Wednesday, July 22, 1987/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
JS
'Doomsday clause’ in bill killed
s special session reaches end
fast, l AUSTIN (AP) — Some House Democrats,
illegal irked that Republicans had escaped a trap de-
lendr s|) nec l to force them to vote for a tax bill, called
Tuesday for political punishment for the GOP.
■ The trap, known as the “doomsday clause,”
’’ at lift was aimed at forcing Republican tax votes by cut
ting funds to districts represented by anti-tax
lawmakers. But to get the tax-and-budget work
)r tal done before the midnight end of the special ses-
he sion, Democrats dropped doomsday.
dbytlfl
dmerifl * et l ^ eni1 °tl the hook,” Rep. Paul Colbert,
• ^B-Houston and a doomsday drafter, said,
't) “ I here’s no question about it. It was more impor-
- i tain that we continue to provide an adequate
itude(A vel °f services Uj our people and not worry
|, about the assigning of blame.”
B In lieu of laying blame, some Democrats called
for meting out punishment.
I “You’re seeing a transformation from the
r ■Hood old boy network to partisan politics,” Rep.
7^®Bddie Cavazos, D-Corpus Christi, said. “And if I
Itinilt come back next session I will encourage the
speaker to run this House strictly on
partisanship.”
But Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth, down
played talk about increased partisanship. Texas
speakers, though always Democrats, have tradi
tionally given committee chairmanships to Re
publicans.
“If I punished every committee chairman that
didn’t vote the way I wanted him to I wouldn’t
have any committee chairman left,” Lewis said.
“Politically, no one got the best of this deal,” he
said. “People don’t understand politics . . . half of
them think they got underfunded. The other
half thinks they got overtaxed.”
Lewis said House members who voted for the
tax bill were “gutsy” and would face political heat
for doing so.
“That’s one they will have to spend thousands
and thousands of dollars defending in the next
political campaign,” he said.
As drawn by Colbert and other Democrats,
doomsday would have reduced from proposed
levels the funding for some state universities.
most of them in the districts of anti-tax lawmak
ers.
“I want to see doomsday stay in,” Rep. Allen
Hightower, D-Huntsville said. “(Republicans) get
all their money and they get to vote no (on the
tax bill). They’ve got the best of both worlds.”
But after the tax vote, he said, “I’m glad it’s
over with. I had preferred we didn’t let them off
the hook, but everybody up here doesn’t get what
they want.”
When doomsday was removed, Republicans
and conservative Democrats were able to vote
against the tax bill, which passed 78-70, but for a
separate measure that put the tax bill into imme
diate effect.
Rep. Mike Toomey, R-Houston, said he voted
against the tax bill but for immediate effect,
which was necessary to avoid a larger tax hike,
because he didn’t want to keep legislators in ses
sion.
“There are no winners,” T oomey said. “There
are all losers. The Republican Party, the Demo
cratic Party, the members, the state.”
thattb(
arasitit 1
funeral draws huge crowd to mourn
eaths of 5 teen-agers killed in river
MESQUIFF. (AP) — Five more
ieen-agers swallowed in the raging
aters of the Guadalupe River last
Week were buried T uesday as their
families tried to come to terms with
the tragedy that killed at least nine
people.
I At a service packed with more
I than 800 grieving friends and fam-
.■(Hly members, the Rev. Sylvester
tern: I Matthew, pastor of the Open Door
aarkinvaptist Church, read a poem
dhebBf )en, ' e(l one °f the teen-age vic-
‘ptims.
I Leslie Gossett, 14, in a poem
thewBalled “I Love You,” wrote that if
Igalorl s ' le ever had to leave her loved
c ..L'l ones, “please do not let the thought
I Of me be sad for you.”
in. i 'I “For I am loving you just as I al
ways have,” she wrote.
I Mourners knelt in the aisles of
The small church’s sanctuary and
filled two classrooms equipped with
television monitors for the service
that honored Gossett, Stacey Smith,
J7, and her sister, 14-year-old
^ Tonya Smith.
Arkansas state troopers raise
money to get family to Texas
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p Those three and six others died
near their church camp in Comfort
Friday after 43 people scrambled
out of two church vehicles and were
scattered by the pounding waves.
I Michael O’Neal, 16, and Legenia
Keenum, who turned 15 the day
she died, were buried later Tuesday
in separate services.
I Meanwhile, about 250 people
aided in another day of searching
for John Bankston, 17, the only
■amper who remains missing. De
partment of Public Safety spokes
man Steve Saxon said.
? At the triple-burial service in
Mesquite, photographs of the three
girls sat atop caskets that were sur
rounded by dozens of floral ar-
I EXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — Ar
kansas state troopers who were
touched by the plight of 43 youths
washed into the Guadalupe River
helped one of the victim’s parents
skirt a speeding ticket and rushed
them to the scene of the tragedy.
John Bankston Sr. and his wife,
Rosie, were on vacation in Hot
Springs when they found out that
their son, John Bankston Jr., 17, was
on a church vehicle that was swept
into the rain-swollen river.
State Trooper Cleve Barfield saw
the Bankstons’ truck speeding down
Interstate 30 near Prescott, and
State Police Sgt. David Daniel
clocked the vehicle at 82 mph.
“Before I could even pull out on
the highway, he pulled over and
stopped in front of me,” s^id Daniel,
who took the couple to headquarters
at Hope. “You could tell they were
nice people, but the man was so
emotional that he couldn’t talk.”
Cpl. Mike Brown volunteered to
help the couple fly to Comfort,
Fexas. The last plane from Texar
kana had departed, so Brown got
one one phone and Daniel on the
other, trying to line up a private
plane.
Brown reached the general man
ager for an aviation service owned
with al-
agreed to set-
by Trumand Arnold, owner of a
chain of convenience stores. Origi
nally, the price for the trip was
$1,134, but the aviation official re
duced that to $900.
Brown promised that the bill
would be paid and the Bankstons
left Texarkana, leaving their truck
in Brown’s care.
On Sunday, Brown, a deacon at
Trinity Baptist Church, explained
the situation to the congregation at
his church. They responded '
most $500 and Arnold a
tie for that amount.
“There was no hesitation,” Brown
said Tuesday. “Everyone just wanted
to do all they could to help.”
Brown said that members of the
congregation drove the Bankstons’
trucT to Dallas. He also said he had
talked to Bankston from the com
mand post established at Kerrville
and that the father said he had to at
tend funerals for three of the vic
tims.
“I’ve seen a lot of things, but this
bothered me more than anything
else,” Brown said. “What we did and
what I did, I wouldn’t care if any
body ever knew about it. I felt it was
the Christian thing to do.”
Bankston’s son was the only per
son still missing T uesday.
rangements, mainly pink roses and
carnations.
The Rev. Preston Henderson of
the Seagoville Road Baptist
Church, which many of the young
sters attended, said, “It’s going to
take time to heal.
“Lean on one another. Use the
love that the Bible has taught you.”
After the service, the caskets
were loaded into three white
hearses.
The hearses were trailed by more
than a half-mile of limousines and
hundreds of cars en route to the
cemetery.
Some of the mourners who were
among the survivors were still wear
ing bandages as they got into their
parents’ cars.
Gossett played basketball and
volleyball for the Balch Springs
Christian Academy, where the girls
attended school.
She was also a cheerleader, and a
cheerleading picture stood near the
portrait atop her casket.
Stacey Smith, a sophomore
homecoming princess, was honored
for being the “Best Christian Exam
ple” at the academy.
Toyna Smith played volleyball
for the school.
The Smith girls’ older brother,
Michael, 18, survived the bus acci
dent.
Turning to the parents of the
girls, Matthew said, “You raised
good children.”
The three girls grew up attend
ing Sunday School together at the
Open Door church.
Frenton Smith, who taught them
when they were young, said, “They
were just lovely girls. They were
sweet and good.”
Skip Shoffner, who helped build
the church with the Smiths’ father,
Jerry, said, “There’s people that
care about others and there’s peo
ple who don’t.
“I saw these three girls grow up
and all three cared about others.
“They didn’t have a ‘me-bigger-
than-them’ attitude.”
Henderson said, “We’ve lost the
backbone of our youth group.”
Statewide
unemployment
remains high
Plan allowing Mexicans to pay
in-state tuition fees draws interest
dly to
lent 2®
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uld' 11
AUSTIN (AF) — Statewide un
employment remains high in Texas
with signs of stabilization at the
higher levels, the Texas Unemploy
ment Commission said Tuesday.
' Statewide unemployment for
June reached 9.6 percent compared
J with 8.6 in May, said John Kruse,
"IrEC labor ker analyst.
I “Although there was a full per
centage point increase statewide, the
figure is about the same when ad
justed to seasonal factors,” Kruse
aid. “The unemployment percent
age will vary from one area to an
other.
I "What we had in June was a surge
of new job seekers, which is normal
for June,” Kruse said.
Rates of unemployment in urban
reas of Texas as announced Tues
day by the TEC for June compared
ith revised May figures (in paren-
Jhesis):
Austin 7.5 (6.6)
i Bryan-College Station 7.0 (5.9)
Corpus Christi 13.7 (12.1)
Dallas 7.3 (6.4)
El Paso 12.2(10.9)
Fort Worth-Arlington 8.1 (6.9)
Galveston-Texas City 12.6 (10.9)
Houston 10.5 (9.5)
Temple-Killee’ 8.7 (7.8)
San Antonio 5.1 (8.0)
Waco 9.0 (8.0)
EL PASO (AP) — A new program
that allows some Mexican nationals
to attend border universities at a sav
ings of more than $100 per semester
hour has drawn strong interest at
two colleges, officials said Tuesday.
Under the law, Mexicans who
show financial need may attend
Texas state universities in border
counties at in-state rates. This would
mean paying $16 a semester hour in
stead of $120 an hour.
Although specific guidelines will
not be set until the College Coordi
nating Board in Austin meets Fri
day, the University of Texas-El Paso
began distributing application pack
ets Monday, Nancy Strickland, di
rector of International Student Serv
ices, said Tuesday.
She said about 200 people have
inquired about applying.
At Laredo State, with a fall enroll
ment of about 1,000, the admissions
office has received three or four in
quiries a day since the law was passed
in mid-June, said Steve Harmon,
public information director.
“Theoretically, we should expect
an onslaught of students, because all
they have to do is drive across the
bridge,” he said. Those interested
have been told to wait until the
school has more information on how
to implement the law, he said.
The law applies to Texas-El Paso,
Sul Ross State University in Alpine,
Laredo State and Pan American
University in Brownsville and Edin
burg.
The measure would help econ
omies on both sides of the border
and forge understanding between
citizens of the two countries, bill
sponsor state Sen. Tati Santiesteban
of El Paso said.
Prospective students of Laredo
State and Texas-El Paso have ex
pressed the most interest, while Sul
Ross and Pan American have had
relatively few inquiries, officials said.
At Texas-El Paso, the admissions
office is not waiting until the rules
are drafted. The school has given
out packets with forms that ask
about citizenship, residency and in
come, Strickland said.
To be eligible, a student must be a
Mexican citizen living in Mexico and
must demonstrate “personal and
family financial need.”
“Our main reason is that we have
concern for the students as people,”
she said. “And it’s bad for our com
munity if they’re not educated be
cause that hurts Mexico. And having
Mexican students come here, espe
cially from Juarez, forges ties be
tween the two cities.
ing
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v or
Plano police department wins dismissal
from U.S. district judge in $8 million suit
Correction
In a cutline accompanying a
front-page photograph in Fri
day’s issue of I he Battalion, Janet
Phiri’s last name was misspelled.
The name appeared as “Perry.”
Phiri is 4 years old.
PLANO (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed the
Plano Police Department as a defendant in an $8 mil
lion suit stemming from the erroneous armed-robbery
conviction of Lenell Geter five years ago.
U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders dismissed all
claims against the department and two of its officers
who were named in a lawsuit by Geter, an E-Systems en
gineer in Greenville.
Four other agencies — the Dallas County district at
torney’s office and the police departments in Balch
Springs, Garland and Greenville — are still defendants
in the suit, but motions are pending to dismiss Dallas
County and Balch Springs.
Sanders’ opinion issued Monday affirmed an earlier
federal magistrate’s opinion that said Plano police did
not violate Geter s constitutional rights when he was in
vestigated as a suspect in an armed robbery at a fast-
food restaurant in Plano in August 1982.
The ruling “completely endorses our position that
Plano should never have been sued in the first place,”
said Ernest E. Figari Jr., Plano’s attorney in the suit.
Donald Hill, one of several attorneys representing
Geter, declined to comment on Sanders’ ruling.
Geter and five other black engineers contended they
were wrongfully linked by police and prosecutors to a
series of armed robberies in the Dallas area in 1982.
Geter, 29, who was convicted of robbing a Kentucky
Fried Chicken restaurant in Balch Springs, served 16
months of a life sentence but was released after authori
ties determined that another man had robbed the store.
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