The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 04, 1987, Image 1

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Battalion
Vol.82 No.91 USPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, February 4
Iran confirms
U.S. journalist
arrested as spy
Where’s The Beach?
Denise Scanlin, a senior education major from Houston, gets ready
early for Spring Break 1987 by sunning herself at a tanning salon.
Photo by Doug La Rue
These beds use the same rays as the sun, but the FDA has limited tan
ning on this type of bed to 30 minutes to lessen risk of skin cancer.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Iran
confirmed Tuesday that it arrested
American reporter Gerald F. Seib as
a “spy of the Zionist regime” who en
tered the country in the guise of a
journalist.
Seib, a 30-year-old correspondent
for the Wall Street Journal, went to
Iran with 56 other foreign corre
spondents by invitation from the
fundamentalist Shiite Moslem re
gime. He was arrested Saturday and
not allowed to leave with the other
journalists.
The Tehran radio broadcast was
Iran’s first official confirmation that
Seib was under arrest. It also said the
United States had asked for his re
lease, but did not say when or how
the request was made and gave no
details.
Iran invited Seib and the other
journalists to visit the border battle-
front between Iran and Iraq, which
have been at war since September
1980.
Its official Islamic Republic News
Agency reported during the week
end that a “spy of the Zionist re
gime” (Israel) nad been arrested af
ter entering the country with a false
E assport disguised as a journalist,
ut it did not identify him.
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman said Monday that
the Swiss Embassy, which handles
U.S. interests in Iran, protested
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Senator: Liability crisis in Texas
initiated by insurance industry
neai
a.
By Frank Smith
Senior Staff Writer
I: State Sen. Kent Caperton on
IWBffMonday refuted the arguments of
tort reform proponents in the insur
ance industry, saying Texas’ liability
insurance crisis was brought about
. i by “an unresponsive, irresponsible
QI; insurance industry” rather than the
civil justice system.
IgCaperton, D-Bryan, made his
comments during an afternoon news
conference in his local law office. He
, also submitted the text of the mi-
[ nority report of the House-Senate
Joint Committee on Liability Insur-
i ance and Fort Law and Procedure, a
report to the Legislature that he co
authored with Rep. James Hury, D-
Galveston.
E' As a member of the joint commit
tee, Caperton listened to the testi
mony of 86 witnesses over the course
of|the committee’s year-long hear-
gf’Not a single witness, including
J many representing the insurance in-
J dustry and others involved in the so-
called tort reform effort, claimed or
swould even admit that proposals to
alter our civil justice system would
lower the cost of liability insurance
or increase its availability or cover-
age in Texas,” he said. “In fact, the
taliraflt major complaint of many of those
witnesses was the profit picture of
the insurance industry and the fact
^ thai their profits were not as large as
some of the Fortune 500 compa
nies.”
I Applications
for degrees
ViG'due by Friday
Caperton said the insurance in
dustry reaped $11.5 billion in profits
in 1986 — a 500 percent increase
over the $1.9 billion reported in
1985.
“Despite such earnings, the insur
ance industry continues to claim that
our civil justice system needs re
form,” he said. “They claim that ex
cessive jury verdicts have caused
them to have to drastically increase
premiums. Yet, they are unwilling to
provide data to support such
claims.”
Caperton shared speaking time at
the news conference with Billy Rog
ers, executive director of Texans for
Civil Justice — a two-month-old
grass-roots organization battling
against tort reform.
Rogers joined Caperton in con
demning the joint committee’s ma
jority report, a 248-page, 500,000-
word document that contains 30 tort
reform proposals.
“Not one sentence in that report
mentions the core question of the
whole controversy: Will any one of
their 30 recommendations for tort
law change lower your insurance ra
tes?” Rogers said. “You won’t find
that sentence in there because the
answer is ‘No.’ Tort reform is a plan
by the big insurance companies and
some of their allies to take away your
right to a fair jury trial and raise
your rates at the same time.”
Rogers said similar legislation
adopted by Florida last year had
those results.
“Now tort reformers are here in
Texas and they’re lying to us again,”
he said. “They’re telling us that law
suits are the cause of the problem.
Lawsuits are not the cause of the
problem in Texas. Texas ranks 44th
out of 50 states in lawsuits per capita.
“There is no lawsuit crisis in
Texas and we don’t need tort re
form.What we do need is insurance
reform.”
Caperton concurred. To illustrate
that need, he recalled that he had
asked an insurance representative to
justify drastic rate increases for day
care centers.
“I said, ‘Surely these rates are
going up . . . because your statistics
show that it’s more hazardous in tak
ing a child . . . from the day care cen
ter to the library or to the plays or
whatever they do,’ ” Caperton said.
“He said, ‘No, it’s really just the un
known.’
“I’m not going to take that kind of
answer. I mean, that’s just nonsense.
The insurance industry is literally
getting away with murder. And we
need to put a stop to it.”
Caperton also expressed opposi
tion to several specific tort reform
proposals, including measures that
would limit contingency fees for law
yers, place caps on the amount of
damages a person can receive in per
sonal injury cases and place ceilings
on the amount of punitive damages
that can be levied against a de
fendant.
See Senator, page 12
Republicans join
in overriding veto
on clean-water bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
House, with scores of Republicans
ignoring a final plea by President
Reagan, voted overwhelmingly
Tuesday to override the president’s
veto of $20 billion water-quality leg
islation.
The 401-26 roll-call vote sent the
issue to the Senate, which was ex
pected on Wednesday to follow the
House’s lead and hand Reagan a de
feat in the first big spending con
frontation of the 100th Congress.
Several hours before Tuesday’s
vote, Reagan sent a message to Capi
tol Hill through Republican leaders
that he wanted GOP members to
support his position that the legis
lation is too expensive in times of
huge budget deficits.
Except for the 26 Republicans
voting to sustain the veto, the plea —
which was not accompanied by any
heavy White House lobbying — fell
on deaf ears. Joining the 254 Demo
crats voting to override were 147 Re
publicans.
House GOP Leader Robert
Michel of Illinois urged party unity,
saying that although he had origi
nally voted for the popular legis
lation, the veto last Friday “changes
the complexion of the situation.”
Michel said that with Congress
and the White House $6 billion
apart on spending, the cleanliness of
America’s waterways was not the is
sue — “wise and prudent use of tax
dollars, that’s the issue.”
But Michel’s plea was quickly un
dercut by calls for a veto override by
Reps. John Paul Hammerschmidt,
R-Ark., and Arlan Stangeland, R-
Minn., two of the key GOP members
in the process of drafting the autho
rization bill.
“I believe President Reagan has
listened to the wrong advice,”
Stangeland said. “This body needs to
send a strong message to the presi
dent and the American people that
this Congress won’t tolerate delays in
the cleaning up of American wa
ters.”
The dispute between Capitol Hill
and the White House centers on $18
billion authorized by the bill to pro
vide assistance to the states through
1994 to construct wastewater and
sewage treatment plants.
Seib’s detention to Tranian authori
ties and demanded his release.
“His continued detention is un
warranted,” Redman said.
He said Tuesday that the Swiss
had been unable to obtain an ap
pointment with Iranian officials to
discuss the arrest.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said the Swiss had been
denied access to Seib, so “we don’t
have anyone who has talked to him
or seen him.”
Seib had sought assistance from
the Swiss Embassy after immigration
authorities impounded his passport
last Thursday while he was prepar
ing to leave the country. He is based
in Cairo.
Warren H. Phillips, chairman of
the Wall Street Journal, said Mon
day: “We believe that a dreadful mis
take has been made in the detention,
and we fervently hope that the gov
ernment of Iran realizes it has made
a mistake and will set him free.”
Commission
gives GSU
new rate hike
AUSTIN (AP) — The Public Util
ity Commission on Tuesday gave
troubled Gulf States Utilities a
tongue-lashing and less than half the
$82 million rate increase the com
pany says it needs to avoid bank
ruptcy next month.
PUC Chairman Peggy Rosson said
the panel was given “the onerous
burden of having to say once again
to Texas ratepayers, ‘You must step
forth and save this company from it
self.’ ”
Rosson favored an increase of $ 17
million to $25 million, but the two
other commissioners voted for a
$39.9 million increase.
GSU President Linn Draper said
the approved increase would help
but will not guarantee financial sal
vation.
“It’s clear that we’re not out of the
woods,” Draper said. “We’ve got a
long way to go. The fact that we have-
gotten some supportive treatment in
Texas is certainly helpful. We now
need help in Louisiana and we need
support from the financial commu
nity.”
The interim increase will raise the
price of 1,000 kilowatt-hours for
GSU residential customers in Texas
from $68 per month to about $74.
GSU’s request would have raised it to
$77.
The Beaumont-based company,
which serves about 250,000 custom
ers in Southeast Texas and approxi
mately an equal number in Loui
siana, is awaiting a court ruling on its
challenge of Louisiana regulators
decision against an emergency rate
increase.
p® n-h e Degree Audit Office has an
nounced that all graduating seniors
and graduate students who expect to
complete degree requirements by
Mav, 1987, must make formal appli-
^ m,*' cation for their degrees no later than
** Friday.
i f Late applicants will be unable to
receive a diploma.
Undergraduate and graduate de-
3 a ppli can t s who did not have
their diploma fee assessed with their
tuition fee must pay a $15 diploma
fee in the Fiscal Office, 4 Coke
Building.
A Undergraduate students must
^ then take their paid fee slips or di-
ploma fee receipts to the Registrar’s
^ Office, 105 Heaton Hall. Graduate
students must take their paid fee
slips or diploma fee receipts to the
Graduate College, 125 Teague
Building.
I All graduating seniors must com-
flevi*' plete the necessary degree applica-
^ tion forms that are available in the
Registrar’s Office, 105 Heaton Hall.
^ Graduate students can pick up
- forms in 125 Teague Building.
Anglo culture causes conflict of values
‘American Indians must face 2 worlds’
)2
By Cray Pixley
Reporter
Young American Indians face
many conflicts in today’s society
because they are living in two
very different worlds — the In
dian and the Anglo-American
world.
The conflict arises because the
American Indian is living in two
distinctly different cultures in
which the values of each clash,
said Charmaine Bradley, an
Acoma Pueblo Indian and a doc
toral student at Texas A&M.
“Indians are not taught to be
independent,” Bradley said.
“We’re taught to help each other,
but in the Anglo society, you go
out and get it on your own. The
value is independence.”
Indian children are being
taught in a setting that may con
tradict the values of the culture,
values which are being taught at
home, she said.
“They begin to wonder, ‘Am I
doing this for myself or for my
people?’ ” she said.
“They need to have a sound
foundation of who they are as
American Indians and what they
can contribute to both the Indian
and Anglo worlds,” Bradley said.
Bradley, who is from the
Acoma Pueblo, west of Albuquer
que, N.M., stressed that being
confronted with two different
cultures can be confusing to
American Indians.
This problem is made difficult
when the Anglo world doesn’t ac
knowledge or accept Indian va
lues, she said.
One of the most important cul
tural values is harmony with na
ture, Bradley said. “Many of our
religious ceremonies and social
activities are centered around
that single value.”
People who come to visit the
reservation, but who aren’t very
knowledgeable about the Indian
world, think the ceremonies are
just for fun, she said.
They don’t realize the prayer
and preparation that go into cere-
“Indians are not taught to
be independent. We're
taught to help each other,
but in the Anglo society,
you go out and get it on
your own. The value is in
dependence. ”
— Charmaine Bradley,
Acoma Pueblo Indian
monies such as the rain dance,
she said, nor do they understand
the meaning behind the ceremo
nies.
Another problem for Indians
is they have to integrate with peo
ple of different values. This prob
lem is growing because of their
dependence on the money of An
glo America, she said.
Many Indians must leave the
reservation or seek outside funds
in order to survive, she said.
“Money is a whole different va
lue system, which is again contra
dictory to the Indian values,”
Bradley said.
American Indians do not, how
ever, have to live on reservations
to maintain their values in the
Anglo world, she said.
“To be Indian comes from the
heart,” she said. There are many
urban Indians who may never
have been on a reservation, but
know they are Indian; they know
they are different, she said.
“It is a sad conflict which will
continue between white men and
Indians unless the Anglo be
comes familiar with Native Amer
ican values,” she said.
Bradley says she would like to
help her 8-year-old daughter
learn the beauty of her culture
and the history of her people.
Many people still have miscon
ceptions about American Indians,
she said. “They expect to see
braids and feathers.”
Marriage between Anglos and
Indians is another problem
American Indians face, Bradley
said.
In some traditional pueblos,
she said, an Indian woman who
chose to marry a white man
couldn’t live on the reservation.
In some cases, an Indian man
who married a white woman lost
his rights as an Indian.
The pueblos are trying to
maintain the culture, Bradley
said.
“So many of the ceremonies
are sacred and only Indians can
See Indian, page 12