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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1987)
Sharpshooter Pool shark and comedian Jack White performed in the MSC lobby Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. White has performed as a guest on “The Tonight Show,” “The Ed Sullivan Show” as well as “Wide World of Sports.” White has also been a performer in the White House. The MSC Recreation Committee asked White to perform at Texas A&M University. Reagan signs bill to revive budget cuts WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi- statements earlier Tuesday before dent Reagan on Tuesday signed leg- an audience of international finan- islation reviving the Gramm-Rud- ciers critical of the huge U.S. deficit, man budget-balancing law and . There, he praised the bill as “a sig- vowed that “the big spenders in Con- nal that America is not backing gress will have a fight on their down from its responsibilities.” hands.” In a speech to a joint meeting of In a Rose Garden ceremony, Rea- the World Bank and the Interna- gan put his signature to a bill that tional Monetary Fund, the president would require $23 billion in deficit called for a cooperative effort reductions in the fiscal year that be- among the world’s financial powers gins Thursday and a balanced bud- to help Third World nations solve get by fiscal 1993. It would cut mili- their debt crisis. But he said he can tary and domestic programs across- not lecture others without dealing the-board if its goals are not met. first with America’s problems. “It is imperative that the United The president complained bitterly States consistently reduce its federal about the legislation, saying Con- deficit spending,” Reagan said, tak- gress was seeking to raise taxes or ing note of the Gramm-Rudman bill, cut the Pentagon budget to comply “It should be seen as a signal that with it. He had no choice but to sign America is not backing down from it, he said, because it included an ur- its responsibilities,” he said. Then he gently needed increase in the na- called on Japan and West Germany tional debt limit. “to find the political gumption to “I will not allow the American stimulate their economies without people to be blackmailed into higher reigniting the fires of inflation.” taxes,” Reagan said, repeating his Reagan’s support helped the orig- call to trim “pork-barrel spending” inal Gramm-Rudman bill become that he said was at the root of the law in 1985. At that time, it included deficits. the automatic spending cuts later “The big spenders in Congress thrown out by the Supreme Court, will have a fight on their hands,” he The president’s enthusiasm for said, adding that those who expect the law has cooled since the Demo- him to agree to tax hikes or defense crats took control of the Senate this cuts were “nuts.” year. He said Democrats were trying Reagan’s harsh words at the cere- to use it to force him to accept a tax mony contrasted sharply with his increase or cuts in military spending. 'ithout any que S . physician.” iMO clients can a Physician the. estricted to th-l oose and me, he < mavgj The Battalion said. |ol ractIce the to medicine.'! ura ge each I 83 No. 22 CISPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, September 30, 1987 ose his own per yUHi / /I I Jp# m ; - ' V i ini i . Has Lmi Photo by Shelly Schluter \&M police consider giving tickets by computer By Melissa Kennedy Reporter The Texas A&M University Police De- rtment is looking at a new system to mputerize campus parking-ticket distri- tion, but budget limitations have ished consideration of the plan back un- at least next year, said Bob Wiatt, direc- r of security and traffic. The plan, already in use at the Univer- y of Texas, Baylor University and mthern Methodist University, would iplement the use of computer technol ogy in ticket allocation. The officer on pa trol is equipped with a hand-held, battery- powered unit weighing from two to five pounds. When an officer finds an illegally parked car, the description and license number of the car are keyed into the unit. The units are capable of creating a file of license numbers with an excessive number of unpaid tickets. If the keyed license number matches one in the file, a towing message might be programmed to appear. In other cases, the information is re corded on a tape and a copy of the ticket is produced from the hand unit itself, or from an attached unit, and is placed on the windshield. At the end of a shift, the offi cer transfers the cassette recording of tick ets from his hand unit to the main com puter at the station. Wiatt said University Police issues more than 110,000 tickets annually. He said he would like to employ the computer system and that A&M will eventually be using it. “I think this is the technology of the fu ture,” he said. However, Wiatt believes it is not within UPD’s operating budget this year to imple ment the computer ticket system. He antic ipates that conditions next year will be bet ter for such an expenditure and he hopes that the cost of the system will go down. The cost of a hand unit is about $2,600, and it would cost more than $50,000 to equip A&M’s police department with the main computer and hand units for all parking-patrol officers. Because of a stricture on state budget expenditures for capital expenses, the sys tem cost would have to come out of the po lice department’s operating budget; Wiatt said. UPD’s operating budget, which exceeds $2.5 million annually, is generated from parking fines and permit sales. It is used to support University Police personnel sala ries, intracampus shuttle-bus operation and maintenance, a van for the hand icapped that runs off campus and the night van service to the parking lots west of Wellborn Road. “The state will not pay for anything to do with parking,” Wiatt said. Voters have until Saturday to register to vote in November general election By Carolyn Kelbly Reporter Texas A&M students and other frazos County ypters have until Sat- jjirday to register to vote in Novem- Ir’sgeneral election, which will de cide 25 state Constitutional endments and two referenda, in- ding the controversial item that uld legalize pari-mutuel betting in jexas. I Brazos County voter registration Irds for the Nov. 3 election must be ■stmarked by Saturday, and regis- Ired voters will also be able to vote I the March 8 “Super Tuesday” Itesidential primary election. I Voters failing to register by Satur- m, however, can still register for e March primary election until ib.7. To register, a voter must be 18 by ov. 3, a U.S. citizen and a Texas sident. Anyone with a felony con- rtion is ineligible. November’s general election has e largest number of proposed amendments to the Texas Constitu tion in state history. The two refer enda are Referendum SB 15, the controversial pari-mutuel horse rac ing and dog racing issue, and SB 86, which would make the Texas Board of Education members appointed rather than elected. Rep. Richard Smith, R-Bryan, said the primary election in the spring includes the presidential con tenders, congressional candidates and candidates for state and local positions. “Since the elections occur on Tuesday during the school year, it is very important that students regis ter,” Smith said. “And the most con venient way to vote at A&M is to reg ister in Brazos County.” Smith says it is important the reg istration card be completed correctly before it is mailed or the registration will be invalid. Kent Martin, Smith’s spokesman, says the permanent residence ad dress on the card should be the vot er’s actual address in Bryan-College Station, not a post office box. The Brazos County registrar must know where the voter physically lives to place him in a voting precinct. Although the telephone number is optional, he says it is very impor tant for the registrar to be able td get in contact with the voter in case there are any registration complica tions. Martin says on-campus students can obtain the card tonight from ta bles set up outside Sbisa Dining Hall and the Commons Dining Hall. Reg istration cards will also be available Thursday afternoon in the main hall of the MSC. Off-campus students should have received a registration card along with Smith’s newsletter through the mail. If they have failed to receive these items, they can call Rep. Smith’s Bryan office, Martin says. The newsletter and registration cards also were made available to the Corps of Cadets through the com pany commanders. Students who register will be able to vote near or on the A&M campus. County Clerk Frank Boriskie said the campus is divided into three vot ing precincts: • Precinct 20 is located in the MSC. The student ballot box serves south side dormitories. • Precinct 21 is located at the Hensel Park Apartment Special Building. This location serves mar ried student housing. • Precinct 35 is located at the A&M Presbyterian Church at 301 Church Ave. This location serves the northside dormitories. Off-campus students will vote in their respective precincts. For more information about reg istration and voter eligibility stu dents can call the Brazos County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office at 361-4490 or 361-4492. itudy questions use of campaign donations WASHINGTON (AP) — A study of campaign [nancial records shows contributions to Texas ongressmen have gone to pay for such items as aby-sitting fees, a luxury automobile, car tele bone and meals at Washington restaurants. The congressmen, however, defend their use fthe funds as outlined in a Harte-Hanks’ Wash- igton bureau study of Texas lawmakers’ cam- aign pending records from 1985 through the rsthalfof this year. Among other things, the San Antonio-based edia company’s study shows that: • Rep. Marvin Death used campaign contribu- ans to buy a new Lincoln Continental for 16,818 two years ago. The luxury car is the Waco Democrat’s only ijlicle in Washington and he since has spent at ast $2,500 in campaign funds for a car tele- bone, insurance, repairs, tires and gasoline. Although he uses the car for personal as well as work-related purposes, Death believes it was proper to pay for it with election money since he considers his life in Washington as “political” in essence, Doug Canatsey, his chief aide. said. • Rep. Steve Bartlett spent $1,690 in cam paign funds for baby sitters in two years. The Dallas Republican, who has three young children, used election money for baby-sitting fees only when he and his wife were away on overnight or extended campaign trips, Bartlett aide Mary Jane Maddox said. As for the contributors to the congressmen’s funds, a spokesman for a campaign contribution watchdog group said political action committees for large interest groups often are ambivalent about how their money is spent. Congress Watch director Craig McDonald said, “They are looking for influence, so they don’t care if a congressman buys a Cadillac or pays his attorney. The more enjoyment he gets out of the contribution, the better for the PAC.” But individual contributors and smaller PACs generally don’t want campaign contributions to go for personal or quasi-political expenses, Mc Donald said. “They would consider that a waste of their money,” he said. Congressional ethics commit tees rarely investigate campaign spending prac tices, a Common Cause spokesman said. Marci Frosh of the self-styled citizens’ lobby said, “Members can just go on and violate ethics and rules and no one will do anything about it.” Federal law and congressional rules say that campaign funds may be used for any “bonafide campaign or political” expense, but that defi nition has been broadly interpreted by ethics panels. U.S. escorts tanker as British sweep for Iranian mines MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — U.S. warships on Tuesday es corted a Kuwaiti tanker toward a major Persian Gulf shipping channel where British mine sweepers were searching for ex plosives believed planted by Iran. U.S. officials said the Navy would respond strongly if Iran continued “intensified” war activ ities that they said increased after U.S. helicopters attacked an Ira nian minelayer. “We’re not looking at routine operations,” said one U.S. source who spoke on condition of ano nymity. But he said the Navy’s gulf-based resources were al ready seriously strained. Iraq said its warplanes attacked a ship off Iran and bombed a weapons and ammunition factory in the suburbs of Tehran, a large power plant near the Iran-Soviet border and an oil pumping sta tion in the south. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said a number of people were killed in the raids and in Iraqi shelling of the south ern cities of Khorramshahr and Abadan. It said Iranian artillery shelled the southern Iraqi port city of Basra in retaliation. The United States began to es cort 11 Kuwaiti tankers through the gulf in July to protect them from attack by Iran, which con siders Kuwait an ally of Iraq in the 7-year-old Iran-Iraq war. Ku wait insists it is neutral. On Sept. 21, the Navy attacked and captured the landing craft Iran Ajr and said it was caught in the act of laying mines. Iran said it was not carrying any military cargo and vowed revenge. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, back in Washington after a trip to the gulf, said Tues day that the United States would not hesitate to attack any Iranian vessel sowing mines. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said similar statements by Weinberger on Friday in Bahrain were “hos tile and provocative.” Pentagon spokesman Fred Hoffman said the 10th convoy left Kuwait on Monday and was steaming “uneventfully” south through the central gulf. He said the guided-missile frigate USS Hawes was escorting the 46,723- ton tanker Gas Prince. “Three possible mines were sighted Sunday by the Navy de stroyer Kidd and its anti-subma rine helicopter about 15 miles north of Dubai,” Hoffman said. “But ... we have no concrete evi dence that there are any mines there. So based on present infor mation, reports of extensive new mine fields in the southern Per sian Gulf are . .. overdrawn.” But he said tankers in the re gion were being warned away from the area as a precaution. A U.S. source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the convoy’s trip through the gulf, normally two to three days, could take longer because of the mine threat. Traffic was being diverted or not moving at all through the area Tuesday as captains heeded warnings issued by the Navy. The British mine sweepers Brecon, Bicester and Hurworth were searching for explosives and were accompanied by the frigate Andromeda and the Ardebil, a support vessel, witnesses spH