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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1984)
Astros LaCoss loses 3-7 to New York Giants Entertainment reviews 'Electric Dreams' movie See page 11 See page 9 Geraldine Ferraro attacks Reagan See page 3 SEraSmlHiaflBSlHi The Battalion Serving the University community Vol 79 No. 176 USPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, July 26, 1984 Congress approves after-school prayer United Press International WASHINGTON — The House Wednesday passed and sent to Presi dent Reagan a measure to let high school students hold prayer meet ings in classrooms after hours, re jecting charges that would make public schools recruiting grounds for religious cults. The so-called equal access provi sion, approved 337-77, was attached ill providing almost $1 billion years to beef up mathemat ics and science instruction. With a two-thirds majority vote needed for passage, the bill was approved, 393- The prayer meeting provision al lows students to meet before or after to a bi over two years school for religious discussion, but not during school hours. It prohibits outside speakers from coming into the meetings unless in vited by students. Nevertheless,, op ponents charged the measure would allow schools to be invaded by reli gious cults. Rep. Don Edwards, D-Calif., pre dicted schools would be “inundated by requests by various types of cults and so-called religious groups. “Just because a student must ini tiate the request is not going to hin der many cults, whose aggressive proselytizing of students is one of their traits,” he said. The equal access bill has the sup port of Reagan and religious groups that lobbied for a constitutional amendment allowing prayers in schools. That proposed amendment was rejected by the Senate March 20 after weeks of heated debate. The House June 28 rejected a tougher form of the equal access provision that would have cut off federal funds to schools that did not allow the prayer meetings. The milder form of the measure, approved by the Senate last month, does not prescribe penalties for fail ing to comply and would not restrict the funds. Backers of the legislation said it was a question of equal access by all groups to public property. South Padre hunts shark >er, whoii ling cerei e, possiblyi| ?a^le, has ay v s even!. -al officials ird to save lational War II which ups«| :e. am United Press International SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Shark patrols went up Wednesday along one of Texas’ most populous tourist beaches, where the first ap parent shark attacks in more than 20 years injured two teenagers, one se riously. The attacks Tuesday left Carmen Castro Gaytan, 18, of Mexico City in guarded condition with deep bites on her feet. The other victim, an unidentified 13-year-old girl, was treated Tues day for deep lacerations and punc ture wounds on her foot and re leased from a Port Isabel clinic. Marine experts said they could not absolutely confirm the attacks were by sharks, but Castro said she was bitten by a 4-foot-long shark and the mother of the other teenager said she saw a shark bump against her daughter’s leg. The attacks occurred between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Tuesday about a mile apart on the South Padre Island beach, which teems with tourists during the summer. City officials said patrols were out scanning the beaches and shallow water for signs of the normally re clusive but dangerous fish. “We have a plane flying over,” said city spokesman Joe Rubio. “A boat from the Coast Guard is patrol ling (as well as) a boat from the Fish and Wildlife Department to confirm any sightings. We have a couple of vehicles going up and down the beach. “So far it’s a dry run. We did spot a couple of large sharks yesterday but they were out in deep water. We’re going to monitor the situation the rest of today. “Everybody’s back beach today, enjoyin This is an isolated; incic out on the t themselves, ent.” Immigration bill may ‘hang by a thread’ United Press International WASHINGTON — Sen. Alan impson, the chief Senate sponsor of reoccur*; a sweeping immigration reform bill, if the weei said Wednesday the controversial measure that would grant amnesty ^s we coimi to millions of illegal aliens “hangs by ligh demaJ a thread” in Congress, still have) Simpson, R-Wyo., made the com ment at a rare news conference fol- is doub!f#lowing a White House spokesman’s statement that the bill, as passed by the House, is “unacceptable” to Pres ident Reagan. The bill would grant legal resi dence to millions of illegal aliens Reagan blasts Democrats’ ‘obsession’ n be t another 8 1 ry condilioi ins." icrvation f aid, addin! i and thei lorted ri ;ar Locktf ills, Steplit ty, Gutnrit askell, Cot and the p® in Abiletf iceed witti* „ 1V viv i fiiv n that tool! j ^ Democrats left America.’ “Don’t let them bury the Ameri can dream in their graveyard of doom and envy,” Reagan said, prompting a thunderous roar of “no” from an estimated 20,000 to ^ 30,000 persons at a dusty park, where temperatures hit 100 degrees. now in the country and seek to dis courage the entry of others by pun ishing employers who knowingly hire them. Simpson told reporters there was “no question” but that a House-Sen ate conference committee could work out major differences between differing versions of the bill. “However, I do have very serious concerns that the raging partisan hysteria, hooplah and hype against this legislation which sprang from the Democratic National Convention — and which continues to reverbe rate through the halls of Congress — may have seriously damaged the chance that the House could accept any bill reported by the conference,” he said. The Wyoming Republican also ac cused Hispanic leaders of being “out of touch with the Hispanic-Ameri- can community” in opposing the bill, which they contend would lead em ployers to discriminate against “for eign-looking” job seekers. Simpson, who had met with the bill’s key House sponsor, Rep. Ro mano Mazzoli, D-Ky., said he would not seek immediate negotiations be tween the House and Senate because that would rule out other options. One such option, he said, would be for the Senate to accept the bill as passed by the House to avoid send ing it back to the House — where it was passed by a slim 216-211 mar gin. With elections fast approaching, some Democrats now appear to be bowing to the demands of Hispanics to switch their votes if the bill comes up again — and both Walter Mon dale, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Geraldine Ferraro, his running mate, are opposed to the bill. The acceptance of the House bill, Simpson s^id, would be “painful” to him, but may be the only alternative. Asked about a statement by White House spokesman Larry Speakes that the House version is “unaccep table,” Simpson said Reagan also has said he would accept it. Asked if the bill is “dead,” Simp son replied, “No. Everything hangs by a thread.” In ruling out House and Senate negotiations at this time, Simpson said other options “will begin to close the moment the conferees are named.” Four killed in bar United Press International HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — A gun man who killed four people and wounded another in a motel mas sacre shot himself through the heart as officers prepared to move in, au thorities said Wednesday. Police Sgt. Paul Jackson said a preliminary autopsy revealed two gunshot wounds in the body of Wayne Crossley, 33, of Benton, Ark., who died in the Grand Central Motel Lodge after killing a lounge manager, two patrons and a truck driver Tuesday. “It was a bloody mess down there,” Jackson said. He said Crossley apparently was wounded in the right shoulder in a shootout with police Sgt. Wayne Warwick before the rampage at the motel. Crossley had been ejected from the bar last week for being drunk. The fatal wound, a .45-caliber shot through the heart, was self-in flicted, Jackson said. Crossley, who had a record of vio lent crimes that included terroristic threatening, shot Warwick after the officer had stopped him during a routine traffic check, police said. Warwick, 36, was in serious condi tion with gunshot wounds to the chest. Workers at the lounge and adjoin ing restaurant recognized Crossley as a regular customer who recently was kicked out of the lounge. Mayor Jim Randall said it was the worst tragedy in the history of the resort town. It was the fourth major bar-res taurant shooting rampage in a month. On June 29, A 39-year-old Moroc can spurned by a woman shot and killed six people and wounded a sev enth in a Dallas bar before he sur rendered to police. Last Wednesday, James Huberty, 41, killed 21 people at a McDonald’s near San Diego, Calif. Huberty was killed by a police sniper. In San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, a man armed with a rifle took over a Shakey’s pizza parlor whose opera tors had fired him, held police at bay for nearly 8 hours before surren dering after randomly firing 15 shots. No one was injured. In Today’s Battalion United Press International AUSTIN — President Reagan, ac cusing his rivals of being obsessed with “doom and envy,” said Wednes day the nomination of Walter Mon dale and Geraldine Ferraro pushed far left they’ve creases planned ion Democrats seek “endless tax in- deeper dependency, 1 protectionism, certain sacri- a veiled promises,” Reagan said in kicking off a three-state cam paign swing that includes stops in Georgia and New Jersey. “This election,” he said, “offers the clearest, sharpest, most impor tant choice in modern times: greater freedom or coercion.” With his eye on the Lone Star State’s 29 electoral votes — more than one-tenth the number needed for victory — Reagan teamed up with Vice President George Bush in a bid to drive an ideological wedge between conservative Southern Democrats and the Mondale-Fer- raro ticket. In blunt language unleashed less than 24 hours after his pledge to run on a positive note, Reagan — once a liberal Democrat himself — claimed Democrats “gave Texas the back of their hand” at their national conven tion. He was alluding to Mondale’s choice of Ferraro over Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running mate. The Reagan-Bush “Family Festi val” was the first stop of a trip di rected at two potentially decisive bat tle grounds: the South and the ethnic, industrial Northeast. “When I heard some of the things being said last week in San Fran cisco, I couldn’t help thinking maybe that fog is so thick out there it’s get ting inside their heads,” he said. “But maybe there is another ex- E lanation: the national Democratic :adership is going so far left they’ve left America.” etter jefen! 1 cussif and ‘ ire# luloi! fter^ deU, nddf ifqii 1 Engineers ‘train’ drivers about safety By CARL BECKER Reporter “Don’t make a railroad crossing your finish line — train yourself to watch for trains by observing life- saver signs.” That is the message of Texas Op eration Lifesaver, a free public edu cation program involving presenta tions by volunteer railroad employees. Because many of the speakers are locomotive engineers with a special stake in the program results, the presentations are filled with personal experiences in addi tion to the facts and figures. Dale Evans and Doug Smith, both Southern Pacific locomotive engi neers, said they joined Operation Lifesaver because they have seen all the railroad crossing accidents they want to see. “I’ve got 30 more years on the railroad, and I don’t want to have another accident,” Smith said. “They are horrible accidents... so unneces sary and so easily avoidable.” In their combined 24 years as en gineers, Evans and Smith have been involved in 15 accidents, nine of which resulted in deaths. The emo tion the two men convey in telling their experiences helps the program hit home with the audience. “You watch the scenario play out in front of you, and you carry that for the rest of your life,” Smith said. “The emotional problems of some one dying... it tears me up when I think I hit another person.” Evans agreed. “Seeing a car try to beat a train to a crossing, and knowing there is nothing you can do to stop the train on time, is one of the most sickly, helpless feelings you could ever imagine,” Evans said. Tne power of the presentations is achieved when the speakers combine their emotional accounts with some impressive facts. For example, the average freight train weighs 12 mil lion pounds and takes more than a mile to stop when traveling 60 mph. In contrast, the average car weighs about 4,000 pounds and can stop much faster, within 225 feet, when traveling at the same speed. Con sider the weight ratio — 3,000 to one. No contest. Smith put these facts into a more understandable perspective. “Kids are always asking us what it’s like to hit a car, so we put them in our position,” he said. “It’s like hit ting an aluminum can with a stan dard-sized automobile; that’s what it’s like.” In their eyes, Evans and Smith have too many experiences to draw upon in their presentations, and they would be happy if their presen tations keep one person from be coming an “experience.” See TRAINS, page 4 Local • Light rains offer little help for parched Texas. See story page 12. State • Contempt charges against the Houston couple who re fused to testify against their son are dropped. See story page 3. National • Widow of “McDonald’s murderer” says she’ll sell her story rights to the highest bidder. See story page 4. • Federal judge strikes down Louisiana’s ‘blue laws.’ See story page 8. World • British police clash with striking coal miners for a third time. See story page 6.