l ne tsattalion
jut uponapi
Hickmar,/ol.82 No.124 GSPS 045360 10 panes
S \u<. tm» ^
■eu\. lot ~
pin be tve&W
iludent bo\f
re\mbuvstA fe,
ed this semesta
tier, Moore at 1
istributed to Ft
ambers on Ti
rl LSG’s supy
amendment,
would allow
d continue to
their studem
bout the tlra
College Station, Texas
Monday, March 30, 1987
ole: Donor
ought North
n aid fund
jted the
r to legislators,
li id university a
receiving H^ ASHINGTON (A p) _ At i east
»re said all tyw^B contributor who gave
with pnvatefiis* e y to a private Contra aid effort
ie ^roup isnty^K vef j Lt. Col. Oliver North was
dation of amsBf ro ]]j n g h ow the funds were
ough its r: ,S t( documents show,
de the extra efiiT
■ is lieyond rep;|^-
:f„”0 athletes
ueaky-clean tkB,' ■
1 face charges
cen/of assault
larges
>wn recognian
) professed fci
March ISinik
ike any conus
Courthouse
White Houst
wo counts of |
ss and three to
leclarations to
impaneled Is
vmour Jr., tk
nsel appoint
iver’s lobbvmi
used of Ivinya
estimonylast^
e Energy anc
t subcommitt#
ment charjfi
denying hep
former Reaf
1 leagues onk
, lobbying diet
By Curtis L. Culberson
Stuff Writer
"■diree Texas A&M football play
ers were charged with assaulting two
women students and a University
Police officer in connection with an
incident that occurred in Cain Hall
on March 11.
^■ustice of the Peace Mike Calli-
ham said Sunday that assault com
plaints were filed in his office by two
wbmen and an A&M police officer
(gainst senior defensive back James
Vd Flowers, freshman defensive
back Lafayette R. Turner and soph-
olore halfback James R. Howse.
Mioth women filed complaints
agamst Turner, 20, and he was
Brged with two counts of misde-
liiinor assault, Calliharn said. Offi
cer Mark Barnett of the University
Police Department filed the com
plaint against Flowers, 22, who was
clarged with one count of misde
meanor assault, he said. Howse, 21,
H) was charged with one count of
•misdemeanor assault after a com-
plaint was filed by one of the women
involved, he added.
iB)irector of University Police Bob
^ett said all the charges filed were
pass C misdemeanors and are pun
ishable by a maximum fine of $200.
KfBecause of the pending charges,
Itannot comment at this time,”
Wiatt said.
Bput he did confirm that Univer
sity Police officers responded to an
incident that occurred in Cain Hall
involving two female students.
||jpalliham said (hat to his knowl
edge, none of the football players in
volved have responded to the
charges so far.
A note from the contributor to an
employee of fund-raiser Carl “Spitz”
Channell included a $100,000 check
and said, “Please have Ollie contact
me to let me know what he’s going to
do with it.”
The note, dated May 27, 1986,
was among documents obtained
from Channell’s offices by Jane Mc
Laughlin, who worked as a fund
raiser for Channell.
The documents, which McLaugh
lin has turned over to the indepen
dent counsel investigating the Iran-
Contra affair, were reviewed by the
Associated Press. They indicate a
more active role by North in Chan-
nell’s operation than previously ac
knowledged by Channell, whose ac
tivities are under counsel scrutiny.
Channell has maintained that
North did not raise or control
money for his operations, which in
cluded a $ 1 million pro-Contra TV
campaign, a Contra speakers pro
gram and humanitarian aid contri
butions estimated at $3 million
throughout the two-year congressio
nal ban on U.S. military aid to the
Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
The contributor who asked that
North telephone him, Bruce
Hooper of Philadelphia, acknowl
edged sending McLaughlin the note
with a $ 100,000 check.
Channell’s spokesman, Jared
Cameron, denied North controlled
the money or played a significant
role in Channell’s efforts.
Hooper said he met North for a
briefing on Central America before
making the financial commitment to
Channell’s project. He said North
never told him how the money was
spent, but that he understood it
would be spent for non-lethal assis
tance, not weapons.
A National Endowment docu
ment, called “Top 25 contributors as
of Oct. 3, 1986,” shows $100,000
from Hooper in a column marked
“Toys” and $45,000 in a column
jnarked GAFT, for Central Ameri
can Freedom Project.
McLaughlin and another former
Channell employee have said Toys
referred to a weapons account, but
Channell has denied any of his
funds were for weapons. Cameron
said the account was initially set up
to provide assistance to the Contra
families during the 1985 Christmas
season and thus was named Toys.
You Did It!
Julie Soukup watches Crystal McGuire give Troy Bonin a hug after
Bonin competed in the finals of the 400-meter intermediate hurdles
Photo by Bill Hughes
during Texas Triathlon Six. The track meet was held last Saturday
and attracted nearly 800 participants from 11 states.
PUF continues growth through stock profits
AUSTIN (AP) — While Texas’ economy suf
fered because of heavy dependence on the oil in
dustry, the Permanent University Fund contin
ued to grow at a vigorous pace because of stock
market investments, officials said.
The surge in stock profits was more than
enough to offset the drop in mineral revenue,
and managers of the fund are aiming at continu
ing that pattern.
Managers are also trying to further diversify
the sources of income for the PUF to replace the
large amounts of money that once poured in
from 2.1 million acres scattered through the
West Texas oil fields.
The fund is the public endowment of the Uni
versity of Texas and Texas A&M University sys
tems. Its profits from the stock market, in the
1985-86 fiscal year which ended Aug. 31, ex
ceeded its income from mineral royalties for only
the second time in the 30 years that the fund has
been allowed to invest in stocks.
The fund, at the peak of the oil boom in 1981-
82, received $178 million from mineral royalties.
The energy price slump cut that source of in
come to $109 million in 1985-86 and it may drop
to about $70 million in this fiscal year if current
trends continue, said Michael Patrick, executive
vice chancellor for asset management for the
University of Texas System.
The fund’s book value was $2.6 billion on Aug.
31.
“When the value of the fund was $200 million,
we were receiving in one year new money (from
mineral royalties) equal to about 20 percent of
the fund. The liquidity was coming from West
Texas,” Patrick said.
“Today, with the fund expanded substantially
in size, even if you could return to high prices for
oil, West Texas will never again represent the
same degree of liquidity to the fund that it did in
the past.
“Still, $70 million a year from West Texas is a
lot of money, and it’s terribly important to us.
But I think the fund has transitioned, and I be
lieve it will be this way forever.”
Mineral royalties of $70 million would be the
lowest since the 1975-76 fiscal year.
Before oil was discovered on university land in
1923, the PUF had assets of less than $1 million.
Mineral royalties pumped more than $1.7 billion
into the fund since 1923, and they had accounted
for about 65 percent of the fund’s book value by
the end of the last fiscal year.
Profits from the sale of stock and other equity
securities have contributed only $373 million to
the book value, or about 14 percent. But $321
million of that has come since 1982, and $185
million of it was earned in the last fiscal year.
Thanks to the temporary surge in oil prices in
the early 1980s and to the bull market on Wall
Street since 1982, the fund’s market value in
creased about $1 billion in those years. About
$288 million was gained in the last fiscal year.
Birds cause image problems for A&M
Maintenance crew lacks funds, manpower for cleanup
By Kelley Bullock
Reporter
“I was out at 2 o’clock in the
Ifriorning taking pictures of Rud-
* tier Tower,” junior journalism
major Lee Schexnaider says.
“And I had some problems with
my camera, so I had to go back
’ and forth to my truck.
“I was tired and was walking by
the trees, and one of the birds shit
on my arm.
“I went to go wash it off. First,
I went over to the MSC and it was
locked. Then I went over to Rud
der, and I couldn’t find anywhere
o wash it off. So I went over to
the fountain and washed it off.
“It’s ridiculous! You can’t walk
round the area at night without
n umbrella.”
Like Schexnaider, many stu
dents at A&M have problems
ith the birds in the trees on Joe
Routt Boulevard, next to Rudder
bwer and the Memorial Student
Center.
I don’t think the birds present
a very big problem, except they
leave a mess all over the place,”
says John Field, a junior biomedi
cal science major.
“It’s not as bad as it was over at
the Academic Building last year,”
he says. “But it could get that bad
if something’s not done about it.
“It’s embarrassing for visitors
on campus to see the bird feces all
over the sidewalks. I think the
bird crap on the ground and the
stains on Rudder Tower need to
be cleaned up so visitors from
around the world won’t think we
don’t take care of the grounds
here.
“Also, I’ve had problems get
ting the mess off my car when I
park over at the parking lot over
by G. Rollie (White Coliseum).”
The grounds maintenance de
partment agrees that the birds do
make a mess, and it should be
Battalion File Photo
This Dodge Colt was parked in front of G. Rollie White Coliseum.
cleaned, but also says the budget
doesn’t always allow for the extra
work.
“As far as our resources go,”
says grounds maintenance direc
tor Eugene H. Ray, “it’s one of
those things when our responsibi
lities and our funding doesn’t go
far, considering that back in
1980, we had the same personnel
based on the same budget.
“We now have 366 more acres
and 34 new buildings. That’s not
an excuse — that’s just a simple
statement of fact.”
Ray says he doesn’t know how
much maintenance spends on the
cleanup of the birds, but adds
that the department just does as
much as it can.
“The birds now are making a
little bit of a mess,” he says.
“They’re not making near the
mess that they’ve made in times
past. We do try to clean it periodi
cally, working it in to the other
things we’re obligated to do.”
The reason grackles and cow
birds stay on campus is because
the live oak trees at A&M retain
their foliage during the winter,
Ray says.
“The only time they don’t have
leaves is this time of the year,” he
says. “And generally, you never
notice they’re defoliated because
the new leaves push the old ones
off.
“Also, the University is a fairly
quiet place,” Ray says. “Nobody’s
going to bother them, so it pro
vides a good haven for the birds.”
To get the birds to leave,
grounds maintenance uses ampli
fied bird-distress calls and gas
cannons, which make a noise as
loud as the cannon at the A&M
football games.
“We normally do it at Thanks
giving, particularly when the
Texas game is played in Austin,”
Ray says. “We have some bird-
scare devices that we run for
three or four days, which consist
of gas cannons and amplified
bird-distress calls. We make up
three units that come out on small
pickups and move around the
heart of campus.
“It (the cannon) goes off about
every 30 seconds. You can imag
ine us moving up and down the
streets and sidewalks. You’ve got
to have a vacated area, or it will
vacate pretty quickly.
“At Christmas break, we nor
mally run from Dec. 21 through
Jan. 3. The activity is not compat
ible to civilization, particularly be
cause it’s so noisy.”
By scaring the birds away from
the Joe Routt area, maintenance
hopes to move the birds to
Eastgate, the main drive or the
golf course.
“They can roost out there, and
they don’t really cause anybody
problems,” Ray says.
Club owner rejected
demands from Dallis
By Carolyn Garcia
Staff Writer
Herbert Graham, owner of the lo
cal nightclub Graham Central Sta
tion, said his establishment was
bombed after he refused to give into
the demands of competitor Athana-
sios “Tommy” Dallis, owner of the
ROXZ and Fajita Rita’s.
“He (Dallis) contacted me once in
person and then by phone,” Graham
said. “I wouldn’t comply with what
he wanted. I wasn’t expecting the
place to be blown up, but there was
never a doubt in my mind who did
it.”
Dallis currently is being held with
out bond in Harris County Jail,
charged with various federal viola
tions in connection with the October
1984 arson-bombing of Graham
Central Station. He will remain in
jail while awaiting his May 18 trial.
Co-defendant Steve Graham of
Houston, a Dallis employee, also was
denied bond.
After hearing the testimony, U.S.
Magistrate Karen Brown ruled that
the pair would pose a threat to the
community if they were released on
bond.
Herbert Graham said he had no
knowledge of the two-and-one-half
year investigation authorities had
launched into Dallis’ activities, but
said he hopes he is called to testify.
“As soon as (authorities) told me it
blew up I knew who did it,” Graham
said. “I told the authorities every
thing from day one.”
Graham said it took 30 to 40 days
to rebuild his club and that the fire
caused approximately $550,000 in
damage and a minimum of $ 150,000
in lost business.
“We had to totally rebuild,” Gra
ham said. “All that was left was some
of the concrete slab.”
Phillip Simpson, William Hershal
Nash and Timothy Joe Nash, all of
Lubbock also were named in the in
dictment, which alleges conspiracy
to maliciously damage and destroy a
building involved in interstate com
merce, and malicious destruction of
a building involved in interstate
commerce, and unlawful manufac
ture of a firearm.
William Nash also is charged with
lying to a federal grand jury.
They all are being held without
bond.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert
Ratliff expects all five men to be
tried at the same time. Brazos
County District Attorney Bill
Turner said this procedure is not
uncommon in federal cases.
At Wednesday’s bond hearing,
agent George Michael Taylor of the
Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms testified that he had
tape recordings of two conversations
in which both Dallis and Steve Gra
ham admitted their roles in the
nightclub bombing to a confidential
informant.
Taylor also testified that $1,000
was offered to the informant to go to
Dallas, find Mike Halobi (a Dallis as
sociate) and have him killed.
Taylor told of a third tape record
ing in which Dallis asked an infor
mant to set fire to the College Sta
tion nightclub MC 2 . Arson was
determined to be the cause of the
Nov. 1 fire at that club. But Taylor
said his bureau doesn’t have enough
evidence to charge Dallis with that
fire.
Investigations are under way in
both the murder-for-hire and the
MC 2 arson cases.
Dallis also has been charged, but
not indicted, in connection with a
1985 fire that destroyed the Manhat
tan Club in Lubbock.
Turner said that all the secret in
formants will have to testify during
the trial, but for their safety they will
not have to appear until then.