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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1987)
y ■ent iom Texas A&M mm 1 ^ The Battalion ie to pay ur id, “It could,wj him.” i fell ill in Mat.; - i heart ailraw; lation fot ring a toun l tan, said hisi ly. ical bills have | ■ to pay rental'; home he Bogart in id. auctioned tht 2 ■ in 1985 tom million in unlk k-ilaities from:; D. t), said a fa:> ambled awayni [*d to lie used: :hree rears it casteii se fora (A P) — Trop._ > expected tc i. n as it headec: ic Ocean than 1 , ■low storm fir. ru ane Center lap icsday. he third namr: i. was about ol the Azortn asters said Th ■ ■ ustamed vdnc centered at £> i and loops rig north ai r re today, Cine . all below trop • huh is maxir Is of at least J?- 5 wiried to lilt 1 tailed weakens them waters,®- al depression X into a trop;;, vestern Carite is being momtCI he fKissibiliti er the wans*’ 1 lal Gerrishsi Vol. 83 No. 8 CiSPS 045360 16 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, September 10, 1987 Aquino cabinet turns in resignation letters MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Cabinet resigned Wednesday under pressure from pro-business members seeking reorganization and stronger leadership after the coup attempt last month. President Corazon Aquino was grim-faced after an emergency Cab inet meeting. She gave no indication of which resignations would be accepted or when she would announce a new government, and she snapped at re porters: “You will know!” Presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno said the 25 Cabinet mem bers and three officials of the Com mission on Good Government handed in hurriedly written letters of resignation during the 15-minute emergency meeting. Among those resigning was Joker Arroyo, Aquino’s executive secretary and closest adviser. Senior military officers, congress men, prominent businessmen and church groups had sought his dis missal since the coup attempt by mu tinous soldiers Aug. 28. Officials said the pressure for res ignations began after Arroyo alleged Tuesday in testimony before the House of Representatives that busi ness leaders were undermining the government. In Washington, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told re porters: “We support Cory Aquino personally in her attempt to strengthen that government and to establish a rule of law and as much normalcy as possible in the existing circumstances.” It was the second mass resignation since Aquino came to power when former President Ferdinand E. Mar cos fled the country Feb. 26, 1986. Most ministers were retained in that reorganization, after a coup at tempt Nov. 23 by followers of De fense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, but Enrile was fired. He now is a sen ator and leads the political opposi tion. Arroyo’s remarks Tuesday also in cluded accusations of disloyalty by the military. His three-hour speech brought into the open bitter Cabinet divisions and distrust between civil ian authorities and the military. Conflicts have increased since the Aug. 28 uprising because of the gov ernment’s apparent inability to de tect the plot in advance and the large number of military units that either joined the revolt or refused to help put it down. Word of the resignations came first from Trade Secretary Jose Con cepcion. His twin brother Raul was one of three prominent businessmen Arroyo accused. Concepcion told reporters after a luncheon meeting with Aquino that he and several other Cabinet mem bers had decided to quit. The presi dential palace then said 11 ministers planned to resign and Aquino was calling an emergency meeting. Expert: Too soon to tell if higher speed limit has increased deaths By Doug Driskell Staff Writer Although there has been an in crease in fatalities on rural inter states in Texas, it is still too early to tell if this increase is attributed the new 65 mph speed limit, research specialist Dr. Qth nn Brackett said Tuesday. “It is really too soon to tell if the speed limit increase is causing more fatalities, because we are trying to detect a minor change in the total number of fatalities on rural inter states,” Brackett said. “It will proba bly be two years before a conclusion can be made.” The total number of fatalities on rural interstates in Texas from Jan. 1st to Sept. 4th is 128, Texas Depart ment Public Safety spokesman David Wells said. This is an increase of 17 compared to statistics taken in the same period in 1986. “We have seen this increase even before the speed limit was increased on May 9th,” Wells said. “Until we get a considerable difference in the number of deaths it will be difficult to draw any conclusions. Even when fatalities increase there are other contributing factors. It must be de termined if speed, alcohol or any other factor was a contributing cau se.” The current statistics are from ru ral interstates, but the 65 mph limit doesn’t apply to all rural interstates, Wells said. There is a certain dis tance from each non-rural area where the speed limit changes to 65 mph. At this time, there isn’t a uni versal measurment method to tell if the fatalities were on a rural inter state where the 65 mph limit didn’t apply. “We are working with the Texas Highway Department to determine which mile markers the speed limit increases and where it ends,” Wells explained. A rural interstate is an interstate highway, such as 1-10 near Houston and 1-45 outside Dallas, in areas of a population of 55,000 people or less. Quinn predicts there will be 11 more fatalities a year due to the speed limit increase. He bases this prediction on estimated figures with the increase in speed and the non- compliance rate that was present with the 55 mph speed limit. “Statewide, we usually have 3,800 fatal accidents each year,” Brackett said. “Of these 3,800, 210 to 211 are on rural interstates. Eleven more a year is not that many in comparison to the overall number, but it is all rel ative. If it is a family member, it makes it worse.” According to Wells, overall deaths on Texas highways are down 11 per cent filom this time last year, based on accident reports received at the DPS in Austin. “This is very encouraging,” he said. “I think this can be attributed to the new safety belt law and the open-container law.” sav* ralsy is a mo’ in range fromf. to severe i alk. Mental >n, Poland ■ babies often inths of inti thumb, doctoi three montW lire about thif tal, a baby t« ill be in the f such carea" tiinated thatitl for hospital' ig less than 21 10,000 ini"' Kray bill of thy Carolina in Ck 1 average cost! 0,000 now, M ,000 or even! tal. dll says neonf ost-effeedve I :>f useful life! cessful. it a whole lifeit' says. “Let’s s who come®! ve care do ily productive' of society.’ IEGINN! classes ant to learn oessing prog'! urgeon General cites moral dilemmas of AIDS WASHINGTON (AP) — The moral and [ethical issues confronting the nation in dealing with AIDS are as difficult as the sci- ientific and medical ones, Surgeon General ! C. Everett Koop told a presidential commis- ' sion Wednesday. One of those problems, he told the open ing session of President Reagan’s AIDS commission, is the growing minority of doc tors and dentists refusing to treat patients who have AIDS. He contended that “such conduct threat ens the very fabric of health care in this country.” “What shall we do to prevent that from happening?” he asked. “We need some an swers before this deadly virus further weak ens the ethics of medical practice in the United States.” Perhaps the most potentially serious so cial problem, he said, is related to the fact that AIDS “is becoming the particular scourge of people who are young, black and Hispanic.” “We have finally extended to all Ameri cans — regardless of race, creed, color, eth nic origin, religion, sex or age — the birth right to freedom that is theirs,” he said. “Will AIDS by itself reverse this trend of history?” he asked. “I certainly hope and pray that that does not occur, but hopes and prayers may not be enough.” Koop did not offer solutions, only ques tions for the commission to address. Rea gan has instructed the group to make a fi nal report in a year. Earlier, Otis R. Bowen, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Serv ices, defended previous government activ ity on AIDS and challenged critics to offer constructive suggestions. Bowen gave a chronology of government action since the first AIDS cases were rer ported in 1981 and said, “To criticize this effort is counterproductive and mean-spir ited and tends to tarnish what is a solid re cord of accomplishment in modern medical science and health policy.” uts in PUC funds may cause Texans to go elsewhere to solve bill disputes 35.00 brary ES DEPARTS By Mary-Lynne Rice Staff Writer Texas utility users who receive in- | correct or unfair bills soon may have to look beyond the usual channels | for a resolution to the problem. Gov. Bill Clements recently cut $200,000 in funding for the Texas Public Utility Commission’s Con sumer Affairs Division, which may eliminate aid from that office to rate payers, said Ed Martin, executive di rector of the Texas Democratic Party, which has taken a strong stance against the governor’s cut. Because the local municipality is not regulated by the PUC, most Bryan-College Station residents will probably not be affected by the re duced funding. The PUC Consumer Affairs Divi sion’s eight-person staff resolves in dividual disputes about improper billing, poor service or violation of tariffs or rules by the utility compa nies. In the past 16 months, Martin said, the division processed approxi mately 14,500 complaints, recov ering $666,000 for utility rate pay ers. But the division’s existence is endangered, he said, unless the issue can be reopened in a possible special session of the Texas Legislature. “But unless that happens, some body’s going to have to try to scram ble for money,” he said. “Maybe they can find a little and keep it open on a shoestring basis.” Martin said that with the recent appointment of Marta Greytok to the Texas PUC he hopes the Con sumer Affairs Division will have a new advocate. “She doesn’t have the special in terests of the utility companies in mind,” he said. Jay Rosser, Clements’ deputy press secretary, cited duplicaton of services as the central idea in the governor’s veto message. The PUC Office of Public Counsel, he said, performs the same function. “It doesn’t make sense to have two state agencies performing the same service,” Rosser said. “And this serv ice can be better coordinated out of the Office of Public Counsel.” Martin said, however, that there was some thought that the governor may have confused the role of the Consumer Affairs department with that of the Office of Public Counsel. “(The Office of Public Counsel) is the attorneys and economists and expert witnesses and people like that who involve themselves in class ac tion hearings before the commis sion,” Martin said. “That’s not what the Consumer Affairs division does at all.” Consumer Affairs, before the budget cut, dealt with the individual customer rather than large rate cases, Martin said. “This was one division that actu ally dealt with the individual case and the individual dispute when the utility company broke a rule and the person (rate payer) was not able to get relief,” he said. The funding cut of $200,000 will not reduce state taxes, but is a part of a larger process, Rosser said. “When you’re talking about the whole state budget, $200,000 is a drop in the bucket,” he said. “But it will make government more effi cient by eliminating duplication.” Martin said that although a $200,000 allotment translates to a cost of less than a penny per tax payer each year, “it returns to the utility rate payers three times as much as the tax dollar cost.” Because the cases of the utility companies are taken into account by the Consumer Affairs Division when it investigates a complaint, they are not always subject to the loss of pay ment of a bill in question. Martin said the Division considers all facts. “We’ll make sure the customer gets a fair deal,” he said, “but we’re not going to provide relief they don’t have coming. “ . . . On the other hand, a city council — which often has the origi nal jurisdiction on utilities because they contract for.their city — will of ten give back everything the cus tomer asks for because it’s a kind of political consideration in an elected body. And we don’t do that. “So while we provide $666,000 in relief to the rate payers, we also do it professionally and fairly.” If the Consumer Affairs Division is supplanted by the Office of Public Counsel, Martin said he predicts the loss of simplicity in seeking a bill ad justment. “This was just one real simple, pragmatic little agency that dealt with individuals and that provided a direct service to people,” Martin said.“That’s as opposed to some thing done by some big bureaucracy that may or may not resolve your problems, or getting run around through 30 different offices.” The major objection to the veto of funds is the ultimately insignificant effect the funding cut will have on the state budget, Martin said. “We’ve always heard that we can cut government spending by setting priorities,” Martin said. “This is the kind of thing that should always be a priority — it’s an agency that does something you can directly and tan gibly receive. “That’s a tax dollar well-spent.” FBI director nominee: Politics won't interfere with work of agency WASHINGTON (AP) — Fed eral Judge William S. Sessions said Wednesday he had assur ances from Attorney General Ed win Meese III that the FBI would remain free of political interfer- See related story, Page 10 ence and declared he would re fuse to obey any presidential or der that he deemed unethical. Sessions affirmed his commit ment to the law enforcement agency’s independence during a one-day Senate hearing on his nomination to succeed William H. Webster as FBI director. Webster left the bureau in May to succeed the late William J. Casey as CIA director. Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee took turns praising Sessions as a “tough but fair-minded judge” and former federal prosecutor and Justice Department official who is eminently qualified to be come FBI director for a statutory 10-year term. So lavish was the senators’ cho rus of praise for Sessions, 57, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in San Antonio, that Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said it “sounds more like a canonization than a confirmation hearing.” Several panel members pre dicted that Sessions would win Senate confirmation by an over whelming margin. The committee is expected to approve his nomination next Tuesday, immediately before it plunges into hearings on Presi dent Reagan’s hotly contested nomination of federal appeals court Judge Robert H. Bork to become a Supreme Court justice. Sessions, 57, sat at the witness table between his home state sen ators, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen and Republican Phil Gramm of Texas, as Reagan was com mended for nominating a conser vative who enjoys broad support in Congress. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D- Del., the committee chairman, echoed the concerns of several members when he recited a his tory of attempts at political manipulation of the FBI and challenged Sessions to commit himself to “resist attempts to poli ticize the bureau’s operations.”