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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1987)
Page 12/The Battalion/Friday, March 6,1987 Texas farmers join fight to change basic rules of personal injury trials Warped by Scott McCu AUSTIN (AP) — Texas farmers joined the bitter fight Thursday over efforts to change the basic rules for trials of personal injury lawsuits. Some were for and some against. “Farming is far more risky than most people think,” Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower told the Senate Economic Development Committee. “Agricultural machines now cause more than half of all machinery-re lated deaths. . . . Farmers and farm workers alike suffer more than their share of pesticide poisonings.” Hightower said passage of the package of tort reform measures be fore the committee would make it “impossible for an injured farmer to prove which wrongdoer caused what percentage of the damages.” Earlier, Bernie Glasson, speaking for the Texas Farm Bureau, spoke in support of tort reform. “The size of recoveries in pesti cide cases and the amount a farmer must pay for his own health care have hurt many farmers,” Glasson said. Opponents of tort reform ap peared for the first time Thursday. Joan Claybrook, president of Pubic Citizen, a consumer-oriented group, said, “There are not too many lawsuits because of the civil justice system. Lawsuits result from the injury of the public in the work place.” ...ONLY YOUP, ZNV i'WAKE" speare. PLAY, heh? WELL IT'5 LIKE. LA5T YEAK, THE ACTQSS PERFORM IH STREET CLOTHES OA/ A BAKE. 5TA&E WITH FEW PR0?5. O, BRAVE NEW WORLP THAT HAS SUCH PEOPLE \N IT. WAIT A MINUTE, Y00 KNOW THIS PLAY? Sen. O.H. “Ike” Harris, commit tee chairman, promised that oppo nents would be given another chance to testify on Monday. The six legislative proposals on tort reform before the committee would put a cap on non-economic and punitive awards by juries, limit attorney fees in damage suits and make numerous other changes in the present civil justice system. WHAT?? WHAT... a/o . x...x just MADE THAT UP OFF THE L TOP OF AAY HEAP... ALLEN REMINDS I INFINITE MMStRl M0A/KEY5 WRlTiM WHOLE SCRIPT fill HAMLET. /ol.82 Nc ke 11 mh Waldo by Kevin Thofi "w Chairman WOW 15 YOUR HEALTH? (Continued from page 1) nent University Fund capital be di verted to current expenditures,” Hay said. “I had opposed that last summer when it was proposed,” Hay said. Hay said that by coincidence he testified before the House Commit tee on Higher Education the day of Clements’ speech and repeated his opposition to tapping the university fund. “I did respond to questions by say ing that any effort to defer the funds of the Permanent University Fund would be a tragic betrayal of our trust to higher education,” he said. Hay said Clements told him “that increases in public funding are not the pattern of the day, and that belt tightening was in order. And I said that had already happened, that higher education had been cut by 17 percent in recent legislative sessions and that in this session it was ex tremely important to the momen tum of higher education in the state that these cuts be restored.” Hay said Clements ended the con versation by saying “in fairness to me, he wanted to tell me directly that he intended to do everything in his powers to see to it that I was not re elected as chairman of the board of EXCELLENT regents.” Clements said he would instruct his new nominees to the UT board, replacements for the three he ap pointed six years ago, to vote for someone other than Hay for chair man. Six of the UT board members, in cluding Hay, were apppointed by former Gov. Mark White. Clements, through his press secre tary Reggie Bashur, confirmed only that he had talked to Hay and they talked about higher education. WAVE YOU EVER USED 5TER0ID5? 17, JL HOW OLD ARE YOU? Aid Truancy (Continued from page 1) group — and the new kids will join because they are lonely.” Burk said he doesn’t think peer ole pressure is the root of the problem, except in the chronic cases. “I think its a very individual thing,” he says. “Except sometimes I dll ’ Ellis says that HB 72, the state’s education reform package, has made a lot of kids shape up, but ad mits it could also be adding to truancy since its strict stipulations are putting more pressure on chil dren to succeed. “It’s the same as with drug abuse or teen-age pregnancy,” he says. “If a student does not see himself as suc cessful in a particular place, he will look for another place where he can be successful. have seen boys who will be pressured into with parents, but this is usually a one-time thing.’ going hunting for a couple days i their friends without telling Ellis says some children try to con form to the schools’ new rules and regulations and requirements for achievement and success in the class room and they just can’t do it. “That’s just human nature. They try and avoid the pain of coming to school where they are not success ful.” If peer pressure and parents aren’t the problem, Powell says the problem comes from within the child himself. Since some kids are not successful at school they see it as hassle, Burk says, and this has to do with the stu dent’s self-image. Many kids don’t give themselves permission to succeed in school or anywhere else in life, Powell says. This is especially prevalant in chil dren who drop out of school right before graduation. (Continued from page 1) House but faces a less-certain future in the Senate. The Democrats’ move was seen as primarily an effort to focus at tention on the administration’s inability to account for tens of millions of dollars in previous aid money, an issue already raised by last week’s Tower commission re port on the Iran-Contra affair as well as by congressional investiga tors. In his certification to Congress, Reagan said that “continued in transigence by Nicaragua has prevented progress.” “U.S. support for regional ne gotiations has . . . continued throughout the period,” the pres ident said, but “there is no rea sonable prospect at this time that the government of Nicaragua will engage in a serious dialogue with representatives of all elements of the Nicaraguan democratic oppo sition, accompanied by a cease fire and an effective end to the existing constraints on political freedoms.” In court, meanwhile, Meese’s Justice Department filed a mo tion to dismiss North’s lawsuit on narrow procedural grounds, re fusing to join Walsh in asserting that the independent counsel statute is constitutional. At the White House, Reagan told a group of newspaper exec utives, as he had told the nation Wednesday night, “We don’t hide from our mistakes. We learn from them and then we go on and do things better than we did before.” But now, he said, it was time to turn to other matters, such as seeking an ar ms-control agreement with the SovietUi Investigations of the ak arms to Iran and possiblediu sion of profits to the must continue, he said, but far as I’m concerned, ihe Ac can people sent me here toil job and there are just two left to get it done.” If Tex« Jead Foot had been t edly would vablel" Texas A. early and i Aggies del 71-45 Sun Conference Classic cha union Arer The win erth in th< nament. T1 12 in the 1 (face the N Devils, TI Dome in In Tourna Player Win jjthe eighth- |sh to the story. A&M H. ^aid, “This Cinderella of good gt Into a coacl T feel vi Also on Thursday, the Street J< nirnal reported Walsh is pursuing evidence! eating that senior IranianofTic agreed to pay inflated priced U.S.-made weapons in return! substantial kickbacks. The ncj paper quoted unnamed Ian forcement officials as sarej Walsh has obtained infer suggesting that, in the stages of the arms deals, Isn intermediaries were to kickl money to senior Iranianofficu! ! Ref hire FORT lethodis private ir tation o tions by t ”'exas A [Te/egran Source mvestiga r and ( le violatio jstate-suppe See rel ... One sot identified facing a Hi ciation wit sensational savings on fun wear just time for spring break! raising me vestigators Stevens was in cha tigation, b purpose c was to brii tions agair the newsp; Orig. $10 and $12 A great selection of fun- for-aU styles in cool, comfortable cotton. M\y up some great looks in pastels and brights, sizes s-m-l. . .Then head for the good times! CAMP SHIRTS • T-SHIRTS • POLO SHIRTS • 10-BUTTON HENLEYS • 2-POCKET SHORTS • SHOP DILLARD S MONDAY THRU SATURDAY 10-9, SUNDAY 12-6; POST OAK MALL. HARVEY ROAD AT HIGHWAY 6 BYPASS, COLLEGE STATION 764-0014. AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD WELCOME. Dillard