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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 1988)
V Texas A&M m V • The Battalion Vol. 87 Mo. 164 GSRS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas Thursday, June 23, 1988 nore attach istaniapsi al Pakistan' ’unjab by Sikh extret haree, in shawls, around the on. Sweets ft scattered cd road, militants hi i (door vegi I hi, killing g 40 othen na state, at a crowd Monday Pentagon probe focuses on defense contract bids efore it could that allowir mbargoift Shilly dog l their truth r cargo. Coi Honica Buergler, a senior history major from d suit agai® iHnuston, shares her McDonald’s ice cream cone Photo by Jayna Glidden with Dundee, an Austrailian Shepherd, in College Station Central Park Wednesday afternoon. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon corruption investigation focuses on 75 to 100 defense con tracts worth “tens of billions of dol lars,” chief prosecutor Henry Hud son told congressional leaders Wednesday, and he said indictments might not be returned until after the November election. House Speaker Jim Wright, D- Texas, said Hudson told the House group that the investigation focuses on three areas of potential miscon duct, chiefly involving the sale of in side information by private consul tants who were acting as middlemen between the Pentagon and defense contractors. Hudson, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made an unusual trip across the Potomac River from his office in Alexandria, Va., for two closed-door briefings of House and Senate leaders on the case which has caught Washington’s attention. Hudson said no indictments are expected until later this year and that it was possible they might be re turned after the Nov. 8 election. “I’m hopeful that if indictments are appropriate in the case, they will be secured by the end of the year,” Hudson told reporters. “If we can proceed at a faster pace, we’ll at tempt to do it.” Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said Hudson told the House group that 75 to 100 contracts are under scru- Laredo art ibers campe fore decidiD! ton. xpectedto ome curreni Plaquemin! uerrillas Washingi«|Q6t C&UQht ventanear border JERUSALEM (AP) — Soldiers on ednesday captured four teen-age llestinian guerrillas who were try- to sneak across the border with submachine guns and grenade )perating thtlfeunchers to attack a settlement in t been oetcHorthern Israel, the army said. 'wjobswilll*|! A security source said three of the Buerrillas were wounded. He said the materikiwddiers spotted them at a fence on nsitive adk ltlie Lebanese border and they gave elt adhesivtiHp after a half-hour skirmish 20 feet made theai lprom Israeli territory, y with jet:!' In the occupied Gaza Strip, 16- ’.xxon Cheir; ||ear-old Talad Khalil Zakoot was for adhesitsMilled during a clash with troops, an ^rab reporter quoted the boy’s rela- dves as saying. I Soldiers in Nablus in the occupied ^ West Bank shot and wounded two I ^Balestinians when a gang of youths, Jgjome wearing masks, threw stones nd bottles at them, an army spokes- lan said. | If confirmed, Wednesday’s fatal- ■y would bring to at least 211 the number of Palestinians killed in the ■ebellion that began Dec. 8. About 1.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Is- jjael captured from Jordan and ■igyptin the 1967 war. 1 Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir urged tougher tactics against arson, Underground power cable cause of campus blackout ans n Program t low inter- ? university red to after arad- H* re t>ombings and stoning that have s than hall rmation is lit Union Loans iven new impetus to the revolt. “We have to step up our activities in every sphere against this phenom enon and we mustn’t sit and wait for Some political solution to come from heaven,” he said on army radio. 1 Shamir called the uprising a chal- ienge to national survival and de clared: “There is a wave of aggres sion, whether arson or murder, uaranteed at the low parents ol payments . dent is al- the Jewish presence every- Hvhere in the land of Israel.” tiny in the two-year-long probe. The total value of the contracts is in the “tens of billions of dollars,” Dingell said. Meanwhile, former Defense Sec retary Caspar Weinberger, in an in terview with the Associated Press, denied responsibility for whatever corruption may be found by the in vestigation — just as President Rea gan had one day earlier at a news conference in Toronto. “I had briefings regularly, once a week or every two weeks, on the ma jor weapons programs,” Weinberger said. “But no matter how careful you are, you’re not going to be able to eliminate dishonesty. We need to keep a sense of proportion without jumping to conclusions.” Weinberger headed the Defense Department at the time a private consultant offered to sell confiden tial bid-related information to a for mer Navy employee working for a defense contractor. The ex-Navy man reported the incident to the Na val Intelligence Service, touching off the investigation. Weinberger said, “You don’t close a bank because there’s been a bank robbery. And you don’t conclude that we don’t need a strong defense because of the actions of some faith less employees.” Reagan on Tuesday had said, “It should be understandable how such things can happen in something as big as our government is.” Wright said Hudson indicated the investigation is focused on three areas: •“The first involves the deliber ate sale of proprietary government information by consultants to indi vidual corporations and contractors; •“The second involves the ma nipulation of bid specifications in ways to favor certain contractors over their competitors; •“The third involves indications of collusive bidding on the part of individual contractors.” Former A&M student missing since Monday Photo by Jay Janner A University police officer directs traffic on Joe Route Boulevard and Wellborn Road during Wednesday’s power outage. A power outage at about 4:20 a.m. had the the Texas A&M campus completely in the dark Wednesday morning. Power was restored to most parts of campus by 8:30 a.m., but the southeast part of campus, including the Commons, was without power until about 10:30 a.m., Edward Kozlowski, maintenance director of the physical plant, said. Kozlowski said he thinks the blackout was caused by a blown-out underground power cable. When the cable went out, he ex plained, the other main power cables were overloaded. This overloading caused a domino effect around cam pus, he said, and other power lines also went dead. The outage did not bring any re ports of damage, although several mainframe computers were down for much of the day. Several 8 a.m. classes were cancelled because of the blackout, and the radio and television stations on campus were unable to transmit. Some traffic lights lost power on Wellborn Road, and University po lice had to direct traffic at those in tersections. The University’s nuclear reactor facility was fortunate in that the power loss didn’t reach it. The reac tor is set up to automatically shut down if the power fails. The confusion on campus in creased Wednesdy afternoon when two fire alarms were set off. The false alarms cleared classrooms in the Blocker Building and G. Rollie White Coliseum. By Loyd Brumfield Senior Staff Writer A Texas A&M graduate is missing after beginning a news paper internship in Belleville, Ill. Audrey Cardenas, 24, a May journalism graduate from Hous ton, was reported missing Mon day after she missed work at the Belleville News-Democrat, where she was beginning a summer in ternship program for minorities. Belleville police said they have no leads in tl^e case. “We’ve gwt nothing,” a detec tive with the Belleville Police De- E artment said. “We’ve talked to a >t of people — people at work, acquaintances, but we’ve got no thing.” Cardenas was last seen Sunday at 3 p.m. washing her truck. Po lice searched her apartment, which was undisturbed. Her name has been entered in a nationwide computer search for missing people. Her mother, Billie Fowler of Houston, was in Belleville Wednesday night but was un available for comment. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Fowler said it was out of character for Cardenas to disappear without telling anyone. “She’s never done anything - like this before,” Fowler told the AP. “She’s never had a drug or al cohol problem, and she doesn’t go to bars to meet people.” Cardenas, a former employee of the College Station Press, is participating in a nationwide pro gram called the Capital Cities Mi nority Internship Program. Belleville is her first stop be fore moving on to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Fort Worth. Fred Ehrlich, assistant city edi tor for the News-Democrat, said Cardenas had been working there for about two weeks. “She’s been here 10 days as a general assignments reporter for us,” Ehrlich said. “The search is continuing and Audrey Cardenas the police are in contact with us, but there have been no new leads at all,” he said. Ehrlich said part of the prob lem was that Cardenas was so new in town that not many people knew her. “It’s giving police a lot of trou ble,” he said. “They don’t know who to talk to, she’s so new.” The News-Democrat had been very pleased with Cardenas’ work, Ehrlich said. “She had done a variety of sto ries for us, including a lot of page one stories,” he said. “She was very level-headed and was willing to work. We are very satisfied with her. “She was treated just like any other reporter here, except that this was a temporary stop for her.” Randy Hines, an A&M journa lism professor, said Cardenas was a serious-minded student. “She was definitely interested in journalism,” said Hines, who taught her in Journalism 310, Newspaper Editing and Produc tion, and Journalism 305, Mag azine Writing. “We talked about a number of internships for minorities and things of that nature,” he said. “She was supposed to send me some postcards.” ans avail- ;dlt Union aosing the tuation noN J0 (409)696-144] ng l that the numbd taxpayer idenii' t not subject lo I have not been p withholding as nsi or dividends 1) has notified me up withholding By Ashley A. Bailey Staff Writer Texas A&M’s print yearbook, the ggieland, is the largest and one of he most successful in the country, ut Texas A&M’s video yearbook, in its infancy, is struggling. Don Johnson, coordinator of stu- ent publications, and Ed Smith, as- ociate professor of communica- ions, put together a basic plan for a ideo yearbook in 1984, but it was not implemented until June 1986 hen the Student Publications oard approved a $50,000 budget er year for a two-year trial period, he only contingency was that the reject break even after the first ear, Johnson said. The project was a long way from caking even the first year because ost of the staff resigned after only ne month as a result of problems ith KAMU. The board, however, elt that one year was not enough ime to get the new project off the ground, Johnson said. AOGU “The board decided that with a year of experience under their belts and with some new, dedicated peo ple the project could improve sub stantially,” he said. Aggievision, the 1987-88 edition of the video yearbook, is not yet complete. Greg Keith, Aggievision pro ducer, said the two-week post pro duction of the video will begin about the second week of July. During this period the editing and sound dub bing will be done to produce a 60 to 70 minute mastertape, Keith said. This year’s project has resulted in about 160 completed 20-minute tapes that will be edited into the final product. Johnson said he expects the video to be distributed in the first week of September at the English struggles with first production T I O N S Annex in a manner similar to that of the Aggieland. This shows a definite im- rovement over last year’s results, ut there are still other problems. As of May, Aggievision had spent about $82,000. Total sales revenue for the approximately 500 videos sold is $15,508.20. Aggievision’s $20,000 payroll budget ran out June 17 but there is still about a month and a half of work left. Post-production editing and the reproduction of the finished product is yet to be completed. Keith, who graduated in May, said he was instructed by the board to budget the payroll through May 1988, and even though there is no more money allotted for payroll the job must be completed. Dr. Douglas Starr, chairman of the Student Publications Board and head of the Department of Journa lism, did not know the allotted money for Aggievision’s payroll was going to run out before the produc tion was complete. Starr, who ad vises the Aggievision staff, said the finished tapes must be produced re gardless of whether the staff is paid or not. “They are committed to complete the production,” he said. “The con tract was that they stay ayailable until completion.” Johnson said the other $30,000 of the $50,000 budget is used strictly for purchasing supplies and for renting video and editing equipment from KAMU-TV. It must be rented from KAMU because when the jour nalism department was given per mission to produce a video year book, the station was inadvertently given the same permission, Johnson said. The compromise to this prob lem was that the journalism depart ment make the video using only KAMU equipment. Starr said this mandate has since been changed. “The board approved the depart ment’s request to purchase its own video equipment,” he said. “We have since purchased two field camera units.” Johnson said owning instead of renting the equipment might help Aggievision to break even in two to three years. “The two field camera units that we just purchased cost $6,000 each,” he said, “but compared to what they would’ve cost us three to five years ago they’re cheap now. The units will be used for instruction in classes as well as for the video yearbook.” Starr said the overall product should be better next year because the staff will have their own equip ment to work with. “Having their own equipment also means that they (the staff) won’t have any excuses for missing shots,” he said. The problems with the past video yearbooks may have been one of the reasons why finding a producer for next year’s production was difficult. No applications were received for the position of the 1988-89 video yearbook producer. After the dead line was extended four students ap plied. Keith was hired under much of the same circumstances last year. Dr. Manuel M. Davenport, a Stu dent Publications Board member, said the board hired the only person who was willing to give it a try. “Let’s give this guy credit,” he said. “He took it on knowing what the problems would be. He’s done a fairly credible job.” Keith said the fact that A&M has never produced a video yearbook caused problems for him and his in experienced staff. Keith said he fired two of the ten members of his original staff and See Aggievision, page 5