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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1985)
Pre-reg istration^H Sophomores L-Z today The Battalion No. 132 USPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Monday, April 15,1985 S wants tax forms ailed by midnight Associated Press Bashing I ON — Upto lO mil lion procrastinating Americans are Opened to file federal income taxes lefojn- tonight’s midnight deadline, Is'hilt the Internal Revenue Service ■|ls around the clock to overcome iConipiitei processing backlog, i Tne IRS ordered iis nationwide 'hoi line" telephone information Ice and its walk-in offices to re- naiijopen until ti.SO p.rn. local time oniiht to answer last-minute ques- ionj about how to fill out a return, j^wings institutions readied for in- estip wanting to cut their taxes by lining an Individual Retirement kalunt. And Rost Office employees ■ by for what has become a priilg ritual: late-night processions Brs and people with tax returns Rhand. ’ Bin foi Mr. and Ms. l ypical Hlerican, there's more to be done. The non-partisan l ax Founda tion estimates that most people will have to toil another 13 days to pay all their federal, state and local taxes this year before starting to work for themselves. The calculation estimates how long a person has to work to pay an average share of all taxes — cor porate and individual — if every penny earned during that period were earmarked for taxes. While most Americans pay their taxes, the IRS estimates nearly $90 billion that is owed will go unpaid. Two leading advocates of tax simpli fication said this could be alleviated w ith lower tax rates. Appealing Sunday on ABC’s “This Week" program, Reps. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y , and Richard Ge phardt, D-Mo., said they were opti mistic that a streamlined tax code form will be passed this year by Con gress. “I really think this will be the last April 15 that the American people face ... the confounding and the per plexity and complexities, and the unfairness, of the American tax sys tem,” Kemp said. Through April 5, almost 60 mil lion of the 101 million individual re turns expected this year had been filed. The IRS will be happier than usual to get this year’s filing season behind it. Bugs in a $103 million computer installed late last year in the 10 service centers where returns are filed have put the agency behind schedule in processing returns and mailing refund checks. IRS Commissioner Roscoe L. Egger Jr. has vowed the agency will do everything to make sure every re turn qualifying foi a refund is proc essed by June 1 Refunds past that date earns interest at the rate of 13 percent a yeat Mino refuses retrial Appeals open to Cuadra liy MICHAEL CRAWFORD | Staff Writer Kounty Couri-at Law Judge Caro lyn Ruffino’s Friday decision not to mat Gabriel Cuadra a new trial still fea\es the former Texas A&M cadet ^nal options lot appeal. ^■uadra’s detense attorney, Hank Paine, said Friday that he had not yet spoken with Cuadra, but that he will probably appeal the judge’s deci Hi If Cuadra chooses to do so, the case would be appealed to either the Court of Appeals in Houston or in Wap. Should that fail, Cuadra could then seek a new trial from the Cotirt of Criminal Appeals in Aus tin. I: But County Attorney Jim Kubo- viak said Sunday that although he doubts another judge would grant Cuadra another trial, he has learned nottopredict jurys’ decisions. Hf roin the evidence we’ve already heard, unless he comes up with an other point of error, I find it doubt- NASA delays space walk decision Associated Press I CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — liASA officials decided Sunday to move the space shuttle Discov ery close to a dead satellite, but postponed for a day a decision on Whether the astronauts will take a risky, unrehearsed space walk to bring it back to life. [ “We are not ruling out an F.VA," Mission Control told the istronauts. EVA is shorthand for rxtra Vehicular Activity -- a pace walk. “The plan now is to do a ren- iezvous and a photographic in- ipection and we plan to do that m Tuesday,” commander Karol iobko was told. Mission Contol aid the exercise might even come he following day. When the Navy communica- ions satellite was ejected from :he shuttle’s cargo bay, its electri- al systems failed to turn on, ap- larently because the level did not pring out. Officials will continue to eval uate options for tripping the witch, said Mission Control’s Bob Springer. “We may elect to come up w ith t procedure to attach something to the RMS to be used remotely,” Springer added. The new' plan means the flight 11 be extended by at least one dav. ful he'll get another one...(But) you can never second guess a jury,” he said. “Every jury thinks differently and there’s no way to know until they actually reach a decision what it’s going to be.” Paine requested a new trial last Wednesday claiming jury miscon duct occurred when Kuboviak twice referred to punishment when the jury was only supposed to determine guilt pi innocence. Also, Paine ar gued that his defense of the former cadet was weakened because a re constructed exercise list was not in cluded in the evidence. But in her decision, Ruffino stated that the mentioning of pun ishment did not influence the jury’s verdict and that the leconstucted exercise list was not new evidence. Kuboviak had submitted affida vits from five of the six jurors who stated the including of the exercise list would not have affected their de cision. Kuboviak argued that the list was self-serving and immaterial “It wasn't legal evidence,’' Kubo viak said Sunday. “It never was evi dence. I supplied the court with nu merous cases and the case law is what controls (other decisions). I be lieve the case law in this decision def initely favored Ruffino’s decision in that it rendered exactly what the law is. And Carolyn Ruffino followed the law.” Cuadra, 21, was sentenced to a year’s probation and a probated $5U0 fine in Febi uai y after being convicted with tampering with evi dence sought by officials investigat ing the Aug. 30 death of sophomore cadet Bruce Goodrich. Cuadra destroyed the list, pre pared by two junior cadets, which outlined the exercises Goodrich per formed the night he died of heat stroke. Cuadra testified that he de stroyed the list to keep it out of the hands of the media. Paine could not be reached for comment Sunday. Photo by MELINDA PE TO Modern-day Guillotine Brenda Kessler, a sophomore business ma jor from Elgin, gets ready for the doughnut dash. The competition was part of Derby Day held Saturday at Oaks Park. It’s an an nual event for sororities that is sponsored by the Sigma Chi fraternity. The Alpha Chi Omega sorority won first, the Chi Omega second and Alpha Delta Pi placed third. Hlovinkos named 1985-86 parents of the year Joseph Hlavinka By CATHIE ANDERSON Staff Writer Say the word “parent,” and peo ple begin to talk. Everyone has a fa vorite story or two or three that they just have to tell about mom and dad. Michael. Sarah, Terry and Mich elle Hlavinka shared their thoughts about their parents with the Parents’ Day committee, nominating them for 1985-86 Aggie Parents of the Year. And boy, were Joseph and Pat Hlavinka surprised when they re ceived the Aggie Parents of the Year title Sunday morning at the Parents’ Weekend Award Ceremony in Rud der Auditorium. The award recog nizes them as “the epitome of Aggie parents.” T he Hlavinkas take the title from Jim and Janice Uptmore. Hlavinka, a member of the Class of ’56, says he can remember being a freshman when Uptmore was a senior at T exas A&M, and he hopes he and his wife can do as good of a job as Aggie Par ents of the Year as the Uptmores did before them. The Parents’ Day committee se lects the parents of the year by studying the example parents have set foi family and friends through then devotion to their family, their dedication to the community and then loyalty to A&M. Hlavinka showed some of his loy alty to A&M when the University was in need of equipment for bon fire. Hlavinka, who is a tractor dealer, says he was happy when his son, Terry, told him the equipment was needed because it was a way in which he could aid A&M. "A&M is everything to us,” Hla vinka says. He and his wife say it will Lake them a while to come back down to earth. T hey were overwhelmed with receiving what they called “the high est honor a parent can have.” “We’re just thankful for some wonderful Aggie kids and the ex tended family they’ve been able to offer us,” Pat Hlavinka says. Pat Hlavinka Lucas’ murder confessions questioned Associated Press DALLAS — Law- enforcement au thorities in some states said Sunday they stood by their acceptance of Henry Lee Lucas' murder confes sions because they had additional ev idence to implicate the drifter. But in some cases, officials said the confessions would be re-exam ined. And in Waco, a district attor ney said a grand jury investigating two local killings and the Texas Rangers’ handling of Lucas will hear testimony from the self-confessed serial killer Wednesday. The developments followed a copyright report in Sunday s Dallas limes Herald detailing Lucas whereabouts during his reported crime spree. The newspaper concluded that Lucas, poor and often without trans portation, would have had to travel thousands of miles in short time pe riods to carry out the more than 210 murders with which he has been credited. The newspaper said in its story that Lucas may have made up his criminal confessions and merely played out a hoax to embarrass au thorities and stay off death row. District Attorney Vic Feazell told the Waco Tribune-Herald that the Texas Rangers’ handling of the Lu cas investigation is being questioned by the grand jury, which began hear ing testimony on Thursday on two local killings to which Lucas has con fessed. The Tribune-Herald said the grand jury heard eight hours of tes- Henry Lee Lucas told the Dallas Times Herald his con fessions were a hoax to show law enforcement doesn’t do its job. timony Thursday from five people, including Dallas Times Herald re porter Hugh Aynesworth, one of the two authors of the newspaper’s story. In some cases cited by the Times Herald, records showed that on the exact days of some murders, Lucas was in other states. Lucas told the newspaper his con fessions were a hoax to show law en forcement doesn’t do its job. “I’m going to. show ’em,” he said in an interview with the newspaper. “They think I’m stupid, but before all this is over, everyone will know who’s really stupid.” Lucas also said he has killed only three people: his mother, in 1960, and in 1982, Becky Powell in Den ton, Texas, and Kate Rich, in Ring- gold, Texas, the Times Herald re ported. He was convicted of all three crimes. “I only got three,” Lucas said. “But they’re (law enforcement offi cials) goin’ wild every time I tell ’em about some more ” The Times Herald said evidence suggests that authorities, partic ularly the Homicide Task Force headed by Texas Rangers, had in formation that would have exoner ated Lucas from many of the min ders but failed to pursue it. In some cases, by refusing to ac cept documents such as prison and work records, authorities actually amended information to conform to the confessions, which have led to at least 10 murder convictions for Lu cas, the newspaper said. Col. Jim Adams, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the parent agency of the 1 exas Rangers, said reports that authori ties ignored evidence were ‘ludi crous” and that Lucas from the be- ginning has provided both unreliable and reliable information, See Lucas, page 5