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Wednesday, July 25, 1984AThe Battalion/Page 7
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Ferraro hailed by House
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Geraldine
Ferraro, given a triumphant wel
come in her first return to the House
as the Democratic vice presidential
nominee, Tuesday dismissed Repub
lican attacks on her liberal voting re
cord as pointless.
Colleagues lined up to embrace
Rep. Ferraro as she walked onto the
House floor for the first time in al
most a month. The ornate chamber
resounded with cheers and a thun
dering ovation. Forty-two House
members made speeches in a tribute
lasting more than an hour.
With her mentor — Speaker
Thomas O’Neill — presiding, Fer
raro took the floor to make remarks
that House rules say must last no
more than one minute. No one ob
jected to her talking for two minutes.
“How do I explain in one minute
what my six years in this House, the
people’s house, have meant to me?”
she said, all smiles. “Thank you all
from the bottom of my heart.’*
Party
requests
injunction
United Press International
HOUSTON — The Libertarian
Party of Texas has asked a federal
judge to issue an injunction blocking
the state’s November general elec
tion unless the party’s candidates are
included on the ballot, court records
showed Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Robert O’Co
nor had not yet scheduled a hearing
on the injunction request.
The Libertarian Party filed the
lawsuit Monday on behalf of the par
ty’s presidential candidate, David
Bergland of California, and three
Harris County School Board Trust
ees, whose claim their re-election
changes have been threatened by the
party’s failure to qualify for listings
on the state ballot.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to
halt the November elections unless
Texas includes the party members
on the ballot.
The lawsuit claimed the state dis
criminates against third parties by
requiring a party’s gubernatorial
nominee to get 2 percent of the vote
before the party is placed on the bal
lot.
However, the Libertarians claim
the use of the governor’s race as a
measure of the party’s support is dis
criminatory and unfair.
The Libertarian Party was on the
ballot in 1980 and again in 1982 and
two candidates for state office polled
slightly more than 2 percent of the
votes in the last statewide elections,
the lawsuit said.
Texas Secretary of State John
Fainter said he had no option under
state law but to remove the party
from the ballot.
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Rep. W.G. Hefner, D-
N.C., drawled, “We got an
old saying. You done
good. ”
She recalled how she burst out
laughing the first time she rose to
address the House six years ago. No
longer so nervous, she lamented the
loss of her seat representing a work
ing-class district in New York Gity.
Despite the conservative views of
many in her Queens district, Ferraro
has a liberal voting record that got a
90 percent rating from the liberal
Americans for Democratic Action
group last year. Her lifetime voting
rating from the ADA is a 79.
“Ninety-nine percent of the mem
bers of Congress are to the right of
her on social issues,” Edward Roll
ins, the Reagan campaign director,
charged Tuesday. He said she could
“become the biggest bust politically
in history.”
Ferraro brushed off the accusa
tions, saying Rollins based his re
marks on a rating that included her
vote to ensure the safety of the Social
Security system.
“If tney’re going to call me a lib
eral for saving Social Security for the
elderly of this country, I’m de
lighted,” she said upon arriving
from New York.
O’Neill said, “The Republicans
are going to be calling her every
thing they can.”
“I’m a liberal myself and I’ve
never looked at Geraldine as a lib
eral,” he said. “She’s more of a pro
gressive.”
During House tributes, Rep.
Charles Addabbo, D-N.Y., called
Ferraro the “queen of Queens” and
Rep. Lindy Boggs, D-La., sighed:
’’this was a long time in the making.”
Rep. W.G. Hefner, D-N.C.,
drawled, “We got an old saying. You
done good.”
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — A federal
judge, declaring that he was abiding
' y the spirit of a plea bargain
agreement, Tuesday sentenced high
stakes gambler and drug dealer Ja-
miel “Jimmy” Chagra to life in
prison for conspiring to kill a federal
prosecutor.
U.S. District Judge William Ses
sions issued the maximum sentence
in a plea bargain after Chagra ad
mitted plotting with James R.
Kearns in the Nov. 21, 1978 attack
on assistant U.S. Attorney James
Kerr.
Kerr was investigating Chagra’s
drug dealing activities at the time of
the attack.
Following the sentencing, Sessions
said, “Mr. Chagra, when you en
tered the plea bargain agreement,
you knew this could happen,” but he
added that the sentence abided by
the spirit of the agreement.
“In time, we will reflect to see if
the court has done the proper
thing,” he said.
The sentencing marked the end
of the government’s prosecution of
Chagra, 38, who was accused of
launching a private war against fed
eral officials bent on toppling his
vast drug dealing empire.
The plea agreement called for
Chagra’s sentence to run concur
rently with his combined 47-year
terms for obstructing justice, income
tax evasion and running a continu
ing criminal enterprise.
Chagra accepted a plea bargain
agreement last month and pleaded
f uilty to charges that he conspired to
ill Kerr, who was only slightly
wounded in the ambush near his San
Antonio home.
Under the plea bargain, portions
of which remained sealed, Chagra
would have been required to testify
against Kearns, 44, the alleged hit
man in the Kerr attack.
Kearns, a Boston truck driver,
however, pleaded guilty June 27 to
conspiracy and attempted murder
charges in the case. He will be sen
tenced Friday.
The agreement also allowed Ses
sions to determine Chagra’s sen
tence and would require the judge to
recommend a 10-year reduction in
the 30-year prison term of Chagra’s
wife, Elizabeth, who was convicted of
conspiring to kill U.S. District Judge
John Wood Jr.
Sessions said he could tell by what
he called a “remarkable document”
written by Chagra that Chagra felt
his wife’s sentence was unfair.
The agreement also prevented
the government from interfering in
any possible decision by the parole
board regarding Chagra’s prison
term.
Chagra, a flashy Las Vegas gam
bler from El Paso, Texas, was ac
quitted of conspiring to kill Wood,
who was shot in the back outside his
San Antonio home May 29, 1979.
He was convicted of obstructing the
government’s investigation into the
shooting.
Wood was scheduled to hear Cha
gra’s drug trial at the time of the at
tack.
Chagra was serving his prison
terms at the federal prison at Mar
ion, Ill., but he has been transferred
to a less restrictive facility.
Official says collision 'not an act of God'
Human error suspected in Amtrak wreck
United Press International
NEW YORK — Federal investiga
tors said Tuesday human error
probably caused the head-on colli
sion of two Amtrak trains that killed
one person and injured 137 others
in the fourth fatal accident on the
rail line this month.
They said two Amtrak employees
— the engineer of one of the trains
and an operator in a control tower
— were the focus of an investigation
into the crash.
“This was clearly an operating er
ror,” said John Riley, head of Fed
eral Railroad Administration. “A
head-on collision is not an act of
God.”
Regents
(continued from page 1)
of Colorado at Denver, will assume
the position of dean ofliberal arts on
Sept. 1.
The library report to the board
was prompted by concerns that Ster
ling C. Evans — after whom the
Texas A&M library is named — ex
pressed to Vandiver.
A study ranking 104 members of
the Association of Research Librar
ies raised Evans’ concern. According
to the study, commissioned by Van
diver, the Texas A&M library is tied
for 42nd place with the University of
Arizona for percentage of educatio
nal and general expenditures on li
braries. Texas A&M ranks 60th in
total library expenditures.
The library ranks seventh in total
number of items loaned. Phillips
said the library also borrows heavily
Riley said initial tests ruled out
mechanical failure as a cause for the
crash Monday of the northbound
New England Zip and the south
bound Shoreliner on a trestle 85 feet
above a New York City street in
Queens.
A Spanish diplomat who was
going to Boston on vacation was
killed in the crash and 137 other
people were injured, eight seriously.
“A very preliminary test showed
no malfunction in the signal system,”
Riley said.
Vernon Grose, a member of the
National Transportation Safety
Board, said an operator in a control
tower either failed to signal the
northbound train to halt or the engi
neer of the northbound train failed
to see the signal.
He said the southbound train had
the right of way and was given writ
ten orders to use the northbound
track during renovation of the track
signal system.
Riley said blood tests were con
ducted to determine if either em
ployee had used drugs or alcohol.
Additional tests also were planned
on the signal and switch system to
verify the preliminary findings, he
said.
Investigators said they have been
unable to talk to the engineer of the
northbound train. He remained
unconscious at Elmhurst Hospital.
The southbound engineer said he
saw the other train and slammed on
his brakes.
“In other accidents they are not as
responsible as they are here,” Grose
said of Amtrak. “Here they control
the track. They control the equip
ment and the people.”
When asked if Amtrak was re
sponsible for the accident, Grose re
plied, “They have to be, particularly
in this accident.”
Grose said the full investigation is
expected to take six months.
from other university libraries.
“It reflects the fact that we have a
very inquisitive, knowledge-seeking,
research-oriented student body, fac
ulty and staff,” he said.
Among state-supported institu
tions in Texas, Texas A&M ranks
fourth in total number of volumes.
Texas A&M’s one-and-half-million
volumes is far below the five million
volumes owned by the UT library.
After the board meeting, Van
diver said creating new graduate
E rograms — which Texas A&M has
een doing — forces the University
to develop library facilities.
“I think that’s a haphazard way (to
build up the library),” Vandiver said,
“but I’m willing to do it;”
He calls the library “barely ad
equate” and said efforts must be
made to shore up the collections.
Faculty Senate Speaker Milford
also made a presentation to the
board. He told the regents that the
Senate isn’t looking for power. It
simply wants to have a voice.
“I think we believe that the Fac
ulty Senate can serve as a focus for
an important constituency,” Milford
said.
Milford defended the Senate’s
recommendation — which has been
signed by Vandiver and will take ef
fect in 1988 — to eliminate the grad
uating senior exemptions from fi
nals. He said the issue was an
unfortunate choice for the Senate’s
first project, but said the faculty be
lieved some modification of the sys
tem was in order.
“I hope you will give us time to
prove ourselves,” Milford said. He
also said the Senate wants to be of
service to the board and would be
willing to present reports on faculty
views.
While Regent Joe H. Reynolds
said Milford’s suggestion is a good
idea, he said the first thing the board
heard about the Faculty Senate in
volved criticisms of the System’s or
ganizational structure.
“That’s none of your business,”
Reynolds said.
The board named T exas A&M’s
new animal science pavilion in honor
of Louis Pearce, an officer of the
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo,
and established the Wayne and Ruby
Crisman Institute for Petroleum
Reservoir Management at Texas
A&M. Pearce has been instrumental
in providing scholarships to Aggies
on behalf of the show and rodeo,
and the Crismans set up a $1 million
endowment to create the institute.
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