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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 1987)
Page 6/The Battalion/Tuesday, January 20, 1987 Port of Brownsville looking forward to brighter economic future in 1987 Judi Sheppard Missett's azzercise Having tried all the others - spas, aerobics, etc. - I can truthfully say Jazzercise has the right idea. It’s a fantastic approach to physical fitness with positive psychological effects. It's one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.” Erf'll id irDcre i n& h iL jb bhi ir^ SlZ. ■■■ w n a ■ n amm hmm Entitles new students to 4 fun classes Offer Expires Jan. 3i Jazzercise Studio Corner of Wellborn & Grove, C.S. (1 block south of A&M) ‘Babysitting Available Serving the Bryan/C.S. Area for the Last 7 Years. BROWNSVILLE (AP) — After four years when everything that could go wrong went wrong, the Port of Brownsville is gearing up for a resurgence of trade, the port’s di rector said. Before the Mexican peso began its steady devaluation in 1982, before the decline in oil prices and the de pression in agriculture, the 120 in dustries around the port employed between 5,000 and 6,000 people. Today the work force is down to 2,000, although the number of com panies is about the same, director A1 Cisneros said. “There’s a lot of inactivity,” Cisne ros said. “We’re just waiting for the turnaround.” Although the state’s other ports have been hurt either by slumps in oil, agriculture or manufacturing, Brownsville’s port also has been hit hard by Mexico’s devastated econ omy, Cisneros said. “Mexico’s economy affects our port more than the others,” he said. Between 55 percent and 60 per cent of the poi t’s business involved Mexican imports or exports, he said. Before the peso devaluation, more than 4 million tons of cargo cleared the port in 1981. In 1982 the port’s tonnage fell to 3.5 million, and then plummeted to 1.8 million tons the following year. Tonnage was up to 2.1 million in 1984 and 2.4 million in 1985, Cisne ros said. He said 1986 figures would reflect a small decline from the previous year. But Cisneros says there’s been a “silver lining in the dark cloud of de valuation,” in Mexico. “Labor costs are lower than in any other country in the world . . . now it’s a land of opportunity,” he said. The latest in a string of dire events at the Brownsville Port came New Year’s Eve when Marathon Le- Tourneau Co. announced it was lay ing off 300 employees at its man ufacturing operation for off-shore oil rigs. The port also suffered when a freeze in 1983 destroyed much of the Rio Grande Valley’s citrus indus- try. “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong in the last four years,” Cisneros said. But Cisneros believes 1987 will Ik* the year the port breaks that losing streak. “Things are turning around,” he said. “Business is l>eginning to reas sert itself.” Part of his optimism comes the Mexican government “i the right kind of decisions”to itself of private businesses thai been nationalized and some c and tariff agreements reached cently. “I’m optimistic we’ve seen worst,” he said. Jim Pugh, executive directn the Port of Houston Authority he is cautiously optimistic abou outlook for the Houston port year. “The value of the dollar it dining and we’re seeing soro crease in exports because oft Pugh said. The Port of Houston, thes largest and the world’s eighth est. had a decline in tonnage in to about 88 million from the 1 9S5 i >1 about 93 million. Push Vet ■ I fi Cl- UT enters biotechnology arena with prize-winning technology AUSTIN (AP) — A University of Texas research lab that is using a Nobel Prize-winning technology to create antibodies has placed the school in the futuristic arena of big- time biotechnology. The National Science Foundation granted UT-Austin’s Central Hybri- doma Facility $120,000 a year from 1985 to 1988 to produce hybridoma and monoclonal antibodies in bulk for faculty and graduate student re searchers. Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system. They help recognize and eliminate foreign sub stances from the body. “Our facility serves the campus,” said Paul Gottlieb, director of the center. “The production of antibody molecules requires expensive equip ment and specialized skills.” The prize-winning technology, developed in 1975, includes grow ing many copies of antibody-producing cells by fusing them with tumor cells. The result is a hybrid cell, or hybri doma, and the monoclonal (single clone) antibody produced by each hybridoma can be isolated in large amounts. Gottlieb said the development of a specicfic hybridoma costs an aver- agee of $3,000 because it can take as many as three fusions to produce the desired antibody. In light of the work done at the center, Gottlieb said biotechnology is expanding at UT-Austin. “We’re used by all the life science departments,” he said. He said hybridomas have been used in UT research such as a micro biological study of chicken viruses, biochemical research on how pro teins are synthesized in wheat germ and botanical research on a light-ab sorbing pigment in oats. The university recently acquired a $270,000 cell sorter that uses a laser beam to sort through as many as 10,000 hybridomas at one time to se lect specific cells according to type, size and shape. Forecasters predict more snow for W. Texas MIDLAND (AP) — Sunny skies thawed ice from West Texas roads Monday, but forecasters warned of more snow and sub-freezing tem peratures following a weekend in which the weather was blamed for at least a dozen deaths. “Every minute we’ve got this sun is. that much better,” said Jim Nance, a Department of Public Safety radio operator in Midland. “Whatever doesn’t dry off the roads should re freeze and it’s awfully hard to see.” At least 10 traffic deaths were blamed on icy highways that devel oped over the weekend as a bitter cold front moved through West Texas, dumping up to eight inches of snow in some regions. Amarillo police said a 41-year-old man died Sunday of a heart attack he suffered while attempting to push his car on a snow-covered street. Authorities said it was a weather-related death. Other weather-related deaths re ported around the state included an 18-year-old Dallas woman who died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a improvisea charcoal heater being used to heat a home. Officials in Wichita Falls ran out of sand for treating ice-coated roads, and sent for a 70-ton shipment of sand from a supplier in Chico. Broken water mains flooded un derground telephone lines and knocked out long-distance tele phone service Monday in parts of Glasscock and Howard counties, Nance said. Atheist leadei seeks change-*, in Austin seal r 1 31 AUSTIN (AP) — Jon M president of American Atl lias asked the city of Austin: |f§ move the “Christian cross"o:i , seal. V. L Murray said in a leue-^’ 1 *’ Mayor Frank Cooksey that 111 ral recent court cases hastinfla 1 the display of the cross si-Kr" was a violation of constitu requirements for separatk church and slate. City offices were dosed day for the Martin Luther holiday and no available. “At this torv, when eoj)l< ervh < ome i , Hu md no comment . . . . hechi > < i itu al time in out:, , , • 1|l»K radu al ngnt-winr. ,.j gionists .uc uHcm|>miK ml ^. tiani/e the country, it is imports ^ that they know they liavei tion to these nefarious schei Murray said in a staten “American Atheists plans to; come active again in the litip processes in an attempt tores: at least the hope for re-ereo of that wall of separation, 5 beaten into dust,” he said. Murray said he expected city council to send his reques the city attorney for a legalm ion. leans ingec Bax rgan V fc Group director says tort reform unnecessary gar visi TV: St; it . SHOE FIT CO. Texas Ave. at Jersey AUSTIN (AP) — Insurance companies’ bad investments, not an overabundance of civil law suits, are responsible for the increase in Texans’ liability insurance rates, the director of an anti tort reform group said Monday. “We don’t need any tort reform in Texas,” said Billy Rogers, director of Texans for Civil Justice, the latest group to sign on for the legislative bat tle concerning insurance. Insurance industry officials say the liability coverage crisis is the result of too many lawsuits and excessive awards to people who file the suits. The industry is seeking an overhaul of the state’s tort system. A tort is a civil wrong for which the wronged party can sue for damages, such as medical mal practice. The Texas Civil Justice League, which rep resents insurance customers such as banks and doctors, refers to the situation as a “lawsuit cri sis.” The league is pushing several reforms, in cluding a limit on damage awards. Rogers’ group, the Texans for Civil Justice, in cludes the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. At a capitol news conference, Rogers blasted a report recently issued by the staff of a House- Senate joint committee that reviewed the prob lem in recent months. “In this 245-page, 50,000-word report . . . there’s not one sentence devoted to the key ques tion in this whole tort reform controversy,” Rog ers said. “Will any one of the 30 recommenda tions in this report lower your insurance rates. The clear answer to that question is no.” He said tort reform is “a plan by the insurJ companies to take away your right toafairl trial (in civil cases), and it will raise yourrarfi the same time.” Tort reform approved by Florida lawmiil has not solved any of that state’s insurancepp lems, according to Rogers. “Florida passed tort reform because the| lieved the insurance companies’ three big | Rogers said. “The insurance companiestolcl people of Florida that tort reform wouldrf;- their rates. 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