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
â—¦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
â– 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-
â– akai Fic practice of providing both . . .
ressu le lor’ and ‘against’ whenever evo-
■■w^tionary arguments are presented.”
â– 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
â„¢*on.
â– 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
â–  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
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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.