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■Vol. 82 No. 192 USPS 045360 8 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, August 12, 1986
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AUSTIN (AP) — The House Ap
propriations Committee found $1.1
[illion to spackle into the state’s ail-
ig budget Monday by voting to cut
Inoney out of education funds long
Viewed as inviolate.
The money would come out of the
Permanent School Fund and Perma-
lent University Fund, which can be
Invested but not spent, and would go
|nto funds that can be spent on state
migrants.
Gov. Mark White quickly issued a
eaver
uestions
probe
release saying he does not like the
plan.
“Taking monies from the perma
nent trust funds set aside for our
children and their education would
set a terrible precedent,” White said.
“The plan represents a major depar
ture from the far-sighted policies es
tablished more than 100 years ago
for the financing of public schools
and universities in this state.”
The governor urged lawmakers to
look instead at his call for a tempo
rary hike in the sales tax.
The $1.1 billion represents the
profit made on the funds’ securities
transactions for the past five years.
That money could replace an equal
amount of general state revenue that
is spent on education.
Speaker Gib Lewis, who proposed
the plan, said it all adds up to solving
the state’s cash flow problem without
raising taxes.
Opponents, including university
officials, say the permanent funds
should not be touched, even in a
budget crisis such as the current one.
But Lewis said it’s ridiculous to talk
about tax hikes when the two funds
have more than enough money.
“You let that money sit there be
cause maybe 15 or 20 people are
zealously guarding it,” he said, add
ing that it reminded him of the fable
about “the old king counting his
coins and everyone was starving.”
The $1.1 billion move, added to
$600 million in cuts proposed by the
appropriations committee, would
eliminate the need for a tax bill dur
ing the current special session, said
Lewis, who opposed the tax hikes
called for by White and Lt. Gov. Bill
Hobby.
The funds transfer drew some op
position in the 29-member appro
priations committee, but got 16
“aye” votes. Rep. Tom Uher, D-Bay
City, was among the dissenters.
“It concerns me that future legis
latures faced with budget crises as
we have here will perhaps want to
dip further into these funds,” Uher
said. “I believe these funds were es
tablished by our forefathers for
some very beneficial reasons and
they’ve served our state well.”
The funds are the backbone of
the state’s higher education and
public education systems. The prin
cipal can’t be spent, but interest in-
See PUF, page 6
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attor-
Ineys for lobbyist Michael K. Deaver
said Monday that a House panel
Ishould refer any evidence of possi-
ible perjury by him to a court-ap
pointed independent counsel “for
full and impartial investigation.”
The lawyers made the request a
[day before the House Energy and
iCommerce investigations subcom-
Imittee was expected to approve such
| a referral on its own.
In a letter to subcommittee chair-
Iman John D. Dingell, D-Mich.,
Deaver’s attorneys said they sought
the expanded investigation because
I information from a subcommittee
I staff report on possible perjury has
I been leaked to the news media.
Deaver, a close friend of President
Reagan, left the White House in May
1985 to form a lobbying firm that
j represents foreign and domestic cli
ents before the U.S. government.
Dingell’s subcommittee and Whit
ney North Seymour Jr., the court-
appointed independent counsel, are
separately investigating whether
Deaver violated conflict-of-interest
laws. The statutes restrict, and in
some cases ban, government officials
from dealing with their former
agencies on matters they handled
while in office.
“Because of the publicity which
you have generated, we request that
you refer your possible perjury
charges to the Office of the Inde
pendent Counsel for full and impar
tial investigation,” attorneys Herbert
J. Miller Jr. and Randall J. Turk said
in a letter to Dingell.
(5
Senate asked to avoid
higher education cuts
AUSTIN (AP) — College regent
nominees and a faculty member pre
sented a special budget plea Monday
to a Senate committee, which also
followed Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby’s rec
ommendation in approving two new
appointments to the Texas Water
Development Board.
A. Lavoy Moore, of Conroe, a re-
f ent nominee at Stephen F. Austin
late University at Nacogdoches,
said SFA “is kind of under seige . . .
we’re down to the muscle.”
The nominations committee was
told a proposed budget cut of 16
percent would slash 38-40 faculty
positions at SFA, and regent nomi
nee Richard Hile, Jasper, said, “I
don’t think people want to make
those kinds of cuts.”
Shelby Carter, a retired business
man who is now a senior lecturer at
the University of Texas at Austin,
told the committee, “I don’t think
you should back off an inch on edu
cation. Anybody who does that is
making the most critical mistake that
can be made.”
Although the committee consid
ers gubernatorial appointments and
not appropriations, it often is a fo
rum for suggestions on various pro
posals before the Legislature.
Carter, for example, is an appoin
tee to the Texas World Trade Coun
cil, but he promoted quality educa
tion — with the help of the
See Cuts, page 6
S. African court
voids emergency
detention policy
That’s Dancin’
Photo by Tom Ownbey
Tania Aizpuru of Mexico’s Ballet Folklorico dances outside the
Blocker Building to raise funds for the Texas A&M Mexican Stu
dents’ Association. The fundraiser will bring 20 dancers from Ballet
Folklorico to A&M on September 16, Mexican Independence Day.
Bush, White House staffers
take drug-screening tests
i
WASHINGTON (AP) — Drug
screening began in earnest at the
White House on Monday, with Vice
President George Bush and an un
disclosed number of presidential
aides taking part in the testing.
“It is, and should be, confiden
tial,” Deputy Press Secretary Larry
Speakes told reporters.
He refused to say how many aides
volunteered or to speculate on the
test results.
“ . . . The objective is, if anybody
has a problem, they should
Man ordered
to stand trial
for murder
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif (AP) —A
gunman who took hostages in a Ro
deo Drive jewelry store stabbed to
death a security guard who had
taunted him, one of the ex-captives
testified Monday in tearfully re
counting the bloody IS'/a-hour
siege.
Steven Livaditis was ordered to
stand trial on three counts of mur
der and 12 other felony charges af
ter a preliminary hearing that in
cluded the testimony of Carol
I Lambert, one of two surviving hos
tages.
| Municipal Court Judge Charles D.
Boags set arraignment for Friday in
| Superior Court in Santa Monica.
Livaditis, who has pleaded inno
cent, is being held without bail. If
convicted, he could be sentenced to
| death.
Lambert, 41, said Livaditis
I seemed calm after he killed two peo
ple inside the Van Cleef & Arpels
I store June 23.
straighten out the problem, give
them help and put them back in the
workplace drug-free.
“Confidentiality, I think, is an im
portant part of that.”
President Reagan took the test on
Saturday, before traveling to Be-
thesda Naval Hospital for a urologi
cal examination, and Bush took the
test on Monday morning, said the
vice president’s spokesman, Marlin
Fitzwater.
Last week, the White House, to
dramatize Reagan’s new anti-drug
abuse program, said all 78 of the
president’s senior staff members
would be asked to give urine samples
on a voluntary basis.
Speakes said Monday that he had
taken the test, but refused to be
drawn into questions about whether
any of Reagan’s aides demurred.
“Nobody’s come to me about civil
liberties,” he said when asked
whether anyone raised invasion-of-
privacy questions.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(AP) — A provincial court on Mon
day struck down two provisions that
permit detentions under the state of
emergency imposed June 12, raising
the possibility that thousands of peo
ple could be freed.
President P.W. Botha’s govern
ment reserved the right to appeal
the ruling, issued in Durban by a
three-judge panel of the Natal prov
ince supreme court. Anti-apartheid
leaders said they feared the govern
ment would try to negate the deci
sion through executive action.
The court challenge was filed on
behalf of Solomon Tsenoli, publicity
secretary in the Durban area for the
United Democratic Front, the larg
est coalition against the apartheid
policy of race discrimination.
Tsenoli, who was released after
the court decision, was among thou
sands of activists detained without
charge under the emergency.
Although the court order techni
cally applies only to Tsenoli, his law
yers said they would demand the re
lease of all the estimated 500
detainees in Natal. Separate chal
lenges must be filed in the other
three pergency.
The opposition Progressive Fed
eral Party said Monday the total is at
least 5,900 and could be as high as
12,000. Max Coleman, a leader of a
monitoring group called Detainees’
Parents Support Committee, said its
latest estimate was 8,000.
Judges in the Natal court accepted
arguments by Tsenoli’s lawyers that
Botha exceeded his powers in two
subsections of the emergency regu
lations.
One empowers any member of
the security forces to detain anyone
under the regulations if the deten
tion is deemed “necessary to the
maintenance of public order.” The
other permits the law and order
minister to extend the detention for
the duration of the emergency.
According to the court, the provi
sions could be construed as meaning
“every common criminal might be
considered a threat to the safety of
the public and liable as such to be de
tained summarily for the duration of
the state of emergency.”
Coleman said he saw no reason
why another panel of the Natal court
would reverse the decision on ap
peal, but added that the government
might try to “neutralize” it through
administrative action. Botha did so
recently in amending emergency
regulations that courts declared in
valid.
Dr. Nthatho Motlana, a commu
nity leader in the Soweto black town
ship outside Johannesburg, said the
Natal case “illustrates how power-
drunk the government is in thinking
it can detain as it pleases without
even observing the laws that it
makes.”
Brig. Chris Swart, Cape Town’s
regional police commissioner,
banned a United Democratic Front
meeting scheduled for Wednesday,
which anti-apartheid leaders Winnie
Mandela and the Rev. Allan Boesak
were to have spoken on the theme
“The Right to Speak.”
U.S. soldier
may have
defected
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
U.S. Army private who went ab
sent without leave from his post
in West Germany last month may
have defected to Cuba, the De
fense Department said Monday.
Responding to a report on Ra
dio Havana, the Pentagon said it
was investigating the possibility
that the missing soldier, Pfc.
Hugo Romeu, 31, of Glenview,
Ill., “may indeed be the individ
ual alluded to in the Cuban radio
report.”
Radio Havana, monitored in
Miami, claimed Monday that a
man it identified as Army Capt.
Hugo Romeu Almeida had de
fected to Cuba because of his ob
jections to U.S. foreign policy to
ward Central America.
The Army subsequently said it
had no record of an officer or en
listed man of that name.
“Further checking, however,
has indicated the possibility that
an individual with a similar name
may indeed be the individual al
luded to in the Cuban radio re
port,” a Pentagon statement said.
The statement stressed that the
Pentagon was not prepared to say
definitely that Romeu was the
man cited by the Cuban reports.
“Capt. Hugo Romeu Almeida,
of Cuban origin, expressed his
desire to abandon the United
States Army because he disagrees
with Washington’s policy toward
Central America,” Prensa Latina
quoted the official government
newspaper Granma as saying.
Soviets seek new summit
Moscow arms talks start
MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. and
Soviet delegations opened a spe
cial round of arms talks Monday
with eight hours of discussions in
a secluded mansion near Moscow.
The Kremlin’s chief negotia
tor, Viktor Karpov, said just be
fore the talks began that the Sovi
ets “would do anything” for a new
summit, and he complained that
the United States does not seem
interested in arms control.
Moscow has said it wants some
assurance of progress toward an
arms control accord before it
schedules another summit.
The U.S. Embassy spokesman
in Moscow, Jaroslav Verner, later
reported: “Mr. (Paul) Nitze (the
chief U.S. delegate and President
Reagan's arms control adviser)
said that he and his team had
eight hours of serious explora
tory talks with Soviet experts to
day and will continue the talks to
morrow.”
The special talks were sched
uled to run two days and were
getting low-key treatment from
the Soviets.
The English-language channel
of Radio Moscow’s world service
reported the Sunday arrival of
the U.S. delegation for the talks,
which were being held in a gov
ernment guest house south of
Moscow.
But no mention of the meet
ings was made in the Communist
Party daily Pravda or the evening
government paper Izvestia, the
only national newspapers issued
on Mondays.
The Kremlin sent no one to the
airport to meet the U.S. officials.
Karpov, chief of the Soviet del
egation to the Geneva arms talks
02and head of the new Foreign
Ministry arms control desk, told
an American TV reporter he
would not provide any details on
the confidential meeting.
But he stressed the issue of nu
clear testing, which has become a
centerpiece of Soviet arms con-
trol policy and a focus of Kremlin
pronouncements on the possibil
ity of holding a second summit
this year between Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Rea
gan.
“We would do anything for
that (an agreement on a sum
mit),” Karpov insisted. “So it de
pends on our partners.”
Reagan and Gorbachev agreed
to hold the meeting in the United
States after their first summit in
Geneva last November. But no
date has been set.
Karpov stressed the impor
tance of negotiating a treaty ban
on nuclear testing. The Soviet
Union’s yearlong unilateral mor
atorium on tests was due to ex
pire last Wednesday, but the
Kremlin hasn’t said whether it
will continue.
“A nuclear test ban is a prob
lem that I think is very important
to be solved,” Karpov said. “We
are for that, so we are asking the
Americans to join in non-testing.”
Burger gives farewell,
advice in ‘final report’
NEW YORK (AP) — Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger said Monday that
hostility toward the legal profession
has grown in the last decade and if
attorneys don’t regulate themselves,
the government will.
Delivering his farewell address be
fore the American Bar Association,
Burger said he wanted to focus on
the future of the profession.
“We acknowledge that the prac
tice of law is a monopoly in the sense
that only those licensed may lawfully
practice,” he said.
“But regulation of the practice of
law, like that of medicine, and of
some other professions, has been left
largely to the professions — up to
now,” Burger said. “Regulation
from the outside has come about
only when there was overstepping of
the bounds, and the public interest
required action which the profes
sions themselves failed to take.”
Burger, who is retiring from the
Supreme Court after 17 years, called
this his final report to the ABA, but
said it was “by no means my final
meeting of the association.”
Burger did not address any of the
controversial issues that have re
cently come before the court in the
text of his address, but instead fo
cused on subjects he has discussed
publicly before, such as his opposi
tion to certain kinds of advertising
by lawyers and contingency fees.
Burger said that he was shocked
by people who argue that because
the U.S. Constitution permits adver
tising by lawyers, it is ethically accep
table.
“Few things have done more se
rious damage to the standing of the
legal profession than the unseemly
— indeed shocking — spectacle of
open solicitation by a handful of law
yers who dashed off to India to so
licit clients after the tragic multiple
disaster in Bhopal,” he said, refer
ring to the chemical leak in the In
dian city that killed 2,000 people.
Burger also said that some attor
neys had gone too far in their adver
tising tactics. “Every member of this
house and every person in this room
knows the kind of advertising I am
addressing,” he said.