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Th'e Battalion
Vol. 87 No. 50 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, November 9, 1987
Top job
Workers for Elco Roofing Company use copper
sheets to repair the wind-damaged roof of Har
rington Tower Thursday. The roofing was torn
Photo by Sam B. Myers
from the tower last summer during a storm. The
repairs took three days to complete and cost about
$10,000.
Critics: Dole to face
lingering questions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate
Republican leader Bob Dole is
launching his campaign for the 1988
presidential nomination as the clear
runner-up to Vice President George
Bush in the polls, but critics and sup
porters say he faces lingering ques
tions about personal style and politi
cal contradictions.
As Dole embarks on his campaign
from his hometown of Russell, Kan.,
there is general agreement on the
impressive steps he has taken in the
last 12 months as he has emerged
from the pack of Bush’s pursuers.
“I think we’re ready to go one on
one” with Bush, Bill Lacy, a key cam
paign aide said. “The thing that
pleases me most is organizationally,
we’ve made dramatic strides.” He re
ferred to strong fundraising and
paid political operatives in 35 states.
But others say that won’t be
enough.
“Dole has a marvelous sense of
humor, but it’s like a two-edged
sword,” said one campaign aide,
speaking on condition of anonymity, past campaigns
This aide said Dole must be careful
to use his humor on himself and not
use it for “undermining and depre
cating an opponent.”
In public he has accomplished
that thus far, but in private Dole is
still capable of cutting, acidic re
marks. According to one aide, when
Dole was musing about how to an
swer a debate question on which por
traits he would hang in the White
House, he said he would put up pic
tures of the men he has defeated in
Railroad panel to study
safety of A&M crossings
By Lee Schexnaider
Reporter
The Texas Railroad Commission
is investigating the problems con
cerning automobile accidents on the
Union Pacific/Southern Pacific rail
line, Railroad Commissioner John
Sharp said on Friday.
The concern is over the 11 auto
mobile-train collisions at crossings in
College Station since 1977. In these
accidents, three people died and
four were injured.
Sharp said part of the impetus to
move the project along might have
come from the fact that the latest fa
tality happened just before the Sep
tember meeting of the Texas A&M
Board of Regents. In that accident,
Martin Joseph Bottoms, an A&M
student, was killed near the intersec
tion of Wellborn Road and FM 2818.
Sharp said Board of Regents
chairman David Eller brought the
matter qf College Station’s crossing
safety to his attention. At Eller’s re
quest, Railroad Commission rep
resentatives had a press conference
at Easterwood Airport Friday to set
up a public hearing later this month.
Sharp said a public hearing on the
matter will be held Nov. 24. The
meeting tentatively is scheduled for
9 a.m. at the University Center.
“We want public testimony from
anybody that can tell us what the sit
uation is,” he said. “This is the first
step in what could turn out to be a
longer proceeding.”
James Bond, deputy chancellor
for legal and external affairs, said
A&M is trying to remedy a loss of
momentum in solving the issue of
railroad-crossing accidents.
“I believe this one is not going to
go away,” Bond said. “It is time to fix
it.”
A report from the Texas Highway
Department given to the Board of
Regents office outlined possible ap
proaches to the combined problem
of the railroad track and Wellborn
Road cutting through the A&M
campus. The report discussed three
main options and provided prelimi
nary costs for each:
• Depress Wellborn and relocate
the railroad tracks — $44.3 million.
• Elevate Wellborn and relocate
the tracks — $39.7 million.
• Depress both the road and the
tracks — $32.5 million.
The report said a problem with
the third option is that it wouldn’t
remove the potential problem of
transporting hazardous cargo near
the campus.
Where the money would come
from to pay for any renovations isn’t
clear, but the report suggested part
of it might come from the highway -
department.
William McKenzie, an A&M re
gent, said in a telephone interview
Friday that the discussion of the
problems has been going on for
quite some time.
“Literally, we have been dis
cussing it for a number of years,” he
said.
A resolution proposed by McKen
zie and passed at the Sept. 21 re-
f ents’ meeting urged the College
tation City Council to limit the
speed of trains to 15 mph between
the Holleman Street and University
Drive intersections at Wellborn
Road.
McKenzie said he would like to
see Wellborn itself moved to form a
continuous campus.
Icials: Program releases violent inmates early
HOUSTON (AP) — Violent offenders
are being freed under a special early release
program intended only for non-violent in-
ates in the state’s prisons, the Houston
'hronicle reported Sunday.
“The problem the (state) administration
as is S that it preaches law and order, of
locking all the inmates up and throwing
|away the key,” said John Byrd, executive di
rector of the state parole board.
“Then it turns around and announces
150 will be let out in a day,” he said. “You
can’t have it both ways. It just doesn’t
work.”
On Sept. 24, Gov. Bill Clements, State
Board of Corrections Chairman A1 Hughes
and Paroles Chairman Henry Keene an
nounced the early release program as a
stopgap measure to release 150 inmates
each day to make room for 150 more.
But Keene emphasized only “non-assaul-
tive” inmates, such as those serving time for
bad checks, theft, credit-card abuse, drug
possession and burglary, would be eligible
for the early release program.
The Chronicle said an informal study of
the plan showed 15 percent to 20 percent of
the inmates being released under the pro
gram were serving time for aggravated as
sault, aggravated robbery and other violent
crimes, including murder.
The Chronicle said 125, or 17 percent, of
the 730 inmates approved for parole in the
program’s first week (Sept. 28 - Oct. 2) had
been convicted of violent crimes.
Parole board Vice Chairman Chris Mealy
said, “To tell the public we are not letting
out violent people is inaccurate.”
Last week, Texas voters approved a con
stitutional amendment that will provide an
estimated $200 million in bond funds for
new prison construction.
. However, Clements and other officials
have warned that the new construction will
allow the state only to catch up with the cur
rent overflow, not anticipate future growth.
Delay may prevent placing conservative on high court
1 WASHINGTON (AP) — A key
Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee said Sunday that a delay
in the selection of a new Supreme
Court nominee might prevent Presi
dent Reagan from placing a conser
vative choice on the high court.
Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, the
resident’s second choice for the
igh court seat vacated by retired
Justice Lewis F. Powell, announced
Saturday that he had asked Reagan
to withdraw his nomination. Gins-
pburg said his views on law had been
“drowned out in the clamor” over
‘his use of marijuana in the 1960s
and 1970s.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., praised
Ginsberg's foil raises questions concerning Meese's role
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fall
of Supreme Court nominee Douglas
H. Ginsburg raises questions about
Attorney General Edwin Meese Ill’s
role in White House decision-mak
ing, given the failure of the judicial
review process to expose Ginsburg’s
past use of marijuana. Both friends
and critics of Meese said Sunday
they doubted that his influence with
President Reagan would suffer in
the wake of the Ginsburg incident,
which unfolded in the midst of a
much-ballyhooed rivalry with White
House chief of staff Howard Baker
for presidential attention.
“I don’t see this as diminishing his
influence at all,” said A.R. “Pete”
Giesen, a Republican member of the
Virginia House of Delegates and
onetime Meese roommate at Yale
University. “Ed just doesn’t buckle
undei^op^ssureJ^hink^he^^oin^
to continue to tell it to the president
as he sees it.”
But some other Meese associates
said they believed the failure of the
Justice Department’s judicial candi
date selection process to turn up
Ginsburg’s marijuana smoking re-
flected poorly on Meese.
Ginsburg for acting quickly in re
questing that his name be withdrawn
and said he would like to see the
committee adhere to the same hear
ing schedule on a new nominee as
the one that was planned for Gins
burg.
The chairman of the Senate
panel, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.,
had decided to begin hearings on
the Ginsburg nomination the week
of Dec. 7.
“I would like to see us start the
hearings on the same schedule, in
early December,” Specter said on
ABC-TV’s “This Week With David
Brinkley.”
“I think we can get along with the
work, and I think we ought to take
the time that is necessary, but I have
grave doubts about the talk of put
ting off the hearings until after the
first of the year,” Specter said. “I
think we ought to take the time we
need, and if we find, after we start,
that we can’t get it done as rapidly as
we’d like, we take what time is nec
essary.
“But starting at a reasonably early
date I think is important.”
Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala., a
Southern conservative on the com
mittee, said he prefers speedy action
but emphasized the need for a com
prehensive background check to
avoid surprise revelations like those
of the Ginsburg nomination.
A&M student stays in intensive care
after surviving weekend plane crash
By Tracy Staton
Staff Writer
A plane crash in Bryan Saturday
night left one Texas A&M student in
intensive care but in stable condition
and another with no apparent inju
ries, a spokesman from St. Joseph
Hospital said late Sunday.
Mark Clark, a sophomore general
studies major, sustained a mild con
cussion and two broken ankles when
the 1946 Cessna 140 he was piloting
crashed at Coulter Field on Hwy. 21.
His brother, Travis Clark, a sopho
more general studies major who was
the plane’s only passenger, was re
leased from the hospital Sunday
morning after examination, the
spokesman said.
At 8:45 p.m. Saturday, the two-
seater plane hit a utility line parallel
to Hwy. 21, flipped onto the high
way and landed in a ditch adjacent to
the road, Bob Dickens, air safety in
vestigator, said. There was no evi
dence of a fire, but the plane
snapped a utility line and sheared a
telephone pole. The plane was de
stroyed, Dickens said.
“We are looking at the pilot’s ex
perience level and the mechanical
condition of the aircraft as possible
causes for the crash,” Dickens said.
“We haven’t found anything at this
point to make the aircraft suspect.”
Tom Taylor, Mark Clark’s flight
instructor and owner of the plane,
said Clark had a student license and
was almost ready to apply for his pri
vate pilot’s license. But two airport
employees said Clark told them he
had passed his check ride, the flying
test for a private license.
“He told us he had his private pi
lot’s license and that he had passed
his check ride,” said Chris Largent, a
sophomore electrical engineering
major. “A check ride is the very last
thing in getting your license. It in
volves your instructor signing you
out and you go to a Federal Aviation
Administration official who checks
you out.”
Taylor said misrepresentation
isn’t a direct violation of Federal Avi
ation Regulations but isn’t accepta
ble behavior.
“They shouldn’t say something
that they’re not,” he said. “But
there’s not a regulation saying ‘thou
shall not lie.’ ”
Nick Altizer, a junior finance ma
jor who also works at the airport,
said as a student pilot, Clark
shouldn’t have taken his brother in
the plane with him.
“If you’re a student pilot, the way
you’re set up you can go solo, but
you’re not allowed to take a passen
ger,” Altizer said.
Part 61, Section 89 of the Federal
Aviation Regulations states, “A stu
dent pilot may not act as pilot in
command of an aircraft that is carry
ing a passenger.”
Dickens said the FAA’s report of
probable cause won’t be released for
six to eight months. As an investiga
tor for the National Transportation
Safety Board, Dickens’ responsibility
is to gather the facts about the crash
and make a field factual report. He
said his report won’t be ready for
about three months.
See Plane crash, page 8
Texas A&M student
dies as car collides
with 2 other vehicles
By Lee Schexnaider
Staff Writer
A Texas A&M student was
killed in an accident involving
three vehicles in College Station
Sunday evening.
Gena Lynn Thornton, 20, a
junior animal science major
from Houston, was pronounced
dead at the scene of the accident
by Justice of the Peace Carolyn
Hensarling.
Thornton was driving north
on FM 2818 near the intersec
tion of FM 2818 and F&B Road
when her car collided with a
1984 Chevrolet pickup truck,
Patrolman Joe Eldredge of the
College Station Police Depart
ment said.
The pickup truck had
swerved into the northbound
lane of FM 2818, Eldredge said.
A motor home traveling south
in the southbound lane then hit
the car, he said.
The driver of the truck, James
Michael Hicks, 23, a senior bi
omedical science major at A&M,
was treated and released from
Humana Hospital in College
Station with minor injuries, El
dredge said.
The driver of the motor
home, Kelly Wayne Marbach of
See Collision, page 8