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,1/01.82 No. 134 GSRS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, April 13,1987
Texas A&M high jumper Kenny Burke clears the bar in Saturday’s
Texas A&M Relays held at the Frank G. Anderson Track and Field
Photo by Bill Hughes
Complex. Burke took second with a 7-2 jump as A&M went on to win
13 out of 34 events. See related story, Page 9.
le with
nergeno
Texaco fights
ruling by filing
for bankruptcy
iouth African clergy, politicians urge
iefiance of new law against protests
OHANNESBURG, South Africa
- Clergy and politicians said
nday they will defy new govern-
nt regulations that outlaw public
)test against imprisonment with-
t charge.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, win-
tr of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize,
leduled a service today in support
detainees at the Angelican St.
:orge’s Cathedral in Cape Town,
e Chris Irons said Sunday.
Helen Suzman, a longtime apart-
id opponent and a member of the
position Progressive Federal Party
Parliament, said Sunday, “I’m
lung to continue my usual course of
lying whatever I want to say.
ong the subjects will clearly be
imments on detention without
al.”
Colin Eglin, leader of the Progres-
e Federal Party, said, “No regula-
n is going to change the PFP’s atti-
pde and that is that detention
thout trial must be scrapped. We
all certainly continue to say so.”
Several clerics and lawyers have
id the regulations, laid down early
Saturday by federal Police Commis
sioner Johan Coetzee, appear to out
law even public prayer for the re
lease of detainees. Many opponents
of the government’s policies pre
dicted the new rules would be widely
disobeyed.
The restictions ban any action in
support of people detained without
charge under the 10-month-old state
of emergency. The decree makes it
illegal to attend a gathering in the
honor of detainees or make any writ
ten or oral call for their release. It
imposes a $10,000 fine or 10 years in
prison for violation.
Coetzee said such acts have “the
effect of threatening the safety of
the public or the maintenance of
public order or of delaying the ter
mination of the state of emergency.”
In issuing the new restrictions, the
police commissioner cited sections of
the emergency regulations which al
low him to prohibit any acts or words
he deems subversive or a threat to
public safety.
Roman Catholic Archbishop
Denis Hurley said, “As these regula
tions would apply even to prayer
services for detainees, it would seem
that they (the government) are now
attempting even to tell God what to
do.
“I foresee there will be a good
deal of reaction against them (the
regulations) and disobedience to
them, so much so it is highly unlikely
to be enforceable.”
The United Democratic Front,
the country’s largest anti-apartheid
coalition, said it would not “advise its
members and affiliates to conform
to this totally ridiculous restriction
on our right to call for the release of
our people detained without trial.”
The statement was issued clandes
tinely because most of the group’s
leaders are in detention or hiding or
have restrictions on their activities.
By law and custom, apartheid al
lows the white minority of 5 million
to control the economy and maintain
separate residential districts, schools,
health services and recreation areas
from South Africa’s 24 million
blacks.
The Azanian People’s Organiza
tion, another major anti-apartheid
group, said the regulations “will not
stop calls for the release of detainees
and will not stop people expressing
their grievances against a system
which is unrepresentative and bor
ders on illegality.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil giant
Texaco Inc., fighting an $11 billion
judgment in favor of Pennzoil Co.,
filed Sunday for protection from
creditors under federal bankruptcy
laws. It is the biggest U.S. company
to take the drastic step.
Texaco, the nation’s third-largest
oil company, has been fighting in
Texas and federal courts to reverse a
1985 ruling in favor of Pennzoil and
to lower an order that it post security
equal to the $8.5 billion judgment
plus interest.
The lawsuit accused Texaco of in
terfering in a planned merger be
tween Pennzoil and Getty Oil Co.
“Pennzoil has placed its own
greed above any consideration of
fundamental fairness or the public
welfare,” James Kinnear, Texaco
president and chief executive offi
cer, said at a Manhattan news con
ference announcing the Chapter 11
filing.
“Pennzoil has bludgeoned Texaco
with unreasonable demands,” he
said.
Kinnear said major suppliers had
refused to deal with Texaco or had
demanded cash in advance, and that
banks had refused Texaco credit.
“Pennzoil thought we took Getty
Oil away from them unfairly,” Kin
near said. “We believe we won Getty
fair and square.”
Baine Kerr, chairman of Pen-
nzoil’s executive committee and for
mer president of the company, said
he was surprised by the move.
“It shows, in my judgment, an ar
rogance and disregard for the whole
judicial process and an attempt to
use the bankruptcy laws improper
ly,” said Kerr, lead negotiator for
Pennzoil in talks with Texaco over a
compromise on the security order.
“We have said all along we would
not insist on the whole amount, and
they could pledge collateral and
other type of security for approxi
mately half the judgment and for
the balance we would rely on cove
nants they would give,” Kerr said.
Chapter 11 provides a company
protection from its creditors in or
der to reorganize its finances.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme
Court rejected a lower court’s ruling
freeing Texaco from posting the
huge bond, increasing pressure on
See related story, Page 8
Texaco to settle with Pennzoil or file
for bankruptcy court protection.
In 1985, a jury in Houston found
that Texaco unlawfully interfered
with a 1984 merger agreement be
tween Pennzoil and Getty by trying
to buy Getty, and it awarded Pen
nzoil $ 10.5 billion in damages.
The Texas Court of Appeals in
February cut that by $2 billion, but
with interest Texaco now owes about
$11 billion and is required by Texas
law to post a bond in that amount
pending its appeal.
In January, U.S. District Judge
Charles Brieant, in White Plains,
agreed with Texaco’s claim that
posting the bond could bankrupt the
company, denying it its constitu
tional right to appeal the verdict.
Brieant said Texaco need post
only a $1 billion bond, and an ap
peals court upheld his ruling. But
the U.S. Supreme Court on April 6
said Brieant was wrong to have
heard the case before it first had
been fully aired in the Texas courts.
Texaco responded that it would
appeal the Texas bonding law in the
Texas courts promptly, and on Fri
day it filed papers with the Texas
Court of Appeals saying it could not
afford to post the full security with
out seeking bankruptcy protection.
Kerr said Texaco never made a
sizable offer during negotiations.
“It was not until the last couple of
days they made a cash offer of any
kind, and it was of an amount they
knew we would not accept,” he said.
Pennzoil made a counter-proposal
to Texaco’s board that was “well
within” the range financial analysts
said Texaco could handle.
“Their response was filing for
bankruptcy,” Kerr said.
Houston AIDS hospital losing care money
HOUSTON (AP) — The world’s
first hospital exclusively for AIDS
treatment and research has become
a cherished haven for victims of the
disease eight months after it opened,
but it is losing $600,000 to $800,000
a month.
“We are going to continue,” said
Daniel G. Moreschi, director of de
velopment at the privately owned
Institute for Immunocological Dis
orders. “We haven’t changed our
mission.”
Patient Randy Turner, 33, said,
“Here, we’re treated like people. It’s
the only place where I’ve not been
treated as an AIDS patient, but just
as a patient.”
The hospital is caring for 700
AIDS patients, most as outpatients,
but the unique demands of the killer
disease have exhausted the $250,000
set aside last September to treat
charity cases.
About 40 percent of the patients
are getting free care, and new char
ity patients now are referred to
county and state hospitals. Moreschi
said the hospital is seeking private
donations to offset the monthly
losses.
“We have not stopped indigent
care,” Moreschi said. “It’s just that
we cannot take any new indigent pa
tients.”
The hospital continues to be sup
ported by its owner, American Medi
cal International, a hospital chain.
The company believes the impor
tance of research and treatment into
acquired immune deficiency syn
drome goes beyond profit and loss,
Moreschi said.
“By 1991, AIDS will be the No. 1
killer,” he said. “What we do here
See Hospital, page 12
A&M entreprenuers
im at college crowd
ith new fragrance
y
By Ronda Tapp
Reporter
A new fragrance developed by
[two Texas A&M students and pro-
luced specifically for college stu-
lents will be on the market in May.
Mack-Gregory Co. is a part-
Inership between marketing majors
Gregory Scott Nichols and Cliff
Mack Carruth. Nichols and Carruth,
both 21-year-old juniors, began
working on the fragrance in Decem-
|ber.
Because of high production costs,
they had a company in Dallas pro
duce the fragrance for them. The
partners are handling wholesale
marketing of the product.
Although they filled the first 200
j bottles themselves, they plan, even-
j tually, to hire a production company
to fill the bottles for them,
j “Scholar,” available for men and
women, is the first product line mar
keted by Mack-Gregory Co.
“This first line is more or less
going to teach us the ins and outs of
business, since we’re starting almost
from scratch,” Carruth said.
The two businessmen said work
ing on Scholar has already taught
them more than they have learned
in one semester of school. Doing re
search on patents and trademarks
was part of their preparation before
going into business.
“We had to get used to putting on
suits and acting in a business man
ner,” Carruth said.
The company’s goal for Scholar is
to distribute it nationwide. To reach
this goal, the partners are trying to
sell the fragrance first to stores in
Bryan-College Station and then
move to other college towns.
Nichols said, “Whether Scholar
makes it or not, we’ll have to keep
trying.”
If Scholar is successful and re
quires more of the partners’ time,
both Nichols and Carruth agreed
that they would leave school to work
on it.
“We want to have two other lines
coming out by the summer that are
marketed at other groups,” Nichols
said.
He said that they hope to have
special colored bottles from France
for one of their next lines.
Eventually, the company wants to
expand into other areas as well as
the fragrance business. Restaurant
ownership and international mar
keting are two interests that they
hope to include in their business in
the future.
Nichols and Carruth have spent
over $5,000 on Scholar, but they said
their parents aren’t worried about
their sons’ investments.
See Fragrance, page 12
A&M students may be left in cold
by Super Tuesday voting policy
By Christi Daugherty
Staff Writer
Super Tuesday could turn out
to be a Super Fiasco for Bryan-
College Station elections.
The change in Texas election
policy will alter the dates on
which all municipalities can hold
local elections.
Dian Jones, College Station city
secretary, said the College Station
charter specifies local elections
will be held in April, but with the
new uniform election dates set by
the Texas Legislature, elections
now will be held the third Satur
day in May — almost two weeks
after all Texas A&M students
have left for the summer.
There are four election dates
on which local elections can be
held, but in order for College Sta
tion to change its election policy,
it would have to change its char
ter, Jones said, and the other
three dates are at similarly bad
times for students.
The third Saturday in January,
students are barely back from
Christmas break and have no
time to familiarize themselves
with the issues in the race. The
second Saturday in August,
school is not yet in session. And
the first Tuesday after the first
Monday in November is only for
national elections during an elec
tion year; local elections are not
allowed to be held on the same
ballot, Jones said.
Bryan-College Station Rep.
Richard Smith said the whole
idea of Super Tuesday sprang
from a meeting of southern legis
lators two years ago when they at
tempted to find a way to increase
change of primary and runoff
dates from May to March to
match those of other southern
states and to get the southern
vote in early enough to be a factor
in the race, he said.
“The Legislature has always se
lected about four dates in the
year when cities can hold their
“Logistically, this will eliminate most of the student in
put into elections, which is unfortunate since students
do make up a large portion of the voting public. ”
— Allan Moore, head of Texas A&M Legislative Study
Group
the power of the southern voice
in presidential elections. They de
cided to move their primary elec
tions to an earlier date, and to
make the election uniform
throughout the South.
“They brainstormed that up in
a debate over the falling power of
the Democratic party,” Smith
said. “The legislators felt that
since southern Democrats tend to
be conservative and northern
Democrats tend to be liberal, they
didn’t want to be dragged down
by the crumbling liberal power.”
Texas legislators agreed to the
plan, but had to make a uniform
elections,” he said. “When they
realigned the partisan primary
from May to March, that caused
the need to realign the non-parti
san elections.”
Smith said legislators moved
the primary from May back to
March because by May, the major
decisions of who would be the
front runners already had been
made.
Jones said College Station is
strongly considering not chang
ing its election dates from May
mainly because officials don’t
want to have to take the legislative
action necessary to alter the char
ter.
“The fact that A&M students
would be excluded is of concern
to us, although students some
times show apathy toward our
elections,” Jones said. “But much
of our election personnel is fac
ulty and staff at A&M and their
families, and they usually coin
cide their vacations with A&M
breaks.
“We have a similar problem
with January and August as far as
people being out of town.”
At the moment, election offi
cials are hoping the Legislature
will reconsider the policy and al
low cities to hold their elections
earlier than the third Saturday in
May, Jones said, but they’re not
very hopeful.
“A lot of communities don’t
have our problem of worrying
about what the school is doing at
that time,” Jones said. “Austin
does have a similar problem,
though.”
Allan Moore, who heads
A&M’s Legislative Study Group,
said there are few cities with Col
lege Station’s problem because
there are few areas with a similar
See Elections, page 12