Hr* V Texas A&M mm V #
The Battalion
; I — ‘ ;
159 CISPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, June 15, 1988
Trade deficit decreases
to lowest level in years,
sparks Wall Street rally
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
U.S. trade deficit shrank to $9.89 bil
lion in April, its best showing in
more than three years, the govern
ment said Tuesday in a better-than-
expected report which sparked a big
rally on Wall Street.
The Commerce Department said
the April deficit narrowed by 15.5
percent from a seasonally adjusted
March deficit figure of $11.70 bil
lion, with all of the improvement
coming from a steep drop in im
ports.
The trade figure, which has often
rattled world financial markets, was
greeted as exceptionally good news
by investors, who rushed to bid up
the price of U.S. stocks and bonds.
They also sent the value of the dollar
surging on foreign exchange mar
kets.
By midday, the Dow Jones aver
age of 30 industrials had shot up by
more than 30 points to 2,129.98, its
highest level since the October mar
ket crash.
Many economists had been braced
for a widening of the deficit to
around $12.2 billion based on an as
sumption that exports could not
hold at the record level set in March.
Exports did edge-down by 2.5 per
cent, but the small drop still left
them at $26.22 billion, the second
highest level on record.
Meanwhile, imports plunged 6.4
percent to $36.11 billion, reflecting
big drops in American purchases of
foreign produced goods.
Private analysts said the string of
better trade numbers virtually as
sured that President Reagan would
win his veto battle with Congress
over trade legislation.
“The argument for protectionism
is fast disappearing as our trade def
icit improves,” said Frank McCor
mick, senior economist with Bank of
America.
For the first four months of the
year, the trade deficit has been run
ning at an annual rate of $141.8 bil
lion.
While many economists had been
expecting a decline to around $150
billion, some said they were now re
vising their forecasts to show even
more of an improvement this year.
ice:
nee:
Noon
ng &
ds
exas’ hopes alive; travel advertisement campaign
f shortened site list designed to boost Texas tourism
Stevens said,“We are trying to sell the
AUSTIN (AP) — State officials
1 they remain optimistic about
igthe $4.4 billion superconduct-
super collider project despite a
?Wspaper’s report Tuesday that
Sas has been dropped from the
short-short list” of candidates.
■ he Nashville Tennessean re-
■led that the U.S. Department of
■rgy, in an unpublished list, had
■iced the number of states under
onsideration for enormous re-
earch project to Tennessee, Illinois
■ North Carolina.
Hut DOF officials denied that any
)®even prospective sites — includ-
ng Texas — had been removed,
Men lentatively, from consideration.
“< )ur dog is still in the hunt, and I
Hk we’re out in front of the pack,”
J.S, Sen. Phil Gramm said Tuesday.
■The DOE is working from the
jell-known list of seven, which in-
ludes Texas. . . . We do not believe
he report,” said Reggie Bashur,
Hs secretary to Gov. Bill Clem-
mts
H^ 6 f° ur other states on the de-
Btment’s published list are Ari-
ona, Colorado, Michigan and
rBas.
Gramm, R-Texas, said Energy
FBI probes
Pentagon
officials
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI
ffients Tuesday searched the files
■two top Pentagon officials, a
former Navy official and some of
the nation’s largest defense eon-
Hctors in a massive investigation
of alleged fraud and bribery in
the sale of electronic gear to the
military.
Hiearch warrants were served
■the FBI and the Naval Investi
gative Service at the Pentagon
pd some 30 other locations in 12
states, the Justice Department an
nounced.
Hmderal investigators sealed off
Idd searched the Pentagon office
m Victor Cohen, the civilian offi-
■ responsible for buying tactical
■tie command, control, com
munications and computer sys
tems for the Air Force, said a
Pentagon official, who spoke only
on condition of anonymity.
■Also sealed off and searched
was the Pentagon office of James
Gaines, deputy assistant secretary
|f the Navy for acquisition man
agement, international programs
and congressional support, a
Hvy source said.
Hn addition, a former Navy of-
\-Hal, Melvyn Paisley, now a
Hshington consultant to de-
rentty eI1 ^ ense aerospace companies, also
, .jrftoas served with a search warrant,
the FBI said.
!P erci» 'n,,.
investigation has been un
do way for two years and
volves “allegations of fraud and
bribery on the part of defense
contractors, consultants and U.S.
government employees,” FBI
sAkesman Gregory Jones said.
■The inquiry focuses on “possi
ble widespread fraudulent activ
ity within the Department of De
mise’s contracting process,” the
Jostice Department said in a
statement.
Ccntci
i
Department officials assured him
there was no foundation for the
story whatsoever.
“They have not even completed
all their site visits. They don’t intend
to narrow down (the list) to three
sites.”
Gramm said the story surfaced
during the Energy Department’s in
spection of the Tennessee site and
that the site team “has spent the
whole day trying to straighten out
this statement by a Tennessee con
gressman.”
Lep.
Id tl
Tenn., told the newspaper, “I have
heard that there is a shorter short list
and that Tennessee is on it.”
An aide to Gordon, Harrison
Wadsworth, said the congressman’s
remark was in response to a Tennes
sean reporter’s question regarding
the unnamed source’s information.
Gramm said, “I said they ought to
make this news story the cover sheet
for the Tennessee proposal.
“They laughed at my suggestion
but they are not laughing about hav
ing to spend the day straightening
out all this missinformation. If it did
anything, it hurt Tennessee,” he
said.
Energy Department spokesman
Jeff Sherwood said the department
has no shorter list of sites.
“The intent is not to go to any
kind of a short short-list. The intent
is to go from the seven best qualified
sites . . . right down to one site in late
November.”
By Marcena Fadal
Staff Writer
“Visit a country where the natives are friendly
and the language barrier is easily overcome. ”
It may sound like a typical travel and tourism
advertisement, but it is not only unique. So far it
has been uniquely successful.
The location? It’s Texas and the advertisement
is just one of many themes, created by an adver
tising agency in Austin, being used in an effort to
increase tourism in the state.
“We’re trying to get away from the boastful
image Texas has,” said Scott Stevens, public rela
tions coordinator for the Texas Department of
Commerce. “We are letting everyone know that
we are a friendly state and like a whole other
country by playing up our natural resources.
People in the Midwest don’t realize that Texas
has mountains and 600 miles of beach.”
Bill Lauderback, Executive Director of the De
partment of Commerce, initially was behind the
ad campaign promoting Texas.
“These advertisements, both television and
magazine, are generating more interest than any
other tourism campaign in the state’s history,”
Lauderback said.
“Our increased travel promotion funding is
enabling us to get the Texas message out to many
more potential visitors, and this should result in
increased travel spending statewide, and ultima
tely, more jobs,” he said.
Stevens said tourism would increase service-
oriented jobs such as work in amusement parks,
restaurants and hotels.
A department spokesman said the Texas De
partment of Commerce will spend about $5 mil
lion to promote Texas as a vacation spot this year
with an extra $2 million allocated for other pro
motions by the tourist department. Only
$970,000 was spent last year.
Stevens said,“We are trying to sell the whole
state. We are trying to get away from the tourists
concentrating on a few cities in Texas, and to get
them to see what else we have to offer.”
The ads, launched on April 26 in national
publications such as Travel 8c Leisure, American
Way and Vista, include a toll-free telephone
number for requests for a free 68-page pictorial
of Texas and a large highway road map. Re
gional editions of Time, Newsweek, People and
Sports Illustrated also will print the Texas adver
tisements. ’ *
“The results are already showing,” Stevens
said. “The toll-free number has lead to over
10,000 inquiries calling for information about
Texas.”
A department spokesman said before the ads
were printed, the Texas Department of Com
merce received only 100 to 200 calls a day. Since
then, many days have brought in more than
2,000 calls.
The new print and television commercials
were unveiled in Austin on San Jacinto Day by
Gov. Bill Clements and his wife Rita, chairman of
the Texas Tourism Advisory Committee.
Out-of-state tourists come to Texas at a rate of
1,110 per hour, a department spokesman said.
In 1986, 39.4 million out-of-state tourists entered
Texas, including 3.5 million foreigners. Pleasure
and business expenditures totaled $ 17.29 billion.
“If each visiting party in Texas would stay one
additional day, travel expenditures would in
crease $2.5 billion,” a department spokesman
said.
Tobacco companies’ lawyers meet
after loss of cigarette liability case
Baker leaves post
to rest, aid family
WASHINGTON (AP) — Howard
H. Baker Jr., who gave up his presi
dential ambitions to help President
Reagan run the White House after
the Iran-Contra scandal, has re
signed as chief of staff and will be re
placed by his deputy, Kenneth
Duberstein, it was announced Tues
day.
Baker said he will return to his
home in Huntsville, Tenn., where
his wife and his stepmother are in
poor health. The changeover will
take place July 1.
“I really relish the thought of get
ting back to private life,” Baker, an
attorney, said in an interview. “It has
been an extraordinary experience
working with Ronald Reagan.
“I expect to go back and do noth
ing for awhile. I’m going to rest a
little bit,” Baker said.
With the accomplishments of the
past 16 months and the health prob
lems in his family, Baker said, “it
seemed like a logical time” to go.
Prominently mentioned as a possi
ble running mate on the Republican
presidential ticket with George
Bush, Baker said he would not turn
down the No. 2 spot if it were of
fered, but he doesn’t expect the of
fer.
“You don’t turn down requests of
that sort if they are made,” Baker
said. “It’s really something that is
presumptions in the extreme to say,
‘No, I would not do that.’ But I do
not want to do that, I do not expect
to do that, and I think it’s extremely
unlikely I would be asked to do
that.”
Baker said he had told Bush he
was quitting, but did not raise the is
sue of whether he might be available
as a runningmate. Laughingly,
Baker added, “More important, he’s
never discussed that with me.”
Reagan accepted Baker’s resigna
tion with “deep regret” and praised
him as “a steady hand in the opera
tion of the White House while the
Iran-Contra investigations were be
ing conducted.”
Duberstein, 44, will be Reagan’s
fourth chief of staff, responsible for
directing the flow of paper and visi
tors to the president’s office and
coordinating his schedule. He will
oversee a White House staff of about
325 people.
Like Baker, Duberstein is re
nowned for his expertise in dealing
with Congress. He was the White
House’s chief legislative strategist
during part of Reagan’s first term,
and after a stint with a business con
sulting firm, returned to the White
House as Baker’s deputy on March
23, 1987.
“Ken will be my principal aide and
will lead the White House staff as we
head into the home stretch,” Reagan
said in a statement. “He is an out
standing manager and skilled strate
gist who has been fundamental to
the significant accomplishments,
foreign and domestic, we have
achieved.”
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Tobacco
companies went on the offensive
Tuesday to counter fallout from
their first loss of a cigarette liability
case as stock prices for the tobacco
giants moved lower.
Industry lawyers held a New York
hews conference to attack the impar
tiality of the judge in the four-month
trial that held a cigarette maker
partly responsible for a smoker’s
lung cancer and awarded $400,000
in damages to her widower.
They also argued that greed, not
principle, drives attorneys who sue
their $35 billion-a-year industry.
And they released a detailed rebuttal
of previously secret industry docu
ments introduced by anti-smoking
forces during the trial.
Meanwhile, Marc Z. Edell, the at
torney who won the first damages
award against a cigarette company,
said he may amend six other ciga
rette liability lawsuits he is handling
to include civil racketeering charges
against the tobacco industry.
The verdict Monday found Lig
gett Group Inc. had failed to warn
the public about smoking’s dangers
and violated a promise, or “express
warranty,” in advertisements that
cigarettes were safe.
However, the six-member jury
cleared Lorillard Inc., Philip Morris
Inc. and Liggett of conspiring to
mislead the public about the risks of
smoking.
No punitive damages were
awarded in the case brought by An
tonio Cipollone and his wife, Rose,
who died of lung cancer in 1984 af
ter 40 years of smoking cigarettes
manufactured by the three compa
nies. The jury mainly blamed Mrs.
Cipollone for contracting her dis
ease.
Cipollone said the industry “abso
lutely” killed his wife. “That I be
lieve,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Both sides claimed important vic
tories from the judgment, however.
“The verdict in the Cipollone case
is clearly a verdict for the cigarette
manufacturers,” said Arthur Ste
vens, general counsel for Lorillard.
“Any effort to characterize it other
wise is clearly a distortion.”
“The jury returned a resounding
message that individuals who make
informed choices have responsibility
for those choices,” said Philip Mor
ris’ general counsel, Murray Bring,
at a news conference called by law
yers for Morris and Lorillard.
Ashtrays were passed out to re
porters and Bring lit a cigarette as
television lights shined on the dais in
a jammed hotel meeting room in
Manhattan.
Bring and Stevens used the forum
to attack U.S. District Judge H. Lee
Sarokin as biased.
“It is clear from any person
looking at his rulings that they were
preferential and unwarranted” and
against the rules of procedure, Ste
vens said. “We could not have had a
more extreme adversary.”
They also said greed drove Cipol-
lone’s attorneys.
“Everybody knows what they were
really pursuing, and it wasn’t solely
to benefit Tony or Rose Cipollone,”
he said, pointing out how the Cipol-
lone’s attorneys spent $2 million on
the case but only recovered
$400,000 in damages.
“These cases are about money. If
the plaintiffs don’t get money, they
are not going to bring them,” Ste
vens said.
Cipollone’s attorneys “observed
no scruples in their effort to defame,
to discredit the entire tobacco indus
try,” Stevens said.”
He also said the tobacco compa
nies’ claims of victory was for public
relations reasons, both to encourage
industry investors and discourage
other lawyers from pursuing such
cases.
Liggett attorneys have promised
an appeal of the damages award.
Liggett faced additional charges
because it manufactured the Ches
terfields and L&Ms that Mrs. Cipol
lone smoked before 1966, when
Congress ordered health warnings
on cigarette packs. Mrs. Cipollone
later used brands made by Lorillard
and Philip Morris, even after having
part of her lung removed in 1981.
Reaction to the verdict, reached
after five days of deliberations, fo
cused on its potential impact on the
more than 100 such cases pending in
federal and state courts nationwide.
Half of fund
raised for girl
to return
About $3,000 of the $6,000
needed to airlift Laura Burnett
from Munich, Germany to Col
lege Station had been raised
Tuesday afternoon.
Burnett is the daughter of Dr.
John Burnett, a marketing pro
fessor at A&M. Laura suffered
injuries and has been in a coma
since a May 30 pedestrian-auto
mobile accident in Munich.
Any donations should be sent
to the Laura Burnett Fund in
care of First RepublicBank, P.O.
Box 2860, College Station, Texas
77841. Donations should be sent
to the attention of Lee Cargill.