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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1985)
3 ►< s tn t- 1 c i 3 “ o' Cl tl 0: It - -J n 03 ^.3 3 'JO n o E Si » 0 e e Getting easy credit Students opening charge accounts Page 3 Texas gets revenge Horns sweep first-place from Ags Page 9 The Battalion Vol._80 No. 142 GSPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Monday, April 29, 1985 £ ^ 0 B 1? Bentsen sets review of roposal to urn wastes Associated Press WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen has scheduled a June hearing on a proposal to allow spe- ially designed incinerator ships to burn hazardous waste chemicals tohile anchored in the Gull of Mex- Bentsen threatened to “bring (the burnings) to a halt” if the hearings don’t satify him that the Environ- jnental Protection Agency has ex- iored and weighed every potential azard. EPA drew lire when it published proposed regulations for ocean bur ling last February, before finishing environmental impact studies. Environmental groups oppose the burnings as potentially dangerous to ■narine and coastal life. K Proponents say the alternative is |to continue burying the chemicals on ■and. Bentsen, ranking minority mem ber on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a release to television stations over the weekend that he has not set a date Jorthe Washington hearing yet, but anticipates that it will be in early June. I The period for public comment on EPA’s proposed regulations ex pires at the end of June. | “You want to be sure that those companies that are hauling that :4vaste by ship offshore, that they lave adequate insurance to protect eople in case that you do have omething occur,” said Bentsen. “We’re going to be looking over he shoulder of EPA in these hear ings and try to be certain that they’ve given a full consideration to the tfange of things that might occur,” he said. V "And unless we’re satisfied that Ehey’ve done that,” Bentsen added, lj then we’ll take proceedings to bring [ this to a halt.” K Jack Ravan, assistant EPA admin istrator for water programs, said the Ilinal regulations Could he approved I bv November. Germans give Reagan advice on Bitburg visit Imprisoned or Protected? Photo by WAYNEL. GRABEIN From inside the Soil and Crop Sciences-En- tomology Center on the west side of campus, ‘people watchers’ can get the feeling of be ing trapped behind bars. This unusual view takes in many landmarks on campus and puts them in a puzzle-like perspective. Associated Press BONN, West Germany — Bavarian Gov. Franz Josef Strauss proposed Sunday that President Reagan lay a wreath at a soldier’s monument in Munich instead of making his con troversial visit to a German military cemetery at Bitburg. Stuttgart Mayor Manfred Rom mel, son of World War II Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, said he would understand if West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Rea gan canceled next week’s Bitburg visit. “I don’t think this would be a loss of face for Kohl,” Rommel said. Strauss said of Reagan’s May 1-6 visit to West Germany, “The prepa ration was awkward and the result is embarrassing.” Reagan and Kohl must decide themselves whether they want to cancel their plans to visit the Bitburg cemetery May 5, Strauss said. “It would not be advisable, how ever, to strike the entire program be cause it would contribute to poison ing the atmosphere between the two allies,” he added. Even Margaret Thatcher, Brit ain’s prime minister and Reagan’s staunchest European ally, expressed “considerable sympathy” Thursday with those who want him to cancel. The mayor of Bitburg said Friday that the town’s citizens are “scanda lized and dismayed” by furor over President Reagan’s plan to visit their soldiers’ cemetery, and might cancel the visit themselves. “Our people find unbearable the gushing forth of abuse and slander on our city, and especially on the sol diers lying in the cemetery,” Mayor Theo Hallet said. “If it continues like this, then it would be better if we would cancel ourselves the visit of the American president and our chancellor,” he said. Hallet’s words were doubly bitter because of his euphoria when the Bitburg visit was announced. He has written twice in the past two weeks to U.S. Ambassador Arthur Burns urging that it not be canceled. Strauss said that Reagan could in stead lay a wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Munich’s Hofgarten and visit a former Nazi concentration camp at Flossenbuerg, east of Munich. The Munich soldier’s monument was first erected in the 1920s, but now serves as a monument to Ger man soldiers who died in both world wars. The Flossenbuerg site was one of several considered by a team of White House officials before they decided Reagan should visit Bergen- Belsen, near Hanover in northern Germany. West German government sources in Bonn, who spoke on con dition of anonymity, said the Ameri cans had rulea out Flossenbuerg for security reasons, because it was too close to the border with Communist Czechoslovakia. Reagan is stopping at Bitburg and Bergen-Belsen as part of ceremonies commemorating the 40th anniver sary of the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 8. He planned to lay a wreath at the Bitburg cemetery, where thousands of Get man soldiers from two world wars are buried. Two thousand of the graves contain the bodies of sol diers who fought in the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, the last German offen sive of the war, in which 19,000 Americans were killed. There are also 49 graves of sol diers from the Waffen SS, the elite Nazi combat organization, local offi cials said. The SS guarded Nazi death camps and helped exterminate mil lions of Jews and others deemed “undesirable” by the Third Reich. The presence of SS graves at Bit burg is a main factor in the contro versy. Reagan’s Bitburg plans have en countered much criticism in the United States, especially from veter ans’ groups and Jews. [Lawyer says minors’ rights are protected by law * I; Editor's note: This is the first arti cle in a three-part series on the . fights of minors. By CATHIE ANDERSON Staff Writer 1 While most adults can list their constitutional rights, young people Cannot always define where their lights begin and where their par ents’ rights end. But minors have rights too, and the state of Texas tries to protect those rights. Minors in Texas live under rules which both protect and limit their freedom. !' Martin Guggenheim, a former staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, says Texas, like all states in the nation, recog nizes the child’s and parents’ recip rocal right to live with one another. Guggenheim, director of the Juve nile Rights Clinic at the New York University School of Law, has co written a book titled “The Rights of Young People.” Guggenheim says states see this right as good, but states also have recognized that children can be hurt because of some adult beliefs. For this reason, he says, states attempt to protect minors’ rights through laws. He says states have become more liberal in most laws dealing with mi nors. s The main area that states have been less liberal is abortion, Guggen heim says. Texas, like other states, has not been a leader in liberalizing abortion laws for minors. Instead, it ■ is the United States Supreme Court, he says, that has been the leader in this area. Guggenheim says Texas has not passed any laws dealing with abor tion. “States that don’t have abortion laws are simply acquiescing in the Supreme Court decisions,” he says. “Occasionally a state attempts to limit the basis on which minors can have abortions. But the Supreme Court often ends in striking these limitations down. “The only limitation that has stood so far is that the doctor can re quire a minor to notify her parents of the abortion,” Guggenheim says. “But attempts to make minors get parental consent have been repeat edly declared unconstitutional.” Although Guggenheim says states didn’t lead in the fight for changes in laws about abortion, state legis latures have become more liberal in laws dealing with sex, marriage and treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases. Minors in Texas can legally have sexual intercourse at 17, he says, but female minors who are non-virgins may legally have intercourse at 14. “Texas is one of the states, of which there are only a few, that makes a distinction between virgins and non-virgins,” Guggenheim says. Sally Miller, the director of Planned Parenthood of Brazos County, says conservatism is not the only reason the state and parents are against minors having sexual inter course. She says it can simply be a matter of wanting the very best for children, and sexual intercourse is not something parents would con sider the best. Miller says Planned Parenthood counsels minors about sex, preg nancy and abortion, and the group does not inform parents of visits. She says that although Planned Par enthood encourages family involve ment in such decisions, many minors find it difficult to discuss sex with their parents. If minors become pregnant or have contracted a sexually-trans mitted disease, Guggenheim says, they can be treated without parental See Minors, page 8 Jet runs off runway at Amarillo airport; no reported injuries Associated Press AMARILTO — A Southwest Airlines jet landing at Amarillo International Airport ran off a runway into mud Sunday during stormy weather, authorities said. The Boeing 737, coming in from Albuquerque, N.M., suf fered damage to its nose gear about 9:20 p.m., said an official with the Federal Aviation Admin istration, who asked not to be identifed. The passengers were evac uated and no injuries were re ported, the official said. Tom Higley, of Amarillo, a passeneer on flight 803, said the plane “came in and made one hard bounce” off the runway. “We were airborne again,” Higley said. “He (the pilot) came back in again, reversed the thrust, put the spoilers up and applied the brakes and the plane began hydroplaning.” After the jet slid off the run way, “the nose wheel went into the mud and snapped,” Higley said. Flight attendants dropped emergency slides “and we all went right down into the mud.” The passengers walked more than a mile to get to the terminal, he said. Students, professors express a variety of attitudes toward Battalion content Editor's note: This is the first arti cle in a three-part series on The Bat talion. By CYNTHIA GAY Staff Writer “A writer's job is to tell the truth.” — Ernest Hemingway Unfolded copies of The Battalion lie on a campus sidewalk, partially read and thrown away. Apparently Texas A&M’s lone rabble-rouser fails to provoke much response from its complacent read ers, but certain columns of newspa per type still linger in students’ memories. In the library snack bar, on the steps of Rudder Fountain, through the Memorial Student Cen ter's main drag, the facts and opin ions are considered. “They pick it up, scan Page 1, open it up and stare at Page 2,” says Rhonda Snider, Fall editor of The Battalion, referring to the average student’s habitual approach to read ing the newspaper. A&M students may find that the opinions in The Battalion irritating for a variety of reasons. “The Battalion seems to try to spark emotion by picking on peo ple,” says senior Steve Leung, Corps of Cadets’ supply officer. Former student body president David Alders says: “I know shock va lue gets more readers, but I’d rather have the Wall Street Journal pub lished on campus than the National Enquirer.” Kevin Brannon, president of MSC Political Forum says, “It’s like, ‘What can we find this week that’s wrong with the University?’ ” Eric Thode, former speaker pro tern of the Student Senate says, “(At The Battalion) there’s been an atti tude of change for the sake of change. (The staff writers) are not in any way a mirror of the school.” Denis Davis, MSC Council presi dent for 1985-86, says, “Everyday I ask if there’s anything good in the newspaper, and everyday (some one says), ‘No.’ ” But for former editorial page edi tor Michelle Powe, it’s all in a day’s work. “I’d rather have 38,000 people here who hate me and are thinking,” says Powe, managing editor for this fall. “I make sure people think. I get called a communist all the time. Our editorial board is not even liberal. We have four definite conservatives, one moderate and one liberal. I would bet my next month’s salary that the majority of the paper is con servative.” Snider, former city editor, says students at A&M often misuse the words “liberal” and “conservative.” “I think people on this campus call ‘liberal’ anything that does not conform to tradition,” Snider said. Opinions. Those blasted opinions. The events of the 1984-85 school year have forced Texas A&M stu dents to make up their minds about hazing, the civil rights of homosex uals, women in the Aggie Band, a See News, page 8