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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1988)
k £! mtmmm ‘V Texas A&M _ « a The Battalion Vol. 87 No. 79 GSPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas Friday, January 22,1988 tOliJ; - |/lattox predicts probe Into petition scandal »U STI N (AP) — Attorney Gen- predict whether a grand jury would share of Texas’ 111 GOP convention and fair decision for be used. . . , WfXUS riN (AP) — Attorney Gen- erlljim Mattox predicted Thursday l^Ht a Harris County grand jury f ^ lik< ly would begin looking at the Re publican Party’s presidential petition Is^Hndal soon. ^^^Atattox, Democrat, also con- telded that the GOP’s decision to al low all six major presidential candi dates to be eligible for national ' coil vent ion delegates raises questions ltl ' about the validity of the party’s pri- ^ miry process. uhit Hj’It kind of goes back to what we. hat! in Watergate, if you recall — ‘alts fair in politics’ — when it’s not all fair in politics. . . . They’ve got themselves in a real quagmire, and III it’s difficult to try to resolve that problem,” Mattox said. ofij^H’ln all likelihood, some of these jM^Btters will be presented relatively r shortly to a Harris County grand ih jury by the district attorney’s office,” |, au Mattox added. petioii^B^ ase y O’Brien, the assistant pros- r^Hjtor handling the case, in a phone interview from Houston, declined to lanol “There may be a misconception that a grand jury comes to play only when we are presenting it for indict ment,” O’Brien said. “For prosecu tors, oftentimes it can be a useful tool for investigation. That’s not to lead you to believe that a grand jury will be involved in any fashion.” The district attorney and FBI have been investigating the GOP pe titions since news reports uncovered alleged forgeries on petitions filed by four candidates — Alexander Haig, Kansas Sen. Robert Dole, New York Rep. Jack Kemp and former Delaware Gov. Pete du Pont. The party certified two other can didates for the March 8 primary bal lot — Vice President George Bush and former television evangelist Pat Robertson. But GOP Chairman George Strake said it had become “impossi ble” to verify signatures on the other four petitions, and the party de clared that all six were eligible for a share of Texas’ 111 GOP convention delegates. Mattox criticized that decision. “The Republican chairman’s ac tion has brought into question the validity of the entire balloting proc ess in Texas for the Republican Party,” Mattox told a news confer ence. “When you do not abide by the law or the rules of the party, well, then of course you have those kinds of things happen,” he said. “I think that the Republican Party’s created a mess for themselves because of what has taken place.” Responding, the Republican chairman disagreed, saying the deci sion was designed to let voters have the final say on all candidates. “I find it strange that the self- styled ‘people’s lawyer' disagrees with our decision to let the people make their own judgment,” Strake said. “We appreciate the interest of the Democratic attorney general, but the Republican Party continues to believe our decision was the only just and fair decision for the voters ot Texas.” Mattox also said GOP officials had not been cooperating with his office. “They have not been willing to let us look at those (petitions), although they have allowed a great number of you (news reporters) to look at them,” he said. Mattox said it now appears the FBI “is moving out of the case be cause they have not found serious federal violations.” However, he said there appear to have been a number of violations of state law. In another development, the Houston Chronicle on Thursday re ported that Kevin Burnette, presi dent of Southern Political Consult ing, said the firm had no plans to reimburse the three candidates for whom it gathered signatures. Burnette also said the biggest mis take his company made was accept ing the job in the first place. “If only life had a rewind button,” Burnette told the newspaper. “This whole thing was flawed from the start. Looking back, I wish we wouldn’t have touched any of them.” i Ser eVelil nrr ft Photo by Mike C. Mulvey Students gather to browse and shop among dozens of boxes of used music book during her lunch break from her job for Texas A&M Day books beside Rudder Fountain. At right, Madge Peterson shops for a roll. ’ 1 ; Bullock sees border leading Texas in steady economic reconvery in ’88 I EDINBURG (AP) —Texas will experience a steady economic recov ery this year, with the border leading the rest of the state. State Comptrol ler Bob Bullock said Thursday. I “In light of what you’ve gone through, there is some justice to the ■act that our recovery has started ■jrst along the border, and we pre dict it will continue stronger, faster along the Rio Grande,” Bullock said ai the Rio Grande Valley Economic [Dutlook Conference at Pan Ameri- :an University. Bullock said while the rest of the State lost 77,000 jobs in 1987, the sorder area gained 5,000 jobs, pri- narily in the area of manufacturing. In 1988, he said the border could rain the same number of jobs and as nany as 140 new twin plants, or ma quiladoras, in which U.S. firms oper ate assembly operations on the Mexi can side of the border. Those plants increased by 30 per cent last year, and also brought jobs to the U.S. side, he said. Bullock pre dicted a 4 percent increase in man ufacturing jobs along Texas’ border areas in 1988, and said the lower Rio Grande Valley will see the greatest increase in employment. The state’s chief fiscal officer said that while the rest of the state will see an economic rebound, the areas least tied to the oil industry will recover fastest. Agriculture along the border also will be a bright spot, Bullock said. “We like to leel the worst is over,” Bullock said. He said unemployment in the state has dropped to 8 percent, from a peak of 10 percent two years ago, but that the lower Rio Grande Valley still suffers from an unemployment rate of about 13 percent. Statewide, Bullock said unem ployment insurance claims w ; ere down 38 percent for the same pe riod and that newspaper employ ment advertisements hav^ increased by, 22 percent in Texas during the past year. Seventy-five percent of new Texas jobs are in service industries, Bullock said, adding that oil has dropped from more than 25 percent of the state’s economy to 15 percent and continues to fall. Yet retail sales in the state, he said, have grown to $9 billion per month, and have increased by 8.4 percent in the past year. Hart disclaims improper funds from supporters Gary Hart said “no, no, it’s not true” on Thursday to fresh alle gations of financial irregularities in his presidential bids, as Repub lican contenders Jack Kemp and Pete du Pont clashed.over Social Security. In a campaign fast ap proaching the boiling point, Democrat Richard Gephardt also accused Paul Simon of being “an ideologue,” and Simon retorted that “too many in our party have bought into the Republican mindset.” The intensity reflected the ap proaching Iowa caucuses on Feb. 8 and the New Hampshire pri mary eight days later, events that will force some contenders out of the race while strengthening oth ers for the primaries and cau cuses to follow. Hart sought to turn attention from the allegations as he toured New Hampshire. But he was dogged bv reporters askimr about former aides’ statements that sup porters had made unreported in- kind contributions in the 1984 and 1988 campaigns and that businesses had provided services without being paid. He resumed the race last month after dropping out last spring when questions were raised about his relationship with Donna Rice. Hart pledged on Wednesday to investigate one set of allegations — reports that vi deo producer Stuart Karl may have improperly bankrolled Hart’s two presidential cam paigns. Du Pont, sharing a stage with Kemp in Manchester, N.H., re newed his call for permitting younger workers to establish pri vate IRA accounts instead of re ceiving Social Security. Kemp, who opposes changes in the current system, said that was a “gloom and doom” view' of the fu ture. Israeli officials ease curfews on Palestinians Along the border, however, retail trade has shrunk, due to the deval uations of the peso, the comptroller said. And statewide, the construction, real estate and financial sectors will continue to lag behind, Bullock said. He said a key to long-term eco nomic growth in the Rio Grande Valley would be for the University of I exas System to incorporate Pan American University. Kenneth Shwedel, vice president and senior economist for the Na tional Bank of Mexico, told the eco nomic conference that the retail in dustry along the border probably will continue to suffer from some negative effects of Mexico’s eco nomic austerity program. JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel eased curfews on some Gaza Strip refugee camps so Palestinians could go to work Thursday, and assigned more police to an Israeli highway where Arabs threw firebombs at a school bus. The bombs missed the bus and did not explode. A strike by merchants continued to paralyze Arab east Jerusalem. Riot police with truncheons pa trolled the streets. A visiting Red Cross official said there appeared to be no critical food shortages in refugee camps under curfew, which supported the Israeli position. U.N. officials who adminis ter the camps in the occupied terri tories challenged his statement. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s decision to have soldiers beat protes ters instead of firing on them brought this comment from the State Department: “We are dis turbed by the adoption of a policy by the government of Israel that calls for beatings as a means to restore or maintain order.” President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said he has a new plan for ad vancing Arab-Israeli peace efforts, which he is expected to discuss with President Reagan at a meeting in Washington this month. In Cairo, a government source said Mubarak’s ideas appear aimed at calming the occupied territories, and include urging Israel to end Jewish settlement there. Violent protests began Dec. 8 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East War. About 1.5 million Palestinians live in the occupied lands. According to U.N. figures, 38 Pal estinians have died in the violence, nearly all of them killed by Israeli gunfire. Relative quiet has been reported for several days in the West Bank and Gaza, but many Israelis now' worry that Arabs living within Is rael’s pre-1967 borders may take a bigger role in the protest. The firebomb attack on the school bus Wednesday night occurred on the Wadi Ara highway linking the Mediterranean coast to Galilee. Po lice said they believed militant Arabs from villages along the road were re sponsible, and sent reinforcements Thursday to help protect traffic. “I appeal to the Arab citizens of Israel: Don’t be dragged into dem onstrations or protests which in the end are based on lies,” Rabin said while touring Gaza. Military officials, who would not let their names be used, said 1,140 Palestinians had been arrested in the Gaza Strip and about half still were in jail. The army lifted curfews on four refugee camps in Gaza from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. Camps open in the af ternoon to receive food and allow people in and out. “Most of the population — 80 to 90 percent — are tired of this (the protests) and want to-go to work,” Brig. Gen. Arye Ramot, head of the Gaza military government, said on Israel radio. “They feel as well as we that the situation has to return to normal.” Four other Gaza camps remained under strict curfew, some for the 13th day. About 230,000 Palestin ians live in refugee camps, most of which are in the Gaza Strip. In the occupied West Bank, two villages and one camp were placed under curfew. The Arab-run Pales tine Press Service reported small demonstrations. / Haitian police arrest leader of opposition PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) An opposition leader, Louis De- Ijoie II, w'as charged Thursday with nciting public disorder and taken ack to jail after a hearing in the Pal- ce of Justice. Defense lawyer Georges Leger aid his client, a leading presidential :andidate in November’s canceled lections, “is held on charges of dis turbing the peace, inciting disorder nd violence.” About 150 people who waited out side during the hour-long proceed ing siiouiv-u t ree Dejoitl l ice De- joie!” as the portly businessman was led out by soldiers in camouflage flak jackets carrying automatic rifles. Dejoie was clad in the same black slacks and white shirt he wore Wednesday afternoon when he was arrested after arrival at the Port-au- Prince airport. The soldiers re turned him to the national peniten tiary two blocks away. Puerto Rico. He lived there during 26 years of exile before dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to France on Feb. 7, 1986. Other opposition leaders de nounced the arrest and threatened another general strike in this pov erty-stricken nation, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Judge Henock Voltaire did not give details of the charges against Dejoie, w’ho had flown home from “We are ready to call a general strike if Louis Dejoie is not brought to trial within 48 hours,” said econo mist Marc Bazin. It was canceled within hours be cause gangs of killers, sometimes joined by soldiers, slaughtered at least 34 people and wounded 75 in the streets and at voting stations. i lie iinniai y-i un junta leu oy ca. Gen Henri Namphy dissolved the council and organized its own elec tion, held Sunday. The vote still is being tabulated but Leslie Manigat, a university professor, is said to lead. Much of the country, including Port-au-Prince, was shut down last Satin day by a general strike called by the four leading opposition poli ticians. They did not run in the next day’s election and most Haitians did not vote. Stone gets third chance at transplant John Stone, a 1984 graduate of Texas A&M, is in serious condi tion in the intensive care unit at Baylor Medicaf Center in Dallas, hospital spokesman Susan Hall said. Stone received his third liver transplant late Sunday night after his second liver was determined to be failing. His first liver was lost because of infection. Stone’s original liver w'as de stroyed by Alpha-1-Anti-Trypsin Deficiency which kept his body from controlling his digestive en zymes. Aggies from across the nation have helped raise $45,000 of the $140,000 required for Stone’s first liver transplant. Anyone wishing to contribute can write The John Stone Fund, Post Oak Branch of First State Bank in Caldwell, P.O. Box 10130, Col lege Station, 77840.