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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1986)
Texas A&M 'msmmm**.. ^ V A The Battalion 32 Mo. 177 (JSPS 045360 6 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, July 16, 1986 e over evolution ◦ts up ISTIN (AP) — The long-run- Icontroversy over how much to Jl'exas public school students ut evolution erupted again Tues- Before the State Textbook Com- , J e ’ cull “We can no longer hold Texas sci- tural !ce education hostage to know ings and religious zealots,” Dr. n D. Schafersman, president of' exas Council for Science Edu- tion, told the committee consid- in^ nine proposed earth science xtb inks. "We must end this blight of igno- min ci that has afflicted our state for (long,” he said. 121 But Mel Gabler, a professional Book consultant who has been a ctive itk of evolution passages, said that ■ntific evidence against evolution ■; consistently censored.” 'oppd :’r e are not asking that creation- iu2 Bee be taught,” Gabler said. “We T< - lerely ask that textbooks be intellec- dlJyiBy honest and observe the scien- ■akai Fic practice of providing both . . . ressu le lor’ and ‘against’ whenever evo- ■■w^tionary arguments are presented.” ■ike Hudson, spokesman for rople for the American Way, urged Kommittee to adopt the science Aooks recommended by the sci- ice teachers “and resist attempts to tplkce scientific consensus with sec- rian religious belief.” iy he fn ted. 19 i! Hudson, state director of the self- lethaltiled anti-censorship group, also n lOihtBrned that Fexas’ action might be d therellt nationwide. He said the U.S. Su- (enti .Hne Court has agreed to hear an ;. Heal of a court ruling declaring e is Joilsiana’s creationism law uncon- mair itijtional. lines m "Whether you know it or not, k, pi hat you do here could influence nutatii tajease,” Hudson said. jeneticHhe committee is holding hear- motlirMgj on selection of $114 million in \ tmivtxpooks for Texas public schools. H final selections will be made lov. 8 by the State Board of Educa ™*on. ■any publishers use the Texas Hings as a guide in offering text- Hks to other states. Hudson said that Texas “has been layued by this anti-science lovement” since 1974 when the |S tafe Board of Education adopted ae so-called “anti-evolution text- 5) Hk rule.” Hinder that regulation, all science Hks had to carry a disclaimer that evolution is treated as theory rather fact.” The board overturned be i ule in 1984. Flight crew blamed for crash of Delta 191 WASHINGTON (AP) — A flight crew’s decision to land during a thunderstorm despite little informa tion about ominous wind shears caused a Delta Air Lines jet to crash near Dallas last August, a federal agency concluded Tuesday. The National Transportation Safety Board said the Lockheed L- 1011 jumbo jet had flown into a mul tiple microburst — a violent down- draft in a thunderstorm — and was unable to recover enough altitude to avoid falling into ground 6,000 feet short of the runway. The accident killed 187 people, including a motorist traveling along a road near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. There were 27 survivors. The board rejected proposed findings by its staff— and one of its own members — which would have placed primary responsibility for the crash on Capt. Edward N. Connors, who had 29,300 hours of flight ex perience, 3,000 of them in the plane he piloted on that fateful day last August. Instead, the board said, “the prob able causes of this accident were the flight’s crew decision to initiate and continue the approach into a cumu lonimbus cloud which they observed to contain visible lightning, the lack of specific guidelines, procedures and training for avoiding and escape from low altitude wind shear, and the lack of definitive wind shear haz ard information.” “The airport does not plan to comment on the NTSB’s report until it has had a chance to study it in its entirety,” D-FW spokesman Joe Dea- ley said. Investigators faulted several weather centers for failing to detect the storm cell more quickly, but said Delta’s own training manual bars pi lots from flying beneath thunder storms at altitudes below 20,000 feet. The board effectively held that Connors, who had a reputation for being especially cautious about se vere weather, should not have con tinued his descent when his copilot spotted lightning ahead of the plane. Staff investigators also noted that pilots of other aircraft had witnessed severe weather in the area, but failed to report the conditions to the air- 'i - Kremlin awaits reply to disarmament plan MOSCOW (AP) — Mikhail S. Gorbachev says the Kremlin wants an American response to Soviet dis armament proposals before decid ing whether to extend its mora torium on nuclear testing. With the Soviet unilateral ban on tests expiring on Aug. 6, the Soviet leader said a decision on whether to resume testing “depends to a large extent on whether the United States of America is going at long last to set about disarmament.” Gorbachev spoke Monday to a group of scientists meeting in Mos cow to urge an end to nuclear test ing. His remarks were reported Tuesday by the Soviet news agency Tass. “We have not yet received satisfac tory replies to our proposals ...” Gorbachev said. “The only thing we have received is the declaration that SAL T 11 is dead.” A Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday welcomed a U.S.-Soviet meeting in Geneva next week to dis cuss President Reagan’s decision to abandon the 1979 treaty. But spokesman Gennady I. Gera simov said Moscow attaches much more importance to Washington’s response to Gorbachev’s proposals for reducing strategic and medium- range nuclear weapons. The scientists from 34 nations who gathered in Moscow appealed to Gorbachev to extend the Soviet moratorium, which has already been extended three times. The United States has refused to join in halting testing, in part be cause it says a complete test ban could not be verified. Last week, a private group of U.S. scientists installed seismic monitor ing equipment near the Soviets’ main nuclear test site in Kazakhstan in a project the group and its Soviet hosts say is designed to prove that a test ban is verifiable. Thomas Cochran, the leader of the group and one of the scientists who met Gorbachev on Monday, was quoted by Tass as telling the Soviet leader that the Kazakhstan project has “fully demolished” White House arguments that a test ban cannot be verified. Frank von Hippel, another U.S. scientist present at the meeting, said Gorbachev is under domestic pres sure to resume nuclear tests. A U.S. official who demanded an onymity told The Associated Press in Washington on Monday that the United States agreed to the Geneva meeting on condition other issues could be raised at the session. They include allegations — den ied and countered with like accusa tions by the Soviets —that the Soviets violated the SALT treaty by with holding information about missile tests and deployed an illegal long- range missile, the SS-25. .S. troops to help on Bolivian drug raids rtS^A PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — U.S. w krniy troops and helicopter pilots o „ ,, ire preparing to take part with Bo- ^ iyian police in raids on the country’s n6C16nost important cocaine-processing inatiOp’ratories, U.S. and Bolivian offi- npls said Tuesday. , Rix Army Black Hawk helicopter pfots and backup personnel arrived anta Cruz on an Air Force C5-A transport plane Monday, witnesses said. The U.S. assault helicopters are being prepared to fly to a secret jun gle base in the Beni region, located northeast of La Paz, Santa Cruz dai lies reported Tuesday. At least 100 U.S. military person nel based in Panama are expected to arrive within the next few days to participate in raids that police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency hope will disrupt Bolivia’s multi-bil lion dollar cocaine industry, accord ing to the U.S. and Bolivian officials. The helicopter pilots have re ceived instructions to shoot back if fired upon, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition he not be named. An administration source in Washington declined to say how many helicopters were airlifted to Bolivia other than saying the num ber was “less than 10.” Richard Feldkamp, a DEA spokesman in Washington, said the drug raids would begin soon but re fused to provide details on when the helicopters arrived or where they are currently located. Col. Marvin Braman, a Pentagon spokesman, had no comment when asked about the operation. The dispatch of military helicopt ers to a foreign country for drug en forcement work is highly unusual. In Washington, one official said the operation has been mounted at the request of the Bolivian govern ment. Bryan passes no-smoking ordinance BRYAN (AP) — A no-smoking ordinance will make lighting up illegal in most of this city’s public facilities and work places begin ning Oct. 1. The ordinance, which the City Council passed on a 5-2 vote Monday, prohibits smoking in hospitals, schools and elevators. Violators can be fined $25. Among those places exempt from the ban are bars, tobacco shops and offices to which the general public doesn’t have ac cess. There, employers can desig nate part or all of the business as a smoking area, councilman Ben Hardeman said. Restaurants are partially exempt, but the law says they must have adequate smoking and non-smoking areas. “The idea here is to make the employer think about it and eval uate the work place,” Hardeman said. But some residents are un happy with the new ordinance. Councilman Randy Sims, who owns a barbeque restaurant, voted against the no-smoking law, saying few customers complain about smoking in the restaurant. “In 23 years, I’ve only had a half dozen people complain to me,” he said. “I think v\'e know our customers better than the City Council does. If enough peo ple wanted a non-smoking area, don’t think Randy wouldn’t put one in.” Sims said general laws, like the city-wide smoking ban, should be put before the voters. Susan Calhoun, a city hall em ployee who smokes two packs of cigarettes daily, also was upset with the ban. “What bothers me is that they think they can dictate our day-to day life,” she said. t oiiKy ob status at Houston NASA center shaky es PACE CENTER, Houston (AP) Sen. Phil Gramm said Tuesday if neC' hat: the Johnson Space Center will can q! I 3 ' 11 2,000 jobs over the next few Kars, but Rep. Mike Andrews said ■ center could actually lose em- yees due to changes in space sta- ion contracts. Jn a telephone interview Tuesday, >ramm, R-Texas, said he was as sured by NASA administrator James detcher that about 2,000 new jobs ie go! lassC signed anas' would be added to the center as space shuttle flights resume and fi nal work is performed on the space station project. But in a later interview, Andrews, D-Texas, said a NASA study shows the Johnson Space Center could lose 350jobs soon. He also said the center could fail to gain 1,900 potential jobs due to a redistribution of work contracts on the space station. Andrews, however, said that Fletcher assured him that no changes would be made without first consulting the congressional sub committee that has oversight re sponsibility for the National Aero nautics and Space Administration. Mark Hess, a NASA information specialist in Washington, said the confusion may stem from two offi cial memos outlining a proposal to redistribute contract work on the space station. He said the proposals would move responsibility for outfitting space station modules from the Johnson center to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The plan also calls for moving de velopment of a propulsion system for the space station from Huntsville to Houston. The estimated net effect would be to reduce the Johnson role in the space station development from about $2.5 billion to about $2 billion, Hess said. “In terms of civil service jobs, there will not be a sizable reduction, if there is a reduction at all (at John son),” said Hess. “For contractor employees, I’m not sure,” he said. “The Johnson ef fort on the space station is still a very sizable one.” But Hess said the precise effect of any of the proposed changes is not yet clear. Gramm said he was told by Fletcher that an “ongoing reorgani zation program” is not complete, and that “to this point Houston may well lose a few jobs to Huntsville, but that by the time the reorganization is complete next spring, Houston could gain jobs.” Former addict pleads for crackdown jmmef $15.00 mbero 1 oris Of' ) or sW' •e inloi' flip p caniP' the toP' 314 pa'' ilding.f' jom $ lay, irT/ Congress begins cocaine probe I WASHINGTON (AP) — A former “crack house cook,” who prepared a seductive and lethal form of cocaine for customers, told Congress on Tuesday of his own self-destructive, $400-a-day habit and pleaded for a crack down on drug dealers. I “I have one suggestion,” said the reformed drug addict, who was hidden from view as he spoke. “That suggestion is to make it known it is serious, it is epidemic, and it can kill. It is no joke to fool around with cocaine.” Using the assumed name Mi chael Taylor, the 29-year-old Washington man testified from behind a partition, saying he feared retaliation from cocaine dealers for telling his story, as both House and Senate panels fo cused on the drug threat. Taylor told the Senate Govern mental Affairs subcommittee- on investigations that it was cheap to purchase and easy to use “crack,” a potent, purified form of cocaine that causes instant highs and can be quickly addictive. The Senate committee also heard from two other former crack addicts and from a drug ex pert who said the Reagan admin istration and Congress are not doing enough. “We are not serious about the war on drugs,” said Dr. Robert Byck, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale University Medical School, who called for more money for drug research and for a public awareness cam- paign. Crack is often sold in vials of one dose each, is affordable at $10 or so a dose, and is easily smoked, making it the “fast-food” of illegal drugs, he said. That ease and a ready supply has out stripped government efforts at drug-abuse prevention, he said. Robot helps scientists view Titanic's interior WOODS HOLE, Mass. (AP) — Deep-sea explorers Tuesday got their first view of the sumptuous in terior of the sunken Titanic, using a lawnmower-size robot to take pic tures of the luxury liner’s grand staircase and a chandelier hanging from a ceiling. “It was like landing on the moon,” the excited expedition leader, Rob ert Ballard, said in a ship-to-shore conversation.“We went down about four decks into the ship and went into one of the rooms off the stair case and went right up and looked at a beautiful chandelier hanging on the ceiling.” Ballard told colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu tion that he and two other scientists inside a tiny submarine then maneu vered above the sunken hulk. The researchers were able to peer inside the Titanic’s remains using the video robot Jason Jr., which is at tached to the submarine Alvin by a cable and is remote-controlled. Ja son Jr. contains video and still cam eras and can be rotated 170 degrees on its axis to provide panoramic views.