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Thursday, November 7, 1985/The Battalion/Page 15
Anti-crime proposals approved
Texans OK all amendments
Associated Press
AUSTIN — The overwhelming
approval that voters gave two law-
and-order proposals should help
break up prison gangs and make
certain criminals don t get off on
technicalities, officials said Wednes
day.
The other 12 constitutional
amendments on Tuesday’s ballot —
including one providing $500 mil-
goii lion in bond money for farm and
ranch loans — also won the voters’
approval.
The results increase to 283 the
number of changes that have
made in Texas’ 109-year-old
ing document.
One of the crime-related proposi
tions authorizes the Texas Depart
ment of Corrections to transfer trou
blesome inmates out of state. Its
sponsor, Sen. Ray Farabee, D-Wi-
ita Falls, said that should help
break up gangs by allowing wardens
Proposition 10 gives . us an additional tool that will
help young farmers get a little start in the business and
be of major importance in allowing farmers to diver
sify. ” —
Agricult ure Commissioner Jim Hightower.
t give prison officials a
gh, he said it isn't the
been
govern-
to move gang leaders.
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fotf
Yur- / -
igus:
ntn
gangs t
anglea
This is a simple tool that offers
some help in dealing with the very
complicated problems in our prison
system," Farabee said.
In unofficial final returns, the
prisoner transfer measure was ap-
iroved 666,657 votes to 274,196, a
0.9 percent to 29.1 percent margin.
Attorney General Jim Mattox also
said it should
hand, althougf
only answer to prison violence.
T think we may be able to end the
gang wars,” he said. “But I’m not at
all sure we re going to end all the vi
olence that’s in the system,” .
The second law-and-order mea
sure voters approved allows the Leg
islature to set standards governing
the process of charging people with
crimes.
It was pushed Sen. J.E. “Buster”
Brown, a Republican candidate for
attorney general, who said the
amendment should prevent appeals
courts from overturning convictions
due to minor flaws in indictments.
A bill to implement the amend
ment requires defendants to object
to defects in indictments prior to
trial.
The unof ficial final count showed
the amendment passing by a 68.6
percent to 31.4 percent margin,
609,314 votes to 278,568.
“The public feels very strongly it’s
time to stop allowing convicted crim
inals to beat their case because of in
significant technicalities,” Brown
said.
“I think it’s a victory for 900,000
victims of crime who suffer in Texas
annually,” Brown said. “It’s a victory
for those people who obey the law.
It s a victory for Texas, because it
sends out a message that we’re going
to make a serious effort to make the
criminal justice system work right,”
he said.
Propositions 1 and 2, which to
gether formed a $1.43 state water
program financing new projects and
authorizing agricultural water-con
servation bonds, passed easily.
The closest vote came on Proposi
tion 10, providing $500 million in
bond money for loans to buy farm
and ranch land. The proposal won
464,421 votes to 441,482.
Agriculture Commissioner Jim
Hightower said the program should
help both young farmers and estab
lished operators wishing to branch
out into more profitable cash crops.
“This is not an amendment that is
going to save Texas agriculture by
any means,” Hightower said. “It
does give us an additional tool that
will help young farmers get a little
start in the business and be of major
importance in allowing farmers to
diversify.”
To be eligible for the Farm and
Ranch Finance Program, a person
must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of
Texas for five years, a member of a
household in which at least 35 per
cent of the gross income came from
farming or ranching for the preced
ing three years, and have a net worth
ofless than $250,000.
Proposition 8, authorizing an
other $500 million for making
$20,000 low-interest home loans to
Texas veterans, passed 602,934
votes to 328,185. Land Commis
sioner Garry Mauro called it the
“best possible Veterans Day pre
sent.”
The housing program is so popu
lar that the Veterans Land Board
made more than 21,000 loans dur
ing the first 17 months of the pro
gram. Approval of the amendment
enables the board to make another
25,000 loans.
Cisneros requests Mexican aid funds
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Texans can build a
lasting reminder of their help by
raising $5 million to construct a hos
pital and three schools in earth
quake-ravaged Mexico City, Texas
A&M Regent Henrv Cisneros said
Wednesday.
“The idea all along has been that
Texans would feel better about giv
ing to something where they could
see the sum total of their contribu
tions,” Cisneros said. "Collecting
money and funneling it to 100 recip
ient organizations and never being
able to see any results is not as good
as being able to see concrete pro
jects.”
Cisneros, San Antonio mayor, and
Bob Krueger, former U.S. ambassa
dor to Mexico, are co-chairmen of a
special committee appointed by Gov.
Mark White to coordinate the Texas
response to the September earth
quakes.
“What’s at stake here is a lot more
than just good will from Texas,” Cis
neros said. “What really is involved
here is the practical long-term work
ing relationship with a country that’s
very important to Texas.”
The proposed, 144-bed hospital
would cost about $4 million. There is
no target date for construction. The
need is immediate, said Krueger,
yvho visited Mexico City two weeks
ago
Mexico lost some 5,000 hospital
beds in this earthquake,” he said.
“They are using the facilities that re
main and stand. They lost the most
important research hospital facility
that exists in Mexico.”
School needs also are acute,
Krueger added.
“ There are some 600,000 school-
children in Mexico out of school be
cause of damage done to school
buildings,” he said. “In other cases
they are being taught in garages and
other makeshift buildings. We be
lieve the people in Texas can assist in
rebuilding these schools and we
want to help.”
For $1 million, Texans could
build three schools or build one and
help repair damaged schools -*~
which number 73^, according to
Krueger.
The $5 million for a hospital and
schools would be in addition to ap
proximately $5 million in cash and
goods already sent from Texas, he
said.
The committee met Wednesday
and put Flouston school superinten
dent Billy Reagan in charge of the
school-building project. Dr. Ron An
derson of Dallas, chairman of the
State Board of Health, was put in
charge of the hospital project.
Fund-raising grows more difficult
as time passes, Krueger and Cisne
ros said.
The Texas Response effort has, so
far, netted $200,000 in cash, said
Krueger and Cisneros.
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in \
jesl-
aid.
tilt
Drugs cose
brings three
guilty pleas
Associated Press
DALLAS — Sentencing has
been set for Dec. 12 for three
people who pleaded guilty to
charges stemming from an inter
national cocaine and marijuana
ring operating out of Addison
Airport.
Brenda Kay Baxter, 27, a Dal
las real estate agent, pleaded
guilty Tuesday to one count of
possession with intent to distrib
ute marijuana. The U.S. attor
ney’s office dropped three other
charges in return for her plea.
She faces a maximum of five
years in prison and a $250,000
fine.
Antonio Rodolfo Garza, 49, an
Austin architect, pleaded guilty
Tuesday to one count of posses
sion with intent to distribute co
caine after federal prosecutors
dropped three other charges. He
faces up to 20 years in prison and
$250,000 in fines.
They were arrested last May
along with Dallas oilman Joe Bill
Bennett, 39, who pleaded guilty
Monday to two cocaine charges.
Taxpayer halts payment of city’s debt
Associated Press
RIO GRANDE CITY — Starr
County officials on Wednesday
planned to retire a 50-year-old $1.8
million debt, but a taxpayer who
filed a last-minute appeal temporar
ily stalled the payment.
Last montn officials raised the
$1.8 million in an emergency court-
approved bond sale and were sched
uled to give the First National Bank
of Rio Grande City a check for that
amount.
But Leonel Lopez, a migrant
farmworker with eight children, had
been fighting the lx>nd sale. State
District Judge Ricardo Garcia, who
granted the bond sale, ruled against
Lopez on Oct. 28 and Lopez filed an
appeal on Oct. 31. For about five
hours on Wednesday, Lopez, county
attorney Heriberto Silva and county
judge Bias Chapa discussed the ap
peal. .
Lopez, insisting that county offi
cials curtail spending, decided to dis
miss his appeal, said Silva.
“I think that on technicalities it
would have been dismissed,” Silva
said of Lopez’s appeal. “He didn’t
follow procedures,
“As far as any legal obstacles right
now, they should be all clear,” Silva
said.
In return for dismissing the ap
peal, Lopez will get an opportunity
to address county commissioners
about his grievances, Silva said.
But the delay cost county officials
a day of interest at the bank. Chapa
said county officials would attempt
to get the $1.8 million check to the
bank later this week.
Earlier Lopez said, “I will drop it
if they promise to cut expenditures
and keep within the budget.”
On Wednesday morning, county
auditor Guadalupe Villareal wrote a
check for $ 1,816,479.31
“This $1.8 million is the accumu
lation of debts over the last 50
years,” he said. “As of now, we’re not
going to owe anybody anything.”
He was ready to deliver it to the
bank but then was told about Lopez’s
appeal and that the money would
not be wired from an Austin bank.
“It will be more now because of
the interest,” Villareal said.
If Lopez had not dropped his ap
peal, the district judge would have
nad to rule on a bond in order for it
to go to an appeals court. But the
judge is a traveling judge and was
not schedulud to be in Rio Grande
City until Tuesday.
Also, Lopez had filed papers stat
ing he is a pauper and cannot afford
an attorney or pay court fees.
Lopez also contended that the
procedure county officials used to
obtain the bond was not proper be
cause it w'as not approved by voters.
But the sale was legal.
County officials knew a referen
dum would be defeated since county
residents repeatedly have voted
down tax-rate increases and even ap
proved a tax rollback.
But officials knew they needed
the money.
They went to the attorney gener
al’s office, which came up w'itn a le
gal way to sell the bonds.
The bond proposal had to be ap
proved by the Legislature or a dis
trict judge.
It drew opposition from Lopez,
Domingo Arredondo and the Starr
County Taxpayers League.
After a month-long battle, the
proposal seemed to end the county’s
debt. But because of the appeal, it
delaved the payment.
The bond will be paid off in the
next 20 vears with a 3-cent increase
per $100 property valuation, Villa
real said.
But Villareal, Chapa and other of
ficials said the suits and recent arti
cles describing the county as a drug
smuggling mecca hurt the county in
the bond sale.
He said the county changed its fis
cal year from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 to
Oct. 1 to Sept. 31. He said county
agencies and departments now
would have to have a purchase order
approved by him before making
purchases.
FRANK REAUGH
(1860-1945)
79 Luminous pastel paintings by an early Texas Master
Rudder Exhibit Hall
Exhibiting through November 14
8:00 a.m. -11 p.m. daily
Trained tour guides are available to provide tours of this exhibit for your class or club.
Please call 845-8501 to make reservations.
MSC TOWN HALL
Presents
GEORGE STRAIT
SPECIAL GUEST:
Clay Blaker and The Texas Honky Tonk Band
Thursday, November 14 • 8:00 P.M.
G. Rollie White Coliseum — Texas A&M University
Tickets still available at the
MSC Box Office and Dillards ^
Douglas
* Jewelry
—quartz movement
—water resistant
—1 year warranty
—bright colors
—$29.95 less 15% student
discount
$25.47
693-0677
Culpepper Plaza
PI SIGMA EPSILON
THE PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS FRATERNITY
‘ presents t
COLLEGE DAVS >« Vail
A Package For Students That Like Skiing Or Just Love A Great Time
$215
WITHOUT
TtUKNSrOHTA TION
JANUAKY %. It, 1904
TO SIGN UP
STOP BY OUR TABLE .
IN THE MSC OR BLOCKER BLbG.
Northgate Beauty Salon
107 College Main 846-3494
Come ask Gina, Jim and Samantha
about hairstyles for men & women.
|"$3.'6o OFF]
Shampoo, Cut & Blowdry
Reg Price $10.00
Expires 11-15
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LAWRENCE
SULLIVAN ROSS
“Soldier, Statesman, and Knightly Gentleman”
Born on September 27, 1838,
in Bentonsport, Iowa, Lawrence
Sullivan Ross was brought to
Texas before he was a year old.
He attended Baylor at
Independence and graduated from
Wesleyan at Alabama in 1859. In
1861 he joined the 6th Texas
Calvary and served as private and
later as regimental major. In addition, Sully was
promoted to Colonel and eventually to General of a
brigade consisting of various Texas regiments.
Furthermore, Sul Ross served as a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention of 1876 and became a state
senator in November of 1881.
In 1886 Ross ran for the Democratic gubernatorial
nomination and easily defeated several opponents.
Sul Ross also won by a wide margin over the
Republican candidate, A.M. Cochran; Governor Ross
served until 1891. His administration improved the
system of selling and leasing public lands and
reformed the Railroads Commission.
Lawrence Sullivan Ross became President of
Texas A&M in 1891, at a time when the survival of the
institution was uncertain. Ross can be credited for the
early success of A&M. Lawrence Sullivan Ross died at
his home near Bryan on January 3,1898. As stated by
the “Galveston News” Ross “...exhibited a character
so exalted that he commanded at all times not only the
confidence, but the affection of the people.”
Lz c^-fzzitagz
260-3349