Wednesday, May 25, 1988/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
>l a[ Regents approve contracts for
engineering building, terminal
State Briefs
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By Ashley A. Bailey
Staff Writer
■The Texas A&M Board of Re
gents on Sunday awarded an $11.3
million contract for the construction
of a new petroleum engineering
building.
The b ase bid of $10.8 million by
Spaw-Glass Builders Inc. of Houston
is $2.2 million more than the $8.6
million anticipated base building
cost but was awarded because of the
increased cost of steel and concrete.
The Board also agreed to include a
$522,000 alternative in the contract
to complete the tenth floor with the
rest of the building. The regents had
originally intended to wait until a
later date to complete the floor.
groundbreaking ceremony for
the ten-story building took place
early Monday morning. The
113,700-square-foot building,
named after former Board member
Joe C. Richardson of Amarillo, is
one of the largest engineering facili
ties on any campus in the nation, the
Board said.
The building will include a 140-
foot well shaft in the building’s core
that can be used for research in such
areas as friction loss of drilling fluid
and fluid pressure measurement.
Completion is expected in early
1990. The building will house class
rooms, laboratories and offices for
the petroleum engineering depart
ment and some parts of the chemical
engineering department.
On Monday, the Board approved
a $4.5 million contract for a new ter
minal at Easterwood Airport, which
is to be named after Board member
William A. McKenzie of Dallas.
The contract, awarded to Emer
son Construction Company Inc. of
Temple, includes the construction of
a two-tier passenger terminal, a
parking lot servicing approximately
200 automobiles and a tool booth at
the entrance of the lot.
Continental Express, American
Eagle and Atlantic Southeast Air
lines are the three feeder lines that
currently serve Easterwood, provid
ing links to Dallas-Fort Worth and
Houston.
Only two of the carriers currently
use planes that have a passenger ca
pacity of over 20, but the Board
hopes that the new terminal and the
recent extension of the airport’s
main runway to 7,000 feet will at
tract larger aircraft and more air
travel at Easterwood.
The Emerson bid is $132,858 be
low the $4.6 million estimated cost of
the project.
In other action, the Board
awarded contracts to Williams In
dustries Contractors of Houston for
the $1,680,900 renovation of the bi
ological sciences building and to
Daybreak Construction Inc. of Bel
ton for the $734,000 construction of
a veterinary medicine research sur
gery facility.
The Board also voted to name the
medical building after the Vice
Chairman of the Board, Joe H. Rey
nolds of Houston.
SAN ANGELO (AP) — A U.S.
Customs Service plane that ap
parently lost power crashed into a
West Texas lake Tuesday af
ternoon, and boaters pulled two
men aboard to safety, officials
said.
Both men were being treated
Tuesday afternoon at Angelo
Community Hospital, but their
injuries were not considered to be
life-threatening, nursing supervi
sor Mike Wood said.
The names of the two men on
board the plane were not imme
diately released.
The twin-engine Cessna
crashed around 2 p.m. into Lake
Nasworthy, on San Angelo’s
southwest side, Chief Lake
Ranger Tom Steckbeck said.
He said the two men — a pilot
and the student pilot — were
practicing takeoffs and landings
from Mathis Field in San Angelo,
where the plane is based.
Construction worker sues over jailing
ompanies
attle over
rademark
DALLAS (AP) — A modern in-
barnation of “rubber duckies” has
Surfaced in a Dallas courtroom as
■wo companies battle for rights to
market their condoms under that
tame.
Steve Finley, president and
(Founder of Rubber Ducky Inc. of
uburban Irving, said Tuesday
hat his company was cheated
when a Marshfield, Mass., com-
any got trademark rights to the
Rubber Ducky” name last
month.
Saying he came up with the
dea first, he filed a complaint
Monday in federal court in his
lid to win exclusive rights to the
name formerly associated with
bathtub toys and public tele
vision’s “Sesame Street.”
Finley’s company uses the
name to promote condoms, T-
shirts and other items. He said he
came up with the idea last July
and began a national campaign
on Texas beaches during spring
break.
But Dianne Giles said she and
her sister came up with the Rub
ber Ducky idea in 1986 and be
gan selling condoms with that
name in March 1987. Her com
pany obtained a U.S. trademark
registration April 19.
“We had the idea First, we got
the trademark rights first and we
feel like we’ve really been violated
here,” Giles told the Dallas Morn
ing News.
Finley’s duck is a worldly, car-
toonish character, while Giles said
hers is more subdued and
inspired in part by feminist feel
ings that traditionally packaged
condoms are “too macho.”
“I found the name ‘Rubber
Ducky’ not to be offensive. Some
people even think of ‘Sesame
Street’,” said Giles, a real estate
agent.
Neither company will say how
many condoms it has sold, but
[ Finley said his company mar-
| keted between 15,000 and 18,000
condoms on Texas beaches over
spring break.
Newspaper, university clash
over reporter’s alleged bias
DALLAS (AP) — A Waco con
struction worker has sued a sub
urban city because he was jailed
for nearly a month after his head
ache powder was mistaken for co
caine.
Michael Holloway, 37, was ar
rested in April 1987 on intoxica
tion charges while visiting his ex-
wife, but was charged with drug
possession after police said pow
der he carried had tested positive
for cocaine, Holloway’s suit
claims.
The suit, filed Friday in state
district court, said Holloway
spent 25 days in the Garland jail
before authorities determined
that the powder he carried had
tested negative. Holloway said the
powder was actually the BC head
ache remedy.
Garland Police Chief Jesse
Youngblood said a police field
test identified the powder as co
caine, and that Holloway was re
leased only after a more sophisti-
cated crime laboratory
determined the material wasn’t
AMARILLO (AP) — A smolder
ing dispute between West Texas
State University and the Amarillo
Globe-News flared with the claim
that a Globe-News reporter covering
the university aided an under
ground newspaper critical of the
school’s administration.
This week, an advisory board
challenged the Globe-News’ adver
tising policy after an advertisement
was rejected that pertained to the re
porter’s involvement with the under
ground newspaper.
The ad, which WTSU’s Ex-Stu-
dents Association offered to several
Panhandle-area newspapers, in
cluded a story and editorial from the
school’s student newspaper, The
Prairie, linking Globe-News reporter
Jason Akst with the underground
newspaper, The Rest of the Prairie.
The story, published May 4, said
that Akst approached a local resi
dent for the use Of her post-office
box and that Akst accepted mail ad
dressed to the newspaper.
An accompanying editorial
charged the Globe-News with biased
coverage of WTSU, which is em
broiled in a power struggle between
President Ed Roach and the faculty.
Akst, a recent WTSU graduate
who had begun covering the Canyon
university two weeks before, said his
involvement with the underground
newspaper amounted to temporarily
holding a post-office box key used
by the publication for a friend who
had moved out of town.
Nevertheless, the Globe-News ran
a story recently saying Akst would
no longer be given any assignments
connected with WTSU.
Barbara Sherrod, the Prairie’s ed
itor for the fall semester, said the pa
per stands by its story.
Sherrod said Akst’s involvement
with the underground newspaper
was just one example of the paper’s
biased coverage of WTSU.
Meanwhile, the paper’s advisory
board wrotife a letter in Sunday’s
Globe-News that said the decision
not to run the ad was inconsistent
with earlier publication of contro
versial advertising.
The advisory board was created to
help defuse a campaign mounted
against the newspaper by Panhandle
Citizens for a Better Amarillo News
paper. With the support of oilman
T. Boone Pickens Jr., PCBAN had
called for subscription and advertis
ing cancellations.
On Sunday, the group cited the
decision to run a strongly worded ad
bought by a group called SAFE —
Students, Alumni and Faculty for
Education at West Texas State Uni
versity.
That ad harshly criticized Roach’s
administration, and SAFE, along
with the anonymous publishers of
the underground newspaper, was
later named in a libel lawsuit filed,
and later dropped, by Roach.
“In studying the facts involved in
both cases, the forum perceives that
there is not only inconsistency in
volved in these instances, but there is
also bias by the newspaper,” the let
ter said.
Woman loses bid to regain beauty title
GALVESTON (AP) — A judge
has ruled that a lawsuit filed by a
former Miss Galveston-USA in a
bid to regain her crown was
groundless and intended to ha
rass the local pageant and its di
rector.
Karen Wilson, stripped of the
1988 Miss Galveston title because
she had not graduated by June
1988, claimed in her suit she was
not told contestants had to com
ply with the graduation require
ment.
But State District Judge Ed
Harris denied the high school ju
nior’s request for a temporary in
junction seeking the return of her
crown and the right to compete in
the Miss Texas-USA pageant
later this year.
Harris said the suit “is ground
less and brought in bad faith and
for harassment,” and ordered
Miss Wilson to return prizes that
included a diamond necklace.
Harris’ ruling means that 22-
year-old Stacy Lindsey of Santa
Fe, first runner-up in the Sep
tember pageant, will compete in
the Miss Texas-USA pageant in
El Paso on Aug. 15.
Regent draws fire for vote in firing
Reporter, photographer detained
after taking pictures of courtroom
AUSTIN (AP) — The new re
gent who voted to fire Robert L.
Hardesty as president of South
west Texas State University will
get close scrutiny when his ap
pointment comes before the Sen
ate Nominations Committee next
year, committee Chairman Chet
Edwards said Tuesday.
Hardesty, a friend of former
Gov. Mark White, was fired
Thursday on a 5-4 vote with all
three appointees of Gov. Bill
Clements voting to oust him.
One of the Clements appoin
tees, George Worth of San Anto
nio, was appointed to the Texas
State University System Board of
Regents just two days before the
vote to fire Hardesty.
Edwards said in a statement
that “when a board member
makes a decision as important as
termination of a university presi
dent only U/z hours after being
sworn in, I have to wonder just
how carefully the decision was
made.”
HOUSTON (AP) — A photogra
pher and reporter with the Houston
Chronicle must show why they
should not be held in contempt of
court for shooting a picture through
a glass courtroom door, a judge has
ordered.
Photographer Richard Carson
and reporter Pete Slover were de
tained Monday on contempt-of-
court charges after Carson took pic
tures of a witness testifying in Harris
County Probate Court Judge Pat
Gregory’s courtroom. The camera’s
flash unit was not used.
The two were released on their
own recognizance a few hours after
being detained and were told to ap
pear at a hearing Friday.
Gregory said taking photographs
through his courtroom door “is an
offense to this court” and that a ban
on such photographs “has always
been my rule.” The judge also said
Carson’s actions could have dis
tracted jurors.
Use of cameras generally is not al
lowed inside courtrooms, but tele
vision and newspaper photogra
phers regularly have taken
photographs through courtroom
windows in state and county courts
here.
On occasion, judges have covered
windows to thwart the practice, but
window shades on the doors to Gre
gory’s court were not closed Mon
day.
Chronicle attorney William W.
Ogden said Carson was following
what he thought was accepted prac
tice at the courthouse and that no
court order had been violated since
none existed.
Without a prior order, restraint of
the photographer would be a viola
tion of First Amendment guar
antees, Ogden said.
Upon releasing the journalists,
Gregory told them, “If the film is
published in the newspaper, it will
be in further contempt of this court,
and I’ll deal with that more se
verely.”
“We strongly object to Judge Gre
gory’s attempt to interfere with the
Chronicle’s efforts to cover the
news,” said Jack Loftis, the Chroni
cle’s vice president and editor.
Export growth to benefit North Texas
DALLAS (AP) — Export
growth sparked by a falling dollar
will benefit the North Texas
economy more than other areas
of the state, a Federal Reserve
Bank of Dallas study shows.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area’s
manufacturing sector will benefit
at a rate 12 percent higher than
the national average, Harvey
Rosenblum, senior vice president
and director of research at the
Federal Reserve Bank, said Mon
day.
Benefits of a lower dollar will
not be distributed evenly, Rose
nblum said.
“Even within our own state,
you can see noticeable differences
between the metro areas,” he
said, noting the study indicated
Texas as a whole will benefit
slightly less than the national av
erage.
The dollar has dropped 26
percent since early 1986, accord
ing to the Dallas Federal Bank’s
inflation-adjusted trade-weighted
value of the dollar, based on cur
rencies of 100 countries.
INNOVATION
CONTINUED
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