TKeBattalion College Station, Texas Wednesday, February 18, 1987 $20.4 million OK’d to fund prison reform lements: Texas going attract supercollider l^■USTIN (AP) — Texas will pull out all stops in bidding to lure the multibillion-dollar ded died supercollider” ' ftsean h project to the state, Gov. Bill Clements pledged Tuesday. ind ^mVe’re going to leave no stone un turned,” said Clements, who put the 1 w project at the top of the agenda for l! ‘ his|week-long trip to Washington 1 that begins Friday. ^ Clements, who will attend a Na tional Governors Association meet- m in Washington next week, said g| Wants to talk with everyone from President Reagan and on down” jpht putting the huge atom-smash- , ing project in Texas. girhe state has two good candidates for the site — Dallas-Fort Worth and 111,1 ‘ the area between Austin, Houston 111 and Bryan, Clements said. L i; . IfWe’re going to go all-out,” Clem ents told his weekly news confer- L a stand. ence. “We’re going to turn on every cuu #tof contacts that we have, every bit l'' 1 ' tV of influence that we have. “It’s going to he a real battle. It’s a all ' ! tremendous plum. We’re a state • without a federal research cen- K . . . I’m saying to you as the ^J®rnor of this state that we are en- r***^B[ to one.” ; The superconducting supercol lider would be the largest piece of scientific research equipment ever built, officials say. Cost estimates range from $6 billion to $10 billion. When completed, the supercol lider would employ about 3,000 peo ple and have an annual budget of $270 million. According to the U.S. Energy De- artmenf, the supercollider would a unique research tool for high- energy physics, the science that stud ies the fundamental nature of mat ter and energy. When completed in 1996, the su percollider will be housed in a 52- mile circular tunnel about 10 feet across and several feet under ground. Superconducting fnagnets would focus and guide two beams of subatomic protons in opposite direc tions through the tunnel. After acce lerating to nearly the speed of light, the protons would collide head-on. Some scientists say that on a tiny scale, the energy from such a colli sion could be compared to the so- called “big bang” that created the universe. “This supercollider will be the ab solute razor-edge in technology in regard to physics,” Clements said. “This will be the No. 1 physics re search facility in the world.” The atom-smashing supercollider is sought by other states, including California, Illinois, Colorado, Wash ington, Utah and New York. But Clements said the two Texas sites have a good chance because ‘all-out’ project they meet the criteria outlined by the energy department. Helping in the bid are the pres ence of Texas A&M University, the University of Texas, Rice University and the University of Houston, he said. AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clem ents and legislative leaders Tuesday agreed on a $20.4 million emer gency funding plan for prison re forms, a pact Clements said will show good faith in meeting federal court orders. Clements announced the plan at his weekly news conference and, within hours, the House endorsed it by adding the funds to another prison bill that was passed, 125-11. U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice has threatened to fine Texas $800,500 a day beginning April 1 if numerous prison reforms agreed to in 1985 aren’t carried out. “This is the obvious first step in that direction,” Clements said. “We’re going to do everything that I know to do to bring ourselves in a spirit of good faith in compliance (with the court) and avoid those fines.” Rep. Bill Ceverha, R-Dallas, car ried the funding plan on the House floor, saying, “It’s much wiser to come up with (the money) now than have to come up with $800,000-a- day on April 1.” Under the funding plan, the state would take money from the High way Department and use it for prison-related programs, including: • $8.4 million for salaries of med ical personnel. • $2.2 million to increase salaries for prison nurses. • $2 million for 400 prison beds to help futher separate violent and non-violent inmates. • $1 million for the Adult Proba tion Commission to expand inten sive supervision and electronic mon itoring of some released inmates. • $2.2 million for placing additio nal prisoners in halfway houses. • $4.9 million creating an extra 1,000 halfway house beds. The House added the spending plan onto a Senate-approved bill which sponsors said would give the Texas Department of Corrections a better chance to manage the state’s packed prison system. House Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth, predicted the plan would be well-received by Justice and said House members had no choice but to back it. “None of us really would like to al low anyone out of the prison system, but unfortunately we are facing a court order — and also contempt charges — that would cost the tax payers $24 million a month,” he said. Texas prisons admit 400 at reopening HUNTSVILLE (AP) — The Texas prison system reopened Tues day after closing its doors for six days, but officials said the prisons probably will close again this week after more than 400 inmates were admitted. The Texas Department of Cor rections began accepting new admis sions after the inmate population had dropped below a state-man dated 95-percent capacity mark, prison spokesman Charles Brown said. “The doors opened at 8 a.m.,” Brown said Tuesday morning. “I’m sure we’ve already got some in. If tradition holds true, we’ll probably get a lot in today.” Brown accurately predicted the tradition as a record 475 inmates were admitted Tuesday from county jails throughout the state. Just 130 prisoners were released. A head count taken at midnight Monday and released Tuesday af ternoon showed there were 38,275 inmates. That number was 94.73 percent of capacity, or 111 inmates below the legal limit. An official count due today probably will force the system to close again. Reagan urges U.S. to be competitive WASHINGTON (AP) — President Reagan, trying to derail import-restricting trade legis lation in Congress, challenged the nation Tues day to “work harder and work better” and re store pride in the label reading. “Made in America.” In a speech to 200 business leaders, Reagan summoned Americans to undertake “a quest for excellence” in education and business to make the United States competitive into the 21st cen tury. The address was the kickoff of Reagan’s cam paign for a package of “competitiveness” propo sals, including easing antitrust laws, changing product •liability statutes, a $980 million job re training program and other intentions to help shrink the nation’s $170 billion trade deficit. Competing with Reagan’s plan are labor- backed measures moving through Congress that would restrict Reagan’s hand in dealing with trade disputes and provide mandatory retaliation — through tariffs or quotas — against nations that have huge trade surpluses with the United States. “History has taught us that we cannot become more competitive or enjoy major job growth by restricting imports across-the-board,” Reagan said. “In 1930, the United States imposed major new tariffs, against the advice of most econo mists. “Three years later, the unemployment rate stood at 25 percent. Free trade is one of the few things almost all economists agree on.” Reagan said it’s “going to take some doing” for the United States to be competitive with other countries. “In the years ahead, we’re going to have to work harder and work better.” progr; hat the ^e all Ameri cans to be all that they can be, to work together to seek new opportunities, to be the very best in a strong and growing international economy.” Reagan’s speech did not include many details of his plan, but it has been outlined in depth by other administration officials. Experts still question shuttle-design testing SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) ill Ii xactl y one year before shuttle }eC ... flights are scheduled to resume, ex- continue to question the way ^A^NASA is correcting the rocket flaw ^^^■caused the Challenger disaster. The new booster design and its testing have come under attack from Congress, from industry experts and Hh astronauts whose lives will de- pend upon the solid-fueled rocket engine. ^■ASA officials and engineers •iB'qfa Morton Thiokol Inc., man- fjUl^fturer of the rocket, say they re- ^ main confident the new design will ^■critical firing tests scheduled to tagin this summer. ^Btallenger exploded 73 seconds ifter launch on Jan. 28, 1986, killing '' f