothershed said he will challenge
the constitutionality of the ticket pol
icy.
“I really don’t think the university
realizes the seriousness of what they
are getting into,” he said. “It goes to
the very ability of the university to
fund the bonds on their stadium.”
His attorney, Carroll Gregg, said
he had three witnesses ready to tes
tify about ticket transfers made con
trary to the policy, adding an admin-
istrative policy “has to be
constitutional and it has to be ap
plied even-handedly.”
THE BODY
SHOP
Come in during June
for a free estimate on
your vehicle which
registers you for up
to $700 FREE PAINT &
BODY WORK.
(Drawing to be held June 30)
1st ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATION
Come in and see our expanded facilities!
696-1138
Hwy. 60— 2 mi. west
of 2818 (to\A/ards Snook)
Professional service
you’ve come to expect.
You can depend on the qualified professionals at TSO to
provide you with quality eyewear, expertly selected and
professionally fitted for the clearest, most comfortable vision
possible. And, as always, at a price you can afford. |€3
Texas State Optical:
214 N Main
Bryan
779-2786
Post Oak Mall
College Station
764-0010
i O
V Pizzaworks J
Dealin’ DoubleDave’s Happy Hours
7-10
nightly
with
$2.00 Pitchers
500 Pints
and
$1 Import
Bottles
There’s Always Something Special at DoubleDave’s
Open: 11 a.m. Monday-Saturday
326 Jersey St.
(Next to Bother’s Bookstore)
696-DAVE
•••«
• COUPON!
INTERNATIONAL
HOUSE ♦’’imcmis
RESTAURANT
ALL YOU CAN EAT
Buttermilk Pancakes
Offer expires
June 30, 1984
$-i 79
4 p.m.-6 a.m.
7 days a week
103 N
SkaggsCenter
GRAND OPENING
The Mongolian House
“A completely unique dining experience!”
Featuring Mongolian Bar-B-Que
and Chinese Buffet
All You Can Eat
Lunch $4.95 Dinner $6.95
Grand Opening June 27
11-2 pm & 5-1 Opm
Register For Door Prizes
VNJW
of College Station
693-1736 1503 Texas Ave. So.
“You’ve Waited Long Enough
Bryan/College Station!