Twenty computer dealers
display products at Micro Fair
— Page 3
Wyoming cuts A&M's time
in NIT short with 79-70 win
— Page 7
Texas A&M m m m •
The Battalion
S? fB3 Mo. 118 GSPS 075360 10 pages
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College Station, Texas
Friday, March 14, 1986
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Associated Press
Washington — Senate fi-
■ Committee Chairman Bob
Ifood on Thursday introduced
ivitli President Reagan’s support
a bill that would produce the
sdsweeping changes in the fed-
Bix system in more than 30
rs, reducing individual income
Hiy an average 8.4 percent,
flu legislation would raise Con
ner taxes on alcohol, tobacco and
oline and shift to corporations a
burden of between $110 billion
1SI85 billion over the next five
rs. How the excise tax increases
(ill affect the total tax picture of
ivkluals and businesses is a mat-
ofepeculation.
lackwood, unveiling the new' plan
inews conference, said it would
ke the tax system more fair, en-
!$hat rich individuals and profit-
| companies pay a share of tax,
I increase incentives for invest-
nlnjob-creating activities. As for
ipliiication, the Oregon Republi-
i could promise only that “it is not
i more complicated than the pre-
i tax code.”
Irhe committee will start work on
legislation next week; Packwood
i he hopes the bill will be com-
jed by May 1 and ready for Rea-
i to sign by Aug. 15.
dost changes would take effect
:t Jan. 1.
he bill includes the provisions
See Reagan, page 10
Where’s Springsteen?
Photo by ANTHONY S. CASPER
A student in Philosophy of the Visual Media, Phi- the Chemistry Building. From left, band members
losophy 375, gets a little help from his friends to are Dick O’Leary, Tom Shutt, Brian Davis, Rich-
make a video for a class assignment on the steps of ard Storm, and Mark Rose.
Soviets put 1st
men in space
since disaster
Associated Press
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union
launched two veteran cosmonauts
Thursday on the First manned space
mission since the Challenger disaster
at Cape Canaveral, sending them to
work aboard a new orbiting lab.
State television broke with custom
and provided live coverage of the
Soyuz T-15 blasting off from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet
central Asia at 3:33 p.m. Moscow
time (7:33 a.m. EST). U.S. television
networks also broadcast the launch
live.
The First live coverage of an all-
Soviet mission showed the red and
white craft streaking into slightly
overcast skies above the space center
in Kazakhstan. It carried com
mander Leonid Kizim and engineer
Vladimir Solovev to a rendezvous
with the new orbiting station named
Mir, which means Peace in Russian.
Pass, the official Soviet news
agency, said the docking would oc
cur in two days. The Mir was
launched unmanned from Baikonur
on Feb. 20.
Reporting the docking date was as
unusual as televising the launch
when it happened. Soviet officials
have not explained the departure
from customary practice.
Soviet television was quick to show
Film of the Jan. 28 Challenger explo
sion, which took the lives of all seven
astronauts aboard. It shocked many
viewers and prompted some to ques
tion why a foreign disaster was re
ported in detail at once while Soviet
space launches, as well as major acci
dents and natural disasters, get scant
coverage that usually is delayed.
Whatever the Kremlin’s purpose,
the contrast between Thursday’s
successful launch and the Chal
lenger tragedy was a way to illustrate
the Soviet space program’s achieve
ments to audiences here and abroad.
Marsha Smith, executive director
of the U.S. National Commission on
Space, said in Washington that the
Soviets could be “trying to demon
strate that their space program is
peaceful.”
James Oberg, an American space
engineer and author of several
books on the Soviet space program,
said in Houston that the launch
broadcast was part of a new open
ness policy with great propaganda
benefits.
“It also shows that they have a
greater self-confidence in their pro
gram,” he said. “It helps concentrate
See Soviets, page 10
Sources say shuttle flight recorders, computers retrieved
Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Di-
s fiave recovered all four flight
aiders and some of the five com-
ters aboard the shuttle Ghal-
iger, and they may provide valu-
ie data about the space disaster,
trees said Thursday night.
Although submerged in salt water
• six weeks, the instruments may
able to tell investigators about the
intents before, and after, Chal-
iger exploded 73 seconds into its
;hj Jan. 28, killing the crew of
r'en.
The sources close to the investiga-
m, who spoke on condition of ano-
mjty, said the recorders and com-
ttilrs were brought ashore
edhesday night along with more
remains of the crew, parts of the
flight deck and other debris.
The recovered monitors could
provide information on such things
as temperatures, acceleration and
structural stresses.
They were being kept in cool wa
ter until they could be cleaned and
dried under controlled temperature
and humidity conditions at a NASA
tape-recorder facility.
The computers, which were in
complete control of the spacecraft
during liftoff, may provide data on
how the shuttle reacted during the
thousandth of a second after the ex
plosion occurred.
The USS Preserver, which docked
Wednesday night with the new de
bris, headed for the search site again
Thursday, but turned back after
en
State cuts funding
for women's clinic
by about 63.5%
lows
ijoy
nputer
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find just
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By KIM ROY
Reporter
Some local women will be pay
ing more money for health care
at Planned Parenthood of Brazos
County because of a drastic cut in
the center’s state funding, says
Sally Miller, director of the clinic.
iThe clinic, a private non-profit
organization that provides female
lealth care, depends primarily on
state funds to keep clients’ costs to
a minimum, Miller says.
■The only other sources of
funding are private donations
from the community and client
fees.
IThe previous three-year con-
tivt the clinic had with the state
allowed for $210,()()() per each
contract year, Miller says.
The new contract, which began
Sept. 1, allows for $76,000 each
year for three years, about a 63.5
percent decrease for each year.
“I think it’s just another social
program being cut,” Miller says.
A government contract is like a
Service contract, she says. A cli
ent's cost is determined by a pay
evaluation, which is done before
services are rendered.
The evaluation determines if a
client is eligible for government
assistance by considering such
factors as the number of family
members and family income.
If it is determined that a pa
tient is eligible for government
assistance, a hill is sent to the gov
ernment after services are com
pleted for its share of the costs,
Miller says.
For those who are not entitled
to government assistance, there is
still a sliding pay scale based on
the same factors.
Miller says that even though
government funds will run out,
the same pay evaluation method
will be used to evaluate client
need.
Although truly indigent
women still will pay less than oth
ers who can better afford the
services, the increase in costs will
be drastic, Miller says.
The exact increase can’t be re-
See State, page 10
winds gusting up to 40 mph churned
the seas into 10-foot swells.
The storm stalled plans to recover
a 400-to-500-pound chunk, w'hich
some officials say could be the seg
ment of the right booster rocket be
lieved responsible for the explosion.
The chunk was located Wednesday
32 miles northeast of Cape Canave
ral.
The Preserver slipped into port
Wednesday night without running
lights in an effort to block news pho
tographers and television camera
men from obtaining clear pictures.
Debris piled on its fantail was cov
ered by canvas.
Reporters watching from a dis
tance estimated that eight containers
were placed in three ambulances
that met the Preserver.
Inside A&M steam tunnels
Exploring University from underground an adventure
By OLIVIER UYTTEBROUCK
Reporter
A Texas A&M coed walks near
the corner of Nagle and Lamar
streets one night shortly after mid
night when a hand emerges from a
metal grate just a few inches from
her feet and waves at her.
She has just fallen victim to an en
thusiast of what is surely one of the
world’s strangest hobbies — steam
tunnel exploring.
Any honest description of the
steam tunnels does not draw an in
viting picture of this underground
world, at least not in terms of crea
ture comfort.
Since there is no ventilation in
most of the tunnels, strong odors ac
cumulate and the air is stiflingly hot
and humid. After just a few minutes
below, even a T-shirt seems oppresi-
vely heavy, and it is quickly
drenched in perspiration.
In other tunnels, a current of sul
try air from some unaccountable
source blows constantly.
During heavy rains, large
amounts of mud wash into the tun
nels and even after a dry spell, an
inch or two of mud remains in some
sections. Roaches are common, tun
neling enthusiasts say, and certain
parts are supposed to be so infested
that they are nearly impassable.
A few of the tunnels, such as the
one beneath Military Walk, are spa-
A few of the steam tunnels are spacious, but most of the passages are little more than crawlspaces.
cious and well-lit, but most of the
passages are little more than
crawlspaces — dark and so cramped
that an adult has to stoop to pass
through them.
To the uninitiated, it isn’t entirely
clear w hat lures these people to slide
open the heavy metal grates, at odd
hours of the morning, and descend
rusty ladders and stairways into the
bowels of the University, taking care
not to catch the eye of the campus
security guards.
But down they go, taking with
them six-packs of beer and paint
cans to scrawl their names and mes
sages in the tunnels. Graffiti is every
where — not just in the bigger tun
nels but in the obscure tunnels and
hard to reach places as well.
It is no exaggeration to say that
hundreds, perhaps thousands of
messages are painted on the walls
and pipes and even traced into the
thick dust that covers everything in
the tunnels. The Corps of Cadets is
strongly implicated in much of the
graffiti.
One message proclaims: The
Army’s finest walk these halls.
Another suprising message says:
Shuttle panel expects early finish
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi
dential investigators expect tests
supervised by outside observers
to prove within a month how and
why a booster rocket seal caused
the space shuttle Challenger to
explode.
They expect to be able to Fi
nally rule out equipment other
than the booster seal as the prob
able cause within a week or two,
well ahead of the June 3 deadline
for the panel’s report.
“If we need more time, we will
ask, but there is no evidence now
that we will need it,” said a source
close to the presidential Chal
lenger commission.
T he report is crucial to re
sumption of space flights, be
cause NASA won’t begin chang
ing hardware designs until it is in.
The commission is bringing in
an outside expert to supervise,
because panel members are skep
tical of tests conducted by NASA
and its rocket contractor, Morton
Thiokol, Inc., the source said.
The boosters have been the
chief suspects all along in the Jan.
28 explosion that claimed seven
lives.
But one NASA official testiFied
only last Friday that tests might
take three months to Firmly estab
lish them as the cause.
The source, who spoke on con
dition of anonymity, said the in
dependent observer will likely be
a quasi-government agency.