Thursday, July 31, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3
Man given 40 years
for hiding plane bomb
Education funds Won't be cuf
AUSTIN (AP) — A San Marcos
man was sentenced Wednesday to 40
years in prison for hiding a bomb on
an Austin-to-Dallas flight that car
ried his wife and three children.
Albert Lee Thielman, 34, pleaded
guilty June 10 to charges of placing a
destructive device on an aircraft and
causing damage to an aircraft.
Each charge carried a maximum
sentence of 20 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. Thielman was sen
tenced to consecutive prison terms.
Defense attorney Rip Collins told
U.S. District Judge James Nowlin, “I
think Albert Thielman is one more
testimonial to the tragic end result of
drug abuse, specifically cocaine
abuse.”
Collins said that after several
months in prison, Thielman is “abso
lutely not the same man” he first met
when he became Thielman’s lawyer
last December.
Collins acknowledged that the
crime was of a “heinous nature,” but
asked Nowlin to take the drug prob
lem into account in assessing the sen
tence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James
DeAtly said, “This was a cold, calcu
lated plan to murder his wife and
three minor children to receive life
insurance benefits of $2.65 million.
“He was going to cause the mur
der of 147 innocent people on that
airplane.”
Court records showed Thielman,
a salesman for a prefabricated home
dealership, was in financial ruin be
cause of gambling and drug debts.
He had purchased the heavy life in
surance coverage on his family be
fore their plane trip, according to an
FBI affidavit.
The bomb, stashed in Thielman’s
wife’s luggage, exploded in the bag
gage compartment of the American
Airlines plane when it landed at Dal-
las-Fort Worth Airport on Oct. 30.
The blast caused minor damage to
the plane, but none of the passen
gers were injured.
Clements blasts reforms
HOUSTON (AP) — The six-week
suspension period in the state’s no
pass. no-plav regulation is too long
and discourages students from tak
ing difficult courses. Republican gu
bernatorial candidate Bill Clements
told thousands of Texas coaches
Wednesdav.
Most coaches at the Texas High
School Coaches Association conven
tion greeted Clements enthusiasti
cally, and association president Greg
Sherwood pledged the organiza
tion's support foi the former gover
nor's campaign.
Clements said he agreed in prin
ciple with the educational reforms of
H ouse Bill 72. which was passed at
the urging of incumbent Gov. Mark
White, but said changes are needed
in order to help school officials.
Clements pledged again to seek a
change, if he is elected, to a three-
week suspension, sidelining students
only half as long from extra-curric
ular events whenever they fail a
course.
"Six weeks is too long,” he said of
the current suspension period, add
ing that the regulation enourages
some students to drop out of school.
Clements also pledged to main
tain education spending at 51 cents
pet state tax dollar despite the state’s
budget woes.
“I would not lower it under any
circumstances,” he said.
The former governor said he be
lieves the state should spend a ma
jority of its revenue on education,
with two-thirds of the education
money going to public schools and
the rest to higher education.
The gubernatorial candidate also
said he would work with school offi
cials to further improve the Texas
educational system.
He said that teachers are now fac
ing too much paperwork.
Clements said the career ladder,
which he said White promised would
be fairly implemented and well-
funded, has not been either and is
demoralizing teachers.
He criticized teacher competency
tests, saving the system needs to be
imoroved.
Contract may keep Arlington GM open
ARLINGTON (AP) — High effi
ciency ratings and a new competitive
local contract at a General Motors as
sembly plant bolster the factory’s
chances of staying open, union offi
cials said.
A GM official said Tuesday that
three North American plants may
have to be closed because there is too
much car manufacturing capacity in
the United States.
However, at the GM plant in Ar
lington, Richard De Los Santos, fi
nancial secretary-treasurer of
United Auto Workers Local 276,
said officials are negotiating a com
petitive local contract agreement
that could keep the production line
there open for several years.
Lloyd Ruess, GM executive vice
president, said the company proba
bly will not need three of its plants in
the late 1980s because of excess ca
pacity.
Ruess spoke at a news conference
at the Automotive News World Con
gress in Detroit on Tuesday.
It was the first official statement
about possible closings, although
there has been speculation the com
pany would be forced to close some
plants because of competition from
Asian and European automakers.
GM company spokesman John
Mueller said GM hopes that the
overcapacity will force a shakeout in
the industry, making plant closing
unnecessary.
In Arlington, union leaders and
plant management are negotiating a
contract agreement that should be
ready for a vote by Oct. 13, De Los
Santos said.
He said the agreement could pro
vide work for about 1,300 of the
2,000 union workers who have been
laid off in the past 12 months.
Laredo teachers fired for refusing TECAT
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Half Mast?
Students on the Quadrangle
Wednesdav may have seen the
remains of this bicycle hanging
from one of the flagpoles.
LAREDO (AP) — Two teachers
fired this week because they refused
to take the state-ordered compe-
tencv tests said Wednesday they are
considering whether to appeal.
Eugene Miller and his wife, Hilde-
garde. were fired Tuesday during a
special meeting of trustees of the La
redo United Independent School
District. Trustee Jan Ottmers said
the Millers' refusal to take the test
lef t the district no alternative.
They have 10 days to appeal the
filing. Mrs. Miller said she and her
husband are still thinking it over.
Mrs. Miller has taught English for 18
years and her husband has taught
history for 28 years.
“We are dedicated teachers and it
was not an easy decision,” Mrs.
Millet said. “It wasn’t a decision of
arrogant defiance at all. It was more
an act of civil disobedience because
we don’t believe that the law was
right.”
The Texas Examination of Cur-
tent Administrators and Teachers
was approved by the Texas Legis
lature as part of education reforms
passed in the 1984 special session.
Since the tests were first given in
March, about 97 percent of teachers
have passed.
Although teachers and the largest
state teaching association oppose the
test, educators were advised to take
it and challenge its legitimacy later.
TECAT litigation will be heard by
the T exas Supreme Court.
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Austin officials probe report of cyanide burial
jourti
The
AUSTIN (AP) — A report that
Austin State Hospital workers bur
ied a pound of deadly cyanide 20
years ago in a cemetery surprised
city officials who want to know more
about the discarded chemical.
“It sounds important enough to
pursue, without a doubt,” said Ra
mon Miguez, the city’s assistant di
rector of public works.
The Austin American-Statesman
said Wednesday it learned of the
burial from Fred Lara, a retired doc
tor of pharmacy and the former di
rector of the state hospital’s bio
chemical and toxicology laboratory.
Lara, 60, said it only takes a few
hundred milligrams of cyanide to
kill an adult human and that a
pound contains more than 400,000
milligrams. Lara said he was re
minded of the burial by publicity of
the hospital’s recent donation of a
rare collection of brains and other
organs of former mental patients to
the University of Texas at Austin.
Kenny Dudley, superintendent of
the state hospital, said he vaguely re
membered Lara telling him some
thing about the burial earlier this
year after a series of articles in the
American-Statesman about the hos
pital.
“If someone thinks there’s some
thing out there that shouldn’t be and
they want to check, we’ll cooperate,”
Dudley said.
In the late 1950s or early 1960s,
Lara said, he supervised the burial
of about 100 brains from the hospi
tal’s collection in half-gallon glass
jars — some of them cracked and
leaking toxic formaldehyde preser
vative — along with the pound of
potassium cyanide and other toxic
chemicals in smaller bottles.
He said the burial took place un
key
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der a large shade tree in the north
west corner of the cemetery that is
just southeast of the Highland Plaza
shopping center, a few yards from
Waller Creek in Northeast Austin.
“I was new in the job and didn’t
know what was right,” Lara said.
“The state said to do it. I didn’t ques
tion. I seem to remember that the cy
anide was ordered by mistake. I
don’t know why the brains were bur
ied. Everything was in cardboard
boxes. I was ordered to go along and
see that all of it was buried deep
enough not to be affected by rain
fall.”
SHORT
ON
CASH???
Sell your books
at
University Book Stores
Northgate & Culpepper Plaza
Thursday
CAESAREAN PREVENTION MOVEMENT/VAGINAL
BIRTH AFTER CAESAREAN: CPM/VBAC is an interna
tional support network for women healing from past births
and those preparing for future births that meets the last
Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at 4109 Brompton
Court in Bryan. For more information call 693-4953 or
776-5657.
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE: Any junior and senior in the De
partment of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics or Physics
who entered his current major proir to catalog 107 and
who has not previously taken the English Proficiency Ex
amination should plan to do so this semester. The exam
will be administered by the English department on Thurs
day. Please contact Mrs. Marilyn Radke in 152 Blocker for
details. Advance registration is required.
COMMODORE BRAZOS USERS’ GROUP: anyone inter
ested in free tutorial on Commodore 64 or 128 systems can
call David Gruben at 845-8889.
Friday
KAMU FM: will sponsor ajazz concert featuring Notropis at
9 p.m. at Le Cabaret, 4353 Wellborn Rd. A $3 cover charge
will benefit KAMU FM.
5613.
For more information call 845-
Items for What’s Up should be submitted to The Battalion,
216 Reed McDonald, no less than three days prior to de
sired publication date.
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