( - I
Texas official expects 95%
[ of teachers will pass test
— Page 3
Paper reports NASA warned
of shuttle-safety problems
— Page 6
Cinderella Red Raiders upset
Aggies in SWC title game
— Page 9
The Battalion
161.83 No. 114 (JSPS 075360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, March 10, 1986
ASA reports remains of shuttle crew found
Associated Press
APE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
^ —(Jcltchcrs have found remains of
JH^hidlenger's astronauis in the debt is
Z) Vltlie shuttle’s crew coinpartment
Bfeet down on the Atlantic Ocean
laldfm, , NASA announced Sunday,
ige Bi'#n a mily nieinbei s of Challenger’s
J rJw have been informed,” a
oim --itati mem said. “In deference to
hink Cguly wishes, NASA will not make
Hther comments until recovery op-
Loan yritions and identifications are com-
i the
nal avtflrfark Weinberg, a spokesman for
l-rateBfta presidential commission investi-
i 10.51 ®|ing the explosion, said he could
'|S comment on the significance of
iBfind to the commission’s probe.
^ilarcos
appointees
“I would not want to characterize
its importance,” Weinberg said.
“That’s to be determined. Clearly all
pieces of evidence are important.”
A search ship using sonar about
25 miles northeast of Cape Canave
ral made a possible identification of
the compartment late Friday, and di
vers Saturday positively identified
compartment debris and crew re
mains, the NASA statement said.
Recovering the compartment
wreckage and remains could take
several days depending on weather
and sea conditions, NASA said.
Operations were secured during
the night for safety reasons, the
statement said, and Saturday morn
ing work was begun by the USS Pre
server, whose divers are thoroughly
briefed on debris identification.
“Subsequent divers provided posi
tive identification of Challenger
crew compartment debris and the
existence of crew remains,” it added.
NASA said depending on the
weather and sea conditions, the task
of recovering the compartment
wreckage and remains could take
several days.
Seven crew members died when
Challenger exploded 73 seconds af
ter liftoff Jan. 28.
They, were commander Richard
Scobee, pilot Michael Smith, Ellison
Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald Mc
Nair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa
McAuliffe, a New Hampshire
schoolteacher who was flying as NA
SA’s first citizen in space.
NASA said when the remains are
recovered they will be taken to a hos
pital at Patrick Air Force Base, about
25 miles south of Cape Canaveral.
“Local security measures are be
ing taken to assure that recovery op
erations can take place in a safe and
orderly manner,” it said.
NASA spokesman Hugh Harris
said he could provide no additional
information on the condition of the
crew or the remains.
Eleven ships and two small
manned submarines have concen
trated their search in recent days in a
350-square miles area about 20 to 40
miles northeast of here. The effort
includes three robot submersibles,
seven sonar rigs and 41 divers.
In the days after the accident, 12
tons of Challenger debris was picked
up from the ocean surface. Then
searchers turned to the ocean bot
tom where recovery is more diffi
cult. About 5 tons have been re
trieved from the depths, including a
4,200-pound piece of the shuttle’s
left booster rocket, which was
brought into port Saturday.
The left booster was retrieved
from 210 feet of water as a practice
session for retrieving parts of the
right rocket from 1,200 feet down.
The right rocket is the chief sus
pect as the cause of the tragedy and
investigators want to retrieve its de
bris for possible clues. Some officials
have said the cause may never be
found unless the booster can be ex
amined.
Photographs show a puff of black
smoke spewing from the rocket mil
liseconds after ignition and a spurt
of flame pouring from the same area
15 seconds before the explosion.
The smoke and flame appeared
near a joint between the bottom two
segments of the solid fuel rocket.
NASA engineers last week told
the presidential investigation com-
mitteee that they have concluded the
explosion was caused by a failure in
the right booster, but they did not
know why it failed.
n’t mid
:ause, 1
hallwas
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Associated Press
Philippines — Presi-
Jorced out
ghtingl
and if
s tumefl
t6:46l | MANILA,
B|ut Corazon Aquino is considering
Hodaiming a revolutionary govern-
e appeipent to force out officials appointed
nage: by her deposed predecessor Ferdi
nand E. Marcos, her spokesman said
Sunday.
r HSpokesman Rene Saguisag said in
a telephone interview, “That’s all un
der study. She's still weighing
things.”
■ He was responding to reports that
Political Affairs Minister Antonio
pienco said at a news conference:
■na few days, President Aquino will
Sdedare that indeed there is a revolu-
Itionary government.”
(Aquino, who assumed the presi
dency in a nearly bloodless “people’s
twer" revolution that toppled Mar-
bs Feb. 25, has been pressured by
pme of her advisers to proclaim a
evolutionary government through
ttvhich she could oust Marcos-ap
pointed officials who have ques
tioned the legitimacy of her power.
I In a statement published Sunday
in Manila newspapers, Marcos’ New
ociety Movement party urged
Aquino’s government to “reconsider
its reported plan to constitute itself
as a revolutionary government.”
The New Society Movement said
it recognized her as president and
jpledged to support her in the Na-
Iqhal Assembly, in which Marcos’
party holds two-thirds of the votes.
I Saguisag said Aquino will move
let office to the Malacanang presi-
"ential palace grounds Monday,
ince taking power, Aquino has
forked out of a building owned by
her family in the Makati financial
listrict. She has said she plans to
orkbut not live at the palace.
Earlier Sunday, the Philippine
'lews Agency also quoted Cuenco as
laying Aquino plans to draft a new
xmstitution to be submitted to vot
ers for ratification at the same time
Sections for provincial governors
md town and city mayors are held
text November.
The constitution would replace
me enacted by Marcos in 1973.
Photo by MICHAEL SANCHEZ
Penny Pincher
Jodi Weiss, a senior speech communications major from Dallas,
tries her hand at penny dropping at the MSC All-Nite Fair. The
object of the game is to get the pennies into a small glass inside a
large jar of water.
Abortion-rights group
marches in Washington
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Tens of thou
sands of women from across the
country converged on Washington
Sunday for an abortion-rights march
that took them past the White House
to a rally on the steps of the Capitol.
“The numbers game is over,” de
clared Eleanor Smeal, president of
the National Organization for
Women, NOW, which sponsored the
march. “The silent majority will be
silent no longer.”
In January, anti-abortion groups
staged a national demonstration in
Washington, which drew 37,000
people.
Police estimated the crowd Sun
day at between 80,000 and 85,000,
according to District of Columbia
police officer Steve Langford.
But Molly Yard, a NOW leader,
estimated the crowd at 125,000, de
claring it “the largest demonstration
for women’s rights in the history of
the United States.”
Langford said one anti-abortion
demonstrator was arrested in front
of the White House and charged
with disorderly conduct when he
broke through police lines and ran
into the midst of protesters, holding
what he claimed was an eight-week
aborted fetus.
To chants of “Not the church, not
the state, women must decide their
fate,” the matchers walked almost
three miles through city streets be
fore a rally on the steps of the Capi
tol.
The march was part of a larger ef
fort by women’s rights groups to
counter what they describe as a Rea
gan administration attempt to re
verse the 1973 Supreme Court deci
sion legalizing abortion.
On Monday, hundreds of women
are expected to launch a congressio
nal lobbying campaign to remove an
anti-abortion rider from the pro
posed Civil Rights Restoration Act.
Next Sunday, a similar demonstra
tion is planned in Los Angeles.
Earlier in the day, Judie Brown,
president of an anti-abortion group,
the American Life League, an
nounced plans for a campaign
aimed at pressuring the Catholic
Church for the excommunication of
Catholics supporting abortion
rights, beginning with Smeal.
Midterm grades won’t be mailed
By MARY ANN HARVEY
Staff Writer
Procedures for distributing mid
term grade reports at Texas A&M
will be changed slightly as the Uni
versity tries to cut unnecessary ex
penses to comply with Gov. Mark
White’s ordered 13 percent budget
cut.
Don Carter, A&M associate regis
trar, said in order to save money,
midterm grades will not be mailed
this spring.
He said all departments are
looking for ways to cut costs while
providing as much service as possi
ble to the students.
“There are approximately 28,000
undergraduate students enrolled
this year,” Carter said, “and a very
high percentage of those students’
parents receive grades through the
mail.
“We have decided not to mail the
grades in order to save on the money
for postage, special mailer forms
and the production of those forms.”
Carter said the University will
save several hundred dollars by not
mailing out midterm grades.
He said he is not sure if the new
policy will be permanent.
Final grades, however, will still be
mailed.
Students can pick up midterm
grades in the Pavilion Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday between 8 a.m.
and 5 p.m. A student I.D. is re
quired.
Where’s the beef? It could be in your chicken
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The chicken, fish
and french fries served at some fast-
food restaurants are fried in beef tal
low, a fat high in artery-clogging
cholesterol, according to a magazine
report released Sunday.
Fests commissioned by Science
Digest found high levels of beef tal
low, the fat trimmed from meat cuts
and rendered into shortening. It is
the type of substance many choles
terol-conscious Americans are trying
to avoid when they eat Fish or
chicken, the magazine said.
Science Digest said it commis
sioned Dr. Frank Sacks of the Har
vard Medical School to analyze
chicken, fish and french fries served
at McDonald’s, Burger King, How
ard Johnson’s and Kentucky Fried
Chicken restauraunts.
Sacks concluded that the “fatty-
acid profiles” of McDonald’s
Chicken McNuggets and Filet-O-
Fish and Burger King’s Chicken
Sandwich and Whaler resembled
beef more than chicken or fish.
“The favorable fatty-acid content
in chicken and fish is destroyed by
the cooking process, which involves
the addition of beef tallow,” he said.
“Eating chicken or fish in a fast-food
restaurant is almost as bad as eating
beef.”
Burger King’s Chicken Sandwich
contained as much fat as 1 Vs pints of
Sealtest ice cream, he reported.
Beef tallow is “highly saturated,” a
chemical classification for fats that
lead the body to produce cholesterol
and decrease its ability to break
down and excrete unused choles
terol. Cholesterol is a leading cause
of heart disease.
Neither Howard Johnson’s nor
Kentucky Fried Chicken used beef
tallow. But Howard Johnson’s fries
were made with palm oil, which is
more highly saturated than tallow,
and Kentucky Fried Chicken used a
heavily saturated vegetable oil, the
magazine said.
Science Digest quoted McDonald’s
spokeswoman Terri Capastosto as
defending the company’s frying
technique.
“We use the highest quality of
beef and vegetable shortening, and
the reason, we use that shortening is
because it produces the highest qual
ity finished product and the best
tasting one,” she said.
Four A&M studen ts
killed in car wreck
By CRAIG RENFRO
Staff Writer
Four Texas A&M students
were killed and two injured when
their car collided with an eigh
teen-wheeler near the intersec
tion of Highway 21 and FM 2818
at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Bryan police officer Chris
Dunbough said Arthur J. Strom,
a freshman from Dallas, John L.
Thornton, a sophomore from
College Station, and David R.
Hedegard, a sophomore from
Totnball, were pronounced dead
at thescene.
Richard N. Walker, a junior
from Bryan, Mitchell Smithwick,
a sophomore from College Sta
tion, and Glenn M. Butterfly, a
freshman from Ft. Worth were
taken to St. Joseph Hospital for
emergency treatment. A hospital
spokesman said today that Smith
wick died at about 10:40 p.m.
Sunday, Walker is currently listed
in critical condition and Butterfly
is in stable condition.
Leonard Blue, the driver of the
truck, was unhurt, Dunbough
said. He said the accident was not
alcohol-related.
Dunbough said the car was
eastbound on Highway 21. The
driver attempted a U-turn after
missing the FM 2818 exit into
College Station. The truck was
eastbound in the lane beside the
car and struck the vehicle when it
turned.
Soviets' Vega 2 survives encounter
Satellite crosses Halley’s path
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Clouds of comet
dust chipped away at instruments
aboard the Soviet satellite Vega 2 as
the space probe streaked across the
path of Halley’s comet Sunday in the
closest encounter ever with the celes
tial body.
Despite the loss of 40 percent of
its power from damage to the
probe’s solar panels, American sci
entist Carl Sagan praised the Soviet
Institute for Space Research for the
“brilliant success” of the mission.
Three instruments on board were
also knocked out by the micro-mete
ors that surround the comet, haz
ards that have officials at the Euro
pean Space Agency in West
Germany worried.
The Giotto satellite probe sent up
last July by ESA is scheduled for an
even closer rendezvous Thursday,
when it is scheduled to fly within 310
miles of the comet’s center.
Vega 2 rocketed by the comet at
50 miles a second and made its clos
est pass at 2 a.m. EST Sunday from a
distance of 5,125 miles. Sister satel
lite Vega 1 passed within about
5,500 miles of Halley’s last Thurs
day, transmitting, to the jubilation of
scientists gathered at the Soviet insti
tute, what were then the closest
images ever received of the famed
comet.
About 100 of the world’s top
space scientists gathered at the insti
tute Sunday to watch Vega 2’s elec
tronically produced images of the
comet as they arrived on Earth, tak
ing nine minutes to travel from
space to the Moscow complex.
The Vega probes have relayed in
formation through the use of spec
trographs, which show the elements
composing the comet core, dust-col
lecting instruments and a radiome
ter, which produces photometric
contours based on the intensity of
reflected sunlight.
1’he comet's nucleus has drawn
the greatest attention. Most scientists
agree the Vega missions have con
firmed there is a solid core to the
comet, although no one is sure how
big it is.
The diameter of the nucleus is
about 3.75 miles, and shaped like an
ellipse. But exact measurements of
the solid core within the traveling
dust cloud remain unknown.
Among the casualties from the
dust collisions was a microprocessor
that directs the Vega 2’s camera, so
images transmitted Sunday were not
of as high a quality as expected. Sci
entists said, however, that better
images can be produced later
through computer-enhancement.
“The damage to the power system
was not substantial,” said Georgy
Golitsyn of the Moscow Atmospheric
Physics Institute.