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Vol. 1 No. 1918 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, August 11,1988
Court: Newspaper can view
A&M’s recruiting information
AUSTIN (AP) — A state ap
peals court Wednesday ruled in
favor of the Fort Worth Star-
Telegram’s bid for information
from Texas A&M about the re
cruiting of former star Aggie
quarterback Kevin Murray.
In upholding a lower court de
cision, the 3rd Court of Appeals
rejected the university’s conten
tion that the records sought by
the Star-Telegram shouldn’t be
public.
“The public is legitimately con
cerned with recruiting tactics by
its universities and colleges,” said
the decision authored by 3rd
Court Chief Justice Bob Shan
non.
Michael Blackman, Star-Tele
gram executive editor, said the
newspaper would move quickly in
seeking the records.
“They apparently felt that our
case was good,” Blackman said of
the court’s decision. “I don’t
know exactly what the timetable
will be, but as expeditiously as
possible we are going to seek that
information.
“I think that when it comes to
the recruiting process, especially
in a state like Texas, this is some
thing that’s of wide public inter
est. We’re not fishing after stu
dent information, we’re looking
for recruiting information,”
Blackman said.
The university issued a
statement from James B. Bond,
deputy chancellor for legal and
external affairs, which said A&M
wants to examine the decision.
“We have no specific response
at this time, primarily because no
one on the legal staff has yet had
an opportunity to study the pre
cise parameters of the judge’s rul-
in,” Bond said. “We will be doing
that as soon as possible, and then
assess our options.”
The Fort Worth newspaper in
December 1986 made its request
under the Texas Open Records
Act in a letter to then-A&M Presi
dent Frank E. Vandiver.
The paper sought all records,
documents, letters, reports and
other information about “the re
cruitment of Kevin Murray to at
tend Texas A&M University” or
relating to “any involvement by
Kevin Murray in matters which
may have been alleged to have vi
olated the rules of the Southwest
Athletic Conference and-or the
National Collegiate Athletic Asso
ciation.”
The Star-Telegram also sought
records involving Rodney Lee
Dockery, a businessman and
A&M booster.
Vandiver had declined to give
the information to the Star-Tele
gram. Court records also show
that he did not seek an opinion
from the attorney general on
whether the information is pub
lic.
Vandiver asserted that the in
formation about Murray wasn’t
public because it was deemed
confidential by law, and because
it concerned student records, and
that Murray hadn’t consented to
disclosing the information.
However, the appeals court
said, “Vandiver did not advance
any authority by the attorney
general or by a court for his refu
sal to turn over the information
and he did not request an attor
ney general’s opinion as to
whether the information sought
was, or was not, public.”
If Vandiver wished to avoid a
trial court decision for the news
paper, “it was his burden to
marshal . . . evidence in support
of his claim that the requested in
formation came within one of the
exceptions to the Open Records
The A&M football program
has been the subject of an NCAA
investigation.
In a letter released earlier by
the NCAA, its investigators ac
cused the school’s football pro
gram of 31 rules infractions and
seven procedural violations.
Among the rules violations
listed in the letter was one charg
ing that a coach during a recruit
ing trip in early 1985 offered
material benefits to an athlete.
Art ’ court sain.
Battalion file photo
Kevin Murray’s recruiting information ruled open records.
Shuttle engine tests successful
President signs
reparations bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan signed a bill Wednes
day providing $20,000 reparations
to Japanese-Americans interned
during World War II, while conced
ing that “no payment can make up
for those lost years. '
At least one family among the ap
proximately 250 veterans of the in
ternment camps who attended the
eight-minute signing ceremony said
no payment is necessary because of
the opportunity they have enjoyed
as Americans.
Reagan told the audience that
tens of thousands of Japanese-
Americans lived in internment
camps “not for a matter of weeks or
months, but for three long years.”
The bill signed by the president
provides for a $20,000 tax-free pay
ment to each of the 60,000 survivors
among the approximately 120,000
Japanese-Americans who were inter
ned.
“Yet no payment can make up for
those lost years,” Reagan said. “So
what is most important in this bill
has less to do with property than
with honor, for here we admit a
wrong.”
Dr. Walter Emori, 47, an arthritis
specialist in Medford, Ore., speaking
for himself and the other five mem
bers of the family who were inter
ned, told a reporter earlier: “I don’t
feel animosity, and I don’t feel a
sense that the country owes this to
me.”
All six members of the family —
now living in California, Georgia
and Oregon — attended the signing
ceremony to dramatize their inten
tion to use the money to repay the
country, in Emori’s words, “for the
good that came out of the awful.”
The Japanese-Americans were
rounded up and sent to internment
camps after the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, plunged the
United States into World War II.
Many Japanese-Americans lob
bied for the legislation for years. It
finally cleared Congress by a 257-
156 vote in the House on Aug. 4.
Reagan originally objected to
some features of the bill, saying it
would be too costly, but he backed
the final version. It calls for a trust
fund of $1.2 billion, with appropria
tions in any one year limited to $500
million. Legislation providing the ac
tual money must still be enacted.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said the president always
endorsed the purpose of the bill.
Asked whether the large number
of Japanese-American voters in Cali
fornia, a crucial state in the forth
coming presidential election, was a
factor in Reagan’s decision to sup
port the measure, Fitzwater said:
“No. That was not a factor in any
way.”
The internment order issued by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in
1942 required all people of Japanese
ancestry living in California, Wash
ington and Oregon and some in Ha
waii to be relocated.
Alumni donations send
band to Kickoff Classic
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The space
shuttle Discovery flawlessly fired its three huge
engines Wednesday and demonstrated it is ready
to carry Americans into space for the first time
since Challenger exploded more than 2 years
ago.
“We proved it works,” Robert Crippen, deputy
director of shuttle operations, said after the en
gines spewed 6,000-degree flames for 22 sec
onds.
Crippen said the test went along so well that
the operations systems can see no reason that
would delay progress toward the launch. There
were no major problems in the forefront of the
testing.
The first mission might still be possible in late
September, said an elated Forrest S. McCartney,
director of the Kennedy Space Center.
Wednesday’s flight readiness test had been
postponed five times previously because of va
rious problems, leading to expectations that Dis
covery might not fly until October or later.
“Super job, super team,” NASA administrator
James C. Fletcher told the launch team.
Thomas E. Utsman, director of shuttle man
agement, called the test “a clear demonstration
that Discovery is a very good bird.”
The only question mark was a possible leak of
nitrogen gas in an area where fuel lines join the
external tank, Crippen said.
The gas was detected by instruments that had
not been there before and engineers were not
certain the readings indicated something new.
Asked how he felt, with the hot-fire test out of
the way, Crippen replied: “You can’t have a ma
jor milestone like that come out as clean as it was
and not feel good about it.”
Setting of a firm launch date for Discovery
awaited analysis of Wednesday’s test and repairs
to a small gas leak in a thruster system that was
not involved in the test.
“I still think we have a shot at late September,”
Crippen said.
The engine firing was a crucial step for resum
ing space flight.
“It is an opportunity to assess the readiness of
the launch team, the ground support equipment
and flight hardware,” said National Aeronautics
and Space Administration spokesman Hugh
Harris, reporting on the progress of the test. “It
provides another measure of the readiness of
people and hardware for launch after many
months of assessing and improving the entire
shuttle program.”
Two other big hurdles stand between Discov
ery and its four-day mission with five astronauts:
a full-scale test of a redesigned booster rocket
and the sealing of a gas vent line in the shuttle’s
space maneuvering system.
The second task will require cutting a hole in
Discovery’s cargo bay for access.
The shuttle, its huge fuel tank and two flank
ing solid rocket boosters were bolted to the pad
during Wednesday’s test as its engines were
started in a 3-2-1 sequence separated by 120 mil
liseconds.
During a launch, the engines fire for more
than eight minutes, with the boosters providing a
powerful assist during the first two minutes of
flight.
Discovery, which has flown in space six times,
was treated as an untried ship in having to un
dergo the flight readiness firing.
A total of 732 instruments, five times more
than on any previous shuttle test or launch, were
installed throughout the shuttle stack to take de
tailed measurements of all system operations to
assure the correct operation.
The test took special note of the strains placed
on the booster rockets as the engines reached full
power.
The Challenger exploded while lifting off on
Jan. 28, 1986, because of a leak in a joint on the
right booster, near its attachment point on the
fuel tank.
The shuttle fleet, now numbering three, has
undergone numerous design changes since the
accident which killed the seven-member crew
more than two years ago. The orbiter alone has
had 220 design changes, the boosters 145, and
each of the main engines 30.
By Marc Weisinger
Reporter
Lack of funding and bad timing
almost kept the Fightin’ Texas Aggie
Band from th^ Aug. 27 football
game between A&M and the Univer
sity of Nebraska. Almost.
Thanks to the help and donations
from the Athletic Department, the
University and many alumni, the
halftime show at Giant Stadium will
happen, said Band Director Col. Joe
T. Haney.
But even when the funding di
lemma was solved, the band had to
face another problem — since the
game is being played before school
starts, many members of the band
would not be back on campus yet.
So new band members, arriving
on Aug.21, will drill by themselves
before the remainder of the band
comes back on Aug.22. This gives
the 300 member outfit less than a
week to practice and perfect their
performance.
The lack of time has left some
people less than confident.
" There are folks that say we can’t
do it, but I don’t see any problems
with it,” Haney said. “I think every
thing is going to work outjust fine.”
Allan Hess, commanding officer
of both the Artillery and Infantry
Bands, said the incoming class will
train for about an hour on a couple
of mornings until they learn the
marches. Then they will practice
with the rest of the band in the af
ternoon.
“We are asking a lot from these
new guys,” Hess said, “but I have
confidence in them. Most of them
have marching experience, which is
going to help.”
Once the new class is ready, the
whole band will start practicing twice
a day for about five hours each day.
“We are going to do a relatively
basic drill that no one has seen befo
re,” Haney said. “It is going to be
rough, but I’m positive the band will
be ready to perform.”
The band will leave in the af
ternoon the day before the game for
East Rutherford, N.J. They return
home that night after the game.
| Union: Texas loses
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas
lost $7.7 billion in federal funding
for social service programs in the
seven years since President Reagan
took office, a public employees
union said Wednesday.
Although Reagan, a Republican,
was president during the period cov
ered by the report, Democrats con
trolled the House of Representatives
the entire time. Republicans had a
majority in the Senate from 1981
through early 1987.
Texas lost $456.84 per person
over the period, said the report by
the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees.
The report said 48 of the 50 states
fared worse than Texas in per capita
cuts. Alaska was hit hardest, losing
$946 per person. Kansas lost the
least per person, at $456.75.
Although Texas remained better-
funded than all states but Kansas,
the union’s public policy analyst, Mi
chael Mazerov, said “money is
money” and the loss of $7.7 billion is
“tremendous.”
Texas lost just over $5.7 billion in
grants-in-aid to state government
for such programs as revenue shar
ing, energy conservation, wastewater
treatment, mass transit and eco
nomic development. The loss works
out to $342.13 per person, putting
the state in 48th place.
The state also lost just over $1.9
billion in payments to individuals
under such programs as food
stamps, Social Security and higher
education grants, the study said.
That amounts to a loss of $114.71
per person, for a 42nd-place rank
ing nationally.
“If you’re eligible for these pro
grams, the people (enrolled) lost a
great deal of income,” he said.
The loss of revenue may have hit
rural communities especially hard,
he said.
Texas lost almost $1 billion in rev
enue sharing, part of the $5.7 billion
in grants-in-aid.
Before revenue sharing was elimi
nated at the end of 1986, the funds
went directly to local governments
for a wide ranges of services. Many
small communities depended on
revenue sharing to pay for basic
services such as low-income housing,
economic development, sewerage
and water system improvements, po
lice and fire services, Mazerov said.
“The loss of that program in a
state like Texas . ... really hurt,” he
said. “It was very important in rural
areas ... in a lot of jurisdictions
around the state.”
Nationally, federal domestic pro
grams were cut by $158.6 billion
from fiscal year 1982 through fiscal
year 1988, the study said.
“The Republican record set out in
this report is one of which neither
the party nor the nation should be
proud,” the study said.
Pour some water
on me
Joshua Jaedicke, 5, dumps water on his sister at the Royal Oaks Ra- reached above the 100 degree mark. Today’s high is expected to be in
quet Club swimming pool on Wednesday. Temperatures Wednesday the mid-90s, with thundershowers likely..