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Feb. 10 & 11, 21 & 22
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Page 12/The Battalion/Thursday, February 6, 1986
XI PSI CHAPTER
ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA SORORITY, INC.
presents
“Black Women in American History”
Series 1 of 4
ALICE WALKER
Author
The film, “The Color Purple” has recently brought her to the forefront of
American Literature. The film is based upon her novel of the same title and was
awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Literature and the American Book Award
for Fiction. Ms. Walker is a native of Eatonton, GA. and a graduate of Sara
Lawrence College. Some of her other works include. Meridian and You Can’t
Keep A Good Woman Down.
Ms. Walker, we salute you for fulfilling a dream and sharing your beauty
and creativity in our lives.
A4SC 'mJEHETT
smew
Reagan seeking
12 percent jump
in defense funds
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In a budget
that slashed dozens of domestic pro
grams, President Reagan asked Con
gress Wednesday to boost military
spending by almost 12 percent to
$320 billion to pay for a surge in
space-defense research and keep vir
tually every other weapons program
intact.
“I fully appreciate the fact that we
are preoccupied with deficits,” De
fense Secretary Caspar W. Wein
berger said in presenting the fiscal
1987 spending plan to the Senate
Armed Services Committee.
“But the defense budget has be
come the target of opportunistic
demagoguery, and our security has
suffered,” Weinberger said. “The
administration has made its priority
choices regarding defense ... I urge
the Congress to get the defense de
bate back to the question of what this
nation’s security requires.”
Committee Democrats quickly
served notice that cuts were inevi
table.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, said, “I
do know that this budget request
won’t fly.”
The request for the fiscal year be
ginning Oct. 1 totals $274.3 billion in
actual outlays for the Defense De
partment, up $15.9 billion or almost
6.2 percent from this year after the
1986 cuts under Gramm-Rudman
are taken into account.
But because many purchases of
military hardware take place over
several years. Congress gives more
attention to the Defense Department
budget authority request, which in
cludes long-term money to acquire
ships, planes and missiles. This fig
ure would jump by $33.2 billion, or
11.9 percent, to $311.6 billion in the
year starting Oct. 1.
When the money earmarked for
nuclear weapons produced by the
Department of Energy is added to
the Pentagon amounts, total military
outlays in fiscal 1987 would climb to
$282.2 billion from $265.8 billion
this year and budget authority
would leap to $320.3 billion from
$286.1 billion.
Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., pre
dicted “total rejection of your bud
get,” adding: “I don’t think there’s a
member of this committee who be
lieves you’re going to get the kind of
numbers you’re requesting.”
Levin said, “This year, the issue
isn’t whether the defense budget will
be cut, but where it will be cut and by
how much.”
The 1987 defense budget pro
vides significant increases for several
major programs. Chief among them
would be the Strategic Defense Ini
tiative, or “Star Wars,” the effort to
develop lasers and other exotic
weapons that could be deployed as a
shield to automatically shoot down
Soviet missiles.
That program would enjoy a 75
percent funding spurt, from $2.75
billion to $4.8 billion, turning Star
Wars into the Pentagon’s largest sin
gle program.
The budget also calls for the first
purchases of a more accurate. Tri
dent 2 submarine missile at a cost of
$3.1 billion; the start of full-scale de
velopment of a mobile, ground-
based ICBM dubbed the Midget-
man, costing $1.4 billion; and a sec
ond year of production of chemical
weapons, costing $ 138 million.
Effort to end Hormel
strike not successful
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Leaders of striking
Hormel meatpackers and company
officials met briefly Wednesday but
made little apparent progress to
ward ending the 5V4-montn strike,
while replacement workers streamed
past National Guardsmen into the
plant for a third straight day.
Meanwhile, the FBI said it was in
creasing its involvement in a probe
of dozens of incidents of tampering
with Hormel products.
Nothing was discussed at the 30-
minute meeting, the first between
the two sides since Jan. 11, Deryl Ar
nold said, Austin plant manager for
Geo. A. Hormel & Co.
Arnold said the next meeting
won’t take place until sometime next
week, and added by that time he ex
pects to have hired all the 1,025 em
ployees needed. By Wednesday, 800
people had reported forworkaiti
plant, he said.
Of ficials of Local P-9 of lit
United Food and Commercii
Workers un ion could not ben
for comment in telephone callst
the union hall and the homes ’
union leaders.
Also on Wednesday, about!
union members and supports
tried to cross a police checkpoints
up at a road leading to the
north gate.
Ray Rogers, a labor strategist"!;
Local P-9, said the demonstn
was designed to see how authoro
and the National Guard responddl
Lawrence G. Lawler, head of ;|
Minneapolis office of the FBI,sap
the bureau was increasing its rolt:|
the tampering probe since a Min:*
apolis television state received
handwritten letter threatening!
ther product adulteration.
Delta hijacker described as ‘differed
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Associated Press
GRAPEVINE — The man who
used a pocketknife to take control of
a Delta Air Lines jumbo jet Wednes
day roamed the aisles throughout
the two-hour flight and “just looked
different,” passengers said.
The man, who held the knife to a
stewardess’s neck, was taken into
custody by FBI agents about two
hours after the plane landed at Dal-
las-Fort Worth International Air
port.
“Just as it landed, he rushed up to
the front of the plane,” said Rebecca
Mussler of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
where Flight 139 originated.
“Everybody noticed him walking
around,” she said. “He was up and
down, up and down. ... I kept won
dering why the stewardesses didn’t
stop him. He just looked different.”
FBI agents, who said no one was
injured, identified the man as Ralph
A. Hughes, of Fort Lauderdale.
Passenger Bill Danko of Fort Lau
derdale said, “I saw him in Fort Lau
derdale — weird. He was pacing
back and forth in the lounge in Lau
derdale and looked disheveled.”
Mussler said the man kept putting
his hand at the small of his back.
“I thought maybe he had a back
problem,” she said. “He kept fooling
with his back, but later we figured
out that’s where he had the knife.”
Flight attendants intially would
Pension program
may be in trouble
(continued from page 1)
sheltered pension programs avail
able to non-profit organizations, em
ployees of public schools or state
government. The legislation was
originally written to encourage these
employees to save for their retire
ment by granting them saving incen
tives over and above the regular
pension plan offered by the em
ployer.
Texas Optional Retirement Pro
gram was created by the Texas Leg
islature in 1968 in recognition of the
specific needs of faculty and profes
sional administrators in Texas insti
tutions of higher education.
The Texas Teacher Retirement
System remains the primary pension
plan for all primary and secondary
school employees, as well as the non
professional staff of the colleges and
universities, but an employee must
have a minimum of 10 years of serv
ice to get its benefits.
This is a disadvantage to college
faculty, who often move from state
to state during their academic ca
reer. ORP provides the faculty or
administrators the ability to contrib
ute to their retirement plan without
gaps while pursuing a career.
“ORP provides portability to fac
ulty and staff members who are re
cruited on a national basis,” Honea
says. “We have to recruit competiti
vely, especially if we want to main
tain that leading edge of teaching
expertise.”
Lytle says that once a person joins
the ORP they can’t go back to TRS
without losing benefits. If ORP is
abolished because of the tax bill, he
says the Texas Legislature will have
to create special legislation to allow
faculty back into the TRS or come
up with a new retirement plan that
would not have the same advantages
as ORP.
In another attempt to raise reve
nues without raising taxes, Honea
says lawmakers were probably un
aware of the effects the tax plan has
on Texas ORP.
“Congress does not intend to de
stroy somebody’s sole retirement
plan, but they’re trying to tighten up
loopholes,” Honea says. “This is just
a small part of the whole tax bill, but
one that has a devastating impact on
higher education in the state of Tex
as.”
Honea says Texas also could use
any of a number of commercial pro
viders that offer retirement benefits,
but employees probably wouldn’t get
the same advantages as they’re get
ting with ORP.
not answer questions about what was
wrong, she said.
“We knew something was up
when all the police cars started driv
ing up to the plane,” she said. “Then
one stewardess finally said, ‘We have
a hijacker, but everything is going to
be under control.’ We knew right
away who it was. I said immediately,
‘I bet it’s that guy who’s been walking
up and down.’
Greg Giuffria of Los Angeles, the
plane’s final destination after the
scheduled stopover at Dallas-Fort
Worth, said the man “was so obvious-
during the flight. He was so nervous,
walking from seat to seat.”
When the plane touched dovj ;
Giuffria said, “We wenttogetoffof j
plane and had to sit back down ilj
first everyone thought it wasa^fj
problem. Then a stewardess a*,;:
there was a problem and that son®
body was being held hostage and 1.;
kina of spread through the plaf
real fast.”
Bonnie Bell, of Woodland H
Calif, said, “Everything was fit
when we landed. We had ate
been delayed an hour in Fort Lai
derdale, so everybody was anxious
get off and jumped up when we
to the gate. We were told immte
ately to take any empty seat, to
down and be quiet.”
Expert says doctors
should stop AIDS feat
Associated Press
BOSTON — Reassuring evi
dence that AIDS is not spread
through casual contact should en
courage doctors to work harder
at quelling hysteria and prevent
ing discrimination against homo
sexuals and others who risk catch
ing the disease, a health expert
says.
A study of people who live in
close daily contact with AIDS vic
tims found that none of them
caught the virus, although they
often shared bathrooms, eating
utensils and beds.
“We conclude that the risk of
transmission of the virus during
close, long-term contact has to be
extremely, extremely small, ap
proaching zero. That is very reas
suring,” Dr. Gerald H. Friedland,
who directed the research, said in
an interview.
The study was published in
Thursday’s New England Journal
of Medicine, along with an edito
rial by Dr. Merle A. Sande, chief
of medical services at San Fran
cisco General Hospital. The Find
ings were first publicized last fall
when Dr. Martha F. Rogers, a co
author of the report, presented
them at a meeting in Minneapolis
of the American Society for Mi
crobiology.
Sande noted that the chance of
catching AIDS is remote for all
except homosexuals, drug abus
ers who share contaminated nee
dles, people getting tainted blooii
transfusions and children twrnol
AIDS-infected mothers.
He said doctors should opposf
proposals for universal A®
screening and quarantininf
AIDS victims, as well astheexdu
sion of infected students fro®
classrooms and adult victim- 1
from their jobs.
Friedland, a physician at Mor 1
tefiore Medical Center in Ne* j
York, conducted the study will 1 ' |
researchers from the U.S. Cw I
ters for Disease Control.
Friedland said some phys s
cians, especially those who don 1 !
treat AIDS patients, have be^ I
slow to accept the idea that AID- n
is extremely difficult to catch ;
cept through sex or blood.
“There is still a lot of skepm
cism,” he said. “1 think physician
have been susceptible to tiif
AIDS hysteria epidemic, perhaf 1
not as much, but to some extea 1
as the general population.” |
The researchers examined a—
children and 33 adults who Ite
with AIDS victims for anaverag 1
of nearly two years. Only one 1
these family members — aS-yea 1 '
old girl — caught the AIDSvte
and the researchers believe si 1 * !
was infected before birth.
They said most of the fan#
lived in poor, crowded conditio
that would ordinarily be expect
to facilitate the transmission® |
contagious diseases.
s 87 budget plan causing doubt in Congress
(continued from page 1)
about our determination to maintain
our commitments and without jeop
ardizing our prospects for meaning
ful arms control talks.”
Reagan’s new Pentagon request
totals $274.3 billion in actual outlays
for the Defense Department, up
$15.9 billion or almost 6.2 percent
compared with the current year af
ter the March 1 cuts already re
quired by the balanced-budget law
are taken into effect.
But because much of the Penta
gon’s purchases take place over seve
ral years. Congress focuses on Rea
gan’s budget authority request,
which includes long-term money to
acquire ships, planes and missiles.
This would jump by $33.2 billion or
11.9 percent to $311.6 billion in the
year starting Oct. 1.
The president had said he would
be requesting a 3 percent military
spending increase after inflation,
but budget director James C. Miller
III conceded Wednesday that the in
crease would be more than that.
Nonetheless, Miller said, “That’s
what the president wants and that’s
what the president is driving home.
And that’s what we need.”
On domestic spending, Reagan’s
proposal would increase spending
for Medicare, the federal health in
surance program for the elderly and
disabled, and for Medicaid, the
state-federal program for the poor.
The budget also would allow for a
3.7 percent cost-of-living ■
for Social Security beneficiaries t:
January.
But it includes a $23.6-billioi 11 ;
on Medicaid spending, an eslii®'
$1.3 billion less than what is FI
jected for 1987 spending under®
rent law.
The premium increase next“ f
would be only 90 cents per
for individuals, but sharply#
for states that use Medicare to ins- i-
their elderly poor.