'W'1£‘2£?"D . » 1 nltn .-.
The Battalion
Vol. 82 No. 195 GSPS 045360 8 pages
yss^l
lay I
t lo J
College Station, Texas
Friday, August 15, 1986
1 a r 4
n> .
■imJ
Wall
ift. I
?ar.:|
ig akl
Tropj
heJ
ie\ Gfj
Eller: ‘Meat axe 1 cuts no budget solution
University News Service
B Texas A&M University System
Board of Regents Chairman David
Eller said Thursday that crippling
cuts for higher education would cost
■exas infinitely more than they
■ould save.
■ A “meat axe” approach to solving
the state’s short-term budget prob
lems, Eller said, particularly at a ma-
Br research university such as T exas
Ai'eM, would cost too much in future
Bits and economic benefits to be fea
sible.
Eller began the day by meeting
with scores of Texas A&M alumni
and supporters in Dallas/Fort Worth
and concluded the day with a similar
meeting in Houston.
Between the two meetings he ap
peared before the Senate Finance
Committee in Austin to explain the
ef fects of proposed funding cuts on
System institutions and agencies.
Cuts currently being considered
for the System range up to $50 mil
lion for next year and could result in
the elimination of more than 1,800
positions throughout the state.
Using standard economic multi
pliers, the net effect from personnel
reductions could be as high as 4,600
jobs throughout the state and a neg
ative $400 million effect on the econ
omy, Eller said.
He also said funding cuts would
seriously damage Texas A&M’s abil
ity to be a major research university
that can compete for top faculty and
attract major research funding.
Texas A&M’s $ 150 million annual
research volume — the largest in the
South or Southwest — each year ac
counts for almost $500 million of the
Texas economy, again applying the
multiplier effect, university officials
pointed out.
“If we are really concerned about
the economic health of Texas we
should find ways to invest more in
higher education rather than less,”
Eller said.
“I know firsthand what commer
cially applicable research coming out
of a university research laboratory
can mean,” observed the Houston
entrepreneur.
Texas A&M President Frank Van
diver pointed out that Texas A&M
research in recent years has spun off
at least five other firms that each
have revenues of more than $2 mil
lion annually.
Dr. Perry Adkisson, System chan
cellor, noted that each additional $1
million in research creates at least 10
new jobs within the system and has a
multiplier effect of tripling that
number. Those increases don’t in-
ommittee okays
ehnquist, Scalia
or Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
IffltiBeiiate Judiciary Committee on
By. ■hursday recommended that Wil-
ofpcRam H. Rehnquist be confirmed as
angdRhief justice and that Antonin Scalia
Iniv|jake his place on the Supreme
chram:
hop
L"
ear a
r of tli
portct
OStUi-
obtame:
77 trait
,ourt.
I The 13-5 vote recommending
Rehnquist’s elevation came as Re-
lublicans easily beat back an attempt
|y liberal Democrats to portray him
pis too extreme to lead the U.S. court
lystem.
I After the Rehnquist decision, the
iommittee voted 18-0 to recommend
approval of Scalia as one of the eight
Kupreme Court associate justices.
imaginf
'medki
sports.'
k recoil
involve!
inbad
he JOll
ough he
vice (ae-
rom the
n't taken
thranf.
,ta
II
GSU ordered
to give refund
of $15 million
2 2k;
5 29#
0 -
6 1
0 8
3 10
0 ffi
0 «
AUS TIN (AP) — Refunds total
ing $21.4 million to customers of two
electric utilities have been approved
by the Public Utility Commission, of
ficials said Thursday.
The refunds, including more than
$1 million in interest, will show up as
credits on bills beginning in Septem
ber, said PUC spokesman Bo Byers.
Gulf States Utilities, with Texas
headquarters in Beaumont, was or-
idered to refund $15.7 million, in-
nduding nearly $730,000 interest on
lover-recoveries of fuel costs from
March through June.
West Texas Utilities, in Abilene,
jvill refund $5.7 million, including
more than $300,000 interest for fuel
: over-recoveries.
West Texas Utilities also will lower
lits quarterly fuel charges from Sep-
Itember through November, the
IPUC said. The company said that
■would reduce estimated fuel reve-
Inues by $7.9 million over the three-
Imonth period.
Both nominations were sent to the
full Senate, where Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy, D-Mass., vowed the battle
over Rehnquist will be renewed.
At the White House, spokesman
Larry Speakes said: “We are ex
tremely pleased. We look forward to
early, full Senate action.”
The dispute over Rehnquist’s
qualifications remained bitter and
partisan to the end, as relentless at
tacks were led by Kennedy and fel
low Democrats Howard Metzen-
baum of Ohio, Patrick Leahy of
Vermont, Paul Simon of Illinois and
Joseph Biden Jr. of Delaware.
But the Rehnquist attackers sup-
ported Scalia, the first Italian-Amer-
ican to be nominated to the Supreme
Court.
“Scalia is a conservative,” Ken
nedy said. “He is not an extremist.”
Opponents of Rehnquist said he
was insensitive to minorities and
women, supported government re
pression of civil liberties, harassed
voters in Arizona, bought property
that barred blacks and Jews, misled
the committee numerous times, fa
vored crumbling the wall between
church and state and refused to dis
qualify himself from a surveillance
case in violation of judicial ethics.
“The record . . . contains over
whelming and shocking evidence . . .
of lifelong hostility to claims for ra
cial justice,” Kennedy said. “He’s
wrong on equal rights for women;
wrong in support of church and
state; wrong on individual freedoms
protected by the First Amendment.
He is an extremist, too extreme to sit
as chief justice.”
Supporters of the 61-year-old
Rehnquist struck back with equal
vigor.
Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev., said
Rehnquist “had everything but the
kitchen sink thrown at him” yet still
“came out of the hearings stronger
than when he went in.”
“For those who object,” added
Laxalt, “there will be another elec
tion.”
Sax Appeal
Ken Sury, a senior journalism major, practices his
saxophone Thursday on a ledge outside a second
Photo by Tom Ownbey
floor window of the Reed McDonald Building as
Sue Krenek, a junior journalism major, looks on.
elude the possibility of creating new
businesses and even whole new
fields, he said.
Eller and Adkisson agreed that
Texas A&M research is on the
threshold of having an even more
dramatic impact on the Texas econ
omy in areas ranging from biotech
nology and robotics to food proc
essing. The value-added effect alone
for the food processing industry is
expected to increase $12 billion by
the year 2000.
Exchange
house raid
nets 20
BROWNSVILLE (AP) — In a
crackdown on possible money laun
dering schemes on the Mexican bor
der, federal authorities said Thurs
day they arrested 20 people with
money exchange houses for failing
to report large transactions.
Twenty-five exchange house op
erators and five corporations were
indicted on charges of failing to re
port currency transactions exceed
ing $10,000, said Christopher
Milner, assistant U.S. attorney in
Brownsville.
Exchange houses, or “casas de
cambio,” became a target for federal
investigators because there are vir
tually no state or federal laws regu
lating them, said Michael Grubich,
head of the criminal investigation di
vision of the U.S. Internal Revenue
Service.
Milner said large transactions
could make it possible to exchange
money linked to illicit activities.
The investigation began a year
ago when IRS employees went to
about 100 exchange houses along
the border and in San Antonio to tell
the operators about federal report
ing requirements. The IRS workers
left Currency Transaction Reports
that must be filled out on trans
actions exceeding $10,000, Milner
said.
“A short period of time later, un
dercover operatives went in to ex
change currency amounts in excess
of $10,000 (and said they) didn’t
want the reports filed,” Milner said.
“Those (operators) who said, ‘We
won’t take your business without fil
ing out a form,’ we smiled and said,
‘We’ll take our business somewhere
else’ and obviously they weren’t in
dicted,” he said.
“But individuals who said, ‘No
problem,’ Well, that’s a problem,”
Milner said.
Grubich said undercover IRS and
U.S. Customs agents visited about 50
exchange houses and about half of
them complied with the law.
“This is one of the first steps in
the investigation to make sure that
the exchange houses have been edu
cated as to the currency transaction
reporting requirement,” Milner
said.
Easier suspensions provided
:S
ISES
AY
p.c.
House OKs discipline bill
AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas
House on Thursday tentatively
approved a school discipline mea
sure that teachers say they need
to get unruly students out of the
classroom.
The bill, which faces a final
House vote before going to the
Senate, won unanimous, prelimi
nary approval in a voice vote. The
action came shortly after Gov.
Mark White expanded the call of
the special session to include
school discipline.
Portions of the bill drew oppo
sition Thursday from a legislator
who said it would make it too easy
to suspend students who commit
minor infractions.
Bill sponsor Bill Haley, D-Cen-
ter, said the 1984 school reform
act watered down the authority of
teachers and administrators to
deal with students who disrupted
classes. Under the existing law,
school officials must place unruly
students in “alternative education
programs” in school before sus
pending or expelling them.
In order to suspend or expel a
student, a hearing must be held
in which it is must be shown that
the child is “incorrigible.”
Under Haley’s bill, schools
could suspend students without
first trying an alternative pro
gram. The State Board of Educa
tion would set the procedural
rules.
Haley told the House that his
bill would not destroy the alterna
tive education programs-
Business: Cut the budget fat
Group seeks spending cuts, not tax hike
AUSTIN (AP) — The state’s larg
est business association Thursday
backed Speaker Gib Lewis’ plan to
battle the state budget crisis with
spending cuts, not tax hikes.
“Let’s get the fat out first,” Texas
Association of Business Chairman
George Baur of Houston told a news
conference.
Baur said his business group likes
Lewis’ $632.2 million in budget cuts
set for House floor debate Friday.
“We think we would be in favor of
fair and equitable taxation but ... af
ter a good job trimming,” Baur said.
The House Appropriations Com
mittee voted to cut the price of per
sonalized license plates, which rose
from $25 to $75 a year in 1985.
Rep. Bill Ceverha, R-Richardson,
who won committee approval for his
bill to reduce the fee to $40, said this
could increase revenue to about
$600,000 a year since more Texans
would buy them.
Part of Lewis’ plan drew opposi
tion Thursday from Frank Raines, a
New York investment banker who
said Texas’ bond ratings could suf
fer if money is withdrawn from the
Permanent University and Perma
nent School funds.
Detention upheld by S. Africa court
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
|(AP) — A provincial supreme court,
■ contradicting a previous Puling, on
■Thursday upheld the indefinite im-
Iprisonment without charge of dissi-
I dents.
A black student boycott, launched
■ to protest the deployment of security
■ forces on school grounds, affected
I dozens of schools in Soweto and
■ other Johannesburg-area black
■ townships.
Violence, the most widespread
since the state of emergency was im
posed June 12, accompanied the
walkout when it began Wednesday.
Unrest continued sporadically
Thursday as the protest spread from
Soweto, according to township resi
dents.
The state of emergency prohibits
news media from publishing the ac
tivities of security forces, statements
that might be considered subversive
or the names of detained people.
No precise number is available,
but thousands of people have been
detained without charge under the
emergency decree.
The detention decision by a three-
judge panel of the Natal Province
Supreme Court directly contra
dicted a ruling Monday by another
panel of the same court striking
down key sections of the detention
regulations.
The second ruling takes prece
dence in Natal because it is more re
cent.
Even so, lawmakers said, it does
not nullify the release of Solomon
Tsenoli, who was freed after Mon
day’s ruling.
“W r e fear the worst,” said Business
Day, the country’s leading financial
newspaper, in editorial comment on
an electoral proposal put forth at
Wednesday’s congress of the gov
erning National Party.
The party, which has held power
since 1948, offered to call elections
for blacks to choose members of an
advisory council to discuss possible
constitutional changes with the gov
ernment. If held, such elections
would be the first nationwide elec
tions in which blacks were given the
vote.
Bolivia cocaine raids
‘dampen’ drug trade
WASHINGTON (AP) —
American-supported Bolivian
raids on suspected cocaine facili
ties are proving only modestly
successful, but good enough to
dampen the drug trade, an Army
general said Thursday.
Gen. John R. Galvin, the four-
star Army general who heads the
U.S. Southern Command in Pan
ama, also said he is convinced that
Cuba is playing a role in narcotics
trafficking throughout the region
despite its claims to the contrary.
In another development, Vice
President George Bush and At
torney General Edwin Meese III
announced a major anti-drug ini
tiative aimed at stopping the flow
of illegal drugs across the U.S.-
Mexico border.
The interdiction program will
include hundreds of new federal
agents and millions of dollars
worth of sophisticated equipment
to cover the 2,000-mile border.
Meese said the massive “Oper
ation Alliance,” to be phased in
over two years, “will be the most
widespread interdiction program
on our land borders in law en
forcement history.”
But in an appearance at the
National Press Club, Mexican
President Miguel de la Madrid
denied reports that he may per
mit U.S. aircraft to cross the Mex
ican border in pursuit of airborne
drug traffickers.