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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
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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.