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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 1986)
: STUDY h High or off ication ' Blood O-$20(| >ffered 1 The Battalion 82 No. 172 GSPS 045360 6 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, July 8, 1986 upreme Court upholds Texas sodomy law ii _»i ii n ii n DALLAS (AP) — The U.S. Su- le Court refused Monday to e down Texas’ law that makes Hiate sexual intercourse” a crime, ojjipting protests from gays and ale from the prosecutor who de- n<M the law. ll but one justice rejected a Dal- s lomosexual’s argument that the ivviolates gays’ privacy rights and therefore unconstitutional. ixas’ debt worsening, Hocksays They also turned down appeals from Texas officials over the law’s procedural aspects. The court upheld a Georgia law last week making homosexual and heterosexual sodomy a crime, ruling that it did not violate any constitu tional right. Although the Texas law applies only to homosexuals, it is similar to Georgia’s in that it defines deviate sexual intercourse as “any contact between any part of the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another person.” Donald F. Baker, who sued over the law, argued that it violates his right to engage in homosexual activ ities. He sought to have the law over turned even though he was not pros ecuted for homosexual conduct. “The war goes on,” Baker, 38, said Monday. He added that “there is nothing more we can do within judicial sys tem at the moment, but it will come up again. We will work more in tensely within state courts and state legislatures.” Potter County District Attorney Danny Hill of Amarillo, who took over the state’s appeal after Attorney General Jim Mattox dropped it, said Monday that he was “elated, re lieved” by the high court’s ruling. “The most significant thing is the court’s recognition that the states have the right to legislate in the areas where the people want them to legislate,” Hill said. He also said the ruling “opens the door for us to teach our children the difference between right and wrong, instead of having to say it’s wrong, but society condones it.” The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap peals upheld the Texas law last Au gust. It said the ban on deviate sex ual intercourse is justified by “the strong objection to homosexual con duct which has prevailed in Western culture for the past seven centuries.” IRES ON PM 5 jdents TEREO |USTIN (AP) — The state gov- fhment budget, already awash in 2.3 billion of red ink, is headed for n even deeper hole, Comptroller 1©I> Bullock said Monday. Bullock said the state debt will be liibstantially higher than the cur- ent estimate” at the end of the nonth. Bullock said the state’s 10.5 per- :ent unemployment rate announced plst week is one of several indicators Bialingan even larger shortfall. ■“We expect a new revenue esti- mate before Aug. 1, and, frankly, none of the indicators contain an . ..Jounce of good news,” he said. JBOov. Mark White has said he will a s P ec ' a I session of the Legis- ^dlalure as soon as legislative leaders work out d plan to balance the books. ^jttl'While it would be preferable to better news, the comptroller IRtstbase his projections on the data 823-11 available,” White said in a statement Monday. |‘Any improvement in Texas’ eco- 2:«!2 Jiff, 13 <:HM tioWtUnlinic outlook is going to require a —-^continuation of the long-term effort ,: * |S to diversify the economy, which we started in 1983,” he said. “Our in vestment in education, better roads, job training and an ample water sup ply represents a significant stride to- nMUjlllrd achieving our goal of a ""TJjBonger and more diversified econ- JwThis news only reinforces our i:«i:«'|®nmitment to work closely with the ,:0Cli! ,legislative leadership to resolve this situation,” he added. Information Overload An incoming freshman in the College of Business takes time out after, a day of testing, conferences Photo by John Tate and orientation meetings to get a look at some of the information she’s received. Soldiers withdraw as revolt against Aquino collapses Tourism industry gets boost Weekend helps NYC White’s Republican opponent. :J G iilijjjjformer Gov. Bill Clements, said dur- a campaign stop in Houston that ustMhe Democrat is failing to provide sufficient leadership for lawmakers uttjjjduring the budget crisis. ■“Literally, Austin burns, while Mark White fiddles,” Clements said. NEW YORK (AP) — Liberty Weekend brought in as much as $500 million for the city’s tourism in dustry and helped shine the Big Apple's image as a tourist destina tion, the head of the Visitors and Convention Bureau said Monday. Producers of the four-day extrav aganza expressed disappointment over ticket sales but said they ex pected revenue to run close to a break-even figure of $30 million to $32 million. Mayor Edward I. Koch said the Statue of Liberty centennial festival cost city government about $10 mil lion. That figure is almost certain to be exceeded by the weekend’s sales tax revenues. “It was a sensational weekend as far as we were concerned,” said Charles Gillett, president of the New York Visitors and Convention Bu- MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A revolt by Arturo Tolentino who de clared himself acting president col lapsed early Tuesday when four generals and more than 100 soldiers who had backed him withdrew from his headquarters in a luxury hotel. Tolentino, an ally of ousted Presi dent Ferdinand E. Marcos, swore himself in to replace President Cora- zon Aquino in a ceremony Sunday at the Manila Hotel in front of more than 300 civilian and military sup porters. They then began a sit-in. Aquino, accused by the rebels of being conciliatory toward commu nist guerrillas, responded by giving the group an ultimatum to leave the hotel within 24 hours. Tolentino left late Monday with a small group of advisers. He said his civilian backers also would withdraw but he did not know about the soldiers because, “I do not control them.” Tolentino, Marcos’ vice presi dential candidate in February’s fraud-tainted election, then met for four hours with Rafael Ileto, Aqui no’s deputy defense minister. Many of the civilians began leav ing the hotel at dawn Tuesday, a few hours before the expiration of the Aquino’s deadline. The soldiers withdrew unnoticed, apparently through a back door. The first clear sign that the two- day uprising was over came at 6 a.m. when a dozen riot policeman en tered the hotel and told about 100 pro-Tolentino civilians still gathered in the lobby to get out. Dozens of soldiers followed, and an officer said they would search the 500-room building for bombs. Rebel soldiers were taken to a sub urban army camp where Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile spoke to them. “We are not going to humiliate, punish or embarrass any of you,” he said. “There will be no retaliation against you.” Enrile, speaking to the soldiers in a gymnasium, said, “We shall con sider this as past. Let us forget, as though nothing happened.” Gen. Jose Maria Zumel, who had led the military rebels, told report ers, “It’s always nice to be back with our comrades in arms.” The armed forces chief, Gen. Fi del V. Ramos, shook hands with the rebel soldiers and said the military must maintain the capability “to pre vail over all of these enemies . . . I’m referring specifically to the Commu nist Party of the Philippines the New People’s Army.” “Gentlemen, we welcome you back,” Ramos added. “Let’s all go to work.” Tolentino, 75, had said he was de claring himself acting president un der orders from Marcos. But Marcos told reporters Sunday he knew little about Tolentino tak ing an oath as acting president, and said the decision had been made by party loyalists. s '!,-■>" ■* * ••'■•'•A :A:f Toxic chemicals available to some students , E. i\V By Sondra Pickard Senior Staff Writer |> Recent poisoning incidents, in cluding the suicide of a University of Texas student, have led to public concern over the availability of dan gerous chemicals and chemistry pro lessors say dangerous chemicals ate easily available to Texas A&M chem istry graduate students. i| Dr. Daniel O’Brien, associate pro fessor of chemistry, says graduate students have unrestricted access to dangerous chemicals. gTTn the normal graduate laborato ry,'’ O’Brien says, “there are many chemicals that graduate students have without restrictions.” ■ Some of those chemicals are stored in the chemistry department’s .central chemical storeroom in the basement of the chemistry building. Dr. Michael Rosynek, associate head of the department, says the central chemical stockroom is either locked or under constant supervi sion, making it difficult for anyone else to obtain a toxic chemical. But officials who manage the storeroom refused to give their names and would not explain de partmental procedures for distribut ing chemicals. Recently, a University of Texas chemistry student died after poison ing himself with cyanide, which fed eral officials said matched samples from UT chemistry labs. Later, a UT chemistry professor told The Daily Texan that if some one had knowledge of the chemical storeroom and its operations it would be relatively easy to get the metabolic poison at UT. Although graduate students at A&M can get almost any chemicals they need for research, O’Brien said undergraduate students are not al lowed in graduate labs without su pervision. “It’s not just because of toxic chemicals but because of inexperien ce,” O’Brien said. “And it’s a good, safe practice.” A student employee in the chem istry department stockroom said only graduate students have direct access to the chemicals stored there. Graduate students sign for chemi cals and the date, quantity, cost and supervising professor’s name is re corded. One chemistry graduate student, who asked not to be identified, said cyanide is readily available from the stockroom, but probably not in its pure form. Most of the chemicals needed for graduate research are ordered by the student directly from manufac turers, he said. In certain experiments, he said, lethal chemicals are often used, but. with much care and control. Dr. Merlin Peck, associate profes sor of chemistry in charge of fresh men labs, said chemicals used for undergraduate labs are stored in Heldenfels Hall only for the coming week. He said most of the solutions are prepared ahead of time and unused chemicals are removed immediately following class. “For the freshman labs we have tried to limit the quantities and select the types of chemicals so as to mini mize the danger,” Peck said, “but concentrated acids and bases can’t be avoided for some experiments. Rosynek said it would be quite dif ficult for a student to remove a chemical while working in a lab. “Students can never get access to a storeroom unless they’re deter mined to break in with a hammer and a blowtorch,” he said. Dr. Marvin Rowe, associate pro fessor of chemistry in charge of the analytical labs, said cyanide is a com monly used chemical, but that every precaution is taken when using it. “If you wanted to get cyanide or something roughly as potent,” Rowe said, “all you have to do is go buy rat poison at a hardware store. We think of chemicals as being only in a chem istry lab, which they are not.” Need a light? More women tend to smoke at college DETROIT (AP) — College women are more likely than col lege men to smoke cigarettes, suggesting that the tobacco indus try is successfully linking female smoking with an image of glam our and success, according to a federal study released Monday. “The cigarette companies em phasize two major themes in get ting women to smoke: One is try ing to associate smoking with being liberated and the other is more subliminal, but not very subtle, and that is that women should smoke to stay thin,” social psychologist Lloyd D. Johnston, director of the study, said. Among college women, the da ily smoking rate was 18 percent last year compared with 10 per cent for men. “It appears the tobacco indus try’s expensive and long-term ef fort to associate smoking with lib eration and success among women has paid off, at least for the industry,” Johnston said. A&M crime figures show increase since 1984-85 By Olivier Uyttebrouck Senior Staff Writer H University Police records show that theft, burglary and other more [serious crimes posted little or no in crease from the 1984-85 academic year to the 1985-86 academic year but that such other crimes as assault, vandalism and liquor violations showed marked increases. H Police records also note that niearly a third of all persons appre hended during the 1985-86 aca demic year were adults with no con nection to the University. | Of the 332 persons apprehended during the past academic year, 96 were non-university adults and an additional 22 were juveniles. 1: Students accounted for 206 of those apprehended and staff mem bers, eight. University Police Director Bob Wiatt says that persons from College Station, Bryan and more distant communities commonly wander through the campus and dormito ries, testing doors and looking for unguarded property. “They know there are a lot of goodies here and they’re attracted to it,” says Wiatt, citing a June 10 bur glary of two horses and several sad dles from the Parsons’ Mounted Cavalry barn. Wiatt says the suspects in the case kept the horses in a backyard in downtown Bryan, in full public view and that the display quickly came to the attention of the Sheriff s Depart ment. Listed below are the catago- from 7 to 14. ries of reported crime rate •Arson rose from 1 to 7. changes increases from the •Assault increased from 25 to 1984-1985 academic year to the 34. 1985-1986 academic year. •Felony Theft decreased from •Harrasing phone calls inci- 30 to 26. dents rose from 54 to 75. •Motor Vehicle Theft in- •Criminal Mischief (vandal- creased 21 to 28. ism) rose from 127 to 179. •Sexual Offenses decreased •Liquor violations rose from 3 from 7 to 2. to 35. • Disorderly Conduct de- •Criminal trespass rose from creased from 29 to 22. 15 to 26. •Hit and Run incidents in- • False alarms and reports rose creased from 56 to 74. Wiatt also cited the arrest of five suspects from Houston on charges of stealing a total of twenty cars on the A&M campus during the 1985- 86 academic year as examples of out siders comming on campus specif ically to commit thefts and burglar ies. University Police made the arrests during two seperate stake-out ef forts in January and April. In Wiatt’s words, the University Police play “mind games” with po tential burglars and thiefs by main taining a staff of plain-clothes offi cers, but Wiatt refused to say how many such officers are on patrol. Individuals who arouse police sus picions and are determined not to have business on campus are first given a criminal trespass warning, Wiatt says. The next time the person is dis covered on campus, he or she is ar rested for criminal trespass. University Police made 26 arrests for criminal trespass during the 1985-86 academic year, up from 15 the year before, police records show. Liquor violations showed a steep rise from 3 to 35 from the 1984-85 academic year to the past year but Wiatt denies that the rise in the drinking age from 18 to 19 caused the increase. Liquor violations usually result from other sorts of crimes such as as sault or motor vehicle accidents and Wiatt explains that people are com mitting more such crimes under the influence of alcohol. The residence halls are responsi ble for their own dormitories and the police are called only in the event of serious problems, Wiatt says. The total number of reported crimes rose from 1,259 for the 1984- 85 academic year to 1,410 for the 1985-86 academic year. Arson increased from one inci dent to seven. Wiatt said the increase was due mainly to an unusual in crease in dumpster fires.