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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1987)
6 Texas A&M m m m # The Battalion is s ?ived >g the Hanv o( \/o\. 82 No. 182 CISPS 045360 6 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, July 22, 1987 Navy ships prepare or escort duty in gulf tspirednWl JJ AIRA H. United Arab Emi- f Bs (AP) — U.S. warships stood re- w scho(H Tuesday to escort tlie first two uslyo Lilvaiti ships Hying American flags Itcoirthrhugh the Persian Gulfs perilous the ISiBers, where Iran threatens to at- i.iyoi ack. iolanlii:B itted to Althoiij Hube Hump; seat or.: of App* Two Kuwaiti tankers newly regis tered as U.S. vessels ran up the Stars and Stripes off Khor Fakkan, an Arabian Sea port in Fujairah, one of seven small sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates. Khor Fakkan is 90 miles south of Administration moves |o protect gulf policy from attack by Iran 11 Ivvy khai J ■WASHINGTON (AP) — The I Hagan administration, unable to ^ enlist congressional support for es- i coning reflagged Kuwaiti tankers 1* Hough the Persian Gulf, has taken steps to protect its military and dip- iomatic Hanks against an Iranian at- ,Hk. arenalHCritics say U.S. aims in the Per- tantolHn Gulf are as ill-defined and am- esista Huous as was the mission of Amer- ; Hu Marines in Lebanon in 1983. [otiatdHe U.S. force was withdrawn from |)|i Leljanon altet terrorists believed to IndiiiHve links with Iran blew up the i repHnerican barracks, killing 241 serv- sharp icemen. inresrHfhe fear cited by Gapitol Hill crit- ■ such as Rep. Les Aspin, I)-Wis., | fhkiirman of the House Armed Serv- diffd-lces Committee, is that Iran will de- to e:rM e a devilish new way to embarrass m anTttie Great Satan,” possibly forcing jj.ji the United States to curtail the naval , I)t (p presence it established in the gulf p art . since the late 1940s. i s t er tHAlthough the Democratic-con- ! , trolled Congress was unable either ( u , to propose an alternative policy or to block President Reagan from carry ing out his decision, lawmakers left thbmselves in a position to say “I told you so” should anything go heik u; [tibatar,; wrong. 1 il-Abdt of Km will dfi acksos ■escort! ! Ameri escapee, charge him Officers find ; Ameri T with murder it” hy on ho* mferers By Kirsten Dietz ' B Senior Staff Writer i four! ^ recaptured Grimes County prisoner was charged Tuesday , vith capital murder in the shoot- iei ? j ng death of a deputy sheriff, 1 U was killed during an escape from the county jail Sunday light. I James Herbert Mann, 26, was Bound about 10:35 p.m. Monday by a group of law' enforcement officers on horseback. I Mann was wanted in connec tion with the death of Grimes bunty deputy sheriff Wesley Iford, 22, who was found dead at thejail after Mann’s escape. Mann was picked up near FM r|0 1774 and County Road 215 in • ^primes County. I Larry Adams, an investigator In Grimes County, said blood- liounds led officers to the pris- fJ> \ oner’s hiding place in some tall [(Jlprass. When officers approached Jhe spot, Mann stood up, Adams [if, gjjjgjB When captured, Mann was j ts lifHrmed with a shotgun and a pis- o reed'IB 0 !’ Adams said. After his arrest, Mann was >ral of! ^treated and released at a local ssna r mill Rut the don hospital for minor wounds to his L 0S J ankle that he apparently re- banlB e ' ved during a confrontation ( |||vith a family in which he was shot once, officials said. I The prisoner was returned to the county jail in Anderson, about 35 miles southeast of tu,ll ( j ! Bi yan-College Station, f J The prison"*- ’‘' ;n ■ ' without bond. 1 • m I Mann, a trusty, originally had vvem been jailed for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, Adams said, datil Tki e prisoner later was dd W har & ed aggravated rob- 'no'Jbcry he said. ion H I he arrest ended a manhunt Hhich covered at least five • Hquare miles and involved about ’T 200 law enforcement officers lC liK om t ^ ie Texas Rangers, the T fH exas Department of Correc- lles Hons, the Department of Public d^'Hafety and area law- enforcement jgencies. Reagan cited growing Soviet and Iran influence in the gulf in justify ing the risk and built up the Navy’s Middle East Force in an attempt to deal with the Iranian military threat. Underlying the administration position is fear that Iranian pressure on Kuwait and other gulf Arab states could force them to curtail their aid to Iraq, and that Iraq could lose the war, establishing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolutionary Moslem regime as dominant throughout the region. State Department spokesman Charles E. Redman rejected the view that the reflagging would in crease rather than smooth tension. “That’s really a misperception of what’s happening,” Redman said Tuesday. “We have had an Ameri can presence in the Persian Gulf for 40 years. The tensions which exist in that region clearly come from the war that has gone on for more than seven years.” In and around the gulf, the Navy has assembled a force of 15 warships, including the aircraft car rier Constellation near the danger zone at the mouth of the gulf, as well as the cruiser Fox and the destroyer Kidd, which were expected to inau gurate the convoy duty Wednesday. the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow ga teway to the gulf between Iran and Oman. Iran has a store of Silkworm anti-ship missiles on its side of the strait. No military action was reported in the gulf Tuesday after a month of attacks on shipping by both Iran and Iraq and sustained Iraqi bombing of Iranian oil installations. The Persian Gulf neighbors have been at war since Iraq invaded Iran in Septem ber 1980. On Monday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a reso lution demanding a cease-fire. Iraq supported it, but Iran said in ad vance it would ignore the measure, as it has similar resolutions. Iran said its Revolutionary Guards marines seized three Kuwaiti “spy boats” in the northern gulf Tuesday and took the crews pris oner. No details were given. The Iranians accuse Kuwait of be ing a conduit for arms shipments to Iraq, whose ports have been closed since shortly after the war began. Iran began regular attacks last Sep tember on ships owned by or serving; the emirate, and it vows to continue despite the U.S. Hags and escorts. Defense Department officials in Washington said the two tankers and their Navy escort would set out late Tuesday or early Wednesday on the three-day trip to Kuwait, Iraq’s west ern neignbor at the northern end of the gulf . Shipping sources in Fujairah said privately that the convoy might move out Tuesday night and anchor at the southern end of Hormuz, then pass through the strait in day- light. An official of the company servic ing the tankers said ships still were anchored at sunset, with no sign of preparations to move. The 401,382-ton Bridgeton and the Gas Prince, a 46,723-ton prod ucts carrier, are the first of 1 1 Ku waiti tankers to be reflagged. Copy Cats Gina Mik, right, and John Lombard of the Baylor Debate Team spent the day photocopying material Photo by Sarah Cowan at the library. They brought $250 worth of nickels and planned to stay until it closed. Legislature passes largest tax increase in state history AUSTIN (AP) — After a day of parlia mentary wrangling and partisan squab bling, the Texas Legislature ended its Bud get-balancing special session Tuesday with passage of the largest tax increase in state history. Lawmakers wrapped up work on $5.7 billion in new taxes and a $38.3 billion 1988-89 state budget. “This particular bill happens to be the largest in dollar amount of any tax bill, I suppose, to ever pass in the free world out- sicle of Congress,” said Rep. Dan Morales, D-San Antonio, House tax sponsor. The Senate passed the budget on a 26-5 vote, while the House voted 80-69 for the spending bill. Gov. Bill Clements indicated he would sign the tax and spending plans if the com ptroller certifies them as balancing, and if the bills are “in a reasonable form” when they reach his desk. Of the new taxes, more than $4.8 billion would come from raising the sales tax rate from 514 percent to 6 percent on Oct. 1, and boosting a variety of other business and personal taxes. An additional $889 million would come from keeping the motor fuel tax at 15 cents E er gallon rather than allowing it to roll ack to 10 cents on Sept. 1 as scheduled. That bill had received its final OK Monday. Legislative leaders said they hoped the fi nal gavels also had brought to an end more than a year of budget and tax struggles that began in 1986 when oil prices plunged from near $30 per barrel to less than $10 and the Texas economy soured. The tax plan approved Tuesday would raise the state sales tax rate from 5'A per cent to 6 percent on Oct. 1. In large cities, where both a city and a mass transit tax also are levied, the rate would be 8 percent. The bill called for expanding the 6 per cent sales tax to a variety of new items and services, including garbage collection, data processing and private club membership fees. The measure also would raise the cor- E orate franchise tax, boost cigarette taxes, ike the hotel-motel tax and impose a $110 annual occupation tax or fee hike on doc tors, lawyers, dentists, accountants and other professionals. Disease disrupts lives of victims, families Alzheimer’s affects all types of people By Janet Goode Reporter “When you comb my hair today, will you please tuck that clock be hind my ear?” “Of course.” I answered her slowly, swallowing the lump forming in my throat. Affects of Alzheimer’s disease Part one of a two-part series “And what time is it anyway?” she asked for the third time in the past minute. I looked into her eyes quizzically. They were unseeing, unknowing. I sighed and answered her for the third time. “Half-past two,” I said, and wheeled her through the spotless, double-glass doors of the nursing home. The aged — the “oldest of old,” the elderly — have become the fast est-growing and least-understood microculture in America today. Alzheimer’s disease also is fast growing, misunderstood and very often misdiagnosed. The disease was first described by Alois Alzheimer in 1906. It knows no social bounderies and affects men and women equally. Although most victims are over 65, it can strike vic tims in their 40s and 50s. Alzheimer’s attacks in the form of protein deposits that build up in the brain, causing dementia. Sarah Jackson, who works with se nior citizens at Humana Hospital, says that until the 1960s the disease often was mistaken for senility. Alzheimer’s is distinguished from senility in that senility results when brain tissue deteriorates. Jackson says Alzheimer’s disease is what used to be called “old age.” “People used to die of old age,” she says. “Now they die of Alzhei mer’s.” Jackson says people still are being misdiagnosed because there is no known cause for the protein depos its, no known cure, and no single clinical test to identify the disease. The diagnosis is a process of elimi nation. Jackson says problems such as de pression, drug reactions, metabolic changes, nutritional deficiencies, head injuries and strokes must be looked at and eliminated along with the possiblity of Parkinson’s, Pick’s and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. All of these have similar symptoms. Bette Jackson, social activities di rector at the Brazos Valley Geriatric Center, says memory loss alone isn’t enough to distinguish the Alzheim er’s patient. Bette says the usual stages Alz heimer’s victims go through start with confusion, followed by a loss of the ability to keep track of time, and eventually the inability to recognize themselves or loved ones. Alzheimer’s symptoms can show up in people a little at a time (unlike some of the other diseases), and the stages associated with Alzheimer’s can overlap, she says. Sometimes a person can still re member family members, but forget how to use a toothbrush or a fork, she says. Patients in early stages of the dis ease often become frustrated be cause they know they just “aren’t quite right,” she says. One such woman at the center, she says, sits on her bed and daily pounds her fists, asking, “Why, why, WHY?” Alzheimer’s patients also may be come obsessed with a certain security — something that links them to real ity — such as time or a familiar ob ject, she says. Mary Jane Mistovich, a member of an Alzheimer’s support group here, says her husband Mike, 72, was very attached to his car. As his disease progressed, she says, it became too dangerous to have it around. “It was just a year ago next month that I had to sell his car,” she says. “It was very traumatic for him because I was taking away his security.” She remembers the conversation. “I asked Mike, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’ “Then I asked him, ‘Do you love your car?’ and he said, ‘Oh yes!’ “So I said, ‘Well, who do you love the most?’ and he stammered for a minute and then said, ‘You.’ “I said, ‘Okay then, we’ve got to sell the car.’ “I finally sold the car and got it out of sight and he didn’t mention it again,” she says. Bette says it is important when dealing with Alzheimer’s victims to show this kind of patience and con stantly remind them of simple, ev eryday things such as the date and the time of day. At the geriatric center, activities to help stir patients’ cobweb-covered memories are part of a daily routine. One common activity is to show an object such as an apple and ask the patients to relate memories. Bette says some of them will say, “I used to make pies with that,” or “That’s red — the color of Christmas,” and then others will join in. Another favorite activity at the center is singing. “They love to sing,” Bette says. She will start singing a song, espe cially old hymnals or songs from ear lier days, and the patients will some times finish singing it. One elderly woman is referred to by the staff at the center as “the sing ing lady.” She often sits at a table about to nod off to sleep. Bette nudges her and asks, “How’s my singing lady today?” The “singing lady” opens her eyes, then her mouth, and quite loudly begins to sing. She sings a medley of songs from the early 1900s, and when she’s done she nods back to sleep. Bette explains that this woman is past the frustration stage — she is content living in her reality of “bicy cles built for two.” After initial memory impairment, Alzheimer’s victims experience de pression, lack of spontaneity, wan dering and increased disorientation. Their forgetfulness increases and they develop an inability to attach meaning to their sensory percep tions. Pat Stirling, another member of an Alzheimer’s support group in Brazos Valley, says that in these stages a patient may leave a pot of boiling water on the stove or try and leave the house at night. Sometimes they also undergo a personality change, she says. One patient was described to her as dress ing up in her Sunday clothes and then walking around cursing — something the woman had never done! As the disease progresses furthur, Bette says, patients may become un able to think abstractly and may en gage themselves in repetetive actions such as twisting a sheet corner over and over or walking aimlessly. To combat this, the staff at the center often supplies patients with scarves or other things to fold and refold and gives them household chores such as sweeping or dusting. The center also is equipped with an outside path with a handrail for those who like to walk. In the later stages of the disease, Alzheimer’s victims become com pletely dependent. They develop an inability to recognize either them selves or others. They become speech-impaired, sometimes to the point of muteness. They often de- veolop a morbid need to put every thing into their mouths. They then develop a necessity to touch everything in sight. And in the end, “incontinence” sets in — they lose control of all bodily functons. Editor’s note: The Battalion has been informed that Mike Mistovich died Tuesday morning.