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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 1988)
Texas M W • The Battalion Thursday, June 16,1988 College Station, Texas 87 No. 160 GSPS 045360 8 Pages FBI put taps in Pentagon, jofficials say WASHINGTON (AP) — Two top Pentagon officials whose offices were searched and sealed off in a procurement fraud probe have been using office telephones that were tapped by the FBI, government sources said Wednesday. The FBI placed a court-autho rized wire tap in the office of Victor Cohen, the civilian official responsi ble for buying tactical battle com mand, control, communications and computer systems for the Air Force, sources said. A court-authorized tap also was installed in the office of James Gaines, deputy assistant secretary of he Navy for acquisition manage ment, international programs and congressional support, sources said. The offices or both officials were searched and sealed off Tuesday as he FBI issued search warrants at 36 ocations in 12 states. Search warrants were served on at east six current or former Pentagon ersonnel. Among the offices searched was that of George Stone, an official in the Space and Naval Warfare Sys tems Command. Stone is director of the information management serv ices and information transfer pur chases division. A warrant also was served on Jack Sherman, a civilian employee in the Marine Corps. Sherman works in the equipment and service acquisi tion section of the contracts division, installation and logistics department at Marine Corps headquarters. Another Pentagon employee whose files were searched, Stuart Berlin, works for the Naval Air Sys tems Command, the prime contract ing office for aircraft-related pro curement. Berlin is the head of the ship systems engineering branch. The wiretaps and search warrants were part of a probe involving alle gations of fraud and bribery on the part of defense contractors, consul tants and U.S. government employ- Double vision? Texas A&M men’s tennis coach, David Kent, explains Wednesday the backhand volley at Omar Smith tennis complex to five sets of twins Photo by Jay Janner who are attending the week-long camp being held on campus. The camp has an enrollement of 117 students. Summer enrollment of 15,331 largest ever, A&M officials say By Loyd Brumfield Staff Writer Summer school enrollment at Texas A&M is the highest ever for the first session and 10-week semes ter, University officials say. A record 15,331 students are en rolled for the first summer session for an increase of 4.8 percent from last summer’s enrollment of 14,621. Don Carter, A&M registrar, said he attributes the growth to the carry over from the fall and spring semes ters. “We had a record fall enrollment of 39,079 and a spring enrollment of more than 36,000,” Carter said. “Summer enrollment just seems to naturally carry over.” Of those enrolled this summer, 283 are provisional freshmen ad mitted on a probationary basis. They have to pass a minimum of nine hours with a 2.0 grade point av erage to return for the fall semester. Bill Lay, directer of admissions, said A&M expects more than 6,000 freshmen to take classes in the fall semester. “We admitted over 10,000 fresh men for the fall, but we expect to ac tually enroll about 6,600 in accord ance with the new enrollment plan,” he said. freshmen for the summer,” he said. “We don’t know if they all showed up yet or not.” Despite the record summer en rollment, area businessmen ex pressed mixed feelings about the in crease. Jeff Smestuen, manager of Benni- gan’s in College Station, said his business has increased. “It’s gone up quite a bit,” he said. “It’s hard to tell right now if the added business is substantially up from last summer due to a lot of In the 1987 fall semester, a record things. You’ve got incoming fresh- 7,433 freshmen were enrolled, the largest freshman class in the nation. Carter said exact records for freshmen enrollment in the summer are not yet available. “We signed up about 400 or so men who don’t really know where things are, and other problems. “We should have a better idea about how we’re doing in a week or so.” Smestuen said the drop in busi ness from the spring to summer se mester is significant. “Usually sales drop off about 35- 40 percent during summer,” he said. Paul Harvey, owner of the Flying Tomato restaurant, said he’s experi encing a decrease in business. “I’ve heard a lot of things about the high summer enrollment, but you couldn’t tell it by looking at my business,” he said. “It’s been pretty quiet around here. “Not even the traffic seems as bad as it usually is.” Harvey said the restaurant’s busi ness goes down a great deal in the summer. “You take 23,000 kids out of town and you’ve got a huge drop-off in the summer,” he said. “It certainly makes a difference.” yedrops may be insulin treatment By Theresa Emmert Reporter Texas A&M researchers are work- ling to take some of the pain out of Jbeing diabetic with the development |of a new form of insulin treatment -eyedrops. Texas A&M researchers are ex- Iperimenting with an eyedrop form |of insulin that would offer diabetics practical, economical, painless and Isanitary means of administering the Irug. Donations still needed for Burnett Another $1,000 of the more than $6,000 needed to bring Laura Burnett home to College Station from Germany was re ceived Monday, bringing the total to $4,000 after five days. Laura, the daughter of Texas A&M marketing professor Dr. John Burnett, has been in a coma since being struck by an auto mobile in Munich, Germany May 30. Both Dr. Burnett and Laura were visiting businesses as part of a Study Abroad program touring in Germany prior to the accident. The exact cost of a military air lift is $6,540, Frank Shannon, a family friend and assistant direc tor of the Development Founda tion, said Wednesday.The ex pense is not covered by the Burnett’s insurance. 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 marked to the attention of Lee Cargill. Information on donations is also available in the lobby of the Blocker Building. A&M pharmacologist Dr. George C.Y. Chiou is the head of the re search group who developed the drops and serves as director of A&M’s Institute of Ocular Pharma cology. He said the drops will help diabetics lead a normal healthy life. “They will not have to excuse themselves to take an insulin shot; Instead they just drop it into their eyes,” he said. “People won’t even know who has diabetes.” The drops will cost less in the long run because the patients will not have to buy needles and syringes. All they will need is a bottle of eyedrops, he said. It also will be more sanitary, Chiou said, because sometimes nee dles are reused by lower-income people. The user also doesn’t have to go through the pain of an injection three or four times a day. Chiou, who works with various forms of peptides that can be admin istered through eyedrops, said insu lin is no different. He said the insu lin is absorbed through the capillaries in the eye. This method of admistering the drug is as effective as the injection. Unlike taking the drug orally, the structure of the insulin isn’t altered by the body when it is placed in the eye. The body, he said, doesn’t go through the rejection phenomana which causes the alteration. Chiou has been researching the eyedrop form of insulin for the past year. The next step, he said, is to test the drops in humans. Before the drug can be marketed, it must be approved by the Food and Twice-fired president claims regent’s excuses were false AUSTIN (AP) — Twice-fired Southwest Texas State University President Robert Hardesty said Wednesday that reasons given for his termination by regents either were untrue or were “dug up after the fact.” Hardesty, a former speechwriter for President Lyn don B. Johnson, also said he was not informed of most complaints before being fired. Complaints included criticism of the time Hardesty spent off campus and ex penditures, including travel and entertainment. The Texas State University System regents voted 5-4 Monday to dismiss Hardesty, with those voting against him saying he had been warned months before to make changes. It was the second time Hardesty was fired. His May 19 dismissal was voided by State District Judge Jon Wisser, who said regents violated the Open Meetings Act because the action was not on the agenda. Hardesty’s pay was stopped Monday, and he was given five days to vacate the president’s house at San Marcos. The dismissal has generated controversy, with Hard esty and others charging it was motivated by his friendship with former Gov. Mark White, a Democrat. Gov. Bill Clements has denied he played a part in the firing and noted that six of the nine regents are White appointees. Among the complaints listed against Hardesty, 57, by regent Norman Elder of Del Rio on Monday were that he had arranged contracts without board approval and used donations to the university for such things as fly ing first-class, staying in expensive hotels and paying dues to private clubs. Elder also said the majority disagreed with the amount of time Hardesty spent away from the univer sity. “It’s obvious that all of this was an afterthought, fol lowing my firing on May 19, and following the call for my expense vouchers and my calendar on May 24, five days after my (initial) Firing,” Hardesty said at an infor mal news conference. Hardesty said the only previous complaint about his performance came from Elder and former regent Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio, who said he should not spend so much time away from the university. Senate committee suggests funding for A&M building Drug Administration. He said it is a long process but hopes to see the product on the market within the next five years. Chiou said insulin eyedrops will have to be perfected so the solution doesn’t cause irritations to the eyes. The drug produces the same side-ef fects whether it is injected or ab sorbed through the eye. An overdose of insulin is very rare, he said. Overdose occurences are intentional in most cases, he said. The eyedrop form will not alter the chances of an overdose and isn’t something people should be con cerned about. The product, like the injection, will have to be prescribed through a pharmacy. Its sales will be controlled like the injectable form except that there are no needles, he said. By Alan Sembera Staff Writer Texas A&M won its first victory last week in its attempt to gain fed eral fund'jng for its planned Institute of BioscieWes and Technology. The Senate Agricultural Appro priations Committee recommended paying $6.25 million for construc tion project, which will be at the Texas Medical Center in ITouston. The biotechnology institute will concentrate on research in animal genetics, molecular and cellular bi ology, biochemistry and pathology. Marty Clayton, a legislative assis tant to U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, is working on the funding request. He said the committee recommendation is a step toward gaining agricultural research center status under U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, which will make the pro ject eligible for the matching funds. The Senate and House of Rep resentatives must approve the fund ing. The chances of the funding being approved increased last week when a report by the USD A Cooperative State Research Service gave the pro posed institute high marks. The study concluded that the re search center “would have a partic ular beneficial effect on both human health and agricultural competitive ness within the United States.” It also stated that the institute could have a “worldwide impact on the bi ological sciences.” Clayton said that if the institute meets the USDA requirements, it probably will receive another $6.25 million for construction next year. Clayton, who holds an agricultu ral education degree from A&M, said the new institute will tie re search being done at A&M to re search at the Texas Medical Center. The diversity of expertise at A&M is what makes it important to the medical center, Clayton said. “There’s no other place in the country where you have a land grant university with A&M’s assets in engi neering, agriculture, biological sci ence and veterinary medicine tea med up with a medical center like they have in Houston,” he said. “The direction of research right now is going toward more and more of a merger of those areas down at a molecular level,” Clayton said. “There’s a lot of transferability of knowledge there. “In terms of practical applica tions, many of the first applications of these things are going to occur in the area of agriculture, simply be cause of the stringency of the testing requirements in humans.” The new institute will be adminis tered by A&M’s agriculture depart ment. Dr. Charles Arntzen, the dep uty chancellor of agriculture, was not available for comment. Investigation of lab prematurely stopped WASHINGTON (AP) — The En ergy Department prematurely shut down an undercover investigation of widespread drug trafficking at a top- secret California nuclear weapons laboratory and tried to prevent Con gress from finding out, House inves tigators were told Wednesday. At the time the drug investigation, code-named “Operation Snows torm,” was killed, agents were still pursuing leads on 127 employees at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, near San Francisco, who were suspected drug users or deal ers, witnesses said. Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the nine-month investigation was abruptly halted in September 1986 because officials were fearful of pub licity about rampant drug trafficking at Livermore, where highly classified research into President Reagan’s Star Wars missile defense system is conducted. “It seems to me that this Opera tion Snowstorm should be called ‘Operation Snow Job’,” Wyden said. He said DOE officials “seem to think just saying no is enough. DOE is too afraid of the stigma of drugs to do anything about it.” Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chair man of the House Energy and Com merce subcommittee on oversight and investigations, declared: “We have serious questions about the in tegrity of security at our nation’s most sensitive nuclear weapons and research facilities.” Dingell said that after DOE and Livermore officials shut down the drug investigation, they “attempted to conceal this fact from the subcom mittee by providing conflicting statements to the subcommittee staff and by withholding key documents.” Energy Undersecretary Joseph F. Salgado said officials decided to ter minate the investigation “because it had run for eight months and was apparently not uncovering new pro ductive leads.” He said Operation Snowstorm had served its purpose in putting Livermore employees on notice that drug use would not be tolerated. In a report circulated in advance of the hearing, Dingell said the oper ation began in January 1986 because of “an alarming number of labo ratory employees who were becom ing involved in drug-related inci dents and arrests.”