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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1988)
TheBattalion Vol. 88 No. 2 CISPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, August 30, 1988 Road to nowhere Road construction on University makes driving near campus tricky for returning Aggies and other residents of College Station. The con- Photo by Frederick D.Joe struction started during the summer and is scheduled to continue into the fall. Bush Jr. helps with fundraising for Sheriff Miller Bush, Dukakis renew hostility George Bush said Monday that Michael Dukakis gives the impres sion of being “against every new weapons system since the slingshot.” A newly aggressive Massachusetts governor fired back that his Repub lican rival’s call for a cut in the capi tal gains tax amounts to a handout for the wealthy. The combatants in an increasingly heated battle for the White House exchanged barbs as their senior aides prepared fo meet in Washing ton on Tuesday to open face-to-fage negotiations over campaign debates. Bush has said no debate is likely before Sept. 20, and he added dur ing the day, “I’m not about to be stampeded” by Democratic demands for an earlier date. Fresh public opinion polls pro vided a snapshot of what both par ties say will be an unusually close race this fall. Among them was a survey indicat ing that Dukakis’ once-substantial margin has been washed away com pletely in California, the biggest state with 47 electoral votes. Bush held a nine percentage point lead in a separate survey in Missouri, a key swing state, and Dukakis owned an 1 1-point bulge in Wiscon sin. Both states have 11 electoral votes. Bush, who has consistently chal lenged Dukakis on defense issues, continued the barrage at a campaign stop in St. Louis. He belittled his Democratic oppo nent for saying the United States needs anti-tank weapons rather than the MX mobile missile, adding that both systems are needed for national security. “Sometimes he gives me the im pression he’s against every new weapons system since the slingshot,” the vice president said on a day that included a tour of a defense plant in Missouri and a visit to a ROTC pro gram in Tennessee. Bush also said his running mate, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle, has ab sorbed a “tremendous pounding” over his National Guard service and other issues, and has “emerged to where he will be an asset” to the GOP ticket. Quayle and his Democratic coun terpart, Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, took a day off from campaign travel ing. Dukakis embarked on a two-day tour of western Massachusetts and he seemed eager to close the books on the last few weeks — the period since the Democratic National Con vention during which his once-solid lead in national public opinion polls turned into a deficit. “The dog days of August are al most over,” he said as he returned Bush’s fire on the subjects of crime and drugs and said there is no need to debate the patriotism of the two candidates. At a news conference that was scheduled, canceled and then re scheduled, Dukakis said he wanted to ask his opponent about the 16,000 f urloughs granted to federal prison ers last year, “some lasting 45 days and many to convicted drug pushers Mr. Bush says he wants to execute.” Bush has criticized Dukakis for a Massachusetts furlough program in which a prisoner on a weekend pass raped a woman. The vice president also favors the death penalty for drug kingpins. Dukakis has been the subject of unusual criticism from his own party in recent weeks for running an in sufficiently aggressive campaign and permitting Bush to seize the offen sive. The governor conceded his cam paign message of recent weeks may have been lost in the “somewhat ex traordinary” coverage of the Repub lican National Convention, the furor over Quayle and unsubstantiated ru mors about himself and his wife Kitty. His news conference was briefly dropped from his schedule when se nior aides said they wanted to force television coverage of Dukakis'” speech. In his remarks, Dukakis seemed to reply to Bush’s attacks over his veto of state legislation requiring tea chers to lead their students in the Pledge of Allegiance, a law the state Superme Court said in an advisory opinion was unconstitutional. “The American people . . . aren’t interested in a debate over which one of us loves his country the most —we all love this country,” he said. “There should be no debate about that.” Dukakis said he was not going to accept “Mr. Bush’s suggestion that the way to build opportunity for our citizens is to cut taxes for the wealthy — again —^ this time a five-year, $40 billion handout, seventy percent of which would go to those making $200,000 a year or more.” Bush has called for cutting the capital gains tax, which is a levy on investment profits. . Dukakis aides said the governor’s estimates came from two publica tions on the subject. By Alan Sembera Staff' Writer Vice President George Bush’s son was in Bryan Monday to help raise money for Brazos County Sheriff Ronnie Miller and to boost his fa ther’s image as a “law and order” candidate. George W. Bush toured the Bra zos County Jail Monday morning with Sheriff Miller, U.S. Representa tive Joe Barton and several other lo cal Republican Party leaders and then went to a $25-a-plate barbeque banquet to meet about 400 support ers and beef up party morale. During the tour of the jail, atten tion was focused on the vice presi dent’s promise of tough law enforce ment against criminals, especially drug traffickers. Bush accused Democratic candi date Michael Dukakis of being soft on crime, and attacked the prisoner furlough program in Massachusetts, where Dukakis is governor. Bush said that under this program, pris oners serving life without parole are allowed to go home on unsupervised leaves. “(George Bush) thinks that the victim ought to be looked after as opposed to the criminal,” Bush said, “and it’s just one of the many philo sophical differences that Texans are going to have to understand . . . “We have to make sure that in the White House, we have someone who is tough on criminals, not soft on them. George Bush is tough on criminals. Michael Dukakis is soft.” Bush said education was an im portant part of the war on drugs, but concentrated more on the enforce ment of drug laws. He said that in Texas, because of the prison overcrowding, more pris ons would have to be built in order to house the extra criminals. He said one of the solutions his father of fered would be to convert unused military bases into prisons. Representative Barton added that another important part of the war on drugs is the more than 10,000 anti-drug clubs in the United States. He gave Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign much of the credit for this. Afterwards at the banquet. Bush praised Sheriff Miller and tried to rouse the crowd into helping the Re publicans’ 1988 campaign by focus ing on the importance of “grassroots” political support. He also used the opportunity to attack Dukakis’s stand for gun con trol, striking a chord with the audi ence by saying Dukakis wanted to take guns away from hunters. He ended by concentrating on his father’s record as vice president, say ing that during those eight years one of the greatest achievements was the elimination of medium range nu clear missiles. He again tried to boost his father’s image as being tough by stressing that peace comes through military stregnth, saying his father was for a strong military. He was given a standing ovation at the end of his speech. Afterwards he left to fly to Temple and Hilsboro. Bush is an oilman from Midland, but has lived in Washington D.C. for the past year to help his father’s campaign. World-renowned Army burn unit treats air show disaster victims SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) — Army burn specialists have been sent to West Germany to help treat vic tims of an air show disaster and some victims may be returned to the world-renowned burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center, offi cials said Monday. BAMC spokesman Robert Clark said the team was flown to Frank furt, West Germany, earlier Monday and then would go to Ramsteim Air Force Base to help medical experts there. Three Italian jets crashed during an air show at the base Sunday, kill ing at least 45 people and injuring up to 500 others, including some Americans, officials said. More than 300,000 people were watching the air show when the jets collided. The BAMC team included two physicians, a nurse, a respiratory specialist and a clinical specialist, Clark said. “This specialist team is something that they have been doing for a while,” Clark said. In the past, numerous burn vic tims injured during military crashes or clashes, have been flown to the burn center for treatment. Among the most recent victims treated at BAMC were sailors from the USS Roberts, which struck a mine in the Persian Gulf earlier this year. Sailors from the USS Stark, hit by an Iraqi missile in May 1987, also were treated at the burn unit. The 40-bed unit, staffed by 240 physicians, nurses and support per sonnel, is operated by the Army’s In stitute of Surgical Research and has designated space for civilian and military burn victims. Glark said once the burn specialist team arrives in West Germany it will decide whether to transport some of the victims to the burn unit at the hospital at Fort Sam Houston. Clark said the burn unit is one of the top in the world because it has developed treatments, including topical creams, to help burn victims heal more quickly and less painfully. “This is the only burn center in the federal government . . . it’s one of the earliest burn centers and it has developed several treatments now in use at other burn centers,” Clark said. The burn center was established in 1943 in New York and moved to BAMC in 1946. In 1949, the unit was given per mission to study burn trauma and steadily has developed new tech niques, Clark said. Candidate seeks funds out of state STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Democratic vice-presidential can didate Lloyd Bentsen will be in Stamford next week to raise money for his other race — the one to retain his U.S. Senate seat from Texas. The fund-raiser is scheduled for Sept. 7 at the Landmark Club in Stamford. Although he has been nomi nated to run for vice president on the ticket headed by Michael Du kakis, Texas law allows Bentsen to remain in the race for the Sen ate. He is opposed by District 13 Congressman Beau Boulter of Amarillo. The $ 1,000-per-person fund raiser, to which about 50 people have been invited, is being hosted by U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn, and Andrew Sigler, chairman and chief executive of ficer of Champion International Corp. Champion has a strong pres ence in Texas, with operations that employ about 2,400 people. The fund-raiser was planned before Bentsen was selected for the national ticket. He is still on the ballot in Texas because of legislation known as the “LBJ Law.”In 1959, Lyndon B. Johnson, then a senator, was considering running for presi dent in 1960.“At his request, the Texas Legislature passed what was referred to as the ‘LBJ Law,’ which allowed him to run for both offices, which he did,” said Bill Maddox, a spokesman for Bentsen in Washington, D.C. If Bentsen were to win both races, he would resign the Senate seat. The Republican governor, Bill Clements, would appoint a temporary successor and then schedule a special election. New department attempts to ease parking problem By Alan Sembera Staff Writer When 15,000 off-campus students with parking permits have only 3,000 parking places on campus to choose from, competi tion for spaces becomes tough. In an attempt to alleviate the problems caused by the lopsided student-parking space ratio, Texas A&M officials created the Parking and Transit Department this summer. The new department, which is responsi ble for parking administration, traffic plan ning and bus operations, is overseeing seve ral ongoing projects designed to ease the parking crush. The opening of two temporary lots on campus with about 550 parking spaces will have an immediate impact on the parking situation, department director Douglas G. Williams said. The lots were built to offset the loss of 400 dormitory-parking spaces because of construction south of the Commons, he said. The larger of the temporary lots, with about 300 spaces, is behind the Universitv Police Department at the former site of the Southside Apartments. The other lot is south of the University Press building, next to the bonfire field. The new lot will not interfere with the bonfire site, Williams said. In another attempt to ease the parking shortage, two off-campus “satellite” lots have been established. These lots give stu dents, faculty and staff the option of park ing their cars at one of two College Station shopping centers and catching the shuttle bus to campus. The northern part of the K-Mart park ing lot next to Valley View Drive is part of the FM 2818 bus route. The buses stop at the South Stop on campus, near Joe Routt Boulevard and Throckmorton Street. The Post Oak Mall lot, west of the J.C. Penney Co. store, is served bv the Dart mouth bus route. The buses on the Dart mouth route stop at the Blast Stop, near the intersection of Lubbock and Bizzell streets. Plans also are underway to open a satel lite lot on 29th Street in Bryan. Williams said. Parking permits are not required for parking in the satellite lots, but a $46 bus pass must be purchased each semester to ride the shuttles. The shuttle buses run abotit every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and every 30 minutes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Despite the addition of the satellite lots, no plans have been made to expand the bus fleet, Williams said. One of the major responsibilities of the department will be the new parking garages on campus. Robert Smith, interim vice president for fiscal affairs, said the 2,000-car parking ga rage under construction on the northside of campus is scheduled to open in Januarv. Less than 1,000 of the reserved spaces in the garage have been sold. Smith said, but he said he expects the garage to sell out be fore it opens. He said students, faculty and staff find the garage-parking option attractive be cause it has reserved spaces. "Once you pay for it (parking space) it's yours,” Smith said. “Nobody else can get to it because of controlled access. “You have to have a card to get up to the contract parking area, so only people with a contract parking spot can get to that area. If they have a spot, they have no reason to park in your space.” Permits for the garage cost $150 per se mester. About 200 spaces on the ground floor of the Northside Parking Garage will be avail able for day-rate parking, Smith said. The rates will run by the hour and day, he said. The day-rate parking can be used by any one, he said. Another 2,000-car parking garage will be built on the Rudder parking lot. The garage has been approved by the Board of Regents, Smith said, and is sched uled to be finished in the summer of 1991. This garage will have reserved spaces and be available to students, faculty and staff, he said. The Regents also are considering build ing a third 2,000-car garage south of the new modular dorms being built next to the Commons, he said. The garage, which will probably be ap proved, will be reserved almost exclusively for students, he added. Smith said the new' department will help the University plan further ahead to ease parking problems, but he said the problem will never be fully solved. “I don’t know that we can ever provide a parking space for everybody that wants one, but I’m not sure we’re obligated to do that,” he said. “I think our first obligation is to provide for the faculty, staff and dormi tory students — people who have to park on campus. “There will be a limited number of day- student parking spaces, but what we’re try ing to encourage them to do is to ride the shuttle bus.” Other things the new department has done include eliminating special parking stickers for underclassmen, letting students pay for parking stickers on the installment plan, letting students pay tickets with Visa or MasterCard and experimenting with “hang tags” as a possible replacement for parking stickers. Smith said the tags, issued to individuals rather than vehicles, can be hung from a rear-view mirror.